I also remembered to get a picture of the bone broth I made, before tucking it into the fridge.
I started off by roasting the meaty bones, lightly drizzled with avocado oil (it was handy) and sprinkled with salt. Those went into the slow cooker with chunks of onion, celery, carrots and ginger, plus salt and pepper. The slow cooker was set on high for 1 hour, then on low for 8 hours.
Then it sat on “warm” for quite a while, as I wasn’t able to get to it right away. Once that was shut off, I allowed it to cool before trying to take the big pieces out. I have a large slow cooker, so it took quite a long time to cool down to a temperature that wasn’t dangerously hot. I am losing my grip strength as I get older, and I didn’t want to risk burning myself if I dropped something.
I took out as much as I could with tongs, first. The meat had fallen off the bones, and that got separated out (and became a snack, later on). Then I set up a stock pot on the stove and strained the liquid through a fine mesh sieve into the pot. All the strained out solids got tossed.
At this point, I would estimate there was a little over a gallon – maybe 5 litres – of broth. I then started reducing it, which took a few hours.
I considered reducing it to the point where I could set it in the oven for a final dehydration, which would have given me “portable soup”.
In the end, I decided against it, because I had the other ingredients added with the bones. Though, according to the video, the “keep warm” setting on my oven can’t go low enough to dehydrate it properly.
By the time I decided it was reduced enough, what was left fit into two 750ml jars. These were meant to go into the fridge to use right away, rather than being canned, so I just used regular lids, not canning lids, loosely added until they cooled down completely.
I’d say there’s roughly 5 cups of broth and maybe 3/4 cup of fat on the top between the two jars. The fat can be used for any high heat cooking. Since the broth was reduced so much, we now have a concentrated broth where just a little will go a long way.
Now I’m trying to think of what I want to make with it, first!
First up, it was a great morning because MY HIP DIDN’T KEEP ME UP ALL NIGHT!!!
Sorry for shouting, but I’m pretty excited! I could even lie on my left side and everything. No pain at all!
I had been warned that it might take a few days before the steroid injection did its job, and that things might get worse before it got better. I got none of that. It just went straight to working!
So awesome.
Another thing that was awesome was the view this morning, while doing my rounds. We had a fog this morning, and that always make sunrise so very dramatic.
One pumpkin vine had a couple of huge flowers this morning. I just had to try for a close up on one of them (second picture). In the third picture, there’s a Hopi Black Dye sunflower, but it seems to have skipped developing a seed head and is just filled with flowers.
Our high today was expected to reach 25C/77F, and tonight’s low is expected to be 12C/54F, so the winter squash are being left uncovered still. From the forecast, it looks like we’ll have two more days and one more night where they can be left uncovered. After that, they’ll need to be covered for the night, and probably left covered both day and night for at least a few days. It’s nice to have an unusually warm October again – since moving here, we’ve had years with no frost until November, but not with weeks above 20C/68F – but we’re expecting to get some pretty dramatic swings between the highs and the lows.
Which means I should be planting the garlic within the next week or so, and the winter sowing might be gone before the end of the month. I don’t want the winter sown seeds to actually germinate before spring. Overnight lows at or below freezing is fine, but apparently, we’re going to be getting days at or above 20C/68F again, in the third week of October! Well, that’s where a deep mulch comes in. It will protect the seeds from both heat and cold.
We shall see what actually happens, weather wise! For now, though, my focus had to go back to working on the sun room, which is what I’ll be updating on in my next pose.
I’ve definitely been running around too much, over the past while.
With the trips to the city, I haven’t been doing as much physical labour, but I’m still in a lot of pain. Mostly the OA joint pain, but it’s definitely more of a mental fatigue than a physical one.
I headed out early today to do the morning watering. I didn’t need my older daughter to help out this time, nor was my younger daughter heading out with me, so they got to do some catching up on stuff in the house, instead.
My younger daughter was going to get the lawn mowing done as much as she could, in the heat. So, just riding mower stuff! We will just need to do the areas that can only be reached with either the push mower or the weed trimmer, later on.
I picked up some of my mother’s favourite fried chicken and potato wedges for our lunch today, so we had a relaxed visit over food, first. She was having one of her better days, behaviour wise, which made it much more pleasant! After that, we went over her shopping list. I spotted some gaps and asked a few questions, and did end up adding a couple of things to her list, too.
Before I headed out, I changed her bedding for her, so she could lie down while I was gone. She is really having a much harder time moving around her apartment of late. For all the heat, she’s also been finding herself getting cold!
I hit a couple of stores to get her shopping list done. It wasn’t a large list, but still came out to over $90. That’s just for one person for a week, and she has Meals on Wheels three times a week!
