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Recovery day

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I’m happy with how much I was able to get done outside yesterday, but I know myself well enough by now, not to try and do that two days in a row.

I was pre-emptive about things, which seems to have made a difference. Before going to bed, my daughter was a sweetheart and did my lower back with the diclofenac cream, as I could feel it starting to give out. While I was outside yesterday, taking a break to hydrate, sitting on the storage house steps, I could feel a Charlie horse threatening, so I made sure to treat both my legs with Tei Fu lotion, and took some extra magnesium with my evening meds/supplements. I still have some T3s left, so I took one as well. It seemed to work out, as I was actually able to sleep with zero muscle cramps, and my left hip giving me only relatively minor grief. When I had to get up during the night, all my joints were very stiff, but not painfully so.

Still, I was exhausted. In the morning, I got up before my alarm went off to do a wellness check on my husband. He was stable and doing all right.

My younger daughter has been going to bed very early, then getting up very early. By the time I’d gotten up to check in my husband, she had already mopped the floors and was starting to work in the kitchen. She was a sweetheart and took care of feeding the outside cats so I could go back to bed. I was still awake when she came in, so she regaled me with how the cats were for her. Sweetie seems to have mostly moved into the sun room now. She’ll run off when we come out, but quickly goes back. All the cats were eagerly awaiting the cat soup! I don’t know what we’re going to do when we run out of the donated freeze dried mix we’re using for this. They’re not going to understand why there’s no more cat soup! We don’t even give them a lot of it, considering how many cats are eating it. It’s more like a supplement but, gosh, they love that stuff. Which makes it very strange that the inside cats don’t like it at all!

Anyhow. Thanks to my daughter, I got a couple more hours of sleep, but I’ve still been tired all day. I did go out and do a deep watering of the garden beds. I had intended to work on some other larger jobs; either getting the push mower out at its highest setting to cut back that last overgrown section by the food forest area, now that’s it clear or poplar saplings, or get the electric chain saw out and cut that last big fallen section of maple that’s still in the west yard, into firewood for the fire pit. By the time I was done the watering, it was getting quite hot and, in the end, I wasn’t up to doing either.

I did get a chance to grab a pry bar to see what I could see around the elm tree’s stump that’s surrounded by a tire. After prying around the inside edge of the tire, it seems to be completely filled with soil. The edges I worked the pry bar under were flexible, but there is steel cable in there, so it could be moved only so far. If we can find a way to get that tire off, though, it will make things a lot easier for the tree guys when they come back with the stump grinder.

I must say, though, the yard feels completely different now that the elm tree is gone. I hadn’t realized just how… oppressive it had felt. Now that it’s gone, walking through the area feels so light and open and airy. Yes, we’ve lost a shade tree, and we’ll be feeling the heat through the kitchen window, but that’s nothing a curtain can’t fix. Meanwhile, I can now look out the kitchen window and see so much more! Of course, the “light” feeling has a lot to do with no longer having that one huge branch hanging over the roof, and the constant concern during high winds that it would finally break and fall.

One thing I made a point of doing was to go out and take some garden tour videos, being completely attacked by mosquitoes while I was out there. After uploading the files and watching them, I wasn’t very happy with them, so I went out and did it again. I’m still not happy with them. My head space just isn’t there for it. I plan to go to bed early and, hopefully, when I look at them again tomorrow, I’ll be able to judge them better.

It’s getting a bit cooler now, so I might try going for a walkabout before going to bed. Tomorrow is supposed to be a bit hotter. I’ll be going in to town before we reach the high of the day. My husband has a prescription refill that needs to be picked up, not delivered, so I’ll be getting my new prescription at the same time. I should remember to pick up some more bug spray, too. I’ve run out. There are two containers in the truck, and I can’t find either of them! The mosquitoes are just insane. While trying to take video, I’d find my hand holding my phone suddenly covered with half a dozen mosquitoes. Worse is when I’d accidentally inhale one. Did that several times! Ew.

Anyhow.

I did get a few little things done, but mostly today was a day of recovery. I’m at an age where I know I can’t push myself like I used to!

Getting old and broken really sucks at times. Still better than the alternative, though. 😉😉

The Re-Farmer

It’s finally done!

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Today was absolutely gorgeous out, and I was able to get so much done outside!

I was going to share some of the photos I took, but I need to do my garden tour videos, so I’ll just save it for that. I normally would have taken the videos yesterday, on the 20th, but that didn’t work out. I was going to do it today, but ended up not doing it for a very good reason.

