Our 2025 Garden analysis: food forest and perennials (plus medical stuff)

December 11, 2025December 10, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I’m actually starting this post on Wednesday night, and scheduling it to publish in the morning, so when I say “today” at any point, it will actually be “yesterday” when it gets published.

I have just spent most of today outside.

After doing the morning routine, I started to shovel, while the snow was still light and fluffy. I got the paths around the house and to the feeding stations, around the fire pit, to the wood piles and even to the compost pile before I finally stopped and headed inside. My daughters, sweethearts that they are, had a hot breakfast waiting for me when I came in, though it was closer to lunch time than breakfast by then!

I completely forgot that I needed to go into town today. One of my husband’s meds is a “controlled substance” so he can only get refills when they are almost out. He called it in on Monday, and the pharmacy had to order in the refill, which was ready for pick up today. He did not have any left for tomorrow, so this wasn’t something to get delivered. They *really* cut it tight with that stuff.

I wanted to talk to the pharmacy anyhow.

It was shortly past noon when I headed into town. Props to the poor pharmacist assistant that was helping me out! It took some doing to figure out if they could even do what I was asking.

For my daughter and I, who share a doctor, requests have been sent to update our refills, so that we can fill 3 months worth (slightly less for one of my daughters’ meds, as we’re coming up on the cut off date for her pharmacare coverage). I’ll get a call when they have a response. Some of the items have to be special ordered in.

On looking at my husband’s file, though, we just won’t be able to do it. He’s got the injections, for starters. Yes, he has a medication fridge, but they would be past their “best before” date before he finished them. Bubble packs are only done 4 weeks at a time. No more. Some of his meds are also controlled substances and they are not allowed to dispense more than a month’s worth at a time. Potentially, we could talk to his doctor about changing that, but since he can’t get 3 months worth for most of his meds, there’s really no point.

Hopefully, we will won’t have a winter that will leave us snowed in or whatever. Yes, my brother has his snow blowers out here, but there are “tricks” to starting them, and I don’t know what they are. He’s got snow clearing equipment that are much larger and get pulled by a tractor, but his tractors need work.

Thankfully, this truck can handle deeper snow than our previous van could, but we’ve had so many weird and unexpected issues crop up, I really don’t want to take too many chances in winter. Of course, meds can be delivered, but if the roads are such that we can’t get out with the truck, the delivery driver sure as heck isn’t going to make it with his car! Nor would we want him to even try.

After getting as much of that straightened out as possible, I let them know that my credit card on file to pay for anything not covered is now listed as “lost”, so it won’t work anymore. She took the information out of our files completely and, once my replacement card comes in, in 3-4 business days, I will give them a call with the new information. Then I got my husband’s single refill that he needed before picking up some gas (prices went up to $1.199) and headed home.

It was still light out, but I knew that wouldn’t last, so as soon as I got everything settled, I was back outside. This time to break out little Spewie.

We put that little electric snow blower (I think it’s actually considered an electric snow shovel) through so much more than it was made for!

I used it to clear out a large enough space in front of our garage for the truck to be able to back up, turn around, and go into the inner yard. I didn’t go down the driveway to the road, though. At one point, I was hearing something odd over the sound of Spewie. It turned out to be our vandal’s tractor going by. I couldn’t see if he was driving it, or his wife. I was going back and forth and basically ignoring it, but saw that he’d actually parked the tractor in a spot where I could just see it through the trees, so something was going on, within view of our driveway. So once the area in front of the garage was done, I switched to working in the inner yard. At one point, I heard the tractor again and, when I later came out to switch out the memory cards on the trail cams, it was gone. I’ve checked the files and he (or his wife) never got close enough to trigger the motion sensor, so that’s just fine. I only care what happens at our own driveway.

So there is still about half the driveway, through the gate to the road, that needs to be done, plus a couple of paths in the outer yard. By then, I was getting really cold, even with my (old and ratty, but still really warm) down filled coat. I did quickly take care of feeding and watering the outside cats, since I was still dressed for outside, and did my evening rounds before calling it a day.

Definitely a pain killer day. I might even be taking extra anti-inflammatories before going to bed. I can already feel my joints stiffening up and getting painful. I don’t feel any of that while I’m working outside, but once I’m inside, in the warm and settling down, my entire body starts to stiffen up and hurt. Hopefully, I didn’t over do it and I’ll be able to walk normally tomorrow.

I seriously considered skipping working on this post, but it really shouldn’t take long. I’m not going to spent too much time looking for old photos, etc. for this one. I’m just too tired.

So, without further ado, let’s start analyzing our perennial and food forest items.

The New Stuff – asparagus, strawberries, walnut, plum, apple, gooseberry and haskap.

Asparagus and Strawberries.

I’d picked up some new varieties of asparagus, since our first bed turned out to be in a very bad location. I also wanted to try some new strawberry varieties. I’ve tried the white strawberries before, but they never grew.

Those ended up going into a new bed I made for them but, unfortunately, it took so long to get to planting them, I really didn’t know if any would make it. If I’d known it would take so long, I would have stored the bare roots differently to keep them going, but I really did expect to get them in the ground sooner. I made sure to pre-soak the bare roots before planting and hydrated the soil before and after planting.

In the end, none of the strawberries made it. Much to my shock, four out of five Jersey Giant asparagus showed up. Even when one got rolled on by a cat, in spite of the protective garden stake it was growing against, it sent up a new shoot! No sign of the Purple Passion, though.

Opal Plum, Haskap, Apple and Gooseberry

I was very excited to find a self pollinating variety of eating plum through Vesey’s that is hardy to zone 2! I also picked up a cross pollinating pair of haskaps, since the first ones we planted just aren’t thriving. Then, at a homesteader’s event, I was able to pick up an eating apple sapling (I’ve already forgotten the variety and don’t have the energy to look it up), a gooseberry bush and black walnut – a 1 yr sapling, plus seeds.

All but the walnut got planted in the same area.

In the above picture, the Opal Plum is on the right, the apple on the left, and the gooseberry in the middle. We had to say goodbye to our elderly cat, Freya, this year, and we buried her where the Opal plum is now planted.

It did really well!

Until the deer got past the protective frame and ate the leaves.

They got to the peas that day, as well.

The plum got more protective fencing around it, along with pinwheel distractions, but that wasn’t enough, either. We ended up having to add chicken wire around it, too. The deer really wanted those plum leaves!

Happily, they started growing back quickly.

The new leaves stayed until well past several frosts, too.

With the drought and heat, I did make sure to water everything regularly during the summer. The old rain barrel we had set up there now leaks near the bottom, so I took advantage of that. I set it up between the apple and gooseberry. While the barrel was being filled with a hose, I used a watering can on everything else. By the time everything else got watered, the barrel would be pretty much full, so I just left it to leak. That basically gave the apple and gooseberry a slow, deep watering of about 40 gallons.

The area we’re planting the food forest in gets full sun all day in the summer, and absolutely baked. Something we have to compensate for, until things get large enough to provide their own shade on the ground below.

By the end of the year, everything seems to have survived. Now we’ll just have to see if they survive their first winter!

The black walnut, however, went much further afield.

The above image is what I got at the homesteader’s event; the year old walnut is the one in the pot. The wrapped ones are the gooseberry and apple. Then there’s the bag of walnut seeds, already cold stratified.

The sapling got planted first. The walnut went into the outer yard, well away from other things, due to the juglone from their roots. It took me way too long to get to the seeds, though – long enough that some of them pre-germinated!

So those got planted and mulched first.

I marked off spots for all of the seeds, but aside from the ones that pre-germinated, only one more got planted, on the grave of little Kale, a kitten that didn’t make it this year.

The year old sapling leafed out rather nicely.

It was some time before the pre-germinated seeds broke ground.

Then, of course, the deer happened.

*sigh*

They only got the year old sapling, though, eating some of it. It did recover and start growing back. One of the saplings from the pre-germinated seeds also got disappeared by something. Not just eaten leaves, but the entire sapling, gone. I even dug around and there was nothing in the soil. Whatever got it, pulled it out by the roots. I’m not sure that’s something a deer would do!

The one planted over little Kale never showed up, and there are several other seeds that we just never had a chance to plant. Maybe they’ll survive another year? I don’t know.

In the spring, the current black walnut saplings will get chicken wire around them. I hope to get the last of the seeds planted, too. If they won’t make it, at least it’ll be easier to plant something else in their locations, later on.

If I remember correctly, it’ll be about 10 years before we get walnuts, if they survive that long. Normally, walnuts would not have enough season for the nuts to fully ripen out here, but these are from a nursery in the same growing zone as we are, so these might be better acclimated. Even if they don’t get a chance to fully ripen, they can still be used as a dye and, if they survive another 20 or 30 years, the trees could be potentially harvested for their wood. The last I looked, a fully mature black walnut tree could potentially be worth about $250K in lumber.

I probably won’t be around, by then! 😄

That’s it for the new stuff this year, and I was very happy that we were able to get so many new things for the food forest. It basically put us a few years ahead of what I had expected to be able to do. Assuming they survive!

The Old Stuff: Korean pine, rhubarb, walking onions, grapes, haskap, sunchokes, asparagus, strawberries, wild Saskatoons, strawberries, mulberry, silver buffaloberry, sea buckthorn and crab apples. Plus, surprise raspberry and saffron crocus!

Let’s start with the Korean pine.

Okay, we’re done.

Yeah. Nothing.

These were planted a few years ago. They were 2 yr old saplings, and from what I’ve read, they grow slowly in their first 5 years, then shoot up and grow quickly. Which should have started last year.

We have three of the original 6 left, and they did not grow at all.

It’s entirely possible I’ve been watering dead saplings.

Rhubarb.

We have two areas in the old kitchen garden with rhubarb that predate our living here. Usually, the one in the south corner does well, while the one in the north corner does poorly. This year, however, I pruned back the ornamental crab apple tree in that corner, allowing more light to reach the peppers bed. That meant more light for the rhubarb in that corner, too, and they did really well this year!

We had plenty to harvest for baking, and even enough to freeze.

I do think it’s time to transplant these, though. Maybe not next year, but now that we have the new asparagus and strawberry bed in the main garden area, I’m thinking we can plant more perennials in that section, slowly over the seasons.

Next is the walking onions.

When we first moved here, there was a single walking onion that kept coming up, only to get knocked down or broken by something, fairly early on. One year, I managed to protect it long enough to form bulbils. I planted those along the tiny raised bed, and they’ve been going great there, ever since. This spring, they were already growing as soon as the snow was gone!

As for the original, it never came up again.

We use the walking onions for their greens. I didn’t want them to start “walking” too far, though, so we harvested bulbils for eating, too. The remaining bulbils, I made sure they ended up in the area I want them to grow in, against that little raised bed, rather than spreading into the yard and in areas we have other things planted. These guys are very strong and did very well this year. The poor growing conditions we had this year didn’t phase them at all!

Grapes

We still haven’t transplanted these! I have not decided on a good new location for them.

This year, they did rather well, in spite of the fact that I kept forgetting to water them!

These caterpillars showed up again this year, though not for long.

We got a lot of grapes and they were probably the biggest we’ve seen since we unburied them from the spirea that had grown over them. Still smaller than they probably should be (we don’t know the variety, but they are probably Valiant). We ended up not harvesting much, though.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DNlOcm6u-eK/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Here you can see some of the grapes we included with a harvest of Spoon, Sub Arctic and Chocolate Cherry tomatoes, herbs, Custard beans and a single Royal Burgundy bean, walking union bulbils and nasturtium seeds.

Mostly, though, we just snacked on the grapes whenever we were puttering around the yard.

Then, they were all gone.

Given the lack of damage, I’d say the birds got them. Which I didn’t mind too much, this year. When we do finally figure out where to transplant them, protecting them from birds and raccoons is going to be a priority!

Haskap

*sigh*

The original haskap we planted – two “Mrs. Honeyberry” and one “Mr. Honeyberry” are in a bed near the chain link fence. This year, as in previous years, the “Mr. Honeyberry”, which is much larger, leafed out and bloomed ealier.

One “Mrs. Honeyberry” that was planted the same year did show a few flowers and even had a berry or two. This spring, it looked so dead, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it never got any leaves at all. The second “Mrs. Honeyberry” was planted the next year and, while it gets leaves, it hasn’t been getting any bigger, and didn’t bloom at all this year.

The “Mr. Honeyberry” is self pollinating, and we did actually get almost a handful of berries this year. Probably the most, since we planted them, though not by much. By the end of the season, odd brown patches starting showing up on the leaves. I hope they didn’t end up with some sort of fungal disease!

They just don’t seem to be doing well in this location. We should have bushes covered in berries every year by this point, and it’s just not happening.

Which is why I bought two completely different cross-pollinating varieties. Varieties that should both bloom at the same time!

Sunchokes

These have never grown to the point of blooming, but we still get tubers out of them. They are not supposed to be affected by things like heat and drought that much, but they were much smaller this year than in previous years. I think the smoke, plus the elm tree near them needs to be pruned back again, contributed to that.

In the end, I only harvested part of the bed, leaving the others to keep growing as long as possible. They didn’t seem any smaller, even though the plants were! The unharvested tubers should mean a lot more plants for next year.

Then the deer got them.

*sigh*

At least it didn’t happen until almost the end of the growing season. They’ll be fine over the winter.

Asparagus

Next to the sunchokes is the old asparagus bed. Though we didn’t have the flooding in the area we have had in previous years, I really didn’t expect anything to come up. These were planted long enough ago that we should have been able to harvest plenty of spears, every spring for the past two or three years, but it’s just not happening. We did have a few surprise spears show up, though, which I just left alone.