After her groceries were put away, I did some light housekeeping for her, then headed out. I made a brief stop at the hardware store, hoping to find some buckets in smaller sizes than 5 gallons, or watering cans. There weren’t any in the store, but I did remember to get handles to attach to the isolation shelter, to make it easier to move around, and caps for the end of the emergency septic pump bypass, so we can close that off and finally set aside the last of the outside parts of the emergency bypass.
The hardware store did have their garden centre section open, so I checked it out. I did find watering cans there, but only got one, as the price was pretty steep. I also spotted some lovely looking sage transplants and picked up two. There’s just enough room in the tiny raised bed, with the other herbs, for them.
All of this took long enough that, when I got home, it was already time to do the outside cat feeding, so I took care of that right away. A couple of kittens needed eye washing, and I changed out the ice packs in the sun room cat cage, for Poirot and her babies.
It’s barely past 5pm as I write this, and I am so drained, I’ll be heading to bed pretty much as soon as I’m done supper. Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter, and then we’re going to cool down a touch for the next while. I’m hoping to get the rest of the transplants in, and maybe even get the direct sowing done. I noticed this morning that some of the Spoon tomatoes have started to show flower buds!
This is what WP’s AI image generator thinks I look like. 😄
At some point, I need to edit my May garden tour video, too. I decided to keep the video files I took, back on the 21st, and here we are, last day of May, and it still hasn’t been put together!
Little by little, it’ll get done.
I just wish there weren’t so many distractions pulling me away, at times!
Wow! We got home just in time! My daughter and I headed into the city for our first stock up shopping trip. It took longer than usual, and by the time we were driving the last couple of miles to home, we were driving into the first signs of snow. As I write this, it’s starting to come down pretty heavily, though there’s little wind, so it’s a pretty pleasant looking snowfall. It’s supposed to keep falling through the night. We’re are looking at possibly 10-20cm/4-8inches by tomorrow evening.
I’m quite happy we got this trip done!
Today was our trip to multiple places all along one street in the city. Canadian Tire, Walmart and our favourite international grocery store.
As we headed out, we made a stop in town to get some gas ($40 worth, at $1.549/L). Since neither of us had had breakfast yet, we got some drinks and beef jerky for the hour’s drive in, where our first planned stop was somewhere for breakfast. We ended up going to a shopping mall right next to the Canadian Tire we go to, and went to the food court. I haven’t been in this mall in… I honestly can’t remember. Several decades, at least. My daughter had some A&W for “breakfast” (it was past 11 by then), while I hunted around for something I could eat. Giving up sugar and simple carbs for Lent makes it challenging. I was going to get Chinese food, and they were willing to do a meal and skip the standard rice or noodles, but all the options they had available were covered with sweet sauces. I ended up going to a Korean BBQ place. When I asked to skip rice or noodles, they gave me extra stir fry vegetables instead, which was quite appreciated.
After we finished eating, we decided to check out a Winners. This is a store we haven’t been to since before we moved out here, so more than 7 years. We didn’t find anything worth buying. On the way to the exit we were parked closest, to, we passed a Dollarama, so we went in. I wanted to see if they had those garden stakes I was looking for in stock, yet. They did! These are 6′ long plastic coated metal stakes that each some with a strong, reusable plant tie. They were only $3 each. I’ve seen similar at Cdn Tire, but those were much more expensive, didn’t come with the plant tie and are actually a lesser quality.
I bought 10.
Between these and the ones I already have, it should be enough for this year’s garden.
That done, we moved the truck to the Cdn Tire. The one thing on my shopping list was 3 bags of litter pellets but, of course, we looked at other stuff.
This is what $181.85 looks like.
The litter pellet bags are only $7.99 each. We have been looking for frying pans to replace some we have now that have warped bottoms and are no longer non-stick. After much searching, we finally broke down and bought a 2 pan set that was on clearance for $49.93
Then there were the three recycling bins. The set up we have right now is just large bags over wire frames that hold them open. They take up a lot of space, but the real problem is that the cats tear into them. Especially the one for aluminum, since it has most empty cat food cans in it.
After looking at our options, we settled on taller, narrower bins. They won’t hold as much as our current set up, but will save us a lot of space, and the cats won’t be able to tear into them. We do have smaller recycling bags that should fit them, too. This style of bin cost $29.99 each.
Our next stop was the Walmart. The main things on my list was wet and dry cat food, plus things like nail clippers and other things we don’t normally by every month. My older daughter had also sent funds to cover things like energy drinks, until we can pick up a case at Costco.