The tree remove guys made it out today! They almost didn’t, calling to say they’d come on Saturday, instead, but then we got another call saying they’d be out in half an hour.

Yay!

Before they got here, I started things outside sometime after 7:30am, with the usual cat feeding, then the morning rounds. I moved the solar powered critter cam off the elm tree that was coming down and attached it to the back of the water bowl shelter, facing the isolation shelter, catio and shrine feeding station. I haven’t experimented yet, but I should be able move it around to see quite a lot of the yard.

Another thing I got done was adjust the netting over the sunflowers at the chain link fence. I’d already adjusted the hoops, but they are growing fast and already pressing against the netting again. I took the slack off from over the fence and draped it into the inside of the hoop rods, which are now mostly just standing straight up. The netting is still wrapped around the ends of the bed to keep the cats out, but it worked. The sunflower can now grow to their full height with nothing obstructing them. I also spent some time training the winter squash up the chain link fence, as much as possible.

After breakfast, I headed out again and transplanted the few more little seedlings that have managed to sprout in the seed tray. Two winter squash, same variety that I suddenly can’t remember. Golden Pippin, maybe? There were two Siberian watermelon, two other melons of different varieties, and a single Eureka cucumber. The first that has germinated from these old seeds. I have no idea if any of them will survive, and it’s unlikely there is enough growing season left for any of them, but I’m still hoping we have a long and mild fall.

The transplanting done, I broke out the push mower. I was able to do the paths around the main garden beds, then around the tarp on the ground, where it’s killing off another section of grass and weeds, and cleared around the little poppy and winter squash bed. Then I kept going and was able to clear more of the area where the poppy bed it, though not all of it, and got in among the trees in the maple grove.

I kept that up until I headed in for lunch. The rest will have to wait for another time. After eating (my daughter was a sweetheart and made lunch for me) I headed back outside, this time with the weed trimmer. Since I’d gotten so much done with the push mower first, I was able to finally do the edges of all the main garden beds and even go into the maple grove a fair bit. I was able to clear enough to access around most of the old garden shed, where there is a lot of stuff that needs to be moved to the junk pile for later hauling away.

It was while I was on my third battery and almost finished that one, when I guy came around the house. It was one of the tree guys, hauling the lift. Two other guys hauling the wood chipper showed up not long after.

I showed him which trees needed to be done. The big elm tree was priority, but he assured me they had time to do the dead spruce, too.

Normally, that tree would have been de-branched, then brought down in roughly 4′ sections. I asked him if it was possible to do it differently, as it was a nice straight tree and I wanted to use the wood. I explained that I wanted the thickest part of the trunk in a 10′ section, then an 18′ section, and the rest would be the usual 4′ sections. He said that would not be a problem. They would debranch the tree, fell it whole, then cut the lengths I wanted.

I also said I wanted to keep the wood chips, which he was good with. In fact, there were chips already in the truck that I could have, too! I wanted to have the pile closer to the house this time, and decided on a space I’d just cleared because the chicken coop (still, sadly, without chickens).

When the truck with the shredder arrived, they started off with the spruce. Using the lift, they removed all the branches and the top. Chipping the branches filled the truck, so I got a lot of wood chips rather quickly.

Then they left the spruce and moved to the elm tree.

While they worked, I did a bit more weed trimming before the last battery died. Then I got the wagon and some loppers and headed back to the main garden area. My SIL has been slowly chipping away at the overgrown area with their zero turn mower, but part of it has a whole bunch of poplars invade, and many were too big, even for that mower. I was able to clear all of the poplar out of that area, then did the area near the old squash tunnel, which was also getting very full of poplar saplings invading the open area. These areas can now finally be mowed! There are still more little poplars I need to clean up, that that will wait for antoehr day.

By this time, I was getting quite tired and sore, and sat with a water bottle where I could safely see how the tree guys were doing.

Fantastic. They were doing amazing.

That elm tree was a huge job. The started off using an extended pole chain saw and cleared the south side of the tree, leaving the huge branch over the roof for last. While one guy was on the lift, very carefully taking sections off, the other two guys were cleaning up. They stopped to chip branches several times, with more clean up in between.

Getting the roof clear was the “easy” part. Then they got to the main trunk. It was too thick to take down in pieces, and they ended up using a chain saw and wedges to fell the whole thing.

