photo of the day

Today’s pictures

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I happened to be around when the deer came to visit this morning.

Hungry Girl and Barbecue showed up first.

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Then Mama and the twins came by.

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I do miss our DSLR.  Zooming in with my phone’s camera just isn’t anywhere near as good!

It’s great for indoor shots that don’t need zoom, though!

20180212DaBoy

He is such a silly boy!

I love how his little front paws are tucked into his chest.

While in town earlier, my daughter and I took advantage of the trip to swing by the grocery store.  In a parking lot full of “winter parking” (where no one even tries to park in the lines, because you can’t see them!), I actually managed to park in a legitimate parking spot.  I could see just enough of the lines though the snow.  It was farther from the store, and there was plenty of room around me.

Or so I thought.

We came out to find this.

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That’s our van to the right.

Now, being a woman of generous proportions, it’s still rare for me to not even be able to get to my door.

I also wonder how the driver of the white truck got out of their vehicle, because there is no way that door opened even half way.  My mirror would have blocked it.

My daughter had to squeeze between the vehicles, open our door, and jam herself in.

So she ended up driving home.  An opportunity to practice for her road test.

The sad thing is, the only reason the vehicle was so tightly parked was because they pulled forward from the other side.  Which means they drove through an empty parking spot, and placed themselves right next to my door.

With our previous vehicle, a Grand Caravan, we’ve had this happen a couple of times.  I was able to just go through the other door and clamber across to the driver’s seat.

With this van, the only keyhole is in the driver’s door.  We don’t have one of those keys that locks/unlocks the vehicle remotely.  The ONLY way into the van when it’s locked is through the door that got blocked.

Why do people do that?

Has this happened to you, too?

The Re-Farmer

 

Un. Be. Lievable.

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Wow.

Just.

Wow.

Today, I finally was able to go into town to begin transferring my driver’s license, and our van, to our new province.

I’ve done this before.  Several times.  I even went back to the same company I’d dealt with before, when we were last living in the area.

Thirteen + years, and the place looks exactly the same! :-D

The van will have to wait.  I was kinda expecting that, since one of the requirements to transfer the registration is a provincial license, so I have to do that, first.  I also confirmed that it is now required to have the vehicle safetied, first.  We’ve had a lot of work done on the van before coming out here, but I know there are still little things that would prevent it from passing safety, but I don’t know what this province requires anymore.  So I will have to talk nice to my cousin again. :-/

I needed several pieces of ID for the driver’s license.

Birth certificate?  Check.

Medical card? Not in yet.  So I would need mail, such as a bank statement or utility bill, with our new address on it.

Utility bill with our address on it.  Half check.  Our electric bill has our box number on it, but not our “street” number (the driveway marker number).  Our service address, which is basically the coordinates for the location of the main quarter section of the farm, was not enough.

Bank letter.  Just across the street is the bank I’ve had an account at for several decades.  After we moved, I didn’t bother closing the account, because they said it could only be done in person.  Kinda hard to do when living in another province, and when we did come to visit, it just wasn’t a priority.  However, as modern technology and online banking improved, it became irrelevant.  So I walked across the street and asked for something I could give the public insurance company to open an account for me.  It’s good I did, because changing my info online apparently didn’t take.  They still had our out of province address in there.  So that got updated (the electric bill came in handy again, confirming our postal address) and a letter was printed off, signed and stamped for me.

Back across the street I went, and we continued.

Bank letter identifying my physical address. Check.

Then a glitch happened.

By the time we were done, I had three people trying to help me out, giving me different options and providing me with a form I might need.

The problem?

My married name does not match the name on my birth certificate.

Seriously.

A birth certificate is supposed to have my BIRTH information on it.  That’s whole point of it.  It’s as if they now expect women who change their name after marriage to apply for a new birth certificate with the name change.  Which is ridiculous.

They agreed.

At one point, I turned to my younger daughter who had come with me and told her, “don’t change your name!”

To which one of the women helping enthusiastically concurred.