We got quite a bit more than usual this time!
This is what $361.47 looks like. Well… minus $10, which was a food bank donation, so you can’t actually see it.
We got three 9.1kg bags of kibble, at $34.97 each. The cases of canned cat food was $28.77. They also finally had the big 30″x36″ puppy pads, so a grabbed a package. Cats peeing/spraying in places other than one of the many litter boxes is still a problem, and I don’t know how to fix it! The puppy pads are saving us a lot of mess and potential damage.
Other things we got today include large bottles of shampoo and conditioner. Including extra ones, and selective bars of soap. Since discovering she is allergic to most deodorants, my daughter realized she was also allergic to shampoos and conditioners. She thought she was having fungal infections on her scalp. It got so bad, she basically just shaved her head, so she could apply anti-fungal cream. After doing some research, she tried a particular brand of shampoo and conditioner and, lo and behold, no more scalp issues. It turns out one of the common ingredients she is allergic to is coco butter – which is in the shampoo and conditioner I chose for myself and my husband. She still has the one she knows she doesn’t react to, but we got a different brand she researched for her to test out. It’s the same with soap. Shea butter, at least, is okay for her to use!
Let’s see… what else did we get.
The energy drinks are a lot cheaper at Walmart compared to other stores (except the cases at Costco), so we got a bunch for the three of us. For my husband and myself, we got a case of Coke Zero that was on sale. Then I spotted the Ginger Ale brand ginger beer, which is new. We got a case for my daughters to try. I’m not a fan of ginger beer myself, but they like it.
We also got two types of herbal teas and coffee creamer. Distilled water for my husband’s CPAP humidifier. Oh, and a couple of boxes of bandages in various sizes and shapes.
After we loaded everything into the truck, we used the wet wipes I keep in the truck at all times to clean my hands. Then my daughter helped me put small bandages on my fingers where the skin was split and bleeding, because my hands are so dry! I do lotion them, regularly, but it doesn’t seem to help much.
There was one thing we got at the Walmart that didn’t get included in this. I needed straight edge toenail clippers and, while I was looking at other stuff, my daughter went looking for them. She found them locked up in the cosmetic section, so she had to get staff to get them out for her (the only option was a pack that included smaller nail clippers). The employee then took them straight to the till that was practically barricaded, and my daughter hat to pay for them right away. The employee then put them and the receipt into a little clear plastic bag that got tied off with a knot before my daughter was finally allowed to touch them!
Ya gotta wonder just how much theft there was for all this!
Once done there, our next stop was the international grocery store. By then, we were both getting hungry again, so we stopped in their restaurant section for some dim sum and, for my daughter, steamed pork buns.
Our list for here was pretty vague, and mostly we just go through the entire store and pick things. There were a lot of sales, plus I used my loyalty points for some things, so what we actually got would have cost a lot more.
After all the discounts, etc., this is what $227.24 looks like.
Some things are completely hidden.
There was an excellent sale on coconut milk, which my daughters like to cook with, so we got four cans. Asparagus was also on sale, so we got two bunches. One sale we really took advantage of was a big frozen block of Ahi tuna. At first, we were going to pick some fresh “steaks” of them, last thing, as the packages were on ice, but when we found the frozen chunk (top right corner in the photo), we went with that. My daughter found some frozen pork bao on sale that we got. We picked up some blue brie cheese we’ve been wanting to try, but it was always too expensive before, but they were almost half price today. We also got a regular brie on sale, and an Irish Whiskey Cheddar on sale to try. I even picked up a “snow man cheese” – some caiocavallo for my husband. He absolutely loves it, just to snack on, but it’s gotten very expensive over the years, so it was nice to finally get some for him.
Then, because we got the lovely cheeses, we got three loves of French bread, some charcutier meats, and a sausage (the meats were on sale) to go with it. We also picked up some prosciutto to make prosciutto wrapped asparagus.
The prosciutto was actually free, because I redeemed points for those. There’s also a frozen turkey I got for free with points.
Other things we got was a frozen fillet of salmon for the girls that was on sale, some regular smoked slab bacon, plus an applewood smoked slab bacon with a “enjoy tonight” coupon, so that’ll need to be used up tonight. We picked up some Wagh Bakri tea on sale to try (we’d had the ginger tea version in that brand before that was enjoyed), as well as some instant milk tea on sale. Even the toilet paper was on a massive sale, so I had to get at least one package.
Finally, we grabbed some food that we could quickly heat and eat when we got home. Almost. For my husband, we got half a Lumberjack sandwich (which is still huge), the girls got themselves taquitos in a flavour that they like that we almost never see in stock, and I got some cold dim sum that I’ll be steaming for my supper later on.
