It’s a good thing we’ve already arranged for the plumber to come back next week.
One of the things he instructed my daughter, after the new pump was installed, was to keep an eye out for leaks. Which is a bit difficult partly because there tends to be a lot of condensation on the pipes. That well water gets really, really cold!
As this basement was built before weeping tile was a thing, it’s pretty normal for there to be water on the floor in the spring. Sometimes all summer. We have oscillating fans and blower fans to try and keep it down, and switch the winter window to the summer screen window for air circulation. That frequent wet is part of why the well pump, pressure tank and hot water tank are all on an elevated concrete slab.
I am starting to see water in the floor drain, from the weeping tile under the newer basement, but for now, the concrete is dry. This is all from the pump. One spot, where I can feel a drop of water under the brass fitting, seems to be the only leak. The steel screw clamps are tight.
The plumber is coming out on Monday or Tuesday. I had mentioned the leak at the pump, plus the cold water tap at the laundry sink. He will be replacing both taps for us, since the hot water tap started leaking long ago and we could only install a shut off valve to stop it. He’ll check on the leak at the well pump as well.
Otherwise, the pump is working just fine.
In other things…
I made it out to visit my mother, though I had to turn around and come back. I had some stuff she asked for ready in bags and forgot them at home. Thankfully, I remembered before I reached the highway, and messaged my daughter to meet me at the gate with them.
When I got there, my mother was sitting on her walker in the hall as her room was being cleaned, so we went to the common room. It was a pretty quiet and calm visit. My mother had complaints, of course, but nothing unreasonable, really – even the ones that turned out to be based on her not understanding something she’d been told. I stayed until she was done her lunch, then talked to the nursing station for a bit – an opportunity to clear up one of her misunderstandings – before heading out.
From there, I drove to the town we usually shop in. My husband had a list and his own budget for me this time. Some of what he wanted I wouldn’t have been able to find at the grocery store in my mother’s town. It was a fairly short list, so it didn’t take long before I was done. Then I had to get more gas before heading home. That part was painful.
Throughout all that driving, I’m happy to say the truck behaved. After what happened with the differential, there were a few times on the highway where I was second guessing things, but it seems I was just driving headlong into the wind and being buffeted. More importantly, that oil pressure gauge was having normal readings. Hopefully, the mystery readings are now at an end! The real test will come with city trips, though, and those probably won’t happen for a couple more weeks.
For now, though, I feel ready to drop. For some reason, I just couldn’t fall asleep last night, and I can only partly blame the cats or pain levels. I was mostly just… awake. It was past 6am when I messaged the girls, asking them to take care of the morning routine for me. I did finally get a few interrupted hours of sleep after that. Enough that I was safe to drive, at least. I headed outside to do the evening rounds not long ago, and felt like I was ready to fall asleep the whole time. Now, I am just crashing.
It’s not even 4:30 as I write this.
It’s a gorgeous day out, though. We’re just below freezing, but it’s bright and sunny, and things are melting. The current forecast has us going from a high of 0C/32F tomorrow, to a high of 14C/57F on Monday! We no longer have a high of 20C/68F before the end of the month, though. That’s been pushed back until May. Still, I should have a few days next week to take the mulch off the exposed pre-sown beds and get them protected from critters. The garden beds in the main garden area are still fully covered with snow.
I’m quite looking forward to getting at it!
Hopefully, with more fresh air and sunshine, I’ll be sleeping better, too.
This morning was chilly. Just chilly; the incoming weather system hadn’t reached us yet. I was actually able to do extended rounds, with so much snow finally melted away after yesterday’s warmth. All of which froze overnight.
The amount of water had actually gone done quite a bit before it froze, though! This is behind our garage, this morning.
Yesterday, I needed to dump a litter bucket into the litter compost pile behind the outhouse. I neglected to wear my rubber boots, and the path we usually use was completely flooded, as was the path all the way to the outhouse. I ended up making my way through the other side to dump the bucket, skirting branch piles and snow drifts!
I had another bucket to dump this morning – and yes, I remembered to put on my rubber boots this time – and stopped to take the above photo. The path to the litter compost was almost completely clear. There was just one lower area with ice over it, but the water below was almost completely gone, so it was just a floating sheet of ice. This area in the photo is the lowest, so it takes quite a while for it to fully drain.