I didn’t even completely change my name.  I hyphenated (now people can spell my name wrong in TWO languages! :-D ).  So my birth name is still part of my married name.  But because the birth certificate doesn’t match the name I use everywhere else, they knew that if they proceeded with opening the account, they would get a letter back about it; and if it took too long to fix, the partially set up account would just get cancelled.

Now, if I also had my marriage certificate, they could have included that, but I don’t.  I mean, I have it.  I just haven’t seen it in 25 years.  It’s in one of those boxes that got dragged around, move after move.  After move.  After move.  For 14 of my 18 moves, to be exact.

So my choices are;

  1. find my marriage certificate
  2. contact vital statistics and have them send me a copy of my marriage certificate
  3. get someone to fill out a form, vouching for my identity.  It has to be someone who’s known me for at least 2 yrs, and among a long list of acceptable persons, including MLAs, MPs, judges, police officers, Chiefs, a lawyer and…

… a postmaster.

Now, the postmaster would be an easy one.  This is the town I grew up in, after all, and while the original owner of the store that was also the postmaster died some years ago, it’s still in the family, and the person who runs it now has known me for decades.

Except.

She’s not the post master.  I believe it’s her daughter who is.

Now, her daughter also knew me, but considering she wouldn’t have seen me since probably 2004, she may be too young to actually remember me.

It doesn’t have to be someone in this province, but getting someone from another province to do it would take weeks.

Which means I can’t transfer my driver’s license until all this gets straightened out.

At least it will be better for my husband and daughters; especially once our medical cards come in.  My daughters will still need to get a letter from a bank.  One will only need to update her banking information, since she’s not bothering to close her own account to open a new one, locally.  My older daughter, however, had an account with a credit union, and they don’t have a branch out here.  So she’ll have to open a new account locally.

For which she will need some kind of ID with our current address on it.

Un. Be. Lievable.

The ladies at the company were very apologetic, even though they had no control over the situation.  They certainly understood what a problem it is.

At one point, I commented that I have NEVER had this problem before.  Ever.  When did this start? I asked.  Basically since 9/11, I was told.

*sigh*

We were living in this province when 9/11 happened.  We’ve moved 3 times in between then and our current move, including our initial move out of this province.   It still has never been an issue until now.

Meanwhile, we’re supposed to have all this done within 3 months of moving.

That’s not going to happen.

The Re-Farmer

What Road?

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I was able to head into church at the next town this morning. I quickly managed this shot while at a stop sign on the way home.

There is a highway in this photo.

We got weather alerts for severe cold due to high winds today. Wind chills expected to hit -40 to -45 Celcius.

I’m really looking forward to the end of winter.

The Re-Farmer

A Pleasant Surprise

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We had an unusually heavy “people” day today. :-D  It’s amazing how quickly I got used to not being surrounded by people all the time.

Aside from an unusual amount of phone calls from different family members, my sister and her husband were able to come for a visit!  They picked up their carpet shampooer, and were kind enough to lend us their record player – and a box of records!

Also, they gifted us with more potatoes.  Another big bag of them!  That was sweet of them. :-)

Oh, I discovered something from them.  They maintain a bird feeder by their dining room window, and after checking out my set up, they corrected me.  The chipping sparrows?  Turns out they are redpolls.  Which weren’t even in my bird book. :-(  We do have chipping sparrows in our region, but not this time of year.

Dang.  I’m going to have to fix all my old tags and posts, now.

After they left, I found an outlet I could plug the record player in, and the first thing I did was break out the old 78s.

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It’s one of those new players that can play cassettes, CDs, is Bluetooth enabled, and has the ports to use USB and headphones.  It even has a remote control.

There was also, thankfully, a record cleaning cloth.  Those 78s were shockingly dirty!  We will have to take some time to very carefully clean them.  Until then, we used the cloth, then, after doing a bit of research, the carbon brush for our camera lenses.  It’s just enough to get the big, loose stuff off, but they are so bad, they’ll need more work.

The 78s we have are in a book of sleeves, and this is the first time we’ve actually taken any of them out.  Sadly, two of the ones we did take out had chunks broken off of them!  We could still listen to parts of the songs, but it was a sad thing to see.