The balance of weight at the top, however, made that very unpredictable. As soon as it started falling, the top twisted around. The guy with the chainsaw had to let go and jump back. The trunk hit the chainsaw on the way down, flipping it around, before landing.

Amazingly, the chainsaw not only kept running, but didn’t break!

Then they had to break the trunk down, and reduce the stump as far as they could.

What a huge job!

We now have a huge stack of green wood, including some amazing slices. There is potential for carving in there, before it get weathered and dry. It’s been a long time since I’ve done any wood carving.

Once the elm was down and everything cleaned up, they went back to the spruce tree. That gave ma a chance to take the above pictures. The second one has my rubber booted foot in it for scale.

Talking to one of the guys later on, he brought up about coming back with the stump grinder, but he’s at a loss about what to do with that tire. The stump grinder can’t touch that, or it will be damaged. It has to be removed somehow. It would be filled with tree and soil.

As for the spruce, it took a lot faster to bring that down than how it would usually be done, in pieces. They felled it, taking steps to make sure it fell in the direction they needed it to. When it landed, it actually bounced, and exploded loose bark all over the place!

Then they cut the sections I’d asked for and, amazingly, picked up and carried them to where I wanted. The 10′ log was heavier, and that got placed near the first one I’ve already collected. Sort of. I had meant to store the lengths along the side of the garage, but my brother parked his baler in the space, so I got them to just leave it along the chain link fence. It’s blocking that half of the gate, but the hinges are broken anyhow, so I could simply take the gate off and put it back on again.

It took the three of them to take the 18′ length to the main garden area for me, then two of the guys brought over the 4′ pieces while the third one worked on the stump. That stump needed to go as close to the ground as possible. I told him that this is where the septic truck has to squeeze through. Now, not only is there more space to maneuver, but there won’t be a stump in the way, either.

Once that was all done and cleaned up, they were on their way out. It all took 3 1/2 hours. I was able to give the main guy my brother’s email address to send the bill to. At 3 1/2 hours, that worked out to $1400, plus tax.

We talked a bit about coming back with the stump grinder – I only asked for a call in advance so I could open the gate – and the problem of that tire, then he headed out.

At this point, there was still enough light that I cold start making some garden tour video, but by this time, I was too exhausted. It’s been outside for almost 12 hours by then, minus going inside to eat and hydrate.

So I will do that tomorrow.

It’s coming up on 9:30pm as I write this, and I am more than ready to collapse into bed.

It feels so good to have gotten so much work done outside! I’m going to pay for it tonight and probably tomorrow but, for now, I am feeling really good.

Well.

Except for the falling asleep while I type thing that’s also going on right now!

The Re-Farmer

Stock up shop: This is what $190 looks like

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Today’s stock up shop was very strange, and quite small. Doing the Costco trip first made a big difference.

I had picked up a 40 pound bag of kibble after going to the post office, to activate my replacement debit card, so that was just over $50

Once in the city, my first stop was Canadian Tire. I looked around a bit, but only got two 40 pound bags of litter pellets. That totaled $18.88 after taxes. After that, I hit a gas station on the way to the Walmart and got $40 in fuel.

I had decided to go to Superstore after the Walmart, so there really wasn’t much to get there. I was only after one thing, specifically. I had decided it was worthwhile to get the straight sided 10’x10′ gazebo tent to use for the market days I’ll be doing in July, instead of using the splay legged tent we have now. I couldn’t find any in the nearer Walmart, which is still under renovation, but I’ve been seeing displays of these for months. I didn’t think I’d have trouble finding one in the city.

I was wrong.

Normally, I see them in aisle displays, but there was nothing. I did find the shelf section it would have been in, in the camping tent section, but there wasn’t even any empty shelves with price labels for it.

I finally found a staff member. I started off saying that I knew this was not her department, but was there someone that could help me? She asked what I was looking for and I told her.

She seemed very confused by it. She thought I was talking about one of the gazebos in the seasonal section. I told her, it’s the kind you can fold up. Still very confused. Did I want he to page someone to seasonal? This is an evergreen item, not seasonal, but I said yes. I figured someone in seasonal would have some idea.

I waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Finally, I picked up some distilled water and sugar pills for my husband, which was right next to the seasonal section. Still no one.

So I found another staff member and, when she was no longer up a ladder, asked if there was someone in the camping section that could help me. She asked, and I told her want I was looking for.

She was confused. Not her area, but as she started walking with me, she saw someone else and called her over.