I was finally able to make my way around to the sign cam, only by skirting along the edge of the spruce grove, where much of the snow was gone. I just had one drift to break through at the far end. Literally. The snow was so soft in the warmth, yesterday, but this morning that was frozen to a hard crust at the top that I had to stamp and break through in order to cross. I didn’t even try to go through the garden area, where the snow it still over a foot deep. Going around did give me a chance to check out and confirm we have had two more dead trees fall.
The big spruce landed on top of another spruce that fell years ago. The other two pictures in the slideshow above are of a dead poplar that is now hung up on other trees.
I’ve already talked to my brother about clearing the deadwood out in the spring or summer. If he can get his tractor going, we can pull them out. Then we can start taking down the other dead spruces as well. We really, really want to get the ones that are closer to the house!
At this point, I would just like to have the trees all dragged into one general space in the old garden area where it’s still all wide open. Once they are there, I can process them to use. Some – the thickest trunks – will become support posts for the outdoor kitchen we are planning to build, while others will be used to build raised beds.
While walking towards the sign cam, I passed a huge poplar, and saw this lovely sign of spring.
Soft clusters of catkins, all over the branches! This tree is the only one I see them on right now.
All of this is now covered in snow.
The system is hitting other areas harder than us, but we will be getting snow, off and on, through to tomorrow. Some areas will be getting a mix of rain and snow, while other higher elevations might get as much as 15cm/6in, where most areas are looking at 4-8cm/1.5-3in
It started here in the late morning. When I headed out to meet the pharmacy delivery guy, we had about an inch of new snow. It was light enough that I could just use a broom to clear the steps and sidewalk. It has started snowing again, so I’ll probably need to do it again when it’s time to feed the outside cats for the end of the day. The delivery driver, meanwhile, said that his place is flooding! His house is not in danger, thankfully, but he’s had to contact the highways department. That tells me there would be an ice dam in a ditch between his place and the lake that needs to be cleared. This system is pushing north, and I was chatting with one of the rescue’s contacts this morning. She lives on the reserve that might have to do some evacuations because of this storm. For her, that means working out how to help animals, should that happen.
This morning, I was able to pet a very pregnant Slick while she was eating, and was able to send the group chat I have with the rescue some video. Slick is one of the few that allows contact, but only when she’s on the cat house roof and eating. Even then, it’s touch and go. They would like us to trap her and bring her in before she pops. We can try, but it would be very difficult to trap just one specific cat! Especially one that is more feral than not. We will do the best we can.
In other things, while doing my checks in the basement this morning, I found that the cold water tap in the laundry sink is dripping even faster. I contacted the plumber and talked to him about it. Both taps need to be replaced and I already have new taps. The problem is that the current ones were affixed permanently. My brother said a torch would be needed to get them off. !!! I explained this to the plumber – then mentioned we have other leaks down there to check, too. He started to look at his calendar saying he couldn’t come today, and I told him it wasn’t urgent. Next week would be better. So he will come either Monday or Tuesday, depending on his schedule, and will call us before he comes.
As for me, I am taking the truck in to the garage tomorrow morning. I got a text yesterday aftenroon, letting me know the part had arrived. So we will get the new OEM sensor, the engine flush and oil change all done as the same time. Hopefully, that will bring and end to those weird low pressure readings!
I also got a call from the tax preparers last night, just before 7pm!! They close at 5.
Our taxes are done. I will need to go in to sign my form, then bring my husband’s home for him to sign and bring back again. I will do that after getting the truck back, tomorrow. The tax preparer told me how much we’re getting back. For me, it will be zero. I thought I would get my disability tax credit the same as I had been getting the caregiver tax credit, directly to me. However, because I have 0 income and don’t “need” it, they were able to transfer it to my husband’s return – and got a larger tax return for both of us in the process, than if it had been done separately. That’s going to come in handy, that’s for sure! Especially with the extra plumber’s bills.
So tomorrow is going to be a busy day of driving around. Hopefully, the roads will not be too bad after this storm passes!
After the well pump stopped working, we had to make do with a few things. Thankfully, we already buy drinking water in 5 gallon jugs, though we soon switched to our last one. We didn’t have any water to wash with, but we did have wet wipes to help keep clean. Using the toilet was out of the question, but with so many problems with our septic, we’ve used a honey pot more than a few times. What we found here when we moved in was a toilet seat that fits over a 5 gallon bucket, which is really uncomfortable and not particularly stable. We’d bought a camping toilet – a foldable base a bag could be fit into, then a cover with a toilet seat set on top. The design is slightly elongated in the front, and the seat is padded.