Then, when it was time to pay for it all, I was able to use more points for another $15 off the sub total.
Looking at my receipt, it tells me I saved $91.65, however that only reflects the loyalty card savings. Some of the items that were sold by weight rung up at the sale price rather than being discounted later, so our actual savings was higher than that. The savings on the Ahi tuna alone would have put that total to over $100.
All in all, we had an excellent haul for our money here!
Then, on the way home, we swung by a Domo to get gas again. Today is Thursday, which is one of their 4¢ off/liter days, so we put another $40 in, and it pretty much filled our tank.
Next stock up shop will be our Costco trip in a few days.
Which means we won’t need to be driving anywhere in the new snow that’s falling on top of all the ice from yesterday’s melt!
Today was in incredibly gorgeous day! We actually hit 10C/50F this afternoon!
So, of course, we’re now getting weather warnings for a major snowfall coming. It’s supposed to hit our area tomorrow evening, and we could get 10-20cm/4-8 inches of snow.
I’m still waiting on a blizzard to hit around our anniversary in the beginning of April.
Why?
Because it’s spring in Canada, that’s why! 😄
Meanwhile, the thermometer in the sun room was reading about 23C/73F, which was wonderful for the new babies.
I didn’t get a chance to sneak a pet today, though. Gotta work on that!
Of course, with things melting all over the place, the moat around the garage has started to form. Only the remaining deeper snow and packed ice is keeping it it in check. The path I use to reach the litter pellet compost behind the outhouse is getting pretty deep with water. I’m going to have to dig out my rubber boots at this rate!
The usual low spots are also filling, including the moat that completely encircles the storage house. The gap the cats use to get under it is a big puddle. I’m still seeing cats go under there, which is a bit of a surprise, since the entire “basement” space gets pretty full of water, too.
I did find water in an unexpected place, though.
Inside the catio.
It is likely because I piled snow around three sides to act as insulation. Between that and the area being a bit lower, what has been little more than a puddle this morning has become quite a pool by late afternoon!
I took out the two box nests and the big bowl that used to be a heated water bowl that I used as a kibble bowl. Somehow, water actually got inside the bowl itself! The opening where the power cord used to run through allowed water to get inside, so I ended up setting it on the catio roof in such a way that it will hopefully drain.
The insulated box nest was still partially frozen to the ground, so it took a bit to get that loose. The uninsulated one was resting on top of a couple of pieces of rigid insulation, so it was easy to lift – except for the edge of the blanket inside that had slipped out and was frozen to the ground! Once the box was removed, I hung the blanket over the edge of the catio roof to drip and dry, making sure to weight it down, so it wouldn’t blow away.
In the second picture of the above slide show, you can see where I set up the box nests. Their bottoms were damp on the inside, but these have no “right side up”, so I just flipped them damp side up and set them under the shrine next to a kibble bowl.
There was another kibble bowl under there, but it disappeared a few days ago. I have yet to find it! I assume it got dragged off by a raccoon, maybe?
Magda immediately showed her appreciation for a new surface to stand on. 😁
With the bottom of the catio flooded, she still found a way to enjoy it. She used the brick I have in the doorway, to make sure it doesn’t close all the way by accident, as a dry surface to jump up onto one of the floating shelves inside the catio. From there, she could jump across to the other shelf, where she obligingly posed for a photo. The door was tied off again by the time, so I was sticking my phone through to take a picture, being VERY careful to not drop it into the water below!!
With the protective plastic around the side, plus the clear roof, it’s quite warm inside that catio during the day. Not as warm as the sun room, of course, but still a very noticeable difference.
I’m really glad we were able to give the catio a paint job before putting the roof on. That will protect the wood from the water at least a little bit. The original frame was painted, but the wood lathe I added in places could possible get water damage, since the water would be able to seep between the old and new wood on the bottom. We won’t be able to check for damage for probably a few more weeks, though.
In other things, my younger daughter and I went into town today. We had to go to the pharmacy for her to pick up a prescription, plus a couple other things. I was able to cash in a digital lotto ticket and my win not only paid for her purchases, but lunch and a quick stop at the grocery store to get drinks for the ride home, too – and I still have a bit of cash left over. It’s always nice to win more than just a couple of bucks, or a free play – though I won a couple of bucks and a free play, too! 😄
I also made sure to stop at the post office on the way out, as it closed at noon today. The seed packets from my Vesey’s order came in today, so as soon we were back at home and things were put away and settled, I headed down to the dungeon… er… basement, to start some of them.