They went to the tent section I’d already gone through, looking confused. I kept describing what I was looking for, in detail. When I realized they thought I was talking about a “tent” tent, I described it as a market tent.

They both looked confused.

Once thought I had seen it online and started telling me that they don’t have everything that’s on the website, and I said no. I’ve been seeing them for months. Usually in an aisle display.

She then started saying that the aisle displays are not things they order, but what the company just sends them. She repeated that a few times and I let it slide. In the end, neither of them could remember ever seeing what I was describing and acted as though this was something they had never carried. Ever.

We’ve gone through three of these over the decades, all bought at Walmart. I have never seen them NOT carry this style of tent.

I finally gave up, thanked them, and bought my husband’s stuff. It cost a whole $33.38 in total.

Then I went to the Superstore.

This is what $190.82 looks like.

This has got to be one of my smallest “stock up” trips. ever.

This is what I got – the receipt is very hard to read!

From the top, under “grocery”, there is a small jar of whole grain dijon mustard. Then a 6 pack of facial tissues. I got a case of 24 small water bottles, as something to keep in the truck.

Next is a large jar of stuffed olives, then a cold Monster for the road home. I was excited to see they stocked Beaver Buzz again, so I got 6 cans in two flavours – Citrus and Saskatoon – for my daughters and I.

Under Dairy, Frozen and Produce are a couple of pounds of no-name salted butter, a bag of frozen mixed vegetables, a 5 lb bag of carrots, a bag of yellow onions, bananas and finally a 20 pound bag of russet potatoes.

Under meats, there is a bag of chicken nuggets for a quick heat and eat, and a frozen pork roast. Under seafood is a bag of seafood mix for my daughters, and a fresh, whole steelhead trout for the girls.

Bakery is next. I got a caramel apple pie and a rhubarb strawberry pie. Those are our contributions to the Canada Day BBQ we hare having at my BIL’s cottage tomorrow. I also got two big bags of torpedo buns.

I love those torpedo buns! I got one for fresh eating and one for the freezer.

Under deli is a pack with green and red grapes along with cubed cheddar and mozzarella cheese. I was feeling pretty hungry by then, not realizing it was past 3pm by then, and I’d forgotten to eat lunch! I chose it as something that would be easy to eat while driving.

So, that was my shop today. The gas and litter pellets went under a different budget from the Walmart and Superstore purchases. All of it together totaled $202.80

Not much of a stock up trip at all, but enough to make it worth the trip to the city.

I do wish I’d gotten that tent, though! I have the splay legged one that will be fine, but market spots are usually 10’x10′ for a basic spot, and I don’t want to crowd out other people with the splay legged design.

I do hope the market works out. Not only because every little bit I can bring in is going to help pay down all those vehicle and plumbing repairs we had to put on credit card, but for the large animal rescue that is hosting it. They are not charging for spaces or anything, but the more people who come for the market, the more will be willing to pay for a tour of the rescue, and those admission fees help pay for the care of the animals a lot.

Every little bit helps.

The Re-Farmer

Costco stock up shop: this is what $790 looks like

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$789.74, to be exact.

Plus, the deer screamer is in.

First up, the stock up shopping.

My younger daughter and I headed out at about 10am for the city. We made a stop at a gas station in the town along the highway for some drinks and some sort of snack. It was too early for their hot food, so we just got a couple of small pastries to tide us over. I was thrilled, however, to discover they now carry Beaver Buzz energy drinks! I haven’t seen these in years! I made sure to tell the staff how happy I was to see them. I got a couple of cans of Citrus – one for the road and one for home. We’ll have to go back specifically to stock up on more, in all the flavours. My daughter paid for this stuff, though, so it’s not part of today’s spending for me.

We went to the new Costco this time (I’m happy to say, Damocles behaved the whole way. No break downs), with our first stop at their gas station. I remembered to grab our 20L jerry can to fill with Premium for the lawn mowers. Premium at Costco was $1.699/L When the can was filled, we filled the truck with regular at $1.449/L Regular gas at the stations we saw along the way were $1.649 and $1.639 The can cost $35.02 for a tiny bit over 20L, and filling the truck cost $73.20, so we spent $108.22 before we even walked in the doors.

Before we started shopping, we had brunch so we wouldn’t be shopping while hungry. I got the Montreal Smoked Meat sandwich and my daughter had the chicken strips and fries. Those, plus drinks, were another $20.12

Then it was time to grab a flat cart do the shopping. This is what $789.74 looks like.