One of them, however, was a massive, thick asparagus spear that quickly grew into a huge fern, and went to seed.

I now have asparagus seed collected, and am looking to try planting them next year. The new purple asparagus we got this spring didn’t survive their delayed planting, so that would be a good spot to try planting seeds next year.

Albion Everbearing Strawberries

We planted these last year, and they did surprisingly well in their distant bed, though the deer got at them, too. This year, that bed was thoroughly neglected. It did have chicken wire over it, though, and some of the runners survived. After it became clear the new varieties I got did not survive their delayed planting, I dug up all the Albion Everbearing strawberries I could find – which was a surprising number of them, considering the conditions – and transplanted them were the failed strawberries had been. One of them even bloomed and produced a couple of berries! If they survive to next year, though, I expect to see more strawberries. I’ll be in a better position to maintain them in the new location, too.

Saskatoons

Some of you might know these as serviceberries.

These grow wild in several areas in our spruce grove. Most of them quickly get some sort of fungal damage? Insect damage? I’m not sure, but it renders whatever berries develop, inedible.

Near the house, however, we have some that produce good berries.

Once again, we didn’t really harvest them, but did snack on them, while we could. I also tried to prune away things that were growing back and crowding them out, and I cut away all the chokecherries that were crowding them. We don’t need that many chokecherry trees, that’s for sure. With the drought, the Saskatoon berries weren’t as big and juicy as they could have been, but they were still quite good.

Then they all disappeared.

Birds.

At some point, I’d like to buy specific varieties of Saskatoons for the food forest area, but for now, we are just fine with the wild ones.

Mulberry

These had a mixed up start. When we got them, it was two 1 year saplings instead of the one 2 yr sapling we ordered. They had run out of the 2 yr ones, so they were sending out pairs of 1 yr old saplings instead.

They were so small, we ended up potting them up and keeping them in the house that year, then planted them outside the following spring.

I’m happy to say, they survived their first winter, but seemed to struggle by the end of this season. I’m really hoping they survived their first drought! We’ll know for sure, in the spring.

Sea Buckthorn.

We have two survivors of the original five planted. This year, they seemed to do quite well, in spite of the conditions. They’re supposed to be quite hardy to the prairie weather, and they seemed to demonstrate that this year.

I still don’t know if we have two females, two males or one of each. It might be another year or two before we can figure it out. We’ll know when they finally start blooming. Which was not this year.

However…

Silver Buffaloberry

We saw our first silver buffaloberry berries this year!

Which means we got to taste them.

I don’t think a drought year is a good time for tasting these. They were quite bitter and unpleasant.

These are being grown as a privacy screen, and if we don’t like the berries, they should be enjoyed by the birds, so no loss there.

Highbush Cranberry.

Now, onto the highbush cranberry.

Aaaannnd… we’re done.

Yup. Another one that didn’t seem to do anything this year. They got leaves, but did not get any bigger at all, even though they were among the things that got regular watering. Not sure why they’re not growing, though several possibilities come to mind.

Crab Apples.

With our weird spring, one of the crab apple trees never really bloomed and had almost no apples on it. That tree doesn’t have edible apples on it, anyhow, and gets left for the birds and the deer.

Of the ones that did produce, this one matures first.

They are small but, once ripe, they have really delicious sweet apples. Once again, we didn’t deliberately harvest much of them. I made sure to gather an ice cream bucket full for my mother. As the season got colder, I started to shake some of the branches so the apples would fall to the ground for the deer to eat. That way, they would have no reason to break any branches, trying to reach the apples.

Unlike on this tree.

This tree produced larger crab apples that mature about a month later than the first ones. My mother go a bucket full of these, too. She was quite happy with both types!

Then, one morning, I found a branch and been broken. It didn’t have enough apples on it for it to have been the weight of fruit to break it, so it was most likely a deer trying to pull off an apple. The broken branch didn’t die, though, and the apples remaining on it continued to ripen! I’ll prune that away in the early spring, when I can get a ladder to it.

Liberty Apple

This zone 4 variety, planted in a sheltered area, has so far survived our zone 3 winters. It’s still too young to produce fruit, though. It’ll be probably another 3 years before we get to that point. We just need to keep it alive!

Now, we have a couple of surprises.

Royalty Raspberry.

We’d ordered a 3 pack of these a couple of years ago, and planted them in the food forest area. They actually stared to produce berries their first year, which should have happened in their second year. The next year, only one survived. Barely. This year, I thought for sure they were all dead.

Then one showed up.

It never got bigger than a few inches, though once I found it, I made sure to water it regularly. We’ll see if it survives to next year.

We did have plenty of regular raspberries from before we moved out here, most of which have taken over the old compost pile near the main garden area. Those were often part of my breakfast, while doing my rounds!

Then there was an even bigger surprise.

Saffron crocus

I got some saffron crocus corms that are from a Canadian source, but they are still zone 4. We’re zone 3. I figured if we buried them deep enough and mulched them well enough, they might make it. The instructions specifically stated not to water them (I cheated this year), and we were to expect them to bloom in August. They are also supposed to spread quite a lot from season to season.

We planted them two falls ago. Their first year, we saw their greens pop up, but couldn’t keep them free of the weeds in the area, and soon couldn’t even find their leaves anymore. I figured they were a lost cause.

Then, this spring, they showed up again! I did try to keep the area weeded, but eventually, the greens just disappeared again. Considering these were an experiment I didn’t really expect to succeed, I figured we could just cut our losses.

Then we had our septic tank cleaned out in November, which is quite late for us. While that was being done, I was on kitten duty, making sure none came to close to the open tank. A couple of them were hanging out in the fenced off area where we have the Liberty Apple, tulips and the saffron crocus planted.

Much to my surprise, I spotted new crocus leaves. From quite a few areas. They had clearly been expanding.

Then I saw the flower.

This is about two months late! There was one flower that had fully bloomed before getting hit by frost. Nearby was a second flower bud that never opened.

We actually had a single saffron crocus to harvest a whole three saffron threads from.

Since then, this bed has been heavily mulched for the winter.

We might actually get saffron crocuses again, next year! Hopefully, not so late as November. 😄

Final analysis

Most of this stuff is long term planting and it’s still too early to know how they are doing. It may be years before we see anything from them.

Others, like the rhubarb, walking onion, Saskatoons, we just need to leave them be, though I do want to eventually transplant the rhubarb to a better location.

It’s been unexpectedly difficult to get things going in the food forest. Which is a big deal, when it can take 10 years before something starts to produce food!

Also, we really need to get on top of putting protection around our new food forest stuff. The dollar store tomato support kits we got seem to have been enough for most of the new things, but even the larger version was not enough to protect from the deer.

It’s a good thing I still have quite a bit of chicken wire left.

Over the next while, we intend to continue to plant more fruit trees hardy to our zone, more berry varieties and so on. I’m also looking to try planting things near or around stuff in the food forest area to help them out. I’ve been reading that planting garlic around fruit trees, for example, can deter deer. There are also “guilds” of things that can be planted around them. Even things like winter squash can potentially be planted around them, to help shade the soil and keep critters away. Things to consider as we expand these areas.

We are slowly working on building trellis tunnels attached to pairs of raised beds. I am thinking that, as we keep expanding the garden beds, we can start building pairs of raised beds closer to the food forest area, with poly tunnels over them, instead of trellis tunnels. This would allow us to expand what we can add to the food forest. For example, one of the tree sources I use has paw paw seedlings available. They are zone 5 and would normally not survive our winter. The area I’m thinking of adding polytunnels to gets a lot of sunlight, so even in winter, they would be considerably warmer, giving things like paw paws a chance to survive. We might not be able to grow, say, citrus, but having such structures would really open up what we could potentially grow.

It might take a few more years before we get to that point, though. Unless I’m able to harvest a lot more of those dead spruces to build raised beds with faster, with the help of my brother and a tractor to pull the trunks out of the spruce grove. We shall see.

So, that’s our perennial and food forest for this year. I’m really hoping the new things we got will succeed. It was a rough year for the food forest, too, it seems. We even lost a couple more silver buffaloberry, though that started out as a pack of 30, so there are still lots to form our privacy hedge.

It’s slow going with this stuff, but it will be worth it in the long term.

The Re-Farmer

Yard cats and how much does that cost???

December 2, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Today was my day to go to my mother’s to do her grocery shopping, but first, I headed out for my morning rounds and yard cat feeding.

I counted 26 or 27 this morning. In this picture, a well fed group is under the higher wattage heat bulb. When I did the evening feeding, I noticed none where hanging out under the lower wattage heat bulb, which is closer to the floor. I checked it and there was no heat coming off of it. It was plugged in, the switch was on but, nothing.

No. It wasn’t burned out.

Somehow, it was unscrewed, just enough to cut power to the bulb! The heat cover was also loose from its threads. I’m not sure how the cats manage to do this!

I headed to my mother’s earlier than usual, as I wanted to get her grocery shopping done before the home care aid arrived for her lunch assist. When I got there, she had actually started some vegetables cooking on her own. She does things in stages, so she can sit down frequently.

After double checking and modifying her list that we put together when I was there on Saturday, I headed out. There wasn’t much on it, so I was done quickly. Fast enough that I took the time to stop at a little department store along the way. I know my mother won’t be able to do a Christmas tree, and very little decorating, if any, so I wanted to get her something festive. I ended up finding a little tree set, complete with a string of lights, small enough to sit on her dining table. Then, spur of the moment, I got her a Hickory Farms set with a sausage, crackers, cheese and mustard.

When I got them out and showed them to her, making sure she knew that these were gifts from me, not something I got with her grocery money (because that would have been her first thought), she got all angry with me for getting her gifts. Especially the Hickory Farms pack. With that one, I opened the box and showed her what was in it, and saying it was something to go with her tea, if she wants, or to bring out if she has company. She was still angry with me.

Which is what I expected, really. My mother has never known how to accept gifts graciously, that I can remember. I know that she will eventually enjoy them, but will likely never admit it. At least not to me!

As I was putting her groceries away, the home care lunch assist worker arrived. Since I was there anyhow, she didn’t stay and I took care of making my mother’s lunch for her, and finishing off what she had started cooking, doing all her dishes, etc. At one point, she asked me to look for something in her cupboards (we never found it), but she has a bunch of stuff that she would like to take. These are things she brought from here at the farm – glasses, bowls, etc. – but had never used. They are, however, vintage things that we would actually keep and use. Especially my younger daughter, who really appreciates such things. They are fragile and just out of my reach, though, and we decided today was not a day to drag out the stool and start taking them down. Mostly, she’s just happy to know that they are claimed and won’t end up disposed of in some way.

I wasn’t in any hurry to leave today, as my husband messaged me to let me know there was a parcel to pick up. The post office was almost closed for 2 1/2 hours over the lunch period. Which meant I had time to do all my mother’s dishes, make room in her fridge, and prep containers of food to cool down before they would go into the fridge.

I did remember to go through my mother’s lock box. I knew there would be one bubble pack with her Sunday bedtime meds still in it. Those turned out to be the only ones in the pack. Another pack had only a Monday morning bubble with meds in it. I took both out and set them into a pill organizer she has, so the packs could be thrown away, and left a note in the lock box for the next med assist person. My mother will be getting her refills soon (which the pharmacy will no longer deliver to her, at my request; I will pick them up), so the lock box was going to need the space.

For some reason, the home care aids keep locking more and more of my mother’s pens into the lock box. They have a form to fill out, with each med assist. There should be one pen with their folder. Instead, it seems they use a pen from her table, then lock it up into the box. I’m guessing the pens fall to the bottom while the next care aid moves it to unlock it, so they don’t see it and grab another one… which gets locked into the lock box. There was one time I wanted to make my mother’s shopping list, but couldn’t find any of my mother’s pens in the container she has for them on her table. On a hunch, I went into the lock box. I found six pens in there!

While doing my mother’s shopping, I noticed some very good sales at the grocery store, so after I was finished at my mother’s, I went back to do a bit of shopping of my own. I actually bought beef today! They had a sale on tri tip that was at $6.99 a pound. That’s lower than ground beef is right now. I got a few other things, as well.

I did NOT get chocolate chips, though.

*gasp*

Good grief!!!

I was at Costco, yesterday, and their Kirkland brand chocolate chips were over $30 for a 2kg/4.4lbs bag. What gets me is not only how much more expensive the Kirkland branch chocolate chips are here, but that they are more expensive than the name brand chocolate chips – both are semi-sweet – in a 2.4kg/5.3lb bag.

I recall, two or three years ago, that there were predictions of the price of chocolate going up, due to things like weather damage, pests and disease. Add in everything else involved in production and processing going up and adding to the price, it’s really gotten insane. It takes a few years for the increase in prices of cocoa beans (they tripled) to affect retail prices, but now I’m seeing that there is a recovery and supply is increasing. Prices might start to ease a few months from now, though probably not by much. The beans may not be as expensive, but all the other costs are still going up.

That done, I still had time before the post office reopened, even with how long the drive it, so I ended up going to the local Chinese restaurant for a late lunch.

The store the post office is in is an old style general store that includes a liquor section, right next to the post office window. As I was waiting for my parcel, I started looking at the nearest display and spotted a new wine, with the label stating it was from our province. The postal clerk saw me looking and told me that the wine is actually produced locally. As in, just off the highway that runs through our little hamlet! There was a semi-sweet and a ginger and lemon, both sparkling white wines.

