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First April stock up shop: this is what $580 in total looks like

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The grand total was actually higher, but I don’t have photos of everything. 😄

Today, my younger daughter and I headed into the city to do the more tiring of our stock up shops.

I’m happy to say that Damocles ran well, with no issues, though road conditions certainly didn’t help matters much! I still expect the truck to break down at any moment. 🫤

At least the roads were better than yesterday. Today turned out to be a relatively warm (hovering on either side of 0C/32F, depending on where we were at the time) and very sunny. Which meant that the last of the ice built up in the wheel wells finally came off! With a little help from my daughter bashing at some of it with her cane. 😄

Our first stop for shopping was Canadian Tire. It’s attached to a mall and my daughter treated us to breakfast (well… more like lunch, by then) in the food court, first. So nothing there came out of my own budget.

At the Canadian Tire, we got three bags of the litter pellets we needed, plus a bag of seed starting mix, a two pack of nail brushes for the bathroom and the kitchen, plus a couple of packs of marigold seeds. I was specifically looking for the French variety, which is the one that is good for repelling damaging insects. It took some digging, but my daughter finally found some French Double Dwarf marigold seeds. I’ll start some of those when we do our next round of seeds in a couple of weeks, possibly more in May, and I still plan to direct sow some, so we should have them blooming through most of the summer.

Total damage at Canadian Tire was $48.41

As we were leaving, we stopped by a gas station and put in $40 in gas – I’ll fill the tank when I do the Costco run and reset our trip mileage counter. When we drove though the town my mother is in (again), gas was $1.729/L. In the city, it was $1.529/L!!! What a difference! Usually, it’s just a few pennies cheaper in the city, if at all.

Our next stop was Walmart. This is what $301.84 looks like.

*sigh*

This is what we got for our money.

There is a case of facial tissues, four bags of dry kibble, a flat of 24 Coke Zero, a couple of packs of wet wipes, spray cleaner, compostable compost bags, incontinence pads, and a total of 9 energy drinks for my daughters and I.

For actual food, strawberries were an excellent price, so we got two packs. We also got three packs of frozen heat and eats; chicken nuggets, popcorn chicken and fish sticks, for those days when we’re all too broken to cook. I also got four more pounds of butter, as they were still at a better than Costco price.

And that’s it. That’s all I got.

My daughter picked up something for herself, but also paid for an item I’d picked up as an unplanned extra. We found ergonomic snow shovels on clearance and grabbed one. It was marked down to only $17. It wouldn’t fit in the cart, so my daughter carried it around the whole time we did the shopping, then snuck off with it to pay for it herself as a gift for me. 😄😂

Most of this was the kibble, but still… ouch. And I didn’t even pick up more XXL puppy pads or wet cat food for the beasts this time, either! We got a total of 29 items on this purchase, and that includes the 9 individual cans of Monster.

*sigh*

By this time, we were already both exhausted and hurting, but we still had one more stop to make. The international grocery store. We haven’t been there in ages, and I was thinking ahead to our Easter baskets, for ourselves and for my mother.

This is what $279.11 looks like – and that was after discounts totaling $114.56!

Yeah, that looks pretty empty, doesn’t it?

This is what we got.

For fruit, we got a bag of Mandarin oranges, red grapes and bananas that weren’t solid green, like the ones at Walmart were. We also got a package of small cremini mushrooms.

The biggest purchase – and the biggest savings – was the ahi tuna loin. It was a “buy one, get one free” deal. This is something we get for the girls only when there are huge sales like this, and this is the only place I know of that has these.

We also got some locally made, unsliced bacon, two regular smoked and two applewood smoked, on an “Any 4 for $20” sale. There is a calabrese sausage that I got specifically for my husband, for snacking on.

We got a couple of cheeses for the Easter baskets; a little Boursin Fig and Balsamic Vinegar for ours, and a roasted garlic Havarti for my mother’s. We also got stuffed olives – one with feta, the other with garlic – for the baskets, though I don’t think my mother likes olives, so maybe just for ours.

My daughter found some sauces she remembered they were out of (I don’t use these in my own cooking). A particular fish sauce, a Siracha, and some oyster sauce. The seaweed is mostly for them, too, though I sometimes like to grab a package to snack on, all by itself.

I spotted a few other things not normally on our list that I grabbed, as they are things we typically get only when they are on sale, or they are not often in stock, so we grab when we can. One of those was some dark coffee for the girls; it’s almost never under $20 anymore, so I grabbed one, even though the girls still had a “spare” at home. Squeeze bottle pizza sauce was on sale, so I grabbed one, to make mini pizzas on the naan bread I recently picked up. I got some Twinings tea because my loyalty card offers had $6.50 off of a $7.49 package, and extra tea is always good. I also grabbed some Himalayan Pink Salt that wasn’t in a grinder. We have a grinder, so we just need a refill, but finding just the coarse rock salt on its own has been surprisingly difficult. I was about ready to order in on Amazon, so I was very happy to see it in stock.

Last of all, we got food for everyone for supper. For my husband, we got a huge Lumberjack sandwich, which will feed him for a couple of days. 😄 I got their last Bento box; chicken teriyaki. My daughter chose a Poke bowl and a Chef Sampler from the sushi bar for herself and her sister. Then, for the road home, I got an energy drink for myself and my daughter got an Arizona Green Tea – plus I grabbed an extra Peaches and Cream Monster for my daughter for later, because it’s her favourite and we hardly ever see that flavour.