Some of this, my older daughter sent funds for, and my younger daughter will be covering a couple of impromptu purchases later.

That’s still a pretty empty flat cart.

At least we got more meat this time.

This is what we managed to get today.

We try to make a point of putting the refrigerator and freezer stuff on the belt first, but the staff scanned a lot of stuff right on the cart that normally wouldn’t be, so that was nice.

Starting from the top, we have two panini packs for sandwiches, mild Italian loose sausage meat, tilapia filets for the girls, pork belly, pork blade and pork loin. There’s a three pack of oat milk for the girls and two nigiri platters that my older daughter covered, then a case of frozen perogies and frozen Pizza Pops.

On the cart, they scanned a shaker of slow release fertilizer that my daughter said she would cover for me, a case of Coke Zero for my husband and I, a large jar of mayo, a shaker of Parmesan cheese, a 6 pack of canned chicken and a case of Monster energy drinks for my daughters and I, which my older daughter helped cover the cost of as well.

Then there’s a large jar of peanut butter, a large container of peppercorns, some AAA batteries, and a case of XL puppy pads. There’s a container of ice tea mix that was on sale. I also picked up some higher quality olive oil, as we will be making chive blossom oil again soon. The chive blossoms are getting into their peak right now.

The cat bed is an unplanned purchase that my younger daughter will also be covering. It’s a combination of a tunnel that runs in a circle around a bed in the centre, and the outside wall is a scratch pad. I have it set up on the cat bed side of my bed right now. A few cats have explored it already. Hopefully, none of the bigger cats will try getting into the bed from the outside, rather than from the openings, because it will definitely get crushed! 😄

There are two ll.6kg bags of kibble, one for the inside cats and one for the outside cats. We did not get more wet cat food because of the generous donations we got.

Next on the list are two 2 packs of rye bread, a case of ramen noodles, two 2 packs of tortilla wraps and a bag of flour.

Back to what went onto the belt, there’s a 2 pack of lemon juice, a block of Old Cheddar cheese and another of Mozzarella. We got a container of popcorn, a 9 pack of variety noodles, and two rotisserie chickens.

What we didn’t get were things like eggs, butter and the cream cheese I was looking for but never found. We can get those elsewhere. We still have another stock up shop to do when the main disability pay comes in on the last business day of the month, but my daughter has her blacksmithing workshop tomorrow, and that’s just a short drive to a Walmart, so we might pick up a few things earlier.

By the time we were done, my lower back was giving out and I was really needing to use that cart as a walker. We were both more than happy to be heading home. I did remember to stop at the post office on the way, though, to pick up this.

I have it pre-charging as I write this. I’ll need to figure out how to get it set up and how to use the remote. The last thing I want is for it to go off while I’m working in the garden. It has the hardware to install it against a building or post, but I’ll be using the ground stake. I’ll set it up beside the pea trellis to test it out, since that’s where deer have already been going in and munching.

So… there we have it. $789.74 If I take off the cat supplies and batteries, $584.17 of that was human food and drinks, before any taxes or enviro fees.

The stock up shop, plus gas and lunch, totaled $918.08

Ouch.

The Re-Farmer

I admit, this terrified me

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So… it happened again, today, but this time at home.

First goal of the day was to make a dump run. As usual, I back the truck up to the house to load it up. My brother and SIL are out for the weekend and my SIL was using their beautiful zero turn mower, so I made sure parked the truck well out of her way.

My daughter and I loaded up the truck, then headed out. Finished up at the dump and head home. With the renter’s cattle now rotated onto this section, we made sure to close the gate when we left, so I stopped in the driveway as my daughter got out and opened the gate. As soon as she did, I went to put the truck back into Drive and…

Nothing.

The shifter just slide back and forth, no resistance.

The steering shifter linkage we’d just had installed as no longer working. Broken? Fallen off? We had no idea.

We just got the truck back. Aside from the drive home, this was the first time we’d driven it! They did test drive it a few times before I got it, but still… it should have lasted.

Damocles dropped his sword again.

Once we got over our disbelief, I left my daughter to take care of closing the gate back up, etc. while I headed in. I saw the barn door open, so I went to see if my brother was there. He was working on some of his equipment, so I told him what happened. He said he was busy, and I told him, I was just letting him know, since the truck was just sitting in the driveway, outside the gate, and told him I was going to go phone the garage – and see if I had any more tows left on my CAA!