This was the first time we’ve had to use it, and wow, was it so much more comfortable!!!
Still, not fun to have to use.
Using stove pellets as litter has come in handy again. Whenever the honey pot was used, we’d pour a small scoop of pellets in, which would absorb moisture and keep the smell down at the same time.
All in all, we were pretty well prepared for something like this. In the sort term, at least.
Last night, of the three places I called, one plumber called back. After explaining the situation, he said he could be here around 11:30-12:00 today.
I was already planning to go into town to refill more water jugs, stop at the garage, pick up a few necessities, then meet with someone from the rescue to return our cat carriers, so I wasn’t going to be home in that time frame. I went through the basements with my younger daughter, who would meet the plumber for me, to show her what she needed to pass on to the plumber. The new well pump my brother bought a couple of years ago was still in the box, and he also had a bag of all the fittings and fixtures he thought might possibly needed. He even had Teflon tape in there.
There is a bit of an issue with the light that’s over where the pump is. The light is turned on with a pull chain, but one day the chain got stuck after being turned on, and it took a lot of fighting to be able to turn the light off again. Which is when I discovered the fixture itself is starting to come loose. So we simply don’t use it. My brother has suggested we just put in an LED light bulb, turn it on and leave it on, but I’d prefer not to do that with a fixture that is starting to fall apart!
We figured the plumber would have is own lighting, though, such as one of those head lamps.
Oh, and we’ve discovered the door to the old basement steps won’t open anymore. For a while, it would only open when the knob was turned in one direction, but not the other. Now, it just won’t. My daughter fiddled with it and says the latch isn’t moving anymore. Ah, well. We need to slowly replace all the door knobs with lever type handles, anyhow.
Meanwhile, we were all being careful about using as little water as possible, and avoiding dirtying any dishes. Which meant we were eating a lot of chicken salad sandwiches and using paper towels as plates. Thankfully, my daughter had done the dishes before we lost water, so there were no dirty dishes already in the sink to worry about.
We all tried to go to bed early but, of course, I couldn’t sleep! I finally fell asleep somewhere around 3 or 4 am. I still woke up at the usual time, which is basically once the sky starts to get light. This time of year, that’s around 6am. My older daughter was up working all night, so she came to talk for a while before going to bed for the day, then her sister came by later. She ended up doing the outside cat feeding for me, so I could try and get more sleep. She couldn’t refill the water bowls, but they didn’t need to be. With so much snow melting, the cats prefer to drink out of puddles right now, instead!
I did call the garage shortly after 8am and left a follow up message about the oil sensor issue. I mentioned I’d be in town in the late morning, so if they didn’t call back before then, I’d swing by to talk.
It was getting to around 10:30am when I gave the truck a once over, then started heading out, making sure to leave the gate open for the plumber. I was in the last mile before the highway when I saw a commercial van coming in the opposite direction. I knew right away, it had to be the plumber and, sure enough, it was. As I pulled to the side to let the van pass and realized who it was, I came to a stop and waved him down. He’s been to our place before, but I don’t think he’s ever seen the truck we have now. He did recognize me once he saw me.
This gave me a chance to tell him a few things about the situation, the new pump we already had, and past concerns we had about the foot valve, but that I’d since discovered we have fantom flush, not a leaky foot valve. The toilet was why the pump would go off, even when no one was using any water. Something that stopped when I simply moved the refill tube out of where it normally runs into, so that it just fills the tank directly. He understood what I meant. He did ask if we had water to prime the pump with and I told him, we only had one big jug of drinking water right now, and that I was on my way to town to refill our empties. He said he thought he had enough water in his van that he could use. After we parted ways, I paused to message my family to let them know he was going to arrive early, and continued to town.
Along the way, I found myself stuck behind a slow moving vehicle that I couldn’t pass for a while, so it took a bit longer to get to town. That little bit of a delay was enough for that oil pressure gauge needle to drop to the line between “low” and “normal” before I even reached town.
*sigh*
So the garage was my first stop.