I ended up getting a bottle of ginger and lemon. It only cost $20. Technically, my mother bought it, since she gave me $20 in cash for gas. 😂😂 (It costs almost $30 a trip to go to her place, with the current local prices.)

I’m now debating: do we taste test it now, or save it for Christmas? 😁

With the extra stuff, I sent a message home and my younger daughter was sweet enough to come out and open the gate for me, then help bring the bags to the house. It was a bit early but, once everything was in and I still had my boots on, I took care of feeding and watering the outside cats, and doing my evening rounds, while my daughter put stuff away.

Then, opened up our parcel and go it set up, but I will write a review on that in my next post!

See you there…

The Re-Farmer

I get to stay home

November 30, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Last night’s trip to my mother’s for her bed time med and personal assist went well. I got there earlier, which she was happy with. She also was less tired looking and less confused than the night before, which was a relief. While getting various things done, I noted that she was almost out of milk, so we started a shopping list for her. I won’t be able to do her shopping until Tuesday, though, so the plan was for me to pick up some milk for her on the way over tonight. It was the only thing she was completely running out of.

The girls, sweethearts that they are, took over the outside routine this morning, so that I could sleep in.

Well.

Try to sleep in.

Once activity starts, even if it’s just going to the bathroom at 2 a.m. or whatever, the cats decide it’s time to go nuts, so I didn’t actually get much sleep at all. *sigh*

I did do the evening routine, as usual, though, which is when I found myself being observed from on high.

Kohl is such a beauty! Someone needs to adopt that cat! Someone who can take care of that glorious fur. She’s starting to get matted again, and we can’t do anything about it until things warm up in the spring, and we can shave them off.

As for tonight, it looks like I’m getting a break. I got a call from my mother, before her supper assist arrived, telling me I didn’t need to come out. She had a “spare” set of her bed time pills in one of her old pill organizers. I’d put them there myself, some time ago. One of her night visits got missed, so they ended up the only bubble left in a week’s bubble pack. These lone bubbles drive my mother bonkers, because she thinks the home care workers should just use them, when they are not allowed to touch anything outside the days marked. What ends up happening is that there’s an extra bubble pack floating around in the lock box that no one seems to get around to finishing off when the correct day comes along. Setting these aside calmed my mother down and cleared space in the lock box. I have a little notebook I keep in the lock box where I leave notes for the home care workers, and I made sure to mention that I was the one who took them out.

When my mother suggested I not come out tonight, I brought up the other things I was going to be doing, like bringing her some milk, helping with her personal care, and basically anything else she needed that home care might not be able to do. My mother insisted she would be fine. She sounded so happy to be able to tell me I didn’t need to drive out at night again, too.

So… I get to stay home tonight! I might even be able to go to bed early and get actual sleep, too.

Tomorrow is our Costco shop. I’m planning to check out a newly opened location. It’s been open for a few weeks now, so that initial rush should be done. In confirming the location, I found an article that talked about how, on opening day, there were people who had lined up all night to get in first. Which I just don’t understand. It’s not like they had any different sales or prices.

Still, it should be interesting. It’s been a long time since we’ve been to that end of the city. Now that I think about it, I don’t think we’ve gone through that area since my older daughter and I drove through it during our move, 8 years ago!

The Re-Farmer

What a day – but I managed to get some stuff done!

November 24, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Gosh, my mother can make it so hard to help her with things.

I was up way earlier than intended (thanks, cats. *sigh*) but at least it was light out when I headed out to feed the cats and do short rounds.

The isolation cats seem to be enjoying their cozy shelter, though there is evidence that Pinky has been trying to get out. She’s somehow pushing one of the ceiling insulation sheets out one side, as she digs at the other. I know it’s her, because the kittens are too small to reach.

From the muddy hand prints outside the front window, raccoons have been interested in getting in, while Pinky is wanting out! She’s doing so well, we probably could let her out and she’d be fine, though that shaved belly would sure get cold!

Once the morning stuff was done, I had just enough time to grab a breakfast before heading to my mother’s. I got there just after 9am, and her scheduled med/etc. assist is 9:15, so that worked out.

I put together a breakfast while she took her meds and, once she was all settled, I took care of other stuff, like emptying the commode and so on. Once everything was done, I took advantage of her empty sink to try and use the little sink plunger I got for her, to try and fix the slow drain.

I made a mistake with the plunger I chose. It would work with something like a bathroom sink, but not the kitchen sink. The plunger is a sort of accordion style, with a separate seal around the edge. The seal fit around the drain, but the plunger was just small enough that it would go into the drain, flipping the seal and eventually knocking it right off. I kept trying, as all sorts of material was being pulled up into the water.

But the slow drain was now no drain at all. Whatever I moved around down there, it resulted in a total blockage.

Well, my mother had drain cleaner on her list anyhow! So I left it for the moment, hoping the water would slowly drain while I was running her errands.

My first stop was at the pharmacy, and that’s where she wanted me to pick up some Drano. Except they didn’t have any. I eventually found a house brand and got that. Then I did her grocery shopping before heading back.

The was no change in the water level at all.

After everything was put away, I tried adding the drain cleaner. The instructions said to pour down half a bottle. Normally, the heavier gel would sink through the water and into the drain.

It didn’t.

I could actually see, with the debris, as the gel swooped outwards from where I was pouring it directly over the drain.

My mother, meanwhile, was a continuous stream of instructions on what I should be doing, what she would be doing, and I needed to do things the way she would be doing it – even though she couldn’t see what was actually going on. I had mentioned the debris coming up and she starting telling me to use a paper towel to wipe it up, even though I also told her the water as not draining. Not sure what a paper towel was going to do!

I left it for a while. That little plunger wasn’t going to do anything, and I had my doubts about the no-name drain cleaner. I decided I’d leave it to sit and went to the hardware store.

That confused my mother, and she kept asking about being able to use the sink, while I kept telling her, don’t use the sink!

At the hardware store, I found an employee, hoping they would have a better sink plunger. All the had were full sized ones, so I did end up picking a very basic one designed to clear floor drains and tubs. Then I asked about drain cleaner and he took me right to a Drano produce specifically designed for kitchen sinks. It was a granular product, rather than a gel. I’d never actually seen a granular version before. Good to know about.

Products acquired, I headed back to my mother’s

None of the water had drained at all.

So I tried the new plunger, which did actually work better, in that it didn’t fall apart and seem to be pulling more debris out of the drain.

Nothing was getting through, though.

Except, now there was water on the floor.

I checked under the sink, and there was water. I started emptying all the stuff my mother’s been shoving under there so I could clean mop everything up.

My mother had been in the bathroom, and it was about this time that she came out. I told her the clog was far worth than we originally though, and that there was now a leak. I had read the instructions on the new drain cleaner, which included removing any water in the sink. I’d found and filled a couple of small buckets and was trying to get as much out of the drain, explaining to my mother what was going on as I did. Normally, she would settle herself at her table, but I asked her if she could sit in the living room, so I could get through to the bathroom with the buckets.

So began the litany of all the things I should be doing, rather than what I was doing right then, while standing and blocking my way out of the kitchen! Including demanding I call the maintenance number. She did finally move so I could dump out the buckets into the toilet. Then I started taking things out from under her sink, so that I could clean up the water, but no, she wanted me to call the maintenance number right then. I told her I would do it after cleaning up the water, and she finally stopped demanding I drop everything and do what she was ordering me to do.

Once things were cleaned up and as out of the way as possible, I called the maintenance number. My mother has three fridge magnets with the direct number, so at least that was easy to find!

Of course, it went right to hold. I ended up putting it on speaker, so I could monitor it while updating my family and my siblings on my cell phone.

Then Meals on Wheels arrived, so we traded places, and I waited in the living room while she had her lunch. The woman delivering it normally would have stopped to chat a bit, but between my with the hold music going and the open cupboard doors and a bucket under the kitchen sink, she very quickly disappeared! 😄

The hold music would stop every now and then as an automated message gave the “we are experiencing more calls than usual…” spiel. My mother started asking what the lady had said, not realizing it was a recorded message. Then, when it came on again some minutes later, she started making disparaging remarks. When her food arrived, she ordered me to hang up and make myself lunch. I refused. That happened several times over. After a while, it was clear the hold music was somehow bothering her in a way that seemed out of place. I offered to take it off speaker, but I would then have to hold the phone to my ear constantly, and she finally stopped.

When someone picked up the call, I took it off speaker phone and and spent some time explaining the situation. Once he had all the info, he said someone would be sent over to fix it. I asked how long it would be, since my mother could no longer use her kitchen sink.

They would try to get in within three days. If not, it could be a week.

!!!!!!!

That’s when I brought up the product I bought and asked if it was okay to go ahead and try that. I didn’t want to use something stronger like that, without checking first. If nothing else, it would at least let the plumber know it was there and take precautions. I was told they were okay with such self maintenance and to go ahead and use it.

So it was back to going over the instructions again (with plenty of commentary from my mother, who has never used any product like this in her life). I’d had to use a paper towel to sop up as much water out of the drain as possible, since my mother didn’t have any sponges. The instructions were to add 3 tbsp down the drain, being careful not to add more than that, followed immediately with 2 cups of hot, but not boiling, water.

The clog is so bad, those two cups couldn’t go down the drain at all.

The instructions said to wait 15 minutes and, if it was still blocked, to try again. I set a timer and made myself sit down, so I wouldn’t be hovering. My mother, meanwhile, was set up at her dining table again, which meant I had to squeeze between her and the wall behind her, over and over again. She wouldn’t move. Not even to slide her chair forward a couple of inches! When I checked again after 15 minutes, there was no change in the water level. I still did a second treatment, but that just added more water to the bottom of the sink! At least the granules sank through the water and into the drain, though.

My mother, meanwhile, was getting herself quite worked up and kept on with how she would have done things. She would have called the main office number, not the maintenance number – as if that wouldn’t have gone on hold (I’ve called that number a few times. It either goes straight to hold, or to voice mail. A live person almost never answers). They would then transfer her…

… to the maintenance number I’d called directly.

As for being on hold, she would hang up and call back. Or she would start pressing buttons. It took me a moment to realize she meant she would start button mashing on her phone, because she was on hold.

I tried to explain to her that, at the other end, they can’t hear the old music, nor would they hear any button pushing.

She then accused me of “always taking “their” side.”

It turns out that my mother believes that, at the other end, there are people listening to the same hold music and simply not answering because they don’t feel like it. She based this on a story she told me, in a very circular way, of how she actually saw someone doing that at a clinic while she was in the waiting room. Except I thought she was at first describing that a radio was playing, but it was the “same” music as the old music. I tried to tell her, that’s just not possible. When you’re on hold, the people on the other end can’t hear the same things.

It wasn’t until much later that I realized that the person she was describing as ignoring a call on hold may actually have been the one on hold, with the phone on speaker so she could monitor it and keep working at the same time. If that really was hold music my mother was hearing in the first place.

At one point, I’d left with my mother’s Meals on Wheels tray to set it in the common room, and noticed a sign up sheet for a potluck and game night on the table. I assumed it was some sort of sport ball event on TV. I mentioned it when I got back and my mother and she told me it was being organized by someone who fairly recently moved into the building. She’s taken to organizing things and is very bossy…

…

Somehow, this got mixed in with being put on hold for so long.

Then my mother started talking about all these things going missing from the common room – an ancient computer that no one was using, a piano that was donated that is now gone, and there’s another piano there now, and the TV that was mounted to the wall in the common room that no one watched, so of course, this potluck was going to be table games, not a game on TV.

I never even noticed it was gone.

I eventually realized that my mother believed that all these things have been stolen by this one person. She has zero proof of such a thing. That’s just what she believes. I suggested that maintenance probably took them. It’s not like someone can just walk away with a large screen tv that’s mounted to a wall.

The piano, though… she thinks someone stole the piano and replaced it with a different one.

Which is exactly the sort of thing my mother used to accuse my father of doing. I even brought up a few instances, reminding her of how she had me look at a sewing machine my sister had given me, but that I’d left here at the farm when I moved out of province (it’s still here), because she thought it was different. My dad had “traded” it. She’d done the same thing when we got a new TV, and even with a cow. All of these things were the same, but to her, they were different, and it was because my dad was “trading” things. Those were just examples that involved me directly, but she’d done the same with vehicles and entire herds of cows. She even called the RCMP once, claiming my dad and “traded” a bunch of cattle – and managed to do it without leaving any tracks in the snow of any kind.

That just set her off on how – for 50 years! – my dad had been doing all this stuff, and I just didn’t understand…

Then it went back to being on hold for so long, and how I should say it was urgent, and they listen to the tone of the voice to see how serious it is… I guess I was too calm on the phone? and everyone takes advantage of old people.

I told her, yes, it happens, but not everyone does that.

Yes. Everyone. Even you.

How am I taking advantage?

Because of how I talk to her (not agreeing with her wild accusations).

…

Then, as “icing” on the sh** cake, she basically said I was just like our vandal.

You know. The guy that’s been verbally abusing her and sponging money off of her for years. The guy that was stealing stuff from this property to the point that she asked us to move in, partially just to stop him from doing that. The guy that we had to get a restraining order on, and blames us for causing his cancer. The guy that shows up at her place randomly and yells at her. That guy.

Gee. Thanks, Mom.

By this time, I’d been at my mother’s for almost 3 and a half hours, the second treatment of the sink showed no signs of doing anything, and I was well past the time I should have left. My mother, meanwhile, was making herself upset because I bought the different drain cleaner and the plunger, and I should take those home, because she has so much stuff and doesn’t need them. I told her I would do that, but after her sink was fixed. However, from experience, I could see that it was because she didn’t want to pay me back for them, even though I had no intention of asking her to. She just assumes that’s what I expect, because that’s what she would expect if she were in my position. It’s also what our vandal would have done.