I called the garage and left a message, then tried to log into CAA.

It didn’t recognize my password.

I double checked and confirmed I had the right password.

Still didn’t work.

Tried the app. I rarely use the app because I always have trouble with it.

It actually wanted my CAA number input first, but again, I couldn’t log in.

I tried to reset my password. A code would come in to my email account.

It never came in.

I hit resend.

It didn’t come in, and this time, there was no “resend” option.

By that time I got a message from my SIL, telling me my brother was looking at the truck, so I gave a phone handset to one of my daughters, in case the garage called back, and headed outside.

My brother couldn’t fit under the truck to see anything – the guy that had done it before, on the street, was incredibly tiny to fit under there! So he brought out a jack.

The next while was spent getting the truck raised up and secured, with blocks, a second hydraulic jack under the truck, and something I can’t remember the name of that can support up to 2 tons, set up to support the truck’s weight should the jacks fail.

It still terrified me, and it takes a LOT to scare me.

In the first picture, you can see what he found.

Those two pieces are supposed to be attached. The white plastic visible, fits over the metal nib above. It simply fell off.

In the second picture, you can see what terrified me, the entire time my brother was under there. All the safety precautions didn’t matter. The youngest of my brothers had been working under a car. He had taken precautions. It still fell, killing him instantly.

My brother got the linkage connected, but said it would just fall off again, so he looked around.

What he found was a hook, which holds the weight of the linkage cable. It was bent enough to be touching the transmission. Which meant the weight of the cable was actually pulling the linkage loose.

He thinks something had to have hit the hook. Who knows when or how. He straightened it out and then added some zip ties to hold the cable. Now, the weight of the cable actually pushes towards the linkage instead of away, helping hold it in place.

All the while, he explained things, took pictures and even some video. Some of which I was able to message to the garage.

When everything was done and the truck was back on the ground, I was able to drive it to the garage without any problems.

My brother is the best.

I never did hear back from CAA, so I still don’t know if I have any tows left. When I got inside, I phoned the garage and left another message to follow up. I suggested swinging by with the truck so they can take a look at it at some point. There is no way it should have fallen off so easily, even with the hook bent out of place. Even with what my brother did, it could still simply pop off.

Which meant we suddenly weren’t sure about our next trips.

We were planning to do a combination celebration for Father’s Day and a birthday today. My older daughter was going to treat us to Pizza Hut, which meant a trip to the nearer, smaller city. We would have combined the trip to hit a Walmart and a liquor store along the way.

None of us felt comfortable doing that, even though my brother assured me the linkage should hold now.

We decided we’d go to town, instead.

My younger daughter and I headed in so we would arrive as the pizza place we were going to was opening at 4pm, with my daughter messaging the family to let them know where we were, constantly. We ordered the pizzas, which would take a while to cook, giving us time to go to the grocery store. Along with the stuff we picked up for ourselves, I grabbed a small cake for my brother and SIL as a thank you and a Father’s day gift.

It took longer than expected at the grocery store, so when we were done, we went straight back to the pizza place to pick up our order. Then we made a stop at the liquor store for my daughter to run in and pick up a few things for herself and her sister. Then it was off to home.

Every stop we made, we were both on pins an needles. Would the truck move? Did the linkage hold?

It’s insane.

The truck ran just fine. Didn’t stop us from being constantly on edge!

Once at home, I pulled up to the house to unload, then quickly delivered the cake to my brother, staying just long enough to slip it through their door. They went out for supper themselves, not long after, but they will have desert waiting for them when they get back. 😊

Overall, it’s been a day of “rest” in that I didn’t work on any projects outdoors. While waiting in line at the grocery store, though, I couldn’t resist. I picked up a packet of Scarlet Nantes carrot seed tape. I’ll do another succession sowing of carrots. At this point, I’m basically just throwing as many things into the ground as I can, hoping something will make it. Deer got at the Spring Blush peas in the trellis bed. They’re survive, but a few plants are going to be set back. I really want more of the basics, like peas, carrots and beans. If I could, I’d be doing more potatoes and corn, too, but we won’t have ready space for those, even if we did have the time. There is a space down the middle of the trellis bed where I can plant the new carrots, though, next to the rainbow mix that’s already there. Sort of.

Being the 20th, with tomorrow being the first day of summer, I decided to do the garden tour videos today. I’ll see how the files turned out when I’m done here. Hopefully, I won’t have to do them over again, tomorrow.