When I got there, I saw the owner go outside while talking on his cell phone, so I knew it might be a while before I saw him. I went into the office and the other mechanic – one of our neighbours – came over to see what was going on. I told him about the oil pressure sensor, and he did mention that this is pretty common this time of year, with the temperature changes and moisture getting into the system. Minor fluctuations, I would expect, but I told him that the needle was dropping to the point that it would set off alarms before I could drive much further than the nearest towns. I brought up that the owner had mentioned getting a different sensor, but he wasn’t part of that conversation, so he said he would let the owner know I was waiting to talk to him, then got back to working on vehicles already in the shop. I made sure to tell him to let the owner know I wasn’t in any hurry.
When the owner came in, he was apologetic for not getting back to me. He’d gotten my message, but just didn’t have a chance to call me. We talked about what is still going on with the sensor – he mentioned he’s now got several people with the same problem! – and confirmed the truck is running fine, oil levels are fine, but I just can’t be doing normal driving if I let it drop to the point of alarms going off. He understood.
I brought up about the GM sensor he’d mentioned – an OEM sensor, he clarified – and he started looking it up. Then I heard him saying, oh, that’s why we didn’t go with it from the start! Turns out it costs $160, compared to the $80 for the off market version.
With part of the problem being seasonal, and moisture getting into the system over the winter, I mentioned that I’m less than 2000km to the next oil change. Would getting an oil change help? Yes, he said, it probably would. What he suggested is that I just keep driving it until it’s time to do the oil change, then he would do an engine flush to remove the moisture, replace the sensor and do the oil change all at the same time.
Which I agreed to. Until then, though…
He then offered to disconnect the sensor until then. I told him, yes!! I had even suggested something like that in one of my messages. The gauge would be at 0, but no alarms would go off.
So he got my keys and asked the mechanic to quickly do that for me. He was done with the truck before I was done in the office!
In the middle of all this, I got a message from my daughter, saying that the plumber was almost done, and we had water again. I mentioned to the mechanic that our well pump stopped working last night, and his reaction told me he knew exactly how big of a deal that was! I’d say, he lives with a well system himself. 😄
As I was leaving, I told him, I feel almost like I’m being a pain in the butt about this sensor, but for something like this, if it’s going off for a legitimate reason… which is when he started knodding his head enthusiastically. We’ve already gone through this, and it could have been really bad on our engine! He completely understood. How can we know for sure if it’s just the sensor, or if something is going really, really wrong?
I love my technology, but sometimes, it makes things more difficult, rather than less!
That done, I was already hearing from the cat rescue lady. She was on her way. That gave me time to head across the street with the truck, to the grocery store parking lot where we were going to meet, with time to head inside. I got my water bottles refilled, plus a couple of little things, then waited for her in the truck.
When she arrived, we commiserated. She’s having troubles with her vehicle, too – and they are a lot more expensive than mine will be! Like, 10 times more expensive! In the end, she’s going to get a new engine, because it’ll cost about the same as doing the repairs.
As we were transferring the carriers over, I was greatly appreciative over the fact that they had been cleaned! We keep them in the sun room so that cats can be used to them and use them as shelters. They had been pretty much covered in muddy paw prints. She told me they were cleaned and disinfected, since all the cats we brought in were sick with something or other. Much appreciated!!
Then she brought out another carrier – a donation for us!
It’s really big, and reminds me of a space capsule or something. 😄 So we are now back up to 6 useable hard sided carriers.
Then she gave me a couple of bags of kibble, too!
They are just amazing.
The bags were both taped up on the bottom. A lot of the bags they gave us before had some sort of taped up damage, too. I think they are getting them as donations from pet stores, with bags too damaged to be sold, but still filled with perfectly good kibble.
I am just fine with taped up bags!
That done, I was soon on my way home. My daughter had let me know that the plumber had gone. The water was very cloudy and smelled of minerals, but not something she was worried about.
Once I was home and everything was unloaded, I went into the basement to check it out, and to run water in the laundry sink. There was all sorts of crud coming out of the taps!
Running the taps set off the well pump, so I went over to check it out.
It is SO much quieter!!!!
It also finished much faster. I noticed the pressure gauge was a lot more visible, and that when the tank stopped the pressure was at 50psi. With the old pump, I never saw it higher than 40. My daughter later told me that the plumber said it was supposed to be at 50, and that the pump is supposed to be triggered at 30.
My daughter told me that he had also checked the pressure tank, as that could also have been the source of trouble, and the pressure tank is fine.
As for the old pump, it turned out to be the switch. He had told her, he could just replace the switch and we could keep using it.