She’s much less subtle about it, as she gets older!

I had hoped to get the sink unplugged before I left. There were a lot of things I would have tried, if I were at home, but this is a government owned and run building, so I wasn’t going to do it there. I got the okay to try the specialty drain cleaner, and that was as far as I was going to go on that.

I did tell my mother I would call back later to ask, which I did shortly after her 5pm meal and med assist. No change in the water level in the sink.

After leaving my mother’s, I swung by the home care office. Which turned out to be empty at the reception area, and all the other doors were closed. Thankfully, one of the staff came in while I was reading various signs to figure out what I was supposed to do to get through to someone directly. She asked if I was there for an appointment, and I told her I wanted to pass on information to the home care workers about my mother. She recognized my mother’s name when I gave it, and I explained about the sink. The staff was going to have to use the bathroom sink until the kitchen sink was fixed, and I told her how long that might take. She just rolled her eyes in frustration when she heard how long it might be. This is not a new problem with provincial public housing buildings like my mother’s, apparently!

She assured me she would let the home care workers know, and I was soon on my way again. I needed to run some errands in the town nearer to us first. By the time I finished there and was heading home, it was late enough that the post office would be open again and I could pick up three parcels I was expecting.

There turned out to be four.

I ended up driving up to the house and my daughter helped me unload – and kept cats away from the truck, so I could park!

I had lost so much time that, once everything was taken care of and put away, I quickly changed and headed back outside to get as much done as I could while it was still light out.

One of the first jobs was to finish mulching the herb bed with leaves for the winter. Remarkably, the sage, thyme, oregano and lemon balm all survived that freezing rain we had, and we could probably still harvest from them, if we wanted! Time for them to go to sleep for the winter, though, and hopefully start growing again in the spring.

Another job was to finish trimming the materials I’d harvested for what will become deadwood walls for the chain link fence garden bed. I even remembered to take pictures before it got too dark.

The first picture is the pile of saplings and suckers, so far. The longest ones will be used for the front of the bed. The shorter ones will mostly be fitted between the fence posts, on top of the boards that are already there. With the boards, that side only needs to be a few inches taller. The longest pieces will be reserved to do the front wall, just inside where the bricks are now.

I’m going to need a lot more material.

In the second picture, you can see the log my daughter helped me drag out of the spruce grove. This will be part of a bed that will be two logs tall. It’s pretty small, so it will most likely be a top log. I’ll see what I’m able to harvest out of the spruce grove later, but bigger logs will be used on the bottom of the walls.

After the trimming, I worked on something for one of the parcels I got in the mail today.

The new solar powered security camera.

I was a bit taken aback by the packaging. It just says “battery powered” and nothing on the outside of the box suggests that there is a solar panel. For a moment, I thought maybe it was supposed to be ordered separately, but when I opened it, it was there. The second picture is of the contents.

This camera will be set up to monitor the isolation shelter, which means it will be attached to the big elm tree outside the kitchen window.

The cats love climbing that tree, which means the camera will need protecting.

I also want to be able to easily move the camera to other locations, as needed, such as when we can set up a trap to catch cats for spays.

Inspired by what my brother set up for the gate cam, I went looking through the scrap wood pile and built something to attach the camera to, which is what you can see in the last picture. I started off making the shelter, with a back to attach the camera to, and a roof.

I love my cheap garage sale miter saw!

The roof isn’t so much to keep the elements off the camera; it’s designed to be outdoors and doesn’t need a roof at all. Mostly, it’s to keep the cats off of it!

The camera cover is attached to a slightly longer board, and there are screws already in it, ready to attach it to the tree. I wish I’d found that board earlier, as it would have been much better wood to build the shelter part with!

When it’s time to move the camera, it’s just a matter of unscrewing the back piece from the tree. The solar panel will be attached to the other side of the tree somewhere, facing the sun. That, I am not sure how to set up and protect from the cats (or raccoons!), since it obviously can’t have a roof over it, and still get enough sunlight to power the camera.

After I took the picture, I brought it inside and added wood glue to where the roof comes in contact with other pieces, and the joins of the roof itself.

By the time that was finished, the light was fading fast and getting cold, so I quickly did the evening rounds and cat feeding, and headed in.

I managed to get a decent amount accomplished, given how little daylight I had left when I got home!

Today is most likely that last day of temperatures above freezing for the year, though the long range forecast has several odd days in December that are forecast to be just above freezing. That’s in between temperatures were we are supposed to have highs below -20C/-4C and lows dropping to -35C/-31F, so I really don’t think we’ll get that warm. We’re not even expecting snow until the 7th and 8th of December at this point, and even then it’s only 30% and 60% chance of snow.

Looking at the monthly forecast, apparently, we’ll be getting next to no snow at all this winter! That would actually not be good, as we really need the precipitation. Otherwise, we’re looking at another drought year, next year. Long range forecasts are not particularly reliable, though, so who knows.

For now, though, once the temperatures start dipping below freezing, there really isn’t a lot I’ll be able to keep doing outside.

It’s going to be hibernation time, soon!

Meanwhile, I’ll be going through the manual for the new camera, getting it charged up and hopefully it’ll be set up and working tomorrow.

I’m quite looking forward to testing it out tonight – before it gets attached to the little shelter I made for it!

Then.

Sleep.

I hope.

The Re-Farmer

All went really well… almost

November 23, 2025November 23, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I had considered taking advantage of what will likely be our last decently warm day of the year, but in the end, decided against it.

With how much I was able to get done last night, I made a point of taking a second dose of anti-inflammatories before bed. I can take them up to three times a day, but I’ve been typically taking them only once a day, and sometimes skipping that. Which means I’d be taking them with the stomach protecting medication, which is to be taken only once a day.

Well, I think taking more anti-inflammatories, even with a full meal, turned out to be a mistake. That stomach protector is supposed to be enough for a full day, but that didn’t seem to work out. Or perhaps I should be glad they worked as well as they did, or I’d have had a much rougher night!

Thankfully, my mother’s appointment for her MRI was in the evening. I was able to get the girls to do the morning routine so I could try and get more sleep. In between more trips to the bathroom.

At least it settled by the time I was starting to get ready to go to my mother’s. I was just winding things down, when I started hearing a rather terrible cat noise coming from my bed.

*sigh*

Butterscotch had herself a massive throw up that managed to get all my bedding except one pillow – and my pajamas! I recruited my daughter to help me change my bedding, and she was kind enough to start laundry after I left.

Before I headed out, though, we made sure to give the cats their evening feeding, so I could escape. 😁

I forgot something and had to pop back into the house, when my daughter and I spotted this…

What I was trying to do was get a picture of the mostly white kitten that was almost completely under Pinky’s belly! Then the little tuxedo photo bombed me.

I caught a tongue blehp.

Two of them, actually. Furriosa is also licking her (I’m pretty sure she’s a she) chops, but that bug eyed little tuxedo was just too adorable.

Earlier in the day, my brother and I had a chance to talk and plan things out in advance. We were both planning to get to my mother’s early, though my brother turned out to arrive before I even left home! By the time I arrived, my mother had had her supper and my brother had gotten her her meds. He also got her bed time meds into a container to take with us, in case things went really long.

I’d brought the things I’d picked up for my mother a little while ago. I’d found a sink plunger that she’d been asking for for quite some time. She had asked me to make her some knee warmers, but I picked up some leg warmers at the dollar store that I thought might work for her. When she saw them, she was quite happy and looked forward to trying them out tonight. Her knees get very cold at night!

I also picked up a note pad for her and her lists. She keeps writing on a tiny notebook, various envelopes or scraps of paper, so I found an in between size note pad that I hope she’ll actually use!

Which got her to talking about how we should pick up milk along the way, as she brought out her scrap of paper that she was using to make her shopping lists.

So I re-wrote her list, clarifying somethings, on the new note pad. Just to get her started!

Unfortunately, my mother’s place is very small and there was really know way for the three of us to sit together and talk, so we decided to leave early.

About an hour and a half early!

We got my mother into my brother’s car – she struggled even with that! – and then I took her walker back to her apartment. We were going to borrow a hospital wheelchair, instead.

So glad we did that!

When we got there, I quickly ran in to where they keep their loaner wheelchairs by the door then brought her in while my brother went to park his car. I was pretty sure I knew where to go, but we paused at the main desk to ask, anyhow. The MRI was just around the corner from where the CT scan is, and I’ve taken both my mother and my husband there a few times over the year. It was a bit of a walk, though, and my mother really would have struggled with the distance, using her walker.

The final doors to the MRI area had to be opened from the inside to let us in. As we got there, a woman saw us through the windows and came over, looking rather confused, asking if we were there for an MRI, because they were all about to go on break! I told her yes, but we were very early. We fully expected to wait. She asked if we had any paperwork, and I got out the form that came with my mother’s appointment letter, with all the questions they ask about past history, and whether there were any metal objects to worry about. She left with that and I started getting my mother settled in the waiting room.

The woman came back very quickly and said they would take her in right away, rather than make her wait until after their break!

My brother hadn’t even caught up with us yet, as we started getting my mother ready to head in. She ended up bringing my mother a different wheelchair to transfer her into, which is when she spotted my brother at the doors and let him on. Between us, was got my mother all settled – after bagging up her dentures and collecting her life line pendant and glasses. Soon, my mother was wheeled off and my brother and I settled into the waiting room.

The MRI scan took all of 12 minutes, and they were wheeling her back!

Her doctor should get the results in about a week, so we’ll need to follow up on that. The results need to be sent from the doctor to Home Care, as it’s needed for their panel to get my mother into a nursing home.

It was just past 6 as we were getting my mother ready to leave. We were supposed to arrive for 6:30, with the scan being booked for 7.

As we were getting her ready to go, my mother started asking about what the MRI was for. More specifically, of what benefit was it to her to get it. Of course, the staff didn’t know that it was part of getting my mother into a nursing home, but the woman helping us tactfully said it was because the doctor wanted to see about memory loss. When I reminded my mother that it was about getting her into the nursing home, the worker corroborated that. Then she asked, why was the appointment so late. The lady explained that they have a year long waiting list, so they keep doing these scans all the way to midnight, every day, to try and get them done. To which my brother pointed out, my mother is very lucky to have gotten this appointment!

From there, we headed off. This time, my mother had an even harder time getting into the car, even crying out in pain. It’s her knees that are really giving her grief. If she were 20 or 30 years younger, they’d probably recommend she get replacement knee surgery, but at her age, the risks are too great.

The drive back was uneventful, which is always good this time of year. Not a deer in sight! My brother was very happy that we got back to my mother’s so early, as he still had almost an hour to drive home. He would get home at a decent hour to get some sleep before going to work tomorrow!

I stayed a bit longer. My mother had only had oatmeal for her supper and she was getting hungry, so I helped her out with making some tea and a snack. It was still way too early for her to take her evening meds, but they were set out for her in her tiny bowl for them.

My mother did started to suggest that I could just leave her morning meds out, so that I wouldn’t have to come back in the morning, but I told her I needed to come out again, anyhow. I could do her med assist, and all the other stuff she needs help with in the mornings, from putting a breakfast together for her, to emptying her commode, etc. Then I would be doing her shopping. So there was no need to set her morning meds out in advance.

Through all this, my mother was on some of her better behaviour, with only a few nasty digs aimed at my brother, and only some relatively minor side tracks into ranting about things. Often two or three different things all mashed together. To her, they’re connected, but they’re not.

My mother really does view people in the worst possible light. All people, but mostly people who aren’t white.

Today, though, it barely registered. Since we used the wheelchair instead of her walker, she wasn’t tired out, either.

Hopefully, this will get her more likely to start using my late father’s wheelchair that I brought for her over a month ago. It’s still sitting in her living room and, as far as I know, she still refuses to sit on it. She wanted us to buy her a new wheelchair, but won’t try this one out to see if she can even handle one, without someone to push her.

I didn’t stay too much longer, as I was going to be back in the morning, so I headed home. I’m happy to say I did NOT hit that suicidal deer that ran alongside me before deciding to run right in front of the truck! By this point, I was on the last couple of miles of gravel road, and already driving quite a bit slower than typical, so there was very little risk of an actual collision, unless the deer decided to run right into me. Which happens. Quite a few years back, while my husband was driving home from the city after work, he got hit by a deer. It actually ran into him. He managed to get home, but that was it for that car. It was totaled!

At least by the time I’m heading to my mother’s, tomorrow morning, it’ll be light out.

While all that was going on, I made sure to keep the family updated, which is when I saw a message from my daughter. She was washing my bedding and the first load went fine, until the very end, when it didn’t sing the victory music the washing machine sounds out when a load is done. She started the next load and everything seems to be working fine, but there’s no sound. All the beeps and tones it normally gives off as we adjust the settings are just gone.

When I got home, the laundry was still going, but I ended up with a third load. Yeah, I came home to another cat mess in the middle of the fresh blanket! At least this time, it was just the blanket that needed changing.

It is downright weird to set up a new load and the washing machine is completely silent! The only way I could tell it was set was from the sound of the lid being automatically locked.

I don’t know if it’s even worth getting it fixed. It’s working fine, otherwise.

Well, we’ll see.

For now, I need to get myself to bed, because it’s going to be a long day tomorrow. Hopefully, my mother will be still be on good behaviour!

The Re-Farmer

A mostly quiet day, mother issues, plus, cats. 😄

November 21, 2025November 21, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Today was expected to be chillier, with the forecasted high covering at, or just below, freezing, depending on what app I looked at and when. The next two days are supposed to be much warmer, and likely the last warm days of the year, so I’m planning activities accordingly.