One of the loyalty card offers I had available was a “spend $10, get $10 off” deal. That was after the $114.56 in discounts I got with sales, for 28 items in total. I could have used loyalty points to get other discounts, but I want to save them up again. I can usually get at least a free turkey at the end of the year with them. Not too bad, considering we don’t make it into the city to shop there all that often.

Okay, I just got a phone call from my brother and had to share this.

He just left from visiting our mother. She had told him our vandal and his wife had visited today – with his wife pushing him in, in a wheelchair. They were there for the money he thought she would give him to pay for his funeral. She told him, no. He’s rich, he has land, etc. He should pay for his own funeral. Why is he coming to her?

When it became clear he wasn’t getting any money, he got up out of the wheelchair and walked away, with his wife and my mother both calling after him to come back.

My mother said she wanted to talk to his wife, but she just left, too. I assume she took the wheelchair with her.

As far as I know, they don’t have a wheelchair. His house isn’t wheelchair accessible, anyhow. Most likely, they borrowed one of the “public” wheelchairs available in the hospital the TCU is located in.

[I got a confirmation while I was going over this post, looking for typos. Yes, it was a hospital wheelchair.]

When my brother told me our vandal got up and walked away, I could only laugh. What a scammer!!

Good on my mother for actually standing up to him. I’d been trying to tell her, how he acts when he’s around her isn’t at all like how my brother and I have been seeing him, and that he’s probably putting on an act. Yes, he’s sick, but anytime we see him, he looks quite robust for someone who constantly says he’s dying. Now, he just proved me right. He fakes it when around my mother.

And his wife is part of the role play.

*sigh*

Okay, back to the topic at hand!

Adding all our stops together, including gas, this was a $669.36 day. Slightly over budget for this stock up trip (the gas comes out of a different line in the budget), but with how late we did our last stock up trip, plus what I got locally just a little while ago, hopefully we won’t need to use as much of our Costco budget.

We’ll just have to see what the prices are when we get there, next week.

The Re-Farmer

Seriously?

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It had been light snow, off and on, all day.

Now we have this.

Seriously???

It’s supposed to continue from how to about 2am. The forecast of just a couple of inches in total over the span of three days is now 7.75cm/3in just for tonight.

I am so tired of winter.

Watch, we’ll get our April blizzard this year, too…

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Walmart stock up shop: This is what $455 looks like

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Yes!!!!!

We have the truck back, and it’s actually working again!

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

This morning the cats had me up early, so I did the outside routine that my daughter has been doing for the last while. This time, she got to sleep in. 😊 We had fog warnings overnight, and it was still a bit foggy in the distance as I went to switch out the garage cam memory card. Heavy fog earlier meant thick frost, of course.

It was already starting to disappear by then, too.

Once the outside stuff was done, one of the first things I needed to do was call the garage to follow up on a text I sent yesterday about the truck. They open at 8am, and I was just about to call them then, when my phone rang.

It was the dental clinic. I was on their cancellation list, and they had a cancellation for 10am this morning. Would I be able to take it?

I had no choice but to turn it down. My appointment is on Friday, though, so it won’t be much longer to wait.

When I called the garage, the owner answered right away. He confirmed for me that they had the part. I asked for an idea of when it would be done, so I knew when to book a cab. He told me, 1pm, but they would call if there was any change. Thankfully, the cab was available (we have a single taxi serving several municipalities) and I messaged him to see if he was available to pick me up at one. I wanted to give the garage all the time they needed to get the job done!

With that confirmed, I wanted to finally do our Walmart stock up shop – almost a month late – after picking up the truck. My younger daughter offered to come with me, which I was happy to have the company.

It was shortly after noon when I texted the garage to let them know I was able to get the cab booked for a 1pm pick up and asked the status of things, making sure to add that they could thoroughly test drive the truck afterward. I also brought up that I wanted to talk about pre-financing and trading in the truck. I got a response that the truck was already good to go!

Such good news.

We got the cab to drive me to a local bank, though, not the garage, so I could take out some cash to pay him. The drive was definitely a bit scary! We had high winds and more blowing snow the closer we got to town, with worse road conditions and poor visibility. The areas that were getting drifted over were also melting at the same time! The taxi is a lot lower to the ground than the truck is (my daughter and I were both struggling to get in and out!), so he had to drive on the wrong side of the road a few times to avoid having issues. Thankfully, there was little traffic.

My daughter and I then walked to the garage from the bank; it’s just a few blocks. The owner wasn’t there, however. There was a woman that I think might have been his wife (I’ve only seen his wife very briefly, and she was bundled up for outside). It turns out the owner had gone home sick. She was expecting me, though, and had the keys ready and waiting. I brought up that I was hoping to talk about pre-financing, so she took some notes and said she would get him to call me tomorrow. Hopefully, he will be feeling better by then.

Thankfully, the work was covered by warranty, so we only had to pick up the keys.

From there, we headed straight south to the smaller city to finally do our stock up shopping. It was straight into the wind, which wasn’t too bad – and the truck was running smooth, solid and quiet. Then we saw a thick fog up ahead, which turned out not to be fog at all.

It was heavy snowfall.

It was still warm enough that the snow melted as soon as it touched the truck or the road!

By the time we go to the Walmart, though, we’d driven through the system and it was barely snowing at all as we went in. It was past 2 by then and neither of us had had lunch, so we stopped at the McRaunchies (just over $30 for the two of us!). There was something my daughter was after in their electronics department, but the Walmart no longer carried it. After we ate, she popped across the parking lot (slowly, because she’s still caning it) to a Staples to see if they had it, then met up with me later. The store is being completely renovated and everything has been moved around, so it took a bit longer to find everything. My daughter had a few items of her own to pick up and went through the self check out, so what’s pictured below is just the general shopping.