So that’s where we are at now. Damocles dropped his sword again, but my amazing brother saved us again, while we had our hearts in our throats the whole time he was under that truck. We’ve all had our pizzas for today – my daughter got us enough to last us a couple of days – and we’re just relaxing until we’re ready for cake or pie and ice cream.

Then I think I’m going to try going to bed early. I feel absolutely wrung out.

Happy Father’s day to the dads out there! I hope you’re having a better time than we have been! 😄

The Re-Farmer

Seriously??? What now?

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Good grief.

This morning, I headed into town fairly early to pay for the repairs on the truck, and take the keys. I talked to the owner for a bit and told him the background on when this happened before, and the C clip fix that I’d meant to ask him to check before but kept forgetting.

He told me that, with Chevy/GM vehicles, this is the most common thing he’s seen break down. He’s replaced a thousand of these. They just keep breaking. EXCEPT the after market part. Those hold out just fine.

Then I headed into town to fill the tank on my brother’s car before heading home. I remembered to stop at the post office, and yes, our parcel was there. It didn’t have our box number on it, as some places won’t ship to box numbers. So it had the post office’s address on it. As soon as I came in, the postal worker saw me and got it right out!

After I got home, I had some time to get things ready before going to the funeral. To my surprise, my sister phoned. She asked if I were planning to go, and I said yes. She told me that our vandal had been adamant that he didn’t want me, my brother or my mother there. (You can read why we would want to go, anyway, here), but that his wife had said she would not turn anyone away. I told her, no one has said anything to us directly, I’ve only heard through her, but I assumed as much. She just wanted to make sure I knew, in case there were issues.

There were no issues.

My brother and SIL came out to get my mother. Their son and grandsons where there, so while my brother and mother had one vehicle, the rest went in my nephew’s truck. We had more or less worked out how we would switch vehicles.

After the funeral, we went to the cemetery for the interment. I went along with my brother and mother, leaving the car I borrowed from them, for the moment. My brother parked in such a way that my mother could stay in the car and watch, as she didn’t want to transfer to the wheelchair again. We left when they started handing out shot glasses; our vandal wanted everyone to have a shot of vodka at his graveside. *sigh*

My brother started taking our mother back to the nursing home while the rest of us crammed into my nephew’s truck to go back to where their car was parked. Then I drove my SIL to the garage, with a friend following behind, to switch vehicles.

They waited to make sure the truck started and I was on my way. I remote started it and it sounded fine, but when I got in, there was a warning light, and a message to service the 4 wheel drive.

???!!!

The garage was still open, though, so I quickly told my SIL what was happening, then went in to talk to the owner, who was working on another customer’s vehicle. When he heard what I described, he looked absolutely shocked. Obviously, this wasn’t there when the parked the truck in the lot after servicing it.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to check it today. His diagnostic computer was at his second location. I asked him, so what do I do? He suggested I drive it for a while and see if the light turns off on its own, which sometimes happens. It’s not blinking or anything, right? Nope. Not blinking.

So I tell my SIL and they leave, though she made sure I knew her phone was linked to her car, so I could phone her if necessary.

Then I tried to drive the truck.

As soon as I put it in drive (which felt really stiff with the new part) and as soon as I started moving, the alarm started to ding. There is a large open area I could turn the truck around in, so I did that. While in reverse, the dinging stopped. Once in drive, it started again.

I returned to the parking lot and backed into a spot again, then went in to talk to the owner and tell him what happened.

There was absolutely nothing he could do about it at the time, and I couldn’t drive it home like that. So I called my SIL.

*sigh*

I know they’re really wanting their car back. Their other one, that they’ve loaned me before, it still in the shop.

She had to get to where they were all meeting at a restaurant first, and then said she would come back. In the end, it was my brother that came for me. He called along the way, and it’s a good thing he did. He misheard when she told me where I was. The name of the garage is very similar to the name of the general store in our little hamlet, so he was on his way there! He had just passed the turn off to the industrial park our garage is now located in. He was on hands free and kept me on the line as he turned around and came back, telling me what he was seeing as he drove in. He didn’t have far to go.

When he reached me, I could tell he was very unhappy about the whole situation. I don’t think he quite understood why the owner couldn’t just manually check it. It didn’t occur to me until well after, that he didn’t know the owner was working on another vehicle and couldn’t really stop.