As a family, we’re not really dedicated to birthdays. As in, the actual date. Before my husband went on disability and he was still working, we would celebrated birthdays on the weekend before or after the actual date, depending on which was after pay day. The entire week, however, tended to be when the birthday person would get little gifts, or extra special treatment. The day itself was recognized, of course, but we liked to spread it out.
Now that my husband is on disability, his payments come in at the end of the month, so we budget accordingly. Which means we tend to have more birthday months than birthday weeks!
Image generated by WP AI
My older daughter’s birthday is this month. She is really hard to get things for! One regular thing we would do is have the birthday person choose a special celebration dinner. When our income was higher, this was a time when we might go to a specific restaurant that we normally wouldn’t, but dining out for four people hasn’t been something we could afford for a long time. Now that we are out in the boonies, we generally don’t bother and will order takeout from somewhere.
I had already done a birthday take home meal earlier this month, but my older daughter wanted Pizza Hut – and she was paying. Yeah. She insists on paying for her own birthday meal!
It’s still early, but today was when we decided to do pizza day. The birthday girl placed the order online with a pick up time late enough that other stuff could be done first. My younger daughter came along to help out. After a quick stop at the post office to pick up one more package, we headed to the town our doctor’s clinic is in. We got there about an hour early, but there’s a grocery store in the same area, so we could just park and go there, first.
The only thing I needed for general groceries was milk and eggs, plus my daughter spotted some dark coffee; they’ve been running out. The rest was birthday related. I ended up choosing two cakes; a tiramisu cake and a Pina Colada angel food cake trifle. We picked up some ranch and blue cheese dressing to use as dips for the pizza. We got drinks, some Cotton Candy Ice Cream, and their last box of mango Melona bars. As an extra, I decided to try some frozen finger foods for later on. Breaded pickle spears, Italian Mozza Bites and Tempura Yams.
I was going to treat my daughter for her birthday, no matter how much she balked! 😄
By the time we were done and the truck loaded up, we still had almost half an hour before the time set for our order. The location is take out only, but I figured they’d have seating for people waiting for their orders, so we made our way over anyhow. Which worked out, as they were almost done with our order!
Good grief, pizza has gotten expensive. Four large pizzas and three chicken bites bowls, and the total was just under $200 – before tip! A few years back, it was almost half that, and we were getting extra large sized pizzas.
Well, we only do this once a year. Plus, it will feed us for a couple of days, at least. Still… *choke*
Since it is a special occasion, I’ve taken a break from my Lenten fast of sugar and simple carbs.
In other things, I had a chance to chat with the Cat Lady earlier today. She sent me a post made by the woman who was able to provide us with so much donated cat food. It was very generous and much appreciated – we still have wet cat food left from that! The Cat Lady did warn me, though, not to share to much. As the Cat Lady put it, her heart is in the right place, but she causes problems. A few months back, she was “helping” someone caring for a colony, got the province involved, and most of the cats ended up being euthanized. Sadly, it seems to be happening again. There’s a call out for various supplies, fosters, donations for spays and neuters, and so on, for a colony that sounds about the same size as ours, though the number of cats we have showing up can change considerably from day to day, and even feeding to feeding. All great stuff being called for, except for on thing.
She got the province involved again.
The post had mentioned that the cats have winter suitable shelters, but not much else. Well, the Cat Lady knows of this colony. She says the cats are well cared for, and they have lots of excellent shelters. While help would certainly be appreciated – especially with spays and neuters – with the province involved, the person that’s been caring for them is going to get pressured a lot before the province finally steps in and simply wipes them out.
I know that in our municipality, their procedure to “help” people caring for colonies is to simply shoot the cats. It’s pretty much the main reason we don’t try to do any local fundraising drives for spays and neuters. We don’t want it to be generally known, how many cats have been showing up (I’ve seen another tabby that looks like a stranger recently. He has a distinctive Nicky the Nose face; that old tom hasn’t been around for years, but this cat looks like it could be one of his decedents). I want to adopt them out. Not kill them off.
Speaking of spays and neuters, the Cat Lady hopes to book us for three cats, as soon as she gets a chance to call the clinic we’ve been going to. She’s been spending a lot of time at another clinic in the city. The vet that saved Cabbages sold his clinic and went back to India for a while. He has since returned and opened a new clinic, and she’s happily been going to him again. She’s currently dealing with a rescue case that is quite severe. I was quite surprised when she said for three cats. The last we talked about it, she was hoping to be able to get two done. Hopefully, that means donations to her rescue have started to go back up again. Otherwise, it means she’s paying for it out of pocket, which they have done before. They are so amazing!