Since moving out here (I forgot all about our 8 year anniversary here, almost a week ago!), our plans tend to very much revolve around the weather and the seasons!

The day started out with my usual routine, which always starts with tending to the yard cats.

Furriosa looks hilariously furious! Pinky is healing well and seems absolutely indifferent to her surgical site. I supposed her shaved belly must feel at least somewhat cold, but being in the heated isolation shelter is probably enough to make up for that. Especially when she has three kittens to cuddle up in the bed and keep her warm!

We’re going to have to do something about the second bed in the lower level. The litter box has been kicked around, and it is being used – somewhat – but they’re also using the lower level cat bed as a litter box, too! The trick will be to open up the ramp door to reach all that, without letting Pinky escape. The kittens have zero interest in leaving, but there’s still a chance she might. I believe she’s been trying to scramble through the roof. The rigid insulation above where the extension cord comes in is now very torn up!

Things that we’ll need to deal with, during the next few warmer days.

The first unexpected part of the day was an early phone call.

From the Home Care coordinator.

She got a report about my mother yesterday.

My mother had called me last night and, at one point, she started going off on how the home care workers, these “educated people”, didn’t know how to use her microwave. It’s so simple! I’d explained to her that her microwave is so old, none of them would have seen one like it before, and to give them time to learn how she wants things done, now that they are doing meal assists on top of her med assists.

Now I know why it was on her mind.

It turns out that when one of the home care workers went to use the microwave, my mother suddenly said NO! very loudly, grabbed her arm and sort of slammed it on the counter (not sure how that would have worked considering how things are laid out in her kitchen), then did the microwaving herself. The worker told my mother not to touch her like that and my mother did apologize.

Still, this is the sort of thing that could get her home care cancelled outright, and between my siblings and I, none of us are in a position to take over if that happens.

We talked about it for a while. One of the things that is part of the issue is how my mother is having more difficulty finding her words and gets very frustrated and angry. She expects everyone around her to just know what she is trying to say, what she wants, what she means. There’s no excuse for taking it out on people – especially not physically! I explained about my mother not understanding why people don’t know how to use her microwave and how, with her, she leaps to thinking people are stupid for not knowing things she finds obvious. This is not a new thing, by any means, but it is getting worse as her ability to communicate declines.

I assured the coordinator that my siblings and I would have a talk with my mother about it, and extended my apologies.

Then I updated my siblings in our group chat about my mother. I just finished doing that when my younger daughter came over and asked me what my plans were for the day. She and her sister had been talking, and were hoping to be able to go hunt for some energy drinks. More specifically, Monster energy drinks. They’re out of stock or of limited stock lately. We’ve tried other brands and have not been impressed by them.

I really miss Beaver Buzz! No one carries those anymore though, according to their website, places like both grocery stores in town still do. Maybe in other provinces, because I’m not even finding them in the city.

We decided to go into town and see what was available at the grocery store and, if that didn’t work out, we could at least try a gas station. They tend to have the individual cans at much better prices. We left early enough that, after checking the budget, we were able to grab a late breakfast, too.

Once at the grocery store, I picked up a few things as well, taking advantage of the trip, while my daughter did a much larger shop. Including energy drinks. She found 4 packs of Monster, on sale, and got the last three.

That done, we were soon on are way home. I considered stopping at the post office to see if any packages came in, but our timing was off. It was still morning, but they close at 11:30 for 2 1/2 hours, and we were just leaving town as they would have closed. When we got home, I checked tracking and found that yes, we did have two “attempted deliveries” (which means, there’s a card in our mail box). A third item is now in the city, though, which means it’ll show up on Monday morning. I decided to wait until then, since one of the items that came in today is the micro SD memory card to go with the security camera I got to monitor the isolation shelter.

I just realized something else this camera could be used for. We will have to trap the more feral cats and, with the females, we’ll have to do this in the winter, before they go into heat in the spring. The problem is, we aren’t able to monitor a trap and don’t want to risk a cat (or raccoon, or skunk…) freezing to death before we can check the trap. If we have this extra outdoor, solar powered security camera, we can set it up and we should be able to get notifications, and check the live feed.

Hhhmmm… that could work.

But first, it needs to be set up to monitor the isolation shelter, so we can tell when the raccoons are trying to tear their way into it again!

Hopefully, we’ll be able to get that done next week.

As soon as I was able to, I called my mother to have a talk with her. When I brought up that the Home Care coordinator had called me this morning and why, my mother immediately said that she realized she’d done the wrong thing and apologized. From how she described it, the home care worker had her hand on the dial of her microwave (which has a dial for the timer and a start button; that’s it) that my mother had pushed away. That actually makes more sense than what the coordinator described to me on the phone. We talked about it for a while and my mother went off again about how they didn’t know how to do things, like use the microwave. I had to keep repeating that her microwave is nothing like modern ones – and even with modern ones, there’s still a learning curve, because they’re all different. To her, not being able to use her “so simple” microwave means they’re all stupid. It took a while to talk her through that.

Then she started going on about her upcoming MRI. She is clearly working herself up about it and was trying to get out of having it done. She doesn’t need it. There’s no reason for it. It’s so late on a Sunday night…

We already went through this last night, but we went through it again. It’s Home Care that needs it, in paneling her for a nursing home. She had some difficulty separating out that this isn’t about her thinking (cognitive decline), but about her physical brain. I finally said that, if they found a tumor or something, they’d be sending her to a hospital, not a nursing home. Not quite accurate. In the end, she fell back on the “it’s a scam”, and starting talking about how they just want people to die. Especially old people.

I had to distract her from that one but I have to admit, she’s not wrong about that last part. Considering the insane rise in MAiD killings, what was done to seniors during the illegal lockdowns resulting in thousands of deaths, on top of the thousands of people in Canada dying every year on waiting lists for tests and treatment, she’s got a point. Some areas – major cities, mostly – are far worse than others. One thing is for sure. Once she does get admitted into a nursing home like she wants, my siblings and I are doing to have to be on top of everything going on with her treatment. If she gets in to the one in town, where she wants to be, I’ll still be the closest and can check on her, but also, that particular nursing home did very well by my dad and my aunt, so I think she’d be okay there. It’s hard to say, the way things are changing these past few years, though. Especially with our current provincial government.

But I digress.

Towards the end of our conversation, I reiterated with my mother on making sure to treat everyone nicely, and she started telling me how much she loves all the girls, how beautiful they all are (it seems some of the new girls are very pretty) and how nice they dress (one of them wore a shirt with flowers my mother really liked). She said some of them stop to chat with her as well, and she really appreciated that. Lately, she says she hasn’t been going to the common room of her building, as it’s getting so hard for her to move around and she doesn’t even get dressed for the day, so having someone to talk to helps her a lot.

She so needs to be in a care home!!

After talking to my mother, I updated my siblings again, then started to send an email to the home care coordinator to update her as well.

Which is when the phone rang.

It was Home Care.

This time, the scheduler.

They are short staffed and don’t have anyone for my mother’s Monday med assist, at 9:15am.

We’re already doing her two Sunday evening assists ourselves, as my brother and I get her to her MRI.

*sigh*

We’ll see how it goes, but we might be able to just leave her morning meds in her little covered bowl for her before we leave her place on Sunday night. Her morning assist is the longest time slot, though, as they also help her with breakfast, empty her commode, apply the Voltaren to her back and hip and help her get dressed, if she needs it. It’s not just about getting her her medications anymore.

We’ll make that decision when the time comes. For now, though, I’ve got it in my calendar and I’ll be ready to do it, if necessary.

I did let her know about the call I got about my mother from the coordinator. She remembered the report and commented that she doesn’t usually see reports about my mother and figured she was just having an off day. !! I made sure to let her know my mother was very apologetic about it, and the lovely things she said about the ladies at the end of our conversation. Home care workers put up with a lot of crap (sometimes literally), so I wanted to make sure to pass on something good!

That done, I sent my email updating the coordinator. I did remember to mention this time, that my mother has been commenting about how her vision is getting worse. Which means her macular degeneration is getting worse. Normally, I’d be getting her to the specialty clinic in the city for treatment, but she physically can’t make that trip any more. Just getting her in to do the MRI is going to be hard enough on her, and that’s about half the distance away!

All that done, the rest of the day was pretty routine.

When doing the evening cat feeding, I changed things up a bit for the isolation shelter cats. I’ve got some ground pumpkin seeds again, so this time their can of wet cat food got made into a cat soup that included the ground pumpkin. If any of them have worms, that would help, but just be good for them in general.

I have got to remember to order more lysine. We’ve been out for a while.

After feeding the cats (I counted 27 this evening) and doing my evening rounds, I had a while crowd following me. A dozen, to be exact.

Fancypants, in the first picture, won’t let me come near him, but does like to follow me around!

In the next picture of the slide show above, you can see the three of them that were trying to trip me up while I walked!

Once back in the inner yard, I spotted that big tom again. I have seen him all of twice before today.

While in and out of the sun room, I was able to pet one of the little tuxedos. There is one confirmed female that lets me pet her, though she is still nervous about it. When the next two are to be brought in for spays, I think this one is big enough to be an alternative if we can’t get two adult females.

Pinky (last photo) not only allowed me to pet her but, while I was walking around, followed me and meowed for attention. She’s still a bundle of nerves and skittish, but she was purring up a storm and allowing full back pets, and even some neck and ear skritches. If we can keep this up, we should be able to get her into a carrier for spay on the 28th. If not… well, we’ll grab whichever ones we can! We’ll just have to make sure not to put food out until after we’ve got two into carriers.

The outside stuff done, today I decided to use up that bone broth I made recently, it a great big pot of pork stew. Normally, I’d use beef broth in a beef stew, and even looked at beef in the grocery store this morning, but it’s just too expensive. So I just cubed one of the pork roasts we had.

When it came time to add the bone broth, I was very impressed with how thoroughly gelled it was. I even gave it a taste while it was still cold, and wow! Talk about concentrated flavour! It worked really well with the pork, too.

Here we have pork stew with fluffy baking powder dumplings, which get cooked right on top of the stew at the end. Those dumplings are one of our favourite things about making a stew! I got the recipe from an old Whole Foods for the Whole Family cookbook, from La Leche League – the 1981 edition – that I hung on to. I got it used and kept it for about 30 years. Then had to throw it out because a cat peed all over it when it was left open on a table. *sigh* I know I wrote the recipe down somewhere in an old blog post, but on an old blog that I can’t even log into anymore (thanks, Google). I think. Still can’t find it, so I went by memory. Seems to be very close! I’ve tried looking online, but all the baking powder dumpling recipes I’m finding seem different.

So I’ll write it down here, so I can find it again, when needed!

Fluffy Dumplings

2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
about a 1/4 tsp salt
(optional: dried parsley flakes)
1 egg, beaten
water

Mix the dry ingredients. Once the soup or stew is done and still simmering, add the beaten egg to the dry ingredients with enough water to make a very sticky dough. More like a very thick batter. Drop by spoonful’s onto the top of the soup or stew. Cover and leave to simmer for 10 minutes. No peeking!

One of the things I can’t remember is if the original recipe used one or two eggs. Also, was it 1 tsp or 2 tsp of baking powder? Whatever the original was, this version here cooks and tastes very much the same as I remember. Delicious.

And… that’s pretty much it for today!

Until next time…

The Re-Farmer

Only one

November 18, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Well, having Frank and Pinky in the isolation shelter overnight (with a fluffy feral kitten) almost worked.

We were able to get Pinky into a carrier, but Frank escaped while we tried to get her into the second one. My younger daughter had been helping me while my older daughter distracted the other cats by feeding them. When the three of us failed to catch Frank, we couldn’t grab a substitute, since they had all eaten, and they need to be on an overnight fast.

*sigh*

So, my younger daughter and I headed out with just one cat instead of two for spay.

I made sure to open the gate before we headed out, so that we wouldn’t have an extra stop once Pinky was in the vehicle. The sky was just starting to get light in the East, when I spotted something interesting. Forgive the poor quality of the image. The best picture I could get was quite zoomed in.

That is a sliver of a moon, in the sunrise!

I absolutely hate driving at sunrise, and sunset. That half light makes it so hard to see. Especially with oncoming headlights. My daughter was on deer watching duty (she did see some, thankfully out in a field, not about to run across the road!). The visibility was so poor while we were traveling east, I never did make it to the posted speed limit. Once we were driving south, it was better, but when I ended up behind a slower moving truck, driving with its hazards blinking, I really didn’t mind slowing down. Not that passing would have been safe for quite some time. I was not the only one okay with driving slower, either!

It was full light by the time we got to the clinic parking lot, just before the clinic opened. Which is when my daughter saw that I had dried blood all over the side of my hand! Frank got me good, when I tried to pick her up!

Thankfully, we keep wet wipes in the truck.

Pinky was very quiet for the entire drive in, which was almost scary after a while. She had been scrambling to get out of the carrier before we put her into the truck and then nothing for the entire ride!

After we checked her in, they took her carrier to where they could keep her in a larger kennel until her surgery. My daughter and I then headed out, first to get some gas, then grab breakfast. We went to the McDonalds in the Walmart, because there really wasn’t anything else for that time of the morning.