This is what $455.52 looks like.

Yes, it looks stuffed, and there’s more on the bottom, too, but it’s mostly large cat supplies taking up space.

Here is what we got today.

For the cats, there are three bags of kibble – two for the outside cats, one for the inside cats – and a spare case of canned cat food, as well as a package of XXL pee pads.

In other non-food items, there’s a package of paper towels, a package of incontinence pads, 4 jugs of distilled water, some magnesium complex supplements and some ibuprofen for the girls (I can’t use ibuprofen with the anti-inflammatories I’m taking). For drinks, there’s a 12 pack of Coke Zero, some English Breakfast tea and Double Bergamot Early Grey tea.

In produce, they had five pound bags of potatoes at only $1.97 (usually, they’re closer to $8, locally) each, so we got two. We also got a bag of carrots. I was thinking to pick up some fruit, but nothing looked good. I was also looking to get more flour, but they were almost $20 for the larger bag we usually get! I saw that size at under $10 the last time we were at Costco, so we’ll get more flour there.

For protein, I got some pink salmon fillets for the girls, a 24 pack of hot dog wieners, some frozen chicken strips and a package of breakfast sausages.

In the “quick, heat and eat” category – because we all need a break right now – I also got a big bag of frozen tater tots.

Then there’s a flat of eggs, 2L of milk, and four pounds of butter. The butter was only $4.97 each, which is better than Costco, so I made sure to get extra.

I also saw cake mixes and icing going for only $1.87, so I got a box of chocolate cake and chocolate icing. There’s also a jar of sandwich pickles that was only $2.77, and penne pasta bags for only $1.97. Both much better prices than I’ve seen in a while. Plus there is a jar of mayo and a bag of popcorn.

For bread, we got two 12 packs of hot dog buns and three loaves of rye bread.

Then we have some treats. My husband requested some Sour Patch candies, so there are two bags of those. At $10.77 each, they are almost $2 less than local prices. We also got a total of five bags of chips; I picked for myself and my husband while my daughter picked for herself and her sister.

For the drive home, I got a package of lightly salted pistachios – the price had dropped to $6.97, while locally they are approaching $13 for the same size bag. For my daughter, we got a package of Teriyaki beef jerky.

And that’s all of it.

The cat supplies make up the biggest part of the bill.

By the time I was checked out, my daughter was already at the truck so she could put her own purchases into a bag – we never bother to bring any in with us, partly because I never know how many we would actually end up needing. It took a while to pack everything and load the back of the truck, then start heading home.

With the weather we had, I knew the road we usually cross over to take a different highway would be in rough shape, so we took the same highway that would take us back to town before turning for home. With gas at $1.729/L, that would give me the chance to go to a Shell station, where my CAA card gets me a discount on gas.

This route is slower, because we got through a series of small towns along the lake. I’m glad we did, though, because I sure didn’t mind having to slow down. We updated the family before we started heading out, and my husband informed us that it had started to snow at home. Where we were, however, it was raining!

Then the rain turned to snow.

Yeah, we drove right back into storm conditions again.

By the time we cleared all the little towns and onto open highway again, we pretty much drove right through it. We stopped for gas and also picked up some Monster energy drinks. The Walmart had next to none and… well, my CAA card gives me a discount on those, too.

From there it was straight home. All the areas we’d driven through in the cab, where things were drifting over, wet and slushy, were all melted away! It was clear driving, for the most part.

The truck behaved.

Talking with my daughter about it, I told her how, with so many things breaking down, and how the truck had been working, then not working, then working again, seeing how well it was running didn’t actually make me feel better. Driving it was like having the Sword of Damocles hanging over my head. What weird thing will go wrong next?

The truck is now named Damocles.

One thing felt really strange while driving home, and that was realizing it was past 5pm, and it was bright and sunny out! We were both feeling like it should be full dark at 4:30. Part of that is because there’s still so much snow. The municipality has the back hoe out, though. They’re starting to clear snow out of the ditches, to prevent ice dams and flooding once things really start to melt. The ditches slope to drain to the lake, and if they’re not clear the snowmelt can take out the highway in no time.

It was so nice out that, after unloading the truck and feeding the outside cats, I stayed out to try and do a bit of shoveling. I’d driven up to the house without turning the truck around first, because I hadn’t cleared the area behind the garage completely yet. With everything so soft and melting, I knew the truck would start sinking and spinning, and I really didn’t want to test the new differential that much, yet! I didn’t even need to wear a coat, it was so nice out.

My brother’s truck is still pulled as far into the garage as it can go. There is no way I can maneuver it back into the spot my brother had it parked before, so for now, our truck will stay parked in the yard.

The cats were all over it, of course. I’m going to have to be very careful when we had to take it out again!

I wasn’t able to completely clear the turn around space, but I think it should be okay now. I didn’t want to push myself too much and reinjure my right arm, which is still not really recovered.

So there we are.

We have our truck back. It’s behaving well. We finally got our Walmart stock up trip done. We would do our usual stock up shopping this coming weekend and I plan to do that as normal, with both the Costco trip and the Walmart/Canadian Tire and maybe the international grocery store run.

I’m so glad that we try to maintain a decent amount of supplies at all times. This isn’t the first time we’ve had to rely on them. Now, it’s time to replenish. Having enough for at least a month is not just “prepping”. It’s prudent planning!