Meanwhile, I also got a note from my brother. He plans to come out here tomorrow morning. Along with needing to do some stuff among their stored items, he plans to set up “that bypass valve” on the septic diverter. He must have thought he had already talked to me about it, but I had no idea about this. He said that we’ll be able to test out the ejector to see if it’s frozen and, if it is, can switch back to the emergency bypass. Which is an awesome idea! I don’t think the ejector is frozen, though. I think there’s something stuck in the venturi valve. Either that, or there’s a clog somewhere in the pipe to the house. To be able to switch from the ejector to the emergency by pass through a bypass valve instead of having to attach and detach hoses is a brilliant idea! I look forward to seeing what he’s come up with to do this. With all the issues we’ve had with the septic in the 7+ years we’ve been living here, having that bypass is a godsend.
Aside from that, I’m planning to make a dump run tomorrow. Time to finally get rid of that broken microwave! I’m glad we replaced it with the multi-function toaster oven. The girls have been using it more than they’ve been using the oven! Very handy! Tomorrow we’re expecting to have a high of only -8C/18F. Not bad, but quite a drop from today, where we ended up hitting 4C/39F, which was higher than was forecast. Things were melting all over the place! It’s expected to be almost a week before we see highs above freezing again. Nothing to complain about, though.
I finally got around to editing and uploading a short unboxing video for the camera we now have in the sun room.
A few extra bits of feedback, since I recorded these clips.
Near the end of the video, you can see the camera moving around with the motion detection tracking. One of the major benefits of this camera is that I can set my phone up on a stand beside my keyboard, have the app open and keep continuous eye on the sun room. The old camera would only do that for a few minutes before I’d get a “continue?” request and, if I didn’t tap fast enough, it would discontinue the life feed. To have continuous live feed running, we would have to buy a subscription. That one difference makes the purchase well worth while.
The problem is, with so many cats moving around, the tracking would be all over the place, sometimes even sending the camera to do a complete rotation. Since the camera is mounted against a wall like it is, that meant getting views of the ceiling! It would move around so much that, even just in my peripheral vision, I was feeling almost motion sickness. The movement was just non stop!
So… the motion tracking got shut off.
I can move it around manually on my phone, though, to look at different parts of the room. Syndol noticed it moving and climbed up onto the shelf under the old kitchen window, standing as tall as he could, trying to get closer to the moving camera! He can’t reach it, but it was quite funny to adjust the camera so I could look directly at him while he was looking direction at the camera!
It has the ability to auto record. If it detects motion, it can start recording video automatically, saving it to the micro SD card. What I didn’t realize at first was that it was set to continuous record, which meant there were a series of 20 minute long video files saved to the micro SD card! With files that large, it takes forever for it to load to do a playback. It can be set for shorter times, but I’m not bothering with that. There’s simply too much movement in the sun room to have all these automatic functions running. As for files on the memory card, if the card is full, it simply discards the oldest files, while storing the newest ones. So if I had anything I wanted to keep, I’d have to make sure to download it. With the motion sensor off, however, there is nothing being recorded onto the card.
If I did see something I wanted to record, though, there are icons I can tap while the app is running, to get stills or video. There’s also the microphone icon that I can tap and hold to talk into the sun room – which rather alarmed the cats when I used it to break up a fight! All in all, there is quite a bit of functionality on there, most of which I have no reason to use, with it being a critter cam.
As for the network connect, there has been a couple of times where the network lost contact with the camera. Normally, I would have hit the reset button, but it’s too high to reach without a stool or household step ladder, so I just unplugged it and plugged it back in. That seems to have done the trick and now I seem to no longer be having that problem.
The only real downside is the tilt limit. The camera can turn 360°, but there’s only so far it can tilt. Which means that I can tilt it “down”, and get a great view of the wall and door under the camera, but I can only tilt it “up” far enough to see the very bottom of the doorway to outside. If I rotate the camera while it is at max tilt, the platform the cats use, or the bathroom window, can be seen, but they appear sideways. It cannot tilt enough to see the south facing windows, which is where the cats like to hang out. This is all because the camera is mounted sideways on the wall. If it were flat on its base, or even at an angle, it would be able to capture more in its field of view.
Oh, that reminds me; I noticed in the settings that the view can be flipped, if the camera is mounted upside down.
The field of view issue in regards to the tilt is not a camera issue, but a mounting issue for our space. If we could mount it level, it would work fine, but we don’t have a space where we could mount it in the sun room that would be work – and be out of reach of the cats! They’d be all over it, as soon as it started moving! So the few issues we’re seeing are not camera issues.
