They are enjoying a different cat soup for now. We are out of the donated wet cat food. What’s left is for the indoor cats, and we are running low on that, too, sunce we didn’tdo a Costco trip yet. We had a freezer burned whole fish in the freezer – the packaging got torn. I ground it up, bones, skin and all, then boiled the grinding in a small amount of water. It got me 6 little Tupperware containers, about the size of our usual cans of cat food. That’s what we are now using to make cat soup, and the outside cats love it!
I counted 14 this morning. A bit higher than usual. I found ice on the water bowl in the isolation shelter, so I plugged in the extension cord. I did the cat feeding in the evening, too, and remembered to turn the heat lamp on for the night. It’s warm enough that we can shut it off during the day.
I spent a fair part of the day working on a hat and scarf set in bulky yarn. The hat is done, and I’m more than half way on the scarf. I will finish it after I’m done writing this.
My younger daughter was able to bring Butterscotch into the living room with me, so she is not harassed by other cats for a while. She is such a bundle of anxiety, and my not sleeping the my bedroom has stressed her out. She wanted back into the living room so much, she actually left my bedroom last night and greeted my older daughter in the hallway before it got too much for her and she ran back into my bedroom.
She was so excited to be back in the living room with me today! I had to stop working to give her some love, so she would stop trying to climb me. Eventually, she settled for a while, and I could finish the hat I was working on and start the scarf. As I write this, she is loafed behind my head above the couch.
At one point, she got very restless and I tried getting her near a litter box. Unfortunately, even though I tried distracting the other cats with kibble, some chose stalking her over food. She didn’t try running back to the bedroom. She ran for the living room! I opened the wire mesh door that keeps the cats out, and she bolted in.
I ended up bringing her personal food and water bowl in. Then found a spot for a litter box for her that I hope works out. It seems she will be spending the night with me! A few times, she has gone to the door, only to run off in a panic because another cat walked up to it to look in.
Tomorrow is supposed to be quite a bit warmer during the day, so I hope to at least give the haskaps a deep watering. Then see what else I can work on, within my restrictions. The day after, I think we will be doing a trip to the nearer Walmart. I’m not sure we will manage a Costco trip this month.
Ah… my daughter just let us know supper is ready.
I wonder how Butterscotch will be when I bring my supper in. We have smoked pork chops tonight, and they smell amazing!
I think this is the first time in 9 years blogging here, that I outright forgot to make my daily post!
So here I am, at past 2am, making up for it. 😄
Actually, it’s past 3am.
Our province no longer does daylight savings time, but not all our devices are connected to services that have figured that out. I have an old tablet that’s used only to display the weather, time and date. It, and my desktop, think we’ve changed time. Our phones, however, didn’t change. In theory, we should be able to manually change the time. The old tablet was my husband’s and we both tried to change it. It didn’t stick. I haven’t even tried on my desktop.
The funny thing was when I went online to confirm the time for our province – and got two different official answers!
Too funny!
Anyhow…
It was a lovely day outside tod… er… yesterday, and today is supposed to be even warmer. It’s also started to rain in the evening and it supposed to continue all day today. Most of the prairies right now is also under a fog advisory, with near 0 visibility in places.
I had a nice surprise yesterday, in the early afternoon. I got a message from my brother letting me know he’d just visited our mother and would be coming out here. I had a chance to go out and talk to him for a while. My mother, he told me, was once again complaining about the internet radio he got for her, because it’s all just one station.
Yup. She reprogrammed the buttons again.
He went over it with her again, explaining to just push the buttons, don’t push and hold. She isn’t even holding for long. He told me he’d actually contacted the company he got the radio from (again; he’d needed to talk to them quite a bit while trying to get it to connect to her favorite radio station), recommending a firmware update. He suggested that they make it so you have to hold the button for 5 seconds to program it, rather than the 1 second or so it is now.
He’d also spent some time working on her wheelchair. She says the staff is saying that it’s hard to push her in it. This is the same folding wheelchair that was my late father’s when he spend his final months in this same nursing home. The front wheels, my brother told me, were very wobbly. He thought they had always been like this, but I remembered cleaning the wheelchair before taking it to my mother, and oiling all the moving parts because they had become stiff and, in some places, starting to rust. So there was probably some play in the wheels, but nothing like what he was finding. He ended up McGyvering it for now, but he thinks it’s the bushings that need replacing. My mother has been asking for a new wheelchair, though, so he had showed her some pictures and I think she picked one.
Of course, she gave my brother a hard time about a lot of things, and he’s very worried that she’s going to do something stupid that he’s going to have to fix. I tried to reassure him by reminding him of our conversations with doctors while she was still at the hospital, then later with the nurses at what should be an annual meeting at the personal care home. It is officially noted that my mother no longer has the cognitive ability to make legal decisions or sign any legal papers. If she does, nothing is legally binding. I think the reminder helped him relax a bit. She had already stabbed him in the back so badly a few years ago, and there is nothing he can legally do to fix it. She still doesn’t understand how badly she screwed herself up at the same time. As her PoA, all he can do is try and hold the pieces together, while she remains oblivious to how much he does for her.
One of the things he did as we were talking was clear the maple suckers that had regrown behind the pump shack. Power to their caravan is sourced through that back wall, and he wanted to make sure it was all clear. He was going to clear the stump at the other end, but I asked him not to. I had “harvested” those in the spring, so they were a lot smaller, and I told him that is my coppice and I’ll take care of it in the spring and use them. So he left them for me.
After a while, I had to head inside, though I did get out again to do my walkabout before the rain started. At one point, I started getting all sorts of gate camera notifications and discovered my brother, sweetheart that he is, added some new fence posts to replace a couple of rotted ones that wouldn’t stay up anymore. When they brought their stuff out here after selling their property, it included a whole bunch of fence posts. He has a post pounder, too, which we don’t, and that made the job a lot faster. Even with an injured arm! He told me he got an MRI recently, and I got the story behind it. He had torn his bicep – three years ago!!!! – and only now was able to get to a doctor to have it checked. Not sure what his next steps are, but he’s been using that arm in pain all this time. To see him moving around, you’d never know the arm was injured.
My family is notorious for that. It’s partly why the girls are so severe with making sure I stick to my recovery restrictions. 😄
My