Just in case Damocles drops his sword. Again.

The Re-Farmer

Ouch

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Well, I did get out to work on some shoveling. I needed to focus on the inner yard so that we could drive the truck up to the house.

It was a beautiful day for it and I did get a decent amount done, but I wasn’t able to finish it. My right elbow gave out, first. It became simply too painful to bend it after a while.

Once inside and settling in, I paused to take some painkillers. I keep a bottle by my nightstand, so I sat on the edge of my bed to reach it.

With my right arm.

I could barely pick up the bottle.

Then I tried to get up to get a water bottle from my mini-fridge.

That’s when my left hip gave out.

I actually had to get my husband – the one with the back injury that has left him disabled for almost 15 years – to get the water bottle out for me, so I could take my painkillers! Thankfully, I keep a cane with feet standing by my bedside; I use it to help me stand up out of bed. It’s on my right, but I had to move it so I could use my left arm to get myself standing, because I couldn’t put any weight on my right arm.

Being broken sucks.

I’ll have to make sure to take my anti-inflammatories soon, but I’ll need to take those with a full meal.

Ouch.

Meanwhile…

I sent a text to the garage. Obviously, we weren’t going to be getting the truck back today, and I acknowledged that I could see that. I brought up that, with all the weird things going on with the truck, we need to talk pre-financing to find out what we can trade it in for. Plus, about selling my mother’s car on consignment. I was hoping to wait until after the snow was gone, at least, before trading the truck in, and getting a few more payments against it, but we just can’t hold off anymore.

I got a response, just before they closed for the day. The part had not arrived yet. He said he would phone to find out where it is, and agreed about talking pre-financing. Since he has the truck there, they have access to all the information they need to look up the trade in value, etc.

It is highly unlikely we’ll be able to get another truck. Ideally, a minivan would be the alternative, but their resale prices tend to be even higher than trucks, apparently. SUVs, on the other hand, tend to be more reasonable. In the end, beggars can’t be choosers! We’ll take what we can get, as long as it’s something my husband can get in and out of without too much pain, and there’s room for his walker.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Which will it be?

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A lot of areas in our province had a lot of problems with yesterday’s snowfall. It wasn’t as bad where we are, but at this point, I’m okay if the truck repair doesn’t happen today, either. More time to clear some snow.

The question is, what will things be like over the next few days?

I got this forecast from the weather app on my desktop.

Up to 3C/37F tomorrow? Up to 6C/43F the day after? Mix of sun and clouds? Wouldn’t that be nice!

I got this from the weather app on my phone.

So… 2C/36F over the next two days. Fog tomorrow evening. Mix of rain and snow the next morning, then just snow through until the weekend.

We’ll see which one turns out to be right!

This time of year is always the hardest. Spring is teasing, but winter just isn’t letting go, yet!

Meanwhile, we hibernate while waiting for work on the truck. My younger daughter got up at 2am, cleaned the kitchen and has been baking bread all morning. What a sweetheart!

The Re-Farmer

A day of digging

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I ended up outside for about four hours, digging paths in the snow – and I’m not done!

The priority was to get the fire pit area cleared. That has been drifted over for at least a couple of months now. I got the easy paths done first, though, like the path to the litter compost area. On that side, there was one path that got drifted over that I hadn’t gotten to previously, and I needed to use the ice scraper tool to break up the packed snow to get it clear. The rest of the most used paths only needed minor clearing.

The first section of the path to the fire pit area was brutal. I didn’t even try to re-dig the original path from before. That’s where, in the video, you can see a dark trail from dirty little cat feet. Normally, I’d clear the cat path to where they get under the storage house, with a branch off towards the fire pit. That cat path was too hard packed, so I cleared a new path next to it, until I reached where the old path branched off.

Even working off to one side, the snow was so hard packed, even the blade from the ice scraper had difficulty cutting through. I probably spent as much time on that one short section as I did the rest of the path to the fire pit area. If I had tried to use little Spewie to try and clear it, it would have broken. I’m pretty sure even my brother’s gas powered snow blower would have broken, trying to get through there!

Speaking of which, my brother came out today. Along with stuff he needed to do in their storage, he got his own truck set up. He used the snow blower in the outer yard and driveway as well, and moved his truck to our garage, where it can partially fit through the door. The cap on the box of his truck is too high to drive all the way in. He made sure it was all prepared so we can use it, if we have to.

He is convinced something is going to happen to prevent our truck from being ready in a few days, or it’s going to break down again, and we’re going to need to use his truck.

I really don’t want to use his truck! I appreciate the offer, for sure, but it’s a bigger truck, a rear wheel drive and basically a one wheel drive. It’s done very well for them, and I am incredibly grateful the option is there, but I really, really would rather not have to use it!

While I was digging one of the last sections of path, my brother came over to get me and show me the truck. He had it part way in the garage, and had set up a large board across the floor, in front of the tires, to make sure it didn’t go past that point. Otherwise, the top of the box cap would hit the top of the garage door frame! He had me start it and back it out, and walked me through various things on it. This truck as two gas tanks; something we’ve never had. As old as it is, it has lower mileage than our truck! He had some things he wanted to take out of the back, so after going over it with me, he took care of that, then drove it back in position party way into the garage while I went back to shoveling.