Which means that this camera passes the test. I can see getting more of these to monitor other indoor areas, such as the pumps in the basement. If we were to set one up to monitor the well pump and sump pump corner, I could see an issue with being able to plug it in; that power cable is awfully short, and there are not a lot of outlets down there! For the septic pump, I would want a type that screws into the light socket, and has a built in LED light. Which is what the first one I tried buying was, but we could never get it to connect to our Wi-Fi.
I would also want to have some outdoor ones to monitor the isolation shelter, for example, or other key areas in the inner yard – as long as we can access power! – but there is very little hurry on that. Mostly for budget reasons. Plus, I know my brother will want to set up security cameras around the outer yard, so I will probably leave most of that for him to do. He has something in mind, and I’m content to let him do it as he sees fit. My priority right now is more about being able to monitor the pumps in the old basement.
Overall, I would be okay with recommending this indoor camera.
Everything in red on the above weather map is under extreme cold warnings, defined as “extraordinary threat to life or property.” Orange is “severe”, which is defined as “significant threat to life or property”. Yellow is “moderate”, or “possible threat to life or property.” The few patches of blue are “mild” or “minimal to no known threat to life or property.”
The ongoing weather warning, particularly for the region to the south of us says wind chills could reach from -44C/-47F to -50C/-58F.
As I write this, coming up on noon, we have warmed up to -31C/-24F, with a wind chill of -34C/-29F.
I check the critter cam every now and then, and it amazes me how active the cats are in the sun room. Most, however, are in various groups, snuggled together in cat beds, under the heat lamp, or in the shelf beds at the window. I know others would be taking advantage of the warmth in the top level of the isolation shelter. It’s the ones that are too feral for any of those spaces that concern me. I see some running around on the driveway, the various paths dug out in the snow, or dashing along the sidewalk, to or from the house. They older cats have their thick winter fur, and the long haired cats are giant fluffy balls, rolling through the snow. It’s the littles that concern me, but they seem to know to stay close to the house and near the heat lamps. Still, when they do go out, I can see them doing this little dance with their paws, always having at least one paw raised up out of the snow. I wish they would just stay inside their various shelters!
Ah, well. We do the best we can for them, and just hope they take advantage of the warmth and shelter we provide for them.
At -27C/-17F, with a wind chill of -38C/-36F, my brother spent hours, here – most of it outdoors – getting things done.
The first thing was the no-longer frozen ejector.
When he arrived, he headed to the barn to get some stuff and I went out to join him. Along the way, I looked towards the ejector and got quite a surprise.
The tarp was gone, the sawhorse over the ejector was half knocked over, held in place only by the extension cord for the heat tape (safely secured), and the blue jugs from the liquid ice melter scattered in the snow nearby.
I don’t think my brother ever found the tarp. That part isn’t a surprise, considering the winds we had yesterday!
When we got to the basement, things there went quickly. The bypass wires on the switch was hooked up so that we could turn it on and off manually, rather than rely on the pill switch in the tank. The only difficult part was moving the emergency diverter off the pump without making too much of a mess. We knew there would be fluid in the pipe and I had a bucket ready, but there was just no way to get the diverter off and moved over the bucket without spilling at least some all over.
After the pipe to the ejector was put back, my brother and I fussed with our phones for a bit, so that we could communicate while he headed out to the ejector, then let me know to turn the pump on. We were able to make a video call, so when the time came, he had his phone set up so I could see the ejector.
The water flowing out of there was amazing! I’ve never seen it pushed out that far before (if I did when I was a child, I have no memory of it).
There was one odd thing about it, though. Instead of being pushed out in a steady stream, the bottom of the stream sprayed downwards, getting the stack pipe wet. My brother also saw water coming up from under the cap, which means the stack pipe was full, when it should have been drained by the venturi valve once water started to flow.
In the end, my brother found a piece of pipe he cut to create a little extender on the elbow piece.
He then dug around the barn and found bits and pieces to build a wind shelter around the ejector.
There’s a 1″ thick piece of rebar he hammered into the frozen ground to secure it, so the wind shouldn’t blow it away.
That rotten old sawhorse my brother dug out of the snow has sure come in handy!
All of this took at least a couple of hours, but we now have a working ejector again! No more emergency bypass draining the tank into the back yard!
The bypass is still there, though. I told my brother to leave it. I’ll take it out, put everything away and seal that opening up again, in the spring.
Then, before he left, my brother took care of a couple of other things, as well as going into their stored items.
Then he brought over one of his taller ladders.
Yup. He climbed up onto the roof to check the vent. The one warm day my daughters could have done it, one of them was in the city with me. The next day was the storm.