I was apologetic about the whole thing, but really, there’s nothing we could do. We had no other options. I’m just thankful that they could lend it to us at all. They used my brother’s newly acquired electric commuter car to drive my mother and plan to sell their two gas powered vehicles. Both of which needed a lot of work done on them, just to be safetied.

But, we have their car again. We drove back to the restaurant to drop him off, and I took their car home again.

This is getting so ridiculous. I can’t even drive the truck away from getting one repair job done, without something else going wrong!!

I don’t even know how we’re going to pay for it. Thankfully, the bill I paid this morning wasn’t large; about $275.

I did remember to text the owner and suggest he try driving the truck around, as I hadn’t had a chance to describe what I was feeling to him at the time. I barely drove it, and all I can say is that something felt… off.

Thankfully, he knows me will enough by now that when I can only tell him something vague like that, he takes me seriously. He might not always find the problem right away, but eventually, it happens.

I am so tired of this.

The Re-Farmer

Good grief

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It’s not the rain that’s giving the garden trouble.

It’s the temperature. 9C/48F is chilly for fresh transplants, but that “feels like” humidex of 1C/34F, with the potential to feel colder, is another thing entirely.

Most of what I’ve got out there can either handle the chill, or has protective collars that will provide some protection, but it’s hard to say just how much is going to survive the night.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Not-Costco stock up trip: This is what $334 looks like

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Okay, I did not have the stomach to do a Costco trip today so, instead, I went to the nearest Walmart. This was a bit of a test run on the truck, as I haven’t driven this far since I took the yard cats to the vet and started getting weird readings on my battery gauge.

Since I expected to have frozen and refrigerator items, I picked up gas, first. Costco gas prices are the one thing that had me second guessing going in, as they tend to be dramatically cheaper. While in town to visit my mother, I passed three gas stations. One was at $1.799, one at $1.719 and one at $1699/L for regular. In this small city, at the time I dropped the cats off at the vet, their prices were $1.559/L So I made a small side trip to a gas station nearest the Walmart that I knew of.

Their sign said $1.559/L, however they also had a rather alarming looking mannequin holding a sign saying 5¢ off/L, which means I was able to get gas at $1.509/L

Scary that this is now considered a “low” gas price.

From there, it was straight to the Walmart and a stock up shop. Not a full shop, since I wasn’t doing any flat cart shopping, but I will be in the area again early next week, to get my ultrasound at the hospital a short distance away.

This is what $334.16 in total looks like.

I ended up with two receipts, though, because I tucked my bread at the end so they weren’t on the belt, as I wanted the softested things run in last, only to forget them there. The cashier noticed them, though, and the customer behind me was a sweetheart and let them get rung in ahead of him.

The bread alone totaled $12.30 At Costco, I would have gotten wraps as well, but I completely forgot to look for any.

Here’s the rest of it.

From the top, there is a 10 pound bag of potatoes for less than a 5 pound bag costs locally. Some oat milk and coffee creamer for the girls. There’s couple of blocks of cheese; Old cheddar and mozzarella. I got an 8lb bag of Basmati rice; not the usual brand we get at Costco, so I hope my husband likes it.

I got two 18s of eggs instead of a flat of 30. Some frozen tater tots for my husband. I spotted dark roast coffee on sale and got that for my daughters. Peanut butter. Mayonnaise. A case of 24 chicken Mr. Noodles.

The Chunky soup has dropped in price quite a bit. Locally, those are in the $5 rants, so I picked up 6 cans, along with a couple of cans of baby clams to add to them. These are an uncommon treat for us, these days.

I also got packs of beef, vegetable and chicken bouillon cubes.

There’s toilet paper, tissues, a case of wet cat food and two bags of kibble. I got their last bag of 8kg Whiskas. They were sold out! I grabbed another brand in a 7kg bag as well. Hopefully, they were have more in stock by the time I’m back next week.

I got a couple of packages of popcorn and a bag of pearl couscous (a rare treat), and the only meat product; a package of breakfast sausages. I’ve been finding better meat prices locally.

For my husband, I grabbed a can of Gatorade mix, which seems to have gone over well when I got one last time. Then I got a total of 10 cans of Monster energy drinks for my daughters and I. At Costco, we get the big case, which has three flavours. I got 10 different flavours today. Their price per can is a lot cheaper than most places.

And that’s it. That’s what I got for stocking up today.

Whether this was better than driving all the way to a Costco, I’m not entirely sure. It’s definitely worth having a shorter drive to make sure the truck is behaving, at least!

The Re-Farmer