I was near finished shoveling when he came over again. He wanted to take pictures of section of the drain pipe from the kitchen, across to the bathroom. Under the bathroom, with the maze of pipe joins, the main drain changes size twice before the final length of 3″ pipe that runs to the septic tank. He is thinking of replacing the pipe from under the kitchen to under the bathtub with 3″ pipe, so that it can handle the volume of water from when the washing machine drains. The washing machine’s pump drains it faster than the water can go through the 1 1/4″ pipe. The problem is, there not a lot of room to put a 3″ pipe through!

I told him about how I’d run the drain auger through three times, after the plumber last got it unblocked for us. Not even the commercial drain auger can get the inside of the pipes completely clear from decades of grease and grime from the kitchen sink, and the sink that used to be set up where the washing machine is now.

I’ve picked up a brush set that’s designed to clean pellet stove pipes or dryer vents. It has two brush sizes, one of which will fit inside this pipe, and it can reach up to 30 feet. It’s about 20 feet to the corner under the bathroom. I think that if I can scrub out the inside of the pipe, that would solve the problem, and we can have the washing machine drain to the septic tank instead of out the window in the main door! I haven’t done it yet because it would be a very messy job that I would need to prepare for. Just running the auger through was messy and disgusting enough! Until it’s done, though, we don’t even dare try testing it again. The last time we did, even after the blockage was cleared by the plumber, we ended up flooding the entryway again. The water just couldn’t drain through the pipe fast enough.

That done, it was back outside. My brother had a few last things to do before leaving, and I did a bit more clean up around the paths before starting to put things away. I dug out fire wood that had been partially buried in snow, and left it out in the sun to melt a bit before having a cookout tomorrow. March is a birthday month and we always celebrate on a weekend near the birth date, usually with a special take out meal (going to a restaurant is no longer an option). Obviously, we can’t do that this month, but I still want to do something special, so we’ll be having a cookout, instead!

Before putting everything away, I finally took the snow off the cat shelter roofs. I’d been leaving the snow as an extra layer of insulation, but we don’t really need that anymore. Now, I want the sun to actually warm up the shingles and metal roof panels and melt away any remaining build up of ice and snow.

By the time I got in, I was pretty wasted. My daughters have basically taken over the other jobs I normally would have done, and made sure I got fed! 😄

Tonight, I’m thinking to prep some things in advance for the cookout before heading to bed. I’m still deciding on what that might be.

Meanwhile, I still need to dig out one more path. With the cookout planned for tomorrow, I might leave that for Monday. We’ll see. I definitely want to get it done before the first day of spring, though, as I plan to do my first “garden tour” video of the year. 😄 It won’t be the first time I did one with everything covered in snow!

Little by little, it’s getting done!

The Re-Farmer

I’m going to need to decompress after this one!

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Okay, so things got done and I’m home now.

First, the good parts.

I texted the cab company (it’s one guy with one car) last night to book a trip for today. Once it was confirmed he was available to pick me up in the afternoon, I called the grocery store. I had used their website to build a shopping list, using the new flier, etc. They have a delivery service that allowed to have the list transferred over with a click. That would have allowed me to submit my shopping list, work out payment, and then either have it delivered or ready for pick up. Except I knew no one would be delivering where we live. I expected to be able to arrange a pick up. Our nearest location, however, didn’t even come up as an option.

Which just meant I had to phone the store directly. Since I used their website to build my list, I could just read it off. I also let them know when I would be arriving to pick up (more or less) and was assured it would be ready by then. That done, I confirmed with the taxi about the times. I even got a call this morning to ask about substitutions, and could even call them back later on to add something to the list my husband requested.

The grocery store was just the first place I needed to go. I went to the customer service desk and the only delay was people running around because someone had fallen in the parking lot, and an ambulance had been called. My order had already been processed and suspended, so it just needed to be called up and paid for, then someone went to the back to bring out the cart. It was all boxed up, so I didn’t even need to use the bags I’d brought along.

After the cab was loaded up, the next stop was the bank so I could use the ATM to pay him. I asked him how much it was before I went in, so I had an idea of how much I needed to take out. It was already $50 by then.

From there, it was back home with a stop at the post office. It has been more than a week, so the mail box was stuffed with fliers, but the important mail we were waiting for was there, plus I now had a parcel to pick up.

As we left, I messaged the family to let them know we were almost there, so they could be ready to assembly line things to the house, and that I was telling the driver to just pull up to the garage, not into the yard, so it would be easier for him to leave.

Final bill was pennies over $90, before tip. I can’t begrudge it. Gas prices have gone up to $1.559 – and no, it’s not because of what’s going on in the Middle East. It’s just our government inflating prices again, then blaming Trump and the US, which has become the modus operandi since Marx Carnage became our new Prime Dictator.

I’d better watch myself. With the newest bills they’re trying to push through, especially after buying another MP and getting the majority government they couldn’t get through an election, I can be arrested for saying that.

Anyhow…

The girls were waiting for me when we got there, everything was unloaded to the garage and we assembly lined bringing everything to the house as the driver left.

Now for the down side.

The drive is a nice guy. He really is.

He’s a terrible driver.

Also, he car sounds like it’s about to break down any minute. It did not sound like this, the last time he drove me into town!

When he first got here, I met him at the gate, leaving it open for when we got back. He didn’t drive fully into the driveway, and had to do some maneuvering in order to turn around because of it. He mentioned getting stuck twice in the last while, so I can understand his being super cautious.

As soon as we headed out, I immediately heard and felt something wrong with the car, but I didn’t say anything about it. I figured, he would know about his own car.