Then we did some shopping. I had to pick up more kibble for both inside and outside cats, plus I got extra wet cat food, as kitties recovering in the isolation shelter get treated extra special while they are stuck in there, and that includes their own wet cat food. By the time I got the cat supplies, plus some household supplies, my budget was pretty much done. One thing I needed to get, but didn’t have much budget for anymore, was new work boots suitable for the winter. Both my regular work boots and my steel toed shoes are falling apart and are just not wearable anymore. My daughter, however, went looking for different boots for me to try on. When I saw the price, though, they were out of budget. Not by a lot, but enough that I wasn’t going to get them – but my daughter insisted that she would buy them for me! That was really sweet of her. She’s getting a disability income now, but it’s a paltry sum.

Aside from that, I had a few smaller items for my husband, such as more distilled water for his CPAP humidifier, while my daughter had her own shopping list. We took our time about it, since we knew it would be a while before the vet clinic called.

After the shopping was done and in the truck, we sat in the truck for a while and talked. Which is when I realized I’d forgotten a few things. Things we could get at the nearby Dollarama. So we went there next. Along with my forgotten items, I found some things for my mother. The one thing I knew she wanted, we couldn’t find in either store; a sink plunger. Her kitchen sink drains very slowly. She’s called about it before and they sent someone to pour drain cleaner down the pipes, and that was it. The problem never went away. So she’s been asking for a sink plunger for some time, and this time I actually remembered while I was out and about.

We didn’t find one at the Dollarama, but I did find an affordable cat cave; one with wire supports on the outside, that would keep cats from crushing it!

That done, we headed across the street to the Canadian Tire. We actually found several tyles of sink plungers there! I picked one that I thought would be easier for my mother’s mobility.

Another thing I remembered I wanted to pick up were more furnace filters, as we are on our last 3 pack. Canadian Tire is the only place I’ve been able to find the 20″x20″x1″ size our furnace needs. I just about lost it when I found them – and saw the price! A 2 pack for $42.99! Singles were $31.99!

I remember getting 3 packs for under $10.

After looking around, I found some off brand filters that were exactly like what we’ve been using. A three pack for only $7.99 What a difference!

By the time we were done there, it wasn’t even noon yet. It could still be a couple of hours before they called us. So my daughter and I went for lunch.

At McDonalds. Because that was what I had a budget for.

Twice in one day is a bit much!

After lunch, we decided to just go back to the clinic and sit in the parking lot to wait. We both ended up leaning our seats back and napping! My phone kept going off, though, so I didn’t get much of a nap. When it was getting closer to 2pm and we hadn’t gotten a call yet, I figured I would go in and ask.

Pinky hadn’t gone in for surgery yet!

That just blew me away. They’d never been this late before! In fact, knowing that I’m hanging around town because we live so far away, they’ve always made a point of getting our cats done as quickly as they could. Usually, I would have been on my way home by 2, or even earlier. Poor Pinky would have been so very hungry by then! I was assured they would call me when she was done.

So we waited some more – and fretted. They must have gotten her in shortly after I asked about her, because I got a call just before 2:30, saying she was done and recovering, and that I could pick her up after 3.

We ended up going in early, as we needed to use their facilities before our drive home, and they were able to get Pinky out right away. All I had to do was give them the marked envelop for the donated, and they gave me an after care printout.

Poor Pinkly was pretty upset when my daughter tried to put the carrier into the back of the cab. In the end, she held the carrier on her lap for the drive home. Pinky was quiet, but she would try to claw and bite at the door to get out. Most alarming was that she frequently stopped to just pant.

I did manage a picture before we got her into the truck. Not a very good one!

In the first picture, you can actually see that she’s panting.

The next picture, my daughter had taken for me earlier, of the damage Frank did to my hand – after I’d cleaned the dried blood away! That one didn’t hurt at all. Oddly, it was a less deep scratch under my thumb that actually stung more.

In the last picture, Pinky is all tucked into the isolation shelter, with the fluffy feral. They quite enjoyed their wet cat food that my daughter gave them, while I distracted the other cats with their softened kibble feeding.

After they were fed and everything was put away, I set up the new cat cave. It was immediately explored!

Havarti is almost too big for it! The little ones could certainly fit in there. They currently like to crowd into the blue striped one. That one is taller, but has a smaller base than this one.

Of course, we’ve been checking on Pinky and her companion often through the evening. Usually, all looked well. However, as I was writing this post, I paused to go into the kitchen. I heard a commotion out the window and feared Pinky was trying to escape.

Nope.

I found three or four big raccoons, trying to break into the shelter! There wasn’t even any food left inside, but they still were trying to get int! Two or three were on the roof, and one was at the ramp door below, when they all scattered as I stepped outside.

This is not good. I really don’t think the shelter is raccoon proof! Those buggers have hands. They might be able to open, or pull out, the sliding windows, or tear apart the roof panels.

While I was finishing things up outside, before it got dark, I did see Frank.

It’s going to take a while to regain her trust. She won’t let me near her anymore! We really need to work on that. We have two cats booked on the 28th. We really want to get her spayed. She is so small, and I remember how bloody she was the day she had her kittens.

Meanwhile…

Before we got home, my husband sent a note saying that my mother had called and left a message. When I checked the answering machine, though, I found a message that had been left earlier.

Much earlier. While we were still on the road.

It was home care, saying they had a list minute cancellation for my mother’s morning med assist. The scheduler did at that they had someone that could eventually do her med assist, but it would be so late that it would be about the same time my mother was getting her lunch meal assist. The scheduler even left a number for me to call.

Neither my husband nor daughter had heard the call come in, and the scheduler never tried to call my cell phone.

I thought that maybe my mother still got her med assist later, but when I called her back after hearing her message, she told me that no one showed up for her morning med assist. I told her about the message I got; that they did try to call me, but I was not home, and they never called my cell phone.

What my mother had wanted to talk about was a call she got from the hospital about her upcoming MRI. They asked all sorts of questions to make sure that my mother had nothing metal on or in her body. She had forgotten to mention her dentures. The form they sent for her to fill out did include dentures, which we checked off, but my mother doesn’t remember that and is now all worried about it.

Aside from that, though, her main reason for calling me was because neither I nor my siblings have called her in a few days. I’d spent most of Friday with her, so it hasn’t actually been that long – and I did mention to her that I had an appointment today, but she forgot. When I updated my siblings about the missed home care visit, my brother mentioned he’d just done a 13 hour day, and still didn’t finish what he needed to do, but had to call it a day. I’ve told my mother as often as I can, that my brother works very long hours at his job – sometimes odd hours, due to time zones – but she still expects him to be able to drop everything to tend to her. Even today, when I told her about the call I got from home care, she was asking “why are they calling you?” I don’t know how many times we’ve explained to her that I’m at the top of their list of people to call. Next on the list would be my brother, and there’s no way he’d be able to leave his job and drive out from the city to do something like a med assist. My sister is technically retired and works only part time, but she has a late shift, so she tends not to get up until much later in the morning. Plus, to be honest, I don’t know that my sister’s health is all that good, either. She isn’t saying anything, but even my mother is seeing signs that something is off. My sister is approaching 70 though, like my mother, she doesn’t look anywhere near her age. Anyhow, there are many reasons why I’m the one they call. If not me, I’m not sure who else my mother thinks they would be calling!

After talking to my mother, I sent an email to the home care coordinator. I did a reminder about my mother’s MRI on Sunday, adding that I plan to be there earlier, then my brother will be driving us to her appointment in his car, so we’ll be able to take care of both my mother’s evening med assists. I also mentioned the message I got this morning, and that I never actually heard the message until evening, so my mother missed her meds. I asked if they call me on my land line and it goes to the answering machine, to please try my cell phone after leaving a message. They know we live in a cell phone dead zone, but if I’m not there to answer a call to the land line, chances are good I’m out and about and can get a signal. Even if I’m just outside in the yard, I’m more likely to have a call get through than if I’m in the house.

We’ll see how that works out.

For the next while, I actually get to stay home until it’s time for my mother’s MRI. I asked about doing another grocery shopping trip for her on Friday, but she said no. The daytime temperatures are expected to be fairly warm, which I plan to take full advantage off, as much as possible. It will also be good for Pinky and her fluffy companion in the isolation shelter. Though, after what happened with the raccoons, I’m thinking we should look into getting an outdoor security camera that will allow us to keep an eye on the isolation shelter more easily. Considering how much use it will get in the winter, it might be worth the investment. Something solar powered. I’ll have to do some research on that.

Anyhow, that’s how things worked out today. It’s unfortunate Frank managed to escape this morning, but at least Pinky is done and seems to be doing quite well, so far.

As long as we can keep the raccoons out of the isolation shelter!!

The Re-Farmer

I am so tired

November 14, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

The day feels way longer than it should have.

Today was set aside for me to go to my mother’s to do her shopping and errands and household stuff. I’ll start off by saying, she was actually on really good behaviour today, comparatively speaking. Things did go well.

The morning started off with the feeding of yard cats and doing my morning rounds. I tried for a head count this morning, and got 30. Last time, it was 35, including a cat I didn’t recognize. I haven’t seen it, since.

As I was heading in, I found this little crowd.

I moved both heat lamps lower, but this one is a 150watt ceramic heat bulb. The other is 200watt. I thought it was 250w, forgetting that I wasn’t able to find the ceramic heat bulbs at 250w. The lamp is rated to 250w, and there’s an incandescent 250w heat bulb in a matching lamp in the isolation shelter.

Speaking of which, that’s going to be used for its original purpose soon!

This morning, I got a message from the rescue. We have two dates to spay two cats each. I was sent a screen cap of a texted confirmation with two dates, one of which was for 3 cats. I was told I had two slots and someone else had the third, so I thought that was my date. I didn’t think the earlier date was also for me until I got a call while I was at my mother’s from the vet clinic to confirm the earlier date! It is straightened out now, though I did tell the woman who called me that, while we have two females we know we can catch for the first one, with the second one, we might have to just catch what we can, and see what they turn out to be! This isn’t very uncommon when it comes to strays and colony cats. I’ve brought in cats without even knowing for sure what gender they were, and they were fine with it.

But that got worked out much later.

I was able to head out a bit early to my mother’s bringing along my stock pot and a good knife, along with the prepped vegetables and herds, for the chicken stock was would be making for her. When I got there, my mother was back in bed, after her morning med assist. I noticed she had a garbage bag ready for the bin by the door, so I quickly dropped the stuff off, grabbed the garbage and headed out. Which turned out to be excellent timing. I passed one of her neighbours in the hall; someone who’s window faces the street. We ended up chatting for a while, and he told me he seeds me out his window quite often. He was very sweet. He mentioned that my mother clearly needs more help, and that he’d told her, if she ever needs anything, to just knock on his door.

When I got back, I told my mother about this, but she had no memory of him saying this to her! When I told her which apartment he was in, she even struggled to remember who lived there. She would recognize him to see him, but not necessarily connect him to any particular apartment.

It’s good to know she has some good neighbours.

When I got back to my mother’s, she was up and at her table. She joked about her being wrapped in a robe and wearing a regular shirt, because it’s been so long since her laundry was done, she ran out of nightgowns!

She was rather amused when I started unpacking my supplies and pre-prepared ingredients to work on her chicken stock. I just had to prep the chicken legs and thighs. My mother insisted I wash the pieces really, really well, to wash off the “chemicals”, then started telling me how the stores all spray meat with chemicals to make meat last longer. I told her that’s not quite what they do, and she got instant angry with me – but I was still washing her chicken for her, so she turned off the angry. I’m not sure if she was thinking of the CO that’s used to keep beef red in packaging, or she she was thinking of the chlorine rinse they used to do, to kill off bacteria like salmonella, though that hasn’t been done in years. No doubt, it was something she saw on daytime TV or read in a paper, many, many years ago.

After the chicken was in the pot, I started adding the mirepoix ingredients, then showed her the rest. I don’t think she has ever used ginger before, except maybe in power form. I know she was aware of turmeric, as she had bought a whole bunch for herself because she’d read about how healthy it was, but didn’t know how to use it. She ended up giving it to us! Apple cider vinegar is something she was completely unaware of.

She was oddly surprised by how many garlic cloves I brought – an entire head, so about 6 or 7 cloves. That was probably the last thing I would have expected her to be surprised about. “Polish penicillin” was always a staple ingredient when I was growing up, and she often brings up about how we should plant lots and lots of garlic. I remember how my parents would sometimes eat it. They’d pour some salt onto the table, then dip their cloves of garlic into the salt as they ate it raw!

Once the chicken stock was at the point where I could turn it down to a simmer, I got the first two loads of my mother’s laundry going, then we went over her shopping list. She had added a few things to it since I started it for her a few couple of days ago – including wine! The pharmacy has a liquor section, but the wine she likes isn’t available anymore. In our province, the government controls liquor sales (which is one of the reasons our booze is so expensive; it’s mostly taxes). When Trump started talking tariffs, our premier ordered all US booze to be pulled from the shelves. This was already bought and paid for by the government, of course, and hardly anyone was demanding US booze get pulled. It was just an childish tantrum on the part of our premier. Canada has one Western province where alcohol sales are private. Some places did try to remove US booze from the shelves, but the customers complained so much, they put them back. People in our province have no such say in the matter. The irony of this childish display is that we’ve had tariffs on US products for decades.

Which means the wine my mother usually gets – a super sweet kosher wine my parents bought for as long as I can remember – is no longer available. She asked me to try and find something I thought would be close. 😄

The pharmacy was my first stop and I had to ask one of the staff for help. I don’t know wines. Nothing against them. There just aren’t a lot of alcoholic drinks that I enjoy. In the end, I had two staff members looking things up, trying to find something my mother might like to replace what she normally would have gotten. It came down to just one thing – without US products, their shelves were pretty empty – and there was only one bottle of it left. On sale, too, which was nice.