I’ve come to realize my family is extremely rough on things!

After listening to several 78s, I then brought out the 45s, including…

Who Stole the Kishka.

Oh, did that ever bring back memories! :-D  Going to socials with my parents at the old hall, dancing the polka and the butterfly, with a live band (all locals, playing drums, violin, guitar and, of course, the accordion!) on the stage, and the guy that would walk around in between the dancers, scattering those wax granules on the floor, so dancer’s feet would wax the floor, but would send people’s feet skittering around for a while first!  I recall seeing a few people go flying, and I know I did a few times!

Our parents were real party animals!  They really loved to dance.  And drink.  Then dance some more!

I am pretty sure I saw the Chicken Dance among the albums.  Oh, how much fun I remember we had, dancing to that!  I can’t wait to play it for the girls!

My daughters are quite amused by my recollections!

After listening some 45s, we moved on to some 33s, including this gem.

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Interesting to read the “Arrest Warrant” for Mickey, where it says “Divorcing Bunny.”  There are two records in my mother’s stack from Mickey and Bunny. :-D

Check out the songs list!

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I’m pretty sure the “Recipe for Homebrew” really is a recipe, but it’s in Ukrainian, so I can’t quite understand it.

I think we’re going to be listening to records a lot over the next while. :-D  Among the discs my sister brought is some Queen and David Bowie, and in my Mom’s stack, there’s an album from Danny Osmond!  There’s quite a variety of classical music, which I’m quite looking forward do.  For today, we listened to some German Brass from my sister’s stack.

I especially want to check out those post card records I found.  I’m not sure what speed they’re supposed to be played at, but I figure they’re most likely 45s.

Should be interesting!

The Re-Farmer

 

 

Crochet Buddy

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Our younger daughter has been working on a crocodile stitch shawl for some time now.  She has set up her own crochet corner on the second floor.

DaBoy likes to keep her company.

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He is so tolerant.  She draped an end over him, and he just stayed there.

Also, he likes this yarn.  He keeps trying to eat it.

The Re-Farmer

Slowww….

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A slow day for me today.  So… first, the fun stuff!

I wasn’t around to see if any deer came today, though from the looks of the feeding station, they were certainly here.

So instead, I have a cat picture for you!

20180208DaBoy

DaBoy sure loves the top of the piano!  His mom doesn’t go up there.  She’s not as good of a jumper, and there’s nothing close that she can use to take it in stages.  He was just so adorable, with his face hanging over the edge, I had to get a picture!

Yesterday, I spent a long time stirring a pot to make this…

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It is a delicious failure.  I’d doubled the recipe for a type of cream fudge I’d made recently, and I just didn’t cook it down long enough, I think, even though I’d cooked it for at least 45 minutes, stirring constantly.  It’s an attempt to recreate a type of Polish cream fudge that is so addictive.  It has a unique texture that is hard to match, and this doesn’t match it at all.  Leaving it overnight to cool and set didn’t change the texture as much as I’d expected. It still tastes great, though!

Once I’ve got it worked out, I will share the recipe.

Oh, dear!  One of my daughters just came by to share with me something that had happened upstairs.  They were talking and when she laughed, her sister could actually see her breath!

It’s just a touch chilling up there!!!

They moved the heater into the room they were in.

That upstairs needs a lot of work.

Meanwhile…

Today, I focused on doing something I have been letting stew in my brain for a while; figuring out what to do about the Co-op withholding our shares.  That resulted in my spending what ended up being about 4 hours, working on a letter.  Doing it meant having to revisit a pretty traumatic time, and has left me feeling drained.  Then after a break to help with the bread baking, I went back to it to add in something I’d forgotten, then go over it for typos.  It was difficult, and I am recognizing the damage living there has done to me, and that even though we don’t live there anymore, it is still affecting my mental health.

Now that I’ve written it, though, I have to do something with it.

I am not looking forward to it.