What he clearly doesn’t know, is how to drive on icy gravel roads. Even in the first quarter mile, he was already starting to speed and I could feel the car losing traction. I told him to feel free to drive as slow as he needed, and that the area ahead was prone to deer crossings. He did slow down, but after the first mile, he started speeding again. That section was better, but he didn’t slow down when we were coming up on the intersection at the highway, where it is always sheer ice. So I let him know that the area ahead was really bad for being slippery, and he did eventually start to slow down, but still ended up sliding a bit because he was still going too fast while breaking for the stop sign.

Once driving through our little hamlet, where the speed limit is 50km/h in good conditions, he started speeding again. It wasn’t good conditions, though certainly better than the gravel road.

Then we got through the residential area, and the limit increased to 100km/h. Which would have been okay, except, being a nice guy, he was also very talkative.

He talks with his hands.

At least he mostly kept one hand on the steering wheel, but he was all over the road. At one point, driving in the middle of the highway. Thankfully, there were no oncoming vehicles at that time!!

Meanwhile, the entire time we were driving, I was literally expecting the car to break down.

He drove me to where I needed to go, and then we were on the way home. I discovered he’s not good at getting around other vehicles, either, and had a mild heart attack as he drove around a plow truck that was just through an intersection, setting up to clear drifts off the shoulders. With oncoming traffic.

When we got back to our hamlet, we stopped at the post office and it wasn’t too bad – until he got back on the gravel road. Again, I tried to let him know, he didn’t need to be in a hurry, and which sections were known to be slippery. He started asking about other towns and hamlets in the area, gesturing broadly with one hand, weaving on the icy road with the other. As we started to get to the intersection by our place, I mentioned how the road past our place isn’t on any maps, so that’s why we made the sign at the corner of the property, with the road name on it, because the sign with the name got stolen. I even gestured at the stop sign that had been knocked down in the process. At that point, I had to say, please slow down!

It turns out he was so distracted by talking, he was about to drive right past our intersection. He had to back up to be able to take the turn.

When we drove in, one of my daughters was waiting at the garage, while the other was waiting at the people gate into the yard. After bringing everything in, my younger daughter went back out to close the gate while I helped my older daughter put things away. As we were talking, she comments on the noises coming from the car! She thought it sounded ready to break down, too.

I’m happy we got the errands done, the mail finally picked up – and to be home again, safe and sound!

I really wasn’t sure about that last part for much of the drive.

I really hope the truck gets fixed soon. I don’t think I could handle another cab ride.

Oh, crud. I’ll have to get the cab to drive me in to pick up the truck, anyhow.

*sigh*

We’ll figure it out!!!

The Re-Farmer

Whoops!

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I got distracted and forgot I didn’t make a post!

It was a quiet day, and I was even able to get some crochet done.

I do have a bit of a morning update on the truck.  More perplexity.  They test drive the truck a couple if times yesterday.  

It was working fine.

At least, the first time they drove it.  The last time they drove it, it started making noises again.  They needed to wait for an available hoist si they could check out whatever us going on.

I got a city trip and a visit to my mother with no issues, but that short trip to the dump had do many issues in such a short time, with all those warnings from the onboard computer, it’s bizarre fir it to be working fine after being parked for a day and a half.

My brother says my truck is cursed. 😆

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: “potting up” the onions, and setting things up

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Okay, I got some good progress today!

My first goal was to “pot up” the onions in their seed snails. For this, I wanted to use potting soil, rather than more seed starting mix. I have a bag of potting soil from last year with plenty still left in it, but I knew it was really full of sticks. Which meant I needed to sift it, first, because there was no way it could be used in the snail rolls as it was.

I got out a bucket and a colander that I use for harvesting in the summer, and started sifting in batches. The potting soil was bone dry which made it easier to sift, but also meant there was a LOT of dust. Even misting with water didn’t really help much. I did try to use a dust mask, which is difficult all on its own, since I can’t wear masks anymore. It was either breathing dirt without it, or struggling to breathe with it. Definitely a no-win situation. It didn’t actually help much, to be honest, but it was better than nothing.

I was blown away by just how many sticks I sifted out.

That pile on the side? That’s what I sifted out of what you see in the bucket. I poked my finger in to measure, and it was up to my second joint, so about 2 inches deep. Good grief! It was almost more sticks than soil!

The next step was to moisten the sifted potting soil. I used hot water for that, so it wouldn’t be a shock to the plant roots. It took a remarkable amount of water to moisten it, and I was just aiming to get it wet enough to be able to stick to itself.

Then it was time to get the onions ready.

This is how they looked to start with. These rolls all fit into one bin, and the seedlings are looking pretty good.

The length of them did make unrolling the snail a bit of a challenge! They were tangled together, and wanted to twist around each other as I unrolled the snail.

In the first photo above, I unrolled the first seed snail. These were bottom watered, and you can see that the soil is moist all the way through, and the roots are all the way to the bottom. Some of them seemed a bit crowded, so I did adjust a few of them to space them out a bit. In the second picture, you can see where I’ve added the potting soil on top. From there, it got rolled up and taped closed again.

It was a lot bigger, of course. Only two could fit in the bin I was using, but I did have a second, slightly smaller one, available.

Here are the “potted up” onions. In the second picture, you can see that one of the snails is a lot smaller. That’s the bunching onions. It’s a good thing those didn’t need as much soil, because I was scraping the bucket to get every last bit out for that roll. I really didn’t want to have to sift more!

These are now back in the living room. They are the only things I have space for there, this year.