That done, I picked up a few other things on her list, then got her bubble packs. I got another nice surprise at the checkout. My mother has the loyalty card, which is on her file at the pharmacy. She had lost track of the card for a while, but because it’s on her file, any times she got her prescriptions, she was still collecting points. Only at the store counter does the card need to be shown to collect points.

My mother was able to get $40 off her stuff! Plus, she collected enough new points through her prescription refills that, next time, she’ll be able to get another $20 off. !!!

When I told her that later one, her response was, why didn’t they use that $20 right then?

*sigh*

That done, the next stop was the grocery store for a somewhat larger shop than usual for her. She even requested I picked up some of the deli chicken I would get for her for sandwiches. She didn’t want slices, though. She asked for a chunk about an inch thick. That certainly made it easier for the deli person!

By the time I was done the shopping and back at my mother’s, her Meals on Wheels had arrived and the empty tray was waiting on her walker, outside her door. Those get left in the common room for pick up, on the next delivery day. So I took care of that for her before heading in. I was quite surprised she was done so quickly, and commented on it. I did notice the container with vegetable soup was on the counter, though. Once a week, they do a “use whatcha got” soup using leftovers. My mother says it tastes like dishwater. !!! So that ended up getting tossed. Another moment where she suddenly got angry at me, this time because I couldn’t read her mind over just how she wanted it tossed. *sigh*

Once her things were put away, the rest of the time was spent tending the stock, her laundry and general clean up. I did stop for some tea and a bun as a lunch, before getting back at it. Once the stock was done, I took out the meat to set aside for a bit, then the large sticks of celery and carrots, because I knew my mother would want to include them in a soup or something. I found a little strainer that I used to get most of the big stuff out for the stock before salting it and letting it cook longer, while I deboned the chicken. That all fit into one of the freezer bags that I’d brought along with everything else. The vegetables went into a handy take out container my mother had.

The stock was a different issue. I should have brought jars! I could find only two suitable empty jars and started ladling the stock into them, through the strainer. My mother kept telling me to leave everything out to cool down, first. It took me a bit to understand that she didn’t like the containers being used, and especially when I put the lids loosely on the jars. She thought they would take longer to cool down than if they were just left out. The idea of covering them at least to keep dust out apparently never occurred to her!

I find myself wondering if she was expecting to leave my stock pot behind?

By this point, I was finishing off and starting to pack things up to leave, as soon as her last load of laundry was dry. I had mentioned to my mother earlier that I needed to swing by the garage before going home (she wouldn’t understand what getting a tire torqued means). When she started complaining that I was getting ready to leave, I told her, I still need to go to the garage on the way home.

Which is when she started getting mad at me again. Why was I leaving so soon? I told her, I’d been there for almost 5 hours. Didn’t she finish her Meals on Wheels first? Yes – before I came back with her groceries. She actually tried to claim I’d been there for barely 2 hours, instead of almost 5 hours!

One of the things she wanted me to do was cut her toenails, which I really didn’t want to do on top of everything else. It would have been good for her to soak her feet to soften them, first, too, which hadn’t happened. She basically started having a tantrum. It was as if I hadn’t done anything else for her at all, because her toenails hadn’t been done.

Then she started berating me, asking why I booked to go to the garage on a day I was going to be at her place. I told her, I didn’t; I brought the truck in yesterday. This is a safety thing to make sure my tire doesn’t go flying.

Some time ago, I’d brought over a good set of toenail clippers, because she only had fingernail clippers, and a micro-pedi grinder thing. She told me to take those home, and was angry about it for some reason. I told her, no. She has toenail fungus. If I take them home and use them, I would get her toenail fungus. Only she can use them, now. That made her mad, too.

In the end, I agreed to take a look at her feet. It turned out her nails were really broken up, and only a few had anything to be trimmed. I started using the clippers and she got angry again, demanding I use scissors, because the clippers didn’t work.

They worked find.

I think she may have tried to clip her own toenails and couldn’t manage it, because then she told me one toe had gotten so bad, she grabbed scissors and cut as much as she could, herself.

While I was doing her toes, I pointed out which one had the fungal infection. That lead her to complain about how she spent so much money on medication for it, yet never used it. So I asked her were it was and went looking. At first, the only box I found that was the size I remembered it came in turned out to be eye drops. My mother got angry again, saying she’s never bought eye drops before, so why was it there? She forgot that we did get eye drops for her, when she started getting treated for her macular degeneration.

I finally found the box, hidden way in the back of her cupboard, and applied the medication, but this is not something she can do herself, and it’s not on her care list with home care. I’m not sure if we can even add it to the list or not, partly because I don’t know that my mother would be willing to let them do it.

Ironically, for someone who complains about all the medications she’s taking, she once again brought up about how she thinks she should be using the inhaler – a prescription that was cancelled. I had to explain to her, getting this was a test to see if she had asthma. The alternative would have been to get on a waiting list to get tested, and it could take a year or more before she got to the top of the list. It was simply faster to have her try the prescription to see if it worked or not.

My mother doesn’t understand. She has trouble breathing at night, and she’s gone from complaining about “having” to take it, to now wanting to have it, even though it made no difference at all. Her mind has just latched onto it, now that the prescription has been cancelled. She’d been wanting to stop using it for a long time, too.

Anyhow.

I finally managed to head out, though my mother was still quite angry that I was leaving “so early”. I did manage to get to the garage in good time. I just had to wait until someone was available to do it. Then, since I was there, I popped into the grocery store across the street to pick up some bread, after my daughter told me she hadn’t had a chance to do any baking today.

By the time I left, it was starting to rain! We had reached our high of 10C/50F, too. Happily, I managed to get home before it was getting too dark. That half-light at the end of the day makes it so hard to spot deer getting ready to run across the road.

While things ended on a fairly negative note, I got a lot done at my mother’s. Her fridge is stocked up again, she has her meds, I got her chicken stock made and she has cooked chicken to last her a while.

It just took a really long time, and unfortunately, spending that much time with my mother, even on a good day, is pretty draining.

I am so very tired now.

The Re-Farmer

A run around day, and new products to try

November 12, 2025November 12, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Today was supposed to be an at home day, except for a trip to the post office.

Ha!

After doing my rounds this morning, making sure to open the gate for the septic guy, I was just finishing breakfast when I got a call.

From home care.

Someone had called in sick, and they didn’t have anyone for my mother’s morning assist.

I had just enough time to throw some shoes on, grab a coat and head out. I did phone my mother first. Which is good, because she about to start making herself breakfast. Which the home care worker is supposed to do! I told her, if she’s willing to wait half an hour, I’ll do it for her, then told her about the cancellation.

Then she asked me if I was going to stay to do more stuff for her. I told her, no – I’ve got Friday set aside just for her! I told her I wanted her to take the chicken out of the freezer on Thursday, because I was planning on cooking it for her, and she was very happy to hear that.

Then, I headed out and got there just at her scheduled visit time, which worked out nicely. My mother was starting to do a few things for her breakfast, so I got her to sit down so I could finish it for her.

I did the usual stuff home care would do for her, like empty her commode, but also refilled her water bottles from the tap in the laundry room for drinking/cooking water. I made sure to check her milk supply and she was almost out. For just the one thing, I simply walked to the grocery store to get more for her, since I’ll be doing a full shopping trip on Friday. She’s been working on her list, and it’s going to be a very large one, compared to her usual.

Before I headed out, I got more details about that call she got about canceling her Meals on Wheels.

It wasn’t the Meals on Wheels office or kitchen that called her. It was the Senior’s Centre that oversees the program. She was able to give me the name of the guy that called, and she could hear the worker that delivered my mother’s meal earlier, talking in the background.

They told her that someone had called to cancel her Meals on Wheels and when she asked who, they suggested it was probably me – they actually used my name. So my mother said she would call me. The odd thing was that the woman that delivered my mother’s meal said that she did not deliver a meal that day. My mother told them, yes you did, I’m looking at the tray on my table right now!

With that information, I headed home, with a quick stop at the post office to pick up my parcels.

Before I opened them, I made sure to call the Meals on Wheels office – my husband has messaged me to let me know someone from there had called me while I was gone. There was no answer, so I left a message explaining that I was just at my mothers, what she told me, and that we were very confused by all this – but also very glad that it was confirmed her Meals on Wheels was NOT cancelled.

Today is a Meals on Wheels day.

That done, I finally opened up my parcels. There are two things that I got, that I can give reviews on already.

The first is a cat toy.

I picked it up because it was very inexpensive, and I was curious if it would live up to the promotion.

The first picture shows how it arrives. This is one of those toys that are supposed to change shape as the cats try to get at the captured jingle ball inside.

I had to use double sided tape to get it to hold together. I’m not sure how it was supposed to hold together without it. The two ends did actually stick together at first, but popped apart very easily.

As you can see by the second and third photos in the slide show above, Ghosty was very interested! The pictures are in two of the configurations it can roll into. The third encloses the ball completely inside.

Once it was together, I set it in the dining room for all the cats to check out. For a while, there were four or five of them around it, trying to get at the jingle ball.

The toy did NOT change shape while they played with it, which is supposed to be part of the attraction for cats.

They soon got bored with it, but for the rest of the day, there have been cats in and out of the bigger box. There a cat sleeping in it on my bed, right now. The cats are going to be most displeased when I move it! 😄

The other item I got was a tool to clean our eavestroughs from ground level.

I had considered getting the kind that you attach to a hose, but for this time of year, I’ve got all but one short hose put away for the winter, and that one will be put away very soon. If I’m going to get one of those, which I do still want to, it will be closer to spring.

Instead, I got a brush type.

In the first and second pictures, you can see it came with two brushes and a bungle of pole attachments. The instructions are pretty basic. Screw the pieces together to get the length you want. There is one piece that is for the end and has a cap that can be used to hang from.

It’s a good thing it came with two brushes.

Since the septic guy hadn’t arrived yet, I started off at the eaves above it. This area is particularly difficult and hasn’t been properly cleaned out in a long time. For starters, there is a right angle where the roof over the old kitchen meets the roof over the original log part of the house. That corner is always getting the most debris collected in the eavestrough. The ground below is not level, so using a ladder is dangerous. My younger daughter was (key word, was) the only person able bodied enough to go up there on a ladder, while her sister held it steady. She, however, has problems with heights and even with the ladder being held steady, it feels so precarious, she just couldn’t do it. Now, she physically can’t really do ladders at all, anymore.

Getting into the eavestrough was not easy. The brush had to be bent almost completely down, and it kept straightening while I was working on it. It could only really be used well in one direction, too. If I tried to push in the other direction, it would start unscrewing itself from the pole pieces. In fact, several different ones would start to loosen as well.

It got really hard on the hands, too. I’ve been losing my grip strength for quite some time, and all my finger joints have osteoarthritis, so for me, that’s to be expected. Plus, after a while, that left shoulder of mine – the one I injured when I had my fall in the summer – was starting to really feel the strain.

Still, I was able to get some of the debris out. Once I got as much as I felt I could (no, I could not clear them completely), I moved over to do the long eavestrough on the East facing addition.

Which is when the septic guy arrived, so I paused to keep kittens away from the tank until he was done and the gate was closed.

It was while I was working on this second section that the brush broke, which you can see in the fourth picture.

*sigh*

I got the second one on and continued trying to clear the eavestrough.

Trying.

I did get some out, at least, but definitely not all of it. I’m not even sure if I got most of it out.

Then I got called in to take a phone call.

It was Meals on Wheels.

After hearing the message I left this morning and had contacted the Senior’s Centre to try and figure out what happened.

They called the wrong person.

There is someone else with a very similar name to my mother’s. Similar enough that she sometimes goes by the same name as my mother.

Just first names, of course, but that’s what they went by when they called my mother.

The fact that my name actually came up as the possible person that canceled my mother’s Meals on Wheels means that they did know who they were talking to – and yet, the woman who delivered my mother’s meal just an hour or so earlier was saying she had NOT delivered to my mother.

Whatever confusion there was, the Meals on Wheels lady got it straightened out. It was never my mother that they were supposed to call.

As soon as I found that out, I called my mother to let her know. It turned out she already knew. Her Meals on Wheels had been delivered and the same person had delivered it, so she passed on what happened. So that all got straightened out, thank God!

While talking to the woman from Meals on Wheels, she told me that my mother had called the Senior’s Center earlier and was saying something about my coming over to do bulk cooking for her. She actually thought that my mother had cancelled her home care lunch visits! I told her those had not been canceled, and took the opportunity to mention that my mother was starting to have cognitive issues. If they were to ever get any sort of call about her service, I asked them to please call me to confirm. I explained that, with the limitations on home care meal assists, these Meals on Wheels meals are the only complete meals my mother is getting. She completely understood.

Oh, dear.

Now that I’m writing this, I suddenly find myself wondering.

Could my mother have called home care, too, and cancelled her lunch visits, after I left?

*sigh*

Checking on that will have to wait until tomorrow, and I’m not going to be home for most of tomorrow!

After calling my mother and updating my siblings, it was back to cleaning the eavestroughs. In the last photo of the slide show above, you can see how it reaches the eavestrough. At that angle, it can’t get much of anything, so I keep having to bend it back to a sharper angle.

After that section was done, I moved to the side of the entryway, where this is rather short eavestrough. That one is the hardest to get at. The ground below is sloped more than other areas, which would be good for drainage, except that it slopes towards the well, so we really don’t want water getting under there at all. There is also a couple of rows of the enameled bricks we have all over the place – I remember them from when I was a kid, even – that I really want to remove and replace with gravel, as they are dangerously slippery. Access to the basement window is there as well. Basically, there are a lot of things in that corner that makes getting to the eavestrough very unsafe.