Moving away from there was supposed to end this toxic garbage.  Ah, well.  I’ve never been one to avoid doing the right thing, just because it’s difficult.

The Re-Farmer

 

 

 

Must. Hold. The Kitty!

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I have my van back!  Yay!

It was all I could do not to take a drive to the city, just because we can.

My cousin did a wonderful job.  Not only did he replace the water pump for me, but he noticed the power steering was sounding wrong, so he checked it out, too.  After topping it up (it was low again, yet he could find no sign of a leak.  I checked our garage after the van was gone and saw no signs of power steering fluid leaking, either) he got some air out of the system, which is something that might have been causing the noise it was making.

Since he had to take the belt off to work on the water pump, that’s on nice and tight now, too, so it shouldn’t be making noises anymore, either.

My engine.  She purrs.

Speaking of purrs…

My daughter and I drove my brother’s van back to his place.  He wasn’t home, so we stayed to visit his dog (who wouldn’t even sniff my hand, but did let my daughter skritch him a bit) and the outside cats that came to check us out.

Including one I’ve never seen before.

The others weren’t friendly at all, but this guy?

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All. Over. Us!

What a sweetie!

Also, apparently, out hands taste very good, because he sure liked licking them!

The Re-Farmer

 

Catching Up

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I spent almost no time at all at the desktop, so I only managed to upload the one video from my phone, yesterday.  Alas, I was only able to get a couple of cat pictures at our feeding station with the Nikon before it died again, but I did get some other photos on my phone.  I wasn’t able to process any until today, though.  So I’ll just catch up now. :-)

The big news is that the moving company paid up!  We are now DONE with them!  I’ve sent off an email to the electrician we got the quote from to start arrangements.  I don’t know how often he checks his email, though, so I’ll follow up with a phone call today.  Even if it can’t be done until the spring, we have the money for it now, which is SUCH a relief.

It was another thoroughly entertaining day at the feeding station again.  It started out with Hungry Girl and Barbecue enthusiastically running over, Hungry Girl in the lead.

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It makes me happy to see her increased energy.  I like to think that the food that we are leaving out, in a safe location, is helping her get healthier.  I still wonder about the relationship between her and Barbecue, and why they are pretty much always together, even when Barbecue keeps striking at her with his hooves to drive her off.  At least now, she mostly just moves to another pile of feed.  Another thing I’m glad we started to do – put the feed out in many small piles, instead of one big pile.  Hungry Girl seems to be more comfortable going to the ones closer to the house than Barbecue.

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The next time I saw major activity out there was when there where 5 cats in the feed!  Then I saw 3 of them were after a mouse and was able to get the video I posted yesterday.  There have been a few times when I’ve seen one of the cats bringing a tiny vole with it when I put their food out, or the remains of one by the food bowls outside, but this is the first time I’ve seen them go after something as big as that mouse.

Eventually, only The Hand kept after the mouse.  As I worked in my crochet corner, I could see her sitting there, then start batting at something in the snow.  Then I would see the mouse moving around a bit.  It seemed to figure out that if it didn’t move, The Hand would leave it alone longer.  At one point, I thought she was sitting right on it.  At another, I saw her suddenly leap into the air, clearly having been bit by the mouse.

Then Mama and the twins came by.

As you can see in the photo with the cats, there wasn’t much food left for them by then.  It took them quite a long time to get to it at all, though.

It was a standoff!

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(I look forward to when it’s warm enough to properly clean the windows on the outside!)

The Hand is the cat closest to the trees on the right.  I can’t tell if that’s Butterscotch or Beep Beep beside her.

The deer were all nervous about the cats, stamping their hooves into the ground and throwing their heads.

The cats?

Not the least bit intimidated.

Eventually, only The Hand was there, playing around with the poor mouse, completely ignoring the deer.  Mama and the twins eventually worked their way around to the feed, but it took them quite a long time.  They didn’t stay long.  After a while, The Hand got tired of the mouse and left, then Trüllbus took over, eventually finally eating the poor mouse.