In order to do this, I had to completely clear my work table. That meant taking away the trays, lights, heat mats, and everything under and around them.

With the onions done, I could then arrange the work space to be ready for the next batch of seed starts. I have the top shelf from a plastic shelf that was too tall to fit in the old basement, and it was used last year to hold trays higher up. That’s what I am using it for again now.

My poor little peppers and eggplant.

Hopefully, the new seeds I sowed yesterday will germinate – and won’t get eaten! I had some concerns about not having heat mats under them anymore, but before I set up the shelf, I made sure to create a wall of cardboard around the back and at one end, then moved the heater so that it was blowing under the shelf. That made a big difference, and the warmth is kept under the shelf enough to warm the trays from below. Not that the heater is on all the time, but even when the furnace is on, now that the opening between the basements is uncovered again, there is heat blowing in and the cardboard, etc. holds it around the plants surprisingly well.

Which you can see better in this next picture.

The insulation leaning at one end it just there until it’s needed later; the cardboard forms a “wall” behind it, out of frame. I’ve got the flaps of the cardboard box under the back legs, so I had to put something under the front legs to level the shelf. Then I set up the insulation pieces, which protect the cutting mat from warping, and the heat mats, ready and waiting. With the seedlings so close to the shop light, the plant lights aren’t needed for now, so they’re just clamped to the table in the front. There is no place to clamp the lights to use them on top of the shelf, anyhow. Everything gets plugged into a power bar with USB ports that I have set up above my work table.

As for our next seed starts, I don’t think I’ll be using the seed trays again. They are all smaller seeds, and for the space, I think I will do more seed snails. I wouldn’t me making them as deep was what I used for the onions, though. More like a third of that height. I have lots of that packing foam available.

I need to remember, though: do not use painters tape to attach them together to make a longer strip. One of the onion rolls started to split at the tape while I was rolling it back up again. It doesn’t like moisture. I’ll have to see what alternatives we have.

That won’t be needed for another week or so.

For now, I’m just glad I don’t need to sift more of that potting soil for a while!!

The Re-Farmer

Here we go again… again

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Funny how things can go so wrong – yet go so right, at the same time!

First off, I am seriously glad I cancelled both my own doctor’s appointment, yesterday, and my daughter’s on Monday, because of concerns about road conditions.

Second, it’s amazing how there were the right people available at the right time, and even the right places.

The truck just got towed to the garage again.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but my first warning of a problem was while backing out of the garage, to load it for a dump run. I wasn’t going to drive up to the house, but I at least wanted to back up closer to the cleared path to the chain link fence. As I was backing up, the truck basically stopped moving. I knew there was a snow bank I needed to clear and I thought I might have backed into it. I tried to get out in 2 wheel drive at first, then switch to 4 wheel drive, but eventually was able to pull forward while in 2 wheel drive and didn’t try backing up again. As I went to the house, though, I could see by the tracks that I never got anywhere near the snow bank. It was just loose snow over ice, and no traction.

My daughter and I loaded up the truck, and then I headed out. Things were really slippery on the gravel road, but once I was on the highway, it was fine.

It was slippery on the gravel road to the dump, but not too bad. I drove up to the booth to show my access card number, but there was no one there. The guy was at the pit area, using a front end loader to clear up the driving area in front. So I went to the recycling bins first and unloaded there, before heading to the pit. I did notice, every time I tried to move, everything was very slippery and the tires were spinning more than usual before I could get traction.

At the pit, I drove further in, to where it was already cleared, then turned to one side, so that I could back up to the pit and unload.

I got stuck.

Tires spinning, no motion.

I tried a few times in 2 wheel drive, then drive both 4 wheel drive settings. I could move forward slightly, but no traction in reverse.

At one point, the guy with the front end loader passed in front of me, clearing way more snow. I hoped that would help, but it didn’t.

After a while, he came out to talk to me. He made a comment about this being a problem with 2 wheel drive. I told him, I’m in 4 wheel drive! He said that only my rear wheels were turning, not the front wheels. !!!

I tried again, setting it to 2 wheel drive, and the front tires started to spin – but now I started getting messages on my dash. Stabilizers Off. Then Service 4 Wheel Drive.

The truck was not moving.

The guy then said he would try to find some cardboard or drywall or something to put behind the tires. I got my handy garden cultivator that we keep in the truck as a grabber, and used it to scratch up the ice behind each tire.

He found some drywall pieces and set them behind the tires, then suggested something to me, assuring me that he’s done it before, and would be safe. He said that he could try standing on the tail gate and bouncing the truck up and down while I reversed, so help it gain traction. So we did that, and it worked! Once I got far enough out, the tires were no longer spinning and I could back up normally.

He then helped me unload the garbage bags. When it was done, he said he would follow me out to make sure I got out okay.

So awesome!

Once I got on the gravel road, though, I could feel the truck starting to fishtail, and I kept having to slow down. The “slippery conditions” light was on continuously. By the time I got to the stop sign and started braking to stop, I started getting
“stabilizer is off” and “traction is off” messages. As slow as I was going, the truck fishtailed to a stop.

Once on the highway and starting to accelerate, it started again.

That shuddering that, until now, only happened while in 4 wheel drive or auto.

I quickly pulled over. After putting it in park, I thought I would just try again and started to move forward again, but the shuddering immediately started.

So I parked, turned on my hazards and got to work.

This is what WordPress AI thinks my truck looks like. No rust. 😄

First was to try and message the family but, for some reason, my phone hasn’t been able to send messages while on data only. So I phoned home and left a message (I knew no one would be close enough to get to the phone before the answering machine kicked in). Then I called CAA.