It also has a different design of eavestrough, made of galvanized steel instead of aluminum. The brush could actually get into it a bit better, and I was able to get out some very composted leave mold out of there.

I still couldn’t clean it out completely, though.

Finally, the last section to do was over the sun room. That one was actually pretty clear and didn’t take long.

I did go back and work on the East facing section and got more stuff out, but there was no way I’d be able to get it completely clear with this tool.

Still, what I was able to do was better than nothing!

So… would I recommend this tool?

No. Unless all you’ve got is very light material to clean out, it’s not the right tool for the job. It will get some debris out, but not all. It might be more useful if it were followed up by the type attached to a hose, to blast away the debris the brushes loosened.

The tendency for the joins to loosen is a pain. I could work around it, but I shouldn’t have to.

Having one of the brushes break so quickly wasn’t good, either. It was likely because I kept having to bend it back into a useable angle. At least the second one lasted until the job was done.

[Edit: I went back to the order and looked at the images of the product. In it, they showed the bristle portion being bent at 90° to reach into the cutter, not bending it where it joins the pole. In the box, it was already bent at the pole. I did actually try to bend the bristle portion instead of bending at the pole, and it simply would not bend. At least not with just my hands. Partially because the bristles made grasping it unwieldy. In the end, it just wouldn’t bend for me in the bristle portion.]

Still, I was able to get enough debris out that I think it should be good for the winter. It’s better than nothing, so I am glad I have it. There’s just one eavestrough I couldn’t do, and that’s on the second floor. Someone has to climb onto the roof over the new part of the house to clean it. With how high it is, it doesn’t get as much debris into it, at least.

Meanwhile, my husband needed to go into town soon to do some blood work before a telephone appointment he has with his doctor. Since I’m going to be away for most of tomorrow and the day after, it had to be done today.

So, I was soon on the road again, this time with my husband. The clinic his doctor is in is in the same building as the hospital and lab and Xray, so he could go to the reception desk for his doctor to pick up the requisition, then check in at the registration desk we passed along the way, then then wait until he was called into the lab around the corner. Very convenient!

He was hoping he felt well enough to stop at a restaurant somewhere afterwards, just to have some fries. When I message my daughters to let them know we might be longer, my older daughter offered to send funds for a full burger meal take out for everyone.

Of course, we accepted the generous offer!

Once my husband was done at the lab, we headed over to the DQ. My husband didn’t even try go get out of the truck, and just waited while I ran in to place our order. He has lost so much muscle mass on his legs, he was having difficulty getting in and out of the truck!

Aside from lack of physical activity due to pain, he’s been on Ozempic for years. The side effect of “weight loss” with that stuff isn’t loss of body fat, but loss of muscle mass. For someone who had always been so very athletic when he was able bodied, getting to the point where he has difficulty getting in and out of the truck is really frustrating for him. He actually stopped taking it a while ago, because his private insurance will only cover what they consider a “reasonable” dose, and his current doctor doubled his already high dose. That made it expensive to pick up, until the deductible for our province’s pharmacare insurance is paid. Then it’s covered 100%. He’s been off it so long that he’ll have to work himself up from a low dose again. Frankly, I don’t think he should be on it at all. He’s on it to help control his blood sugars, along with his slow acting insulin, but he’s in so much pain all the time, his blood sugars tend to be high, no matter what. Lots of things cause high blood sugar readings, not just diabetes. Things like chronic pain, sleep apnea, poor quality sleep and stress, and I’m pretty sure the doctor that originally put him on it thought it might help with weight loss, and we all know that losing weight is the magical cure for everything that ails you, right? /sarcasm. He was even told by a diabetic nurse, before his condition deteriorated to the point of permanent disability that, until he got his pain under control, he was not going to get his blood sugars under control.

His pain is not under control. It’s more like “just barely functioning” levels – and that’s with the maximum safe doses of his current pain medication. They’ve tried him on so many powerful painkillers, and most of them just take the edge off. Meanwhile, his blood sugars haven’t really changed, even on such a high doze of Ozempic and, while he’s losing muscle mass, he has had zero change in weight. He’s had some of the other side effects of Ozempic, and they are decidedly unpleasant.

That’s no way to live, but when you’re on such powerful painkillers and they’re not really working, doctors start looking at you and thinking you’re making it up, or it’s all in your head, because it can’t possibly be because they’re failing at finding a way to help. My husband, meanwhile, has basically given up. It’s been so long, and he’s seen so many doctors and specialists, in two different provinces, and this province really sucks compared to where we lived before when it comes to healthcare. At least living here is less stressful than when we were living in a housing co-op in the city.

Today, however, was the first time he actually got out of the house for any length of time, since the last time he had to get some blood work done.

Bonus on our daughter treating us to take out. Both of the girls have been having a rough time the past few days, though for different reasons. Especially my younger daughter. She’s been caning it a lot lately.

It still seems to strange that I’m the most able bodied person in the household now.

…

… I say, as I can feel the entire left side of my body starting to stiffen up.

Time to grab some food so I can take my anti-inflammatories and probably a painkiller, too.

Being broken sucks. Still, I was able to get quite a bit done today, and I’m happy with that. Even if the new tool I got doesn’t quite live up to expectations. It really has been a good day, overall! We have much to be thankful for.

The Re-Farmer

Too much wind! Also, a mystery

November 10, 2025 / Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

Good grief! As I write this, we are supposedly at only -1C/30F, but the wind chill has us at -18C/0F.

It feels colder than that!

I head out earlier this morning to do the cat feeding and my morning rounds, while it was still dark, so that I could open the gate. The wind was already really bitter by then, though it had to have been calm during the night, as everything was covered in hoarfrost. The septic guy said he would be here in the morning and, sometimes, that has meant right at 8am, so I figured I’d better get it open early.

When he didn’t show up before my younger daughter and I had to leave, I called and left a message saying I would be gone (he would see the empty garage as he came in), but that there would be someone home, so just knock at the door as his payment was ready.

In the end, he never made it. I’ll have to call him tomorrow and see about a reschedule. The last time that happened, their truck broke down!

I headed to the truck early to warm it up and noticed that front tire with the leaky valve was pretty low, so I fired up the compressor to pump it up. Then I headed back inside, out of the wind, to text the garage. The leak seems to be getting worse, so I asked if they could order the new sensor and replace it when I come in to get the oil seal replaced later in the week.

After that’s done, there’s still two more sensors to replace.

My daughter and I had to go into town for the pharmacy, first, as she had to pick up a prescription she needed for her medical appointment. I had called in one of my own for refills, too, but their delivery from the city wasn’t going to be in until the afternoon, so I told them to include it with my husband’s delivery. I’ll be in town that day, but it’ll be to drop the truck off for my appointment, and I don’t want to be carrying meds around while it’s being worked on.

I’d received a response from the garage, confirming that they could get the sensor ordered in and done at the same time. I asked if they needed any info off the tire but when they didn’t answer before we were done at the pharmacy, we just swung by and I ran in to ask. They didn’t, so we were soon back on the road.

Headlong into the wind.

We had left early enough that my daughter and I could stop for lunch at a Subway right near the clinic. We timed it perfectly, as there was a huge rush starting, just as we were paying for our food. We were able to take our time to finish before heading into the clinic.

One of the things my daughter wanted to bring up is that she will NOT be going back to that endocrinologist again. I still think she needs to make a formal complaint over how she was treated and manhandled.

Her appointment wasn’t very long, so we were soon heading out again, this time to the nearest Walmart in the smaller, nearer city.

I was no longer driving headlong into the wind, but the route was mostly open fields at this point, so I was instead fighting to not be blown off the road!

My daughter and I had out own shopping lists, and I had one from my husband, but we even altogether, we didn’t need a lot. It was just stuff we either couldn’t get locally, or was so much more expensive locally, it was worth the gas and the side trip to get them there.

Before we left, I got a message from my husband. My mother had called. She had gotten a call from the Meals on Wheels office saying that her deliveries were cancelled, and she was wondering if I had cancelled them.

?!?!?!?!!!!!

Obviously, I didn’t. Once we were home, I called her up as soon as I could, to get as much information as I could, before calling Meals on Wheels. It was past 4 by then, and I had no idea if they would even still be open. The meals are cooked and assembled in the kitchen of an apartment building similar to my mother’s, except they offer meal service and a few other things. My mother has actually been on the waiting list for that place for a few years now.

I called my mother and she immediately started talking about what happened today, and it was a bit confusing. Basically, her Meals on Wheels delivery came at the same time as her lunch assist person. there was some sort of confusion. Why, I have no idea. This is not the first time she’s had both since her increased service. Home care is aware that she gets Meals on Wheels and were good with it. I think maybe it was the first time they arrived at the same time.

After they left, she got a phone call from the Meals on Wheels office (they don’t actually have an office) saying that someone had cancelled her service, and that there would be no more dinners from them. My mother was wondering if I had cancelled it. Of course, I hadn’t. So she wondered if my brother hand, and of course, he hadn’t either. I didn’t even have to ask him about that!

Part of what was confusing is that as she was trying to describe what happened and the confusing of her lunch assist and Meals on Wheels coming at the same time, she started talking about how she doesn’t need both. If she had people coming every day to do her meals, why have Meals on Wheels?

I told her, these meals are more complete than she would make for herself, and require more preparation than home care is able to do for her during daily meal assists, so it would be better if she kept it up. I didn’t really get to say more, but these are also the most nutritionally complete meals she has all weak.

Then she started taking that she didn’t need… and here I lose it on the words she used, because they were more implying than saying outright, but basically, she’s trying to suggest that these meals are so big, they are making her fatter, so she should probably stop. She’s been getting to the point of saying she should practically stop eating entirely, so I needed to cut that off, quickly. I told her, she’s 94 years old. She doesn’t need to be worried about her weight at this point. Who cares?

I told her I needed to call Meals on Wheels right away, because I didn’t know when they closed, but then she launched into how she takes the “pink stuff” (Pepto) and Tylenol and started going on about how she thinks her problems are her digestion (this after years of blaming her insanely healthy heart) – so basically, she was working herself up to blaming everything on the Meals on Wheels meals. I had to cut her off and say I would call her back after calling Meals on Wheels.

I was too late. They were closed.

The number I called was directly to the kitchen, but I noticed another number in my online search, so I tried that, too. That was the building’s management office. Their answering machine gave office hours, and they are open only 3 days a week, and the message added that if it was about Meals on Wheels, to call the kitchen number.

Tomorrow is Remembrance Day and I normally wouldn’t expect a call back until the day after, but they do cook daily meals for the residents, so it’s possible I’ll get a call back tomorrow.

I called my mother back and told her as much as I could. Thankfully, she didn’t try to blame her various issues on the Meals on Wheels meals again. It frustrates me to hear her trying to blame all her problems on her food, but she knows nothing about nutrition. Half the time, she’s basing things on something she saw on TV 30 years ago, or some women’s magazine that the ladies from the Senior’s Centre drop off sometimes, or something her neighbours have said, to just leaping at associations with no real connection. All the more reason for her to have those Meals on Wheels! If it were up to her, she would be seriously malnourished while convinced she is eating “healthy”.

Anyhow, I told my mother I would get back to her as soon as I knew something. I have, of course, updated my siblings about it as best I could.

I’ll be at my mother’s on Friday to get her bubble packs and do her shopping. I’ll stay to do other stuff for her, too. I should remember to ask her to take the chicken I got for her a while back, out of the freezer so I can make up another stock for her. That will give her cooked meat that the lunch assist people can use for her meals, too. This time, I want to bring one of my stock pots from home. Last time, I had to split things up between a small pot and a frying pan! I should bring a proper knife, too. She has been using what look like cheap “as seen on TV” steak knives, and is happy with them, but they really are terrible. At least for full food prep. I had to use one to butcher a whole chicken for her a while back and it was so bad, I ended up using the only other thing she had – a bread knife!

Hopefully, the Meals on Wheels thing will be straightened out by then. I’m really at a loss as to who would have cancelled her service. Unless my mother gave specific instructions, they would not have had any authority to do so. It doesn’t sound like my mother did anything like that, but she talks in circles so much, someone may have misunderstood her? I just don’t know.

I am just noticing one of my weather apps that I have on display at all times. According to that, we’re now at 0C/32F. We should keep warming up all night, to a high of 6C/43F tomorrow. It’s not supposed to be as windy as it still is right now, but still pretty windy. On Friday, we’re supposed to reach a high of 8C/46F! That would be a great day to get a few more things done outside, but I’ll be at my mother’s. Ah, well. I’ve at least got the next two days at home to work on things. Once the septic tank is emptied, I want to head over to the ejector to cut away all the weeds grown up around it, then dig more of a trench to drain the greywater towards the low area, rather than forming a pool just 10 or so feet away.

Hopefully, the septic guy will be able to come in soon! This is not a job I want to work on when it gets colder again.

Gotta take advantage of every warm day we get. It won’t be long before anything left will just have to wait until spring.

I would really love it if I could just hibernate all winter!

The Re-Farmer

The Re-Farmer

Sometimes, you need to go back, to go forward.

Medical

Our 2025 Garden analysis: food forest and perennials (plus medical stuff)

Yard cats and how much does that cost???

I get to stay home

What a day – but I managed to get some stuff done!

All went really well… almost

A mostly quiet day, mother issues, plus, cats. 😄

Only one

I am so tired

A run around day, and new products to try

Too much wind! Also, a mystery

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