It was quite the thing to watch while I worked.  I FINALLY finished off a double ended crochet potholder I was making.  The stitch I was using makes for a very thick fabric, but it also, unfortunately, stresses the hand and causes pain in the palm under the thumb.  I found I had to set it aside for days at a time.  I regularly do the recommended stretches and exercises to prevent injury (yes!  There is such a thing as crochet injuries!), but sometimes, the only thing that can be done is to put it away.

Among the other things that got accomplished yesterday was to drop our van off at my cousin’s, so he can work on it today.   I look forward to hearing from him soon!  It felt SO good to be driving my own van again, even with the noise the engine was making.

Then I found out my daughters were planning on going into the next town to see The Last Jedi.  The nearest town has a 1 screen theatre, and only 1 showing a night.  Most smaller towns that have movie theatres are basically second run, but this town is considered a resort town, so the owner (someone my husband and I graduated high school with) is able to pick first run movies.

I had wanted to see the new Star Wars movie, too, so I invited myself along.  Unfortunately, my husband’s pain levels were too high for him to join us, too. :-(

We left early, so we could take advantage of the trip into town and run some errands.  My younger daughter and I ran into the grocery store, where I ran into an old friend.  It was funny to hear her describe it to her sister.

“We were walking along when this guy reached out and touched Mom on the shoulder.  I thought it was weird, but then Mom hugged him, so I figured it was okay.” :-D

It was really good to see him again, and I finally got to meet his girlfriend in person, too.  Funny how you can be friends with someone on Facebook for years, without ever meeting them face to face.  Then, when you finally do, it doesn’t feel like meeting a stranger at all.

It turned out to be a really good thing I’d come along for the movie, though.  For all our searched online, we couldn’t find out what the admission cost was (turned out to be $10), but when we got to the ticket booth (with my old Math and Law teacher behind the glass!), we discovered they didn’t take debit.  Cash only!  Which, thankfully, I had, since I’d gotten cash to pay my cousin for the new water pump he’s going to install for me.

Somehow, I thought they wouldn’t have at least gotten a debit machine after all these years!

The movie was quite enjoyable.  It’s our first moving outing since well before the move.

A nice end to the day.

As for today, I’m mostly waiting on word from my cousin to pick up our van.  I should probably move my phone to someplace where I can get some signal, in case he chooses to text me again.

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Meanwhile, we’ve already had a very enthusiastic visit from Hungry Girl and Barbecue again.  We also got a visit from a woodpecker!  A “hairy woodpecker”, I believe the variety is called. No chance of a photo, though.  They’re not attracted to seeds, so it was quite a surprise to see one at one of the piles, even if it was for just a few seconds.

Hmm.  I wonder if Mama and the twins will be back again today?

The Re-Farmer

Vanilla Sugar

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This is one of the things I tried a few years back and now keep handy all the time.  Making vanilla sugar is super easy, too.  I keep mine in a quart jar in the cupboard, and when it starts to run low, I just top it up with more sugar, give it a shake, and leave it for a while before using it again.

vanilla.sugar

Ingredients for 1 quart jar

1 vanilla bean pod
granulated sugar, to fill

Take the vanilla pod and carefully cut into it, lengthwise, to split it open.  Cut the entire pod into 3 or 4 pieces.

Pour sugar, with cut up pod pieces, into the jar, leaving an inch or two of head space.  Seal the jar tightly, then shake thoroughly to distribute the pod pieces throughout.

Set jar aside for a week before using.  Shake occasionally.

If you wish to use the sugar in baking, which can be done to replace vanilla in a recipe that uses both vanilla and granulated sugar, make up a larger batch.  If you went up to a gallon (4L) size container, two vanilla bean pods would be enough.

The vanilla bean pods will continue to flavour the sugar for a long time, as fresh sugar is added to the jar to refill.  I’ve had mine for about 3 years, give or take a few months, and am just now thinking of refreshing the vanilla bean pieces.  I rarely use it for baking, but then, we don’t bake sweets very often.  Instead, I keep a separate sugar bowl for vanilla sugar on the table for our tea.

That’s it!  Easy peasy!