Then he got it running again, and they both heard just how grinding and loud it was.
My daughter told him to go ahead and replace the whole thing!
That pressure gauge on the pump, it turns out, was one he provided. The one that came with the pump faced a different direction and we would have had to twist around to be able to read it. Now, we just have to look down. The only other thing he had to provide that wasn’t in my brother’s bag of fitting was a brass fitting.
Then he’d used some bottled water he had in his van to prime the pump and get it going.
The first picture above was taking while the pump was still running.
I got some pictures and video that I sent to my brother. I got messages from him while I was in town, too. They’re in Spain now, after walking over 190km, with another 90km to go on their pilgrimage. They are averaging 15-20km/day, depending on weather conditions and access to accommodations for the night. There have been a few times when they were walking through some poor weather conditions, and even had to jump a creek at one point.
I told him about the pump and he was very happy to hear that the one he had bought earlier was used. He paid about $400 for it at the time. Just finding this sort of pipe these days is hard enough – most have the pump down in the well itself, not in a basement, like ours – but like everything else, the prices will have gone up since then.
After running water in the laundry sink in the basement, I went to do the same in the kitchen, as that sink is the furthest from the pump.
The second pictures shows what our water looked like for quite some time!
I had to remove the aerator on the faucet, as it just kept getting clogged up. We’ll need to soak it in CLR.
I kept running the water, both hot and cold, until it seemed to be clear. It’ll probably be a while longer before it’s totally clear again. Then I ran water in the bathroom sink and tub, and flushed the toilet a few extra times. I took the aerator off the bathroom sink’s faucet before running the water, and I’m glad I did. There were some pretty big pieces of grit that came through!
All this trigged the pump a few times, of course, and I’m still amazed by how quiet it is!
The last thing we need to do is run a tub clean cycle on the washing machine.
My daughter, meanwhile, had done all the clean up and putting away of things before I got home, including the honey pot.
The dump is open for short hours tomorrow morning. Now that I know I won’t be triggering any alarms on the truck, I plan to do a much needed dump run!
I am so glad this has finally been done, after all these years of stressing every time we used water, and three different plumbers worried about causing damage to the foot valve if they changed it. The foot valve seems to have handled it just fine! I’m especially relieved because we’ll probably have to use the hoses a lot to water the garden throughout the summer. I was stingy on watering things last year because I knew how much wear and tear it was causing to the pump, but with the drought and heat, it still meant quite a bit of watering.
As much of a pain it was to lose water entirely, it wasn’t for all that long, and we were well set up for it. We had drinking water, were able to keep ourselves clean, and could still use the bathroom. The outhouse wasn’t really an option. The melting snow has created a bit of a pond in front of it, as part of the moat that forms around the garage, and the pit is probably quite full of water, too.
Another reason I want to build an outdoor bathroom, without a pit, closer to the house!
In the end, things have been working about pretty much as well as they could have, and for that, I am grateful!
My daughter was a sweetheart and focused on doing a lot of dishes and clean up today. Just a little while ago, I tried to use the sink in the kitchen, and started losing pressure from the tap. Not unusual; the pump kicks in about then, refills the pressure tank and the pressure returns.
This time, it didn’t.
The pump isn’t turning on.
We have no water.
This is not good.
We do have that “spare” well pump… Can we find someone who can install it for us?
My younger daughter and I headed to the city after I got a couple more photos and videos of specific cats for the rescue, and after topping up the tires. I’m glad we took the time to check them. They were all low, even taking into account winter temperatures.
We made a stop along with way at a gas station in the town my mother is back in. We meant to get gas and lunch at Costco, but we wanted to get some drinks and snacks to tide us over for the drive in. My daughter paid for it, so that didn’t come out of budget. Gas was $1.729/L for Regular there at the time.
When we got gas at Costco, it was $1.499 for regular (Premium was $1.729). As we were leaving the city, we passed a gas station that was at $1.719 – but when we drove through my mother’s town again, the gas prices had dropped to $1.649! Nice to see the drop. It’s almost unheard of for rural towns to drop before prices in the city drop.
Once at the Costco, the first thing we did was fill the tank and reset the trip counter. At $1.499/L, it cost us just pennies under $80 to fill.