Thankfully, this time, after going through the initial answering system, it went straight to a live person. The only difficulty there was, they need a physical address. I was on the side of the highway. There was, however, a driveway a short distance away, so I walked over until I could read their driveway marker number. I knew the tow truck drive would be able to find us, but CAA needed a physical address.

That done, I tried to message my brother and his wife, but it wouldn’t send. After some searching in my phone, I found a setting that, for some reason, was off, so my phone was trying to connect to the internet through my phone’s web browser, instead of through a data signal. I’ve never seen this setting before, so this must have been part of the latest OS update.

That done, I could finally send messages, and even look at the CAA map to follow the driver. Not that I was going to use it much, since it’s all open highway. I would be able to see the tow truck from a mile or more away.

Then it was time to wait.

I even had a couple of vehicles slow down beside me to check if I was okay, which was really nice.

I did get a call from the tow truck driver as soon as he got the CAA notice. We talked about my exact location, which side of the highway I was on, etc. He then asked if I would be riding in with him. That was when I asked about the possibility of getting a ride home. He would have to go past the turn to our place anyhow, and we were only 2 miles out of the way.

Also, just one mile past his sister’s place, at the large animal rescue. So he had no problem knowing where I was, and agreed to drive me home along the way.

Which is so extra appreciated, as it turns out my brother wouldn’t have been able to come out – they were on their way to an event in another town – and my sister and her husband might not have been able to, because today is the Sabbath, and their “church” is pretty strict about that sort of thing. Helping me out might have been okay, though. Still, it would have been at least an hour for them to reach me, or they would have to meet me at the garage. Which closes at 1pm on Saturdays.

So that was something else that fell into place.

While we were driving, I told the driver about what happened and what warnings I was seeing. I had left a message on the company phone, but I was able to give him more details this way.

He asked questions about the mileage and stuff, and I told him a bit about the many very odd and unpredictable problems we’ve been having, as well as how this shuddering thing would come and go, and they could never find the cause. It would work fine while they were testing it. He laughed about that part, because he understood completely. He has that happen with his own vehicles! He even brought up that, for the potential cost, first for how much time it might take to find the problem, then the repairs themselves, it might be better to trade it in. I told him that I’ve already been talking to his brother about that, but we still have almost 3 years of payments on it. He assured me, his brother would be able to help us (he even mentioned that, for regular customers, he can do payment arrangements for work done). I brought up that we (my brother and I) have been talking about including my mother’s car as a trade in, but it was suggested we could get a better price by selling it ourselves. I said that’s not something I would feel up to doing, but my brother suggested we could sell it on consignment.

It turns out, our mechanic does sell on consignment!! Plus, we could probably do better that way, since it would be highly visible on the lot.

Something to work out. I co-own my mother’s car, as I needed at least partial ownership to be able to register and insure it. My brother was able to arrange that, as my mother’s PoA. If we do work out something to sell it, it might be easier for him to make me full owner, so he wouldn’t have to come out and sign things on my mother’s behalf.

But I’m getting ahead of myself on that.

Oh, and I did get complimented on the fact that I understood the risks of buying a high mileage vehicle. He said that he’s had quite a few people he’s towed that got high mileage vehicles, then would be really angry and upset because things were wearing out and breaking down. I told him, we knew the risks, but it was what we could afford – and his brother really went above and beyond to help us with the financing (I’m still convinced he sold it to us at a loss). I actually love the truck. It’s the vehicle we need, but all these weird break downs are just too expensive on a fixed income. I told him about some of our past experiences with the high mileage Uplander we had previously, which did remarkably well for us until we finally sold it for scrap. I then mentioned, the vehicle I liked the most was the Dodge Caravan. He perked right up on that. He said that the Caravan is one of the safest vehicles. He told me he’s rolled a bunch of them for the fire department, and has had one roll 10 times, and still not be crushed. !!!

How does one even get a job like that? 😄

As we were driving down the gravel road to our place, I suggested to him that he could drop me off in the intersection, rather than go to our driveway. With the walls of snow, the driveway is pretty tight for such a large vehicle, and he wouldn’t have room to turn around. He appreciated that! Once he got the tow truck turned around, it also gave him a chance to double check the straps securing the truck before he headed to the garage, and I walked the rest of the way home.

As much of a pain this break down is, it couldn’t have happened better.

I had been thinking of doing our Walmart and Canadian Tire run after my medical appointment, yesterday. Because I cancelled that, due to the weather, we didn’t have this happen while we were much, much further from home. Instead, it was only about 10-15 minutes from home.

We did get our Costco stock up shop done. We got the cat food donation. I got our lysine picked up from the feed store. We are good for some time. I even managed to get the dump run done before the break down. Yes, we still need to do our Walmart and Canadian Tire run, but neither of those are urgent. More importantly, I got a visit in with my mother.

I’d already cancelled my daughter’s medical appointment on Monday, just in case, so we won’t be needing to phone to cancel on the day of the appointment.

There was the guy at the dump, able to help me out.

Our regular garage now does CAA towing, and the driver is our mechanic’s brother, so not only do they know the area and could find me where I was, but I knew that anything I told him about what was going on would actually get to our mechanic. Plus, he was able to give me more information and assurances about other things, like that we might be able to get my mother’s car sold on consignment through the garage.

In the end, I have many blessings to count. For something that went wrong, it couldn’t possibly have gone more right in the process.

The Re-Farmer