After clearing the area of snow, my brother ended up bringing a chimney sweep that’s stored in the barn to see if it was blocked. The non-sweep side could fit into the vent – and yes, it was quite blocked! I had a jug of hot water that he poured in, and the one jug was enough to clear it.
Meanwhile, I’d filled a sink with hot water to drain, so we could check if all was well.
All was well in the vent.
Not in the drain pipes!
The sink started to drain fine at first, and then it just sort of stopped. My daughter stayed in the kitchen to monitor while I went to the laundry drain.
Just in time to see the filthiest water coming out of there we’ve ever seen!
My daughter stopped the sink from draining. Thankfully, there was already a towel under the laundry drain, just in case, but it still took a while for the water to stop flowing. I was just heading out the door to tell my brother what happened when I heard something give, then gurgling as the water finally drained into the main pipe.
My brother thinks that the main problem is ice stuck in the pipe and suggested running hot water for a while. I suggested that clearing the vent knocked more gunk loose, too.
Thanks to the plumber installing the rubber connector in the pipe in the root cellar, this is something we can do ourselves. My brother had a few more things he wanted to do, plus take one last check on the pump (I had already taken care of the bypass and it was back to a pill switch trigger, instead of a manual trigger) before heading home. He told me that, as he was driving out here, he was seeing a vehicle in the ditch almost every mile of the way!
So we have had a major step forward, in that our septic system is up and running properly now – in fact, better than when we first moved here, thanks to getting that rag out of the back valve!
We had another step forward with my brother getting the ice out of the vent.
There’s just one step back, as our drain seems to be clogged again. We can use the kitchen sink, but it doesn’t take long before we can hear water backing up into the laundry drain.
That’s a job for this evening.
If all goes well, by the end of the day, we’ll be able to hook the washing machine discharge pipe into the drain again, and do laundry without running a hose out the door.
Shortly before 8am, we were at -27C/-17F with a wind chill of -39C/-38F
As I write this, it’s past 10:30am. We are still at -27C/-17F and the wind chill is -41C/-42F
It was probably about 8:30-9am when I headed outside to feed the yard cats and do a quick check around the house. I was definitely not going to do my regular rounds.
It doesn’t look like we lost any trees this time, though I did find some downed branches. Not anything to pick up now, but to be cleaned up in the spring.
With the cold, I had my hood up over my toque. To keep it from being blown off my head, I had to use the Velcro closure that goes across the mouth. I normally don’t use it, because anything over my mouth causes me to struggle to breathe, so I try to tuck it under my chin. It was cold enough that I had to sort of go back and forth; tuck my chin behind it to warm up, then out so I could breathe.
My glasses, of course, immediately fogged up, so I was also trying to see over the frames.
As I was going around the north side of the house, I have my usual paths to follow, which made it easier, except… well… I couldn’t really see much.
The next thing I knew, I’d tripped and was on the ground.
Thankfully, I was not injured, but this was a real problem. My knees are shot. Getting back up again is very difficult, even the few times I’ve tripped and fallen in the summer. Compounding the problem is the snow. There isn’t a lot of it, and it’s only half-packed. So I’d manage to get myself onto one knee (trying one, then the other, to figure out which one I could actually use) brace my hand onto the ground to push myself up, and the snow would give out. Next thing I know, my hand is lower than my knee, and I’ve pitched myself back into the snow again.
I actually fell three time, twice while trying to get up.
Of course, I cried out as I fell, but no one inside could hear me. After much struggling, I did manage to get up, but for a while, there was a real concern that I wouldn’t be able to, without help. Meanwhile, my phone was in my pants pocket instead of my jacket pocket, where I couldn’t get at it while lying on the ground.
In these temperatures, this was a very dangerous situation.
For the next while, as we continue to have these extreme temperatures, one of the girls will be coming with me when I do my rounds, just to be on the safe side. We’ve got two more days of this before it starts to slowly warm up again.
Meanwhile, I’m fortunate in that I just seemed to have slightly pulled some muscles. My neck and left side of my body is a bit stiff.
The girls have been plying me with tea and sustenance, so I don’t have to move around too much. I’d already taken painkillers before I’d gone outside, but I might need to take some more. I don’t think I need the prescription painkillers, though. Those are “take as needed”, but only once a day, and I save them for before bed, so I can get some pain-free sleep.
This could have gotten really bad. Thank God it didn’t!
The Re-Farmer
addendum: I just got a call from my brother. He’s on the way over right now, to switch the pipes on the septic pump! In this weather! Apparently, next weekend doesn’t work for him, so he’s coming out now. Hopefully, the roads will be clear!
The Re-Farmer 