Before we did any shopping, my daughter and I went in to have lunch. There was no way we’d have the energy to stop for food after the shopping, so we made sure to eat first. My daughter got a couple of slices of pizza – not realizing how big they were! – while I had their Montreal Smoked Meat sandwich; something the other locations no longer have available. It’s been years since I’ve had one, and it was absolutely delicious! Those, plus a couple of drinks, cost $16.97 – and over half of the before tax total was just the cost of my sandwich!
It was worth it.
Since we were planning to go to the new Costco this time, my older daughter sent me some funds with a few requests, so this “over budget” total of $862.72 was not actually over budget.
It was, however, still very expensive for what we got.
We didn’t have to buy a lot of cat supplies this time, and I was able to get a fair bit of meat, but still…
This is what we got.
For cat supplies, we only needed to get for the indoor cats, so there is just one 11.6kg bag of kibble, a case of canned cat food and a case of XL puppy pads. In other non-food items, there is a package of toilet paper and a 4 pack of toothpaste.
From the pharmacy area, we got some B100, Adult Gummie multivitamins, plus some extra strength acetaminophen.
In beverages, we got a case of Monster (which my daughter paid for), a case of Oat Milk, Iced Tea mix (only because it was on sale) and some English Breakfast tea in a new Peter Rabbit design tin. Can’t have too much tea, and my younger daughter likes the tins.
In baking supplies, we got a bag of flour and a 2 pack of baking powder.
I just realized I got charged twice for the baking powder 2 pack. Crud. It’s not like we’re going to go back to the city to get it fixed!
In dairy, we got 4 pounds of butter – the price has finally dropped below $5 each here! – a block of mozzarella, a block of Old Cheddar, a shaker of Parmesan cheese, a wheel of brie and a 2 pack of goat cheese.
For bread, we got a 2 pack of rye and two 2 packs of tortilla wraps.
For protein, we got two hot rotisserie chickens, two panini packs for sandwiches, a pork blade roast, frozen salmon for the girls, Gouda and Cranberry sausages, plus mild Italian loose sausage meat, and a double flat of eggs.
In the odds and sots, there’s a 2 pack of butter chicken sauce, mayonnaise, peanut butter, coconut oil, a 9 pack of variety pasta, a case of Ramen noodles, a case of instant oatmeal, soy sauce (we weren’t able to find the brand my husband likes at the international grocery store, during our last shop) and a case of frozen perogies. My husband requested sour candies, so we got two bags of those.
Last of all was some instant eats, because no one was going to be up to doing much cooking by the time we got home! My older daughter had requested a sushi platter, so my younger daughter picked two; one for each of them. For my husband and I, I chose a Steak & Ale, with potatoes dinner. It’s in the oven as I write this!
What we didn’t find were the garlic coil sausages I was after for our Easter basket and general eating. Nor could we find popcorn. According to the receipt, we got 51 items, though with the double charge on the baking powder, it was actually 50 items. We got a total of $16.50 off with at-checkout discounts.
Total damage for the day, with gas, groceries and lunch, was basically $960.
Thank God this is just once a month!
We still need to get to a feed store for 40 pound bags of kibble for the outside cats. I’m thinking to do that tomorrow, after visiting my mother.
While I was writing this, I got messages from someone in the rescue group. They will be taking 6 cats in total from us soon! Fosters already lined up. She was just checking to see if Grommet would be okay being fostered with other cats, like Furriosa. Grommet is really chill, and would probably help Furriosa handle the transition better. Furriosa is the least chill of but bunch. I’m incredibly grateful that they are focusing on getting the tiny females, first. They need the most help. Plus, Sir Robin and Grommet! They would be such perfect indoor cats. We’re looking at having them brought in for vetting and fostering after April 7, if all goes to plan! After that, they’re looking to grab some of the friendliest neutered males.
This means that they have had quite a few cats adopted, which is really awesome. It’s been such a struggle to find people willing to adopt rescues.
Anyhow.
That’s where we are at now – both city stock up shops for April are now done.
I am so, so glad it’s over with. I could happily curl up in a corner and go to sleep.
After taking pain killers.
Oh! That reminds me. I have come up with a possible reason for why this 15+ year post menopausal body suddenly wasn’t anymore. It might be a very rare side effect of the anti-inflammatories I’ve been taking. I am now stopping completely (I was already taking only the minimum dose), and already seem to be seeing a difference, though it is likely way too early to say for sure. Since I wasn’t able to get an appointment with the doctor until May, that gives me time to confirm the theory as right or wrong.
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.
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…
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!
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.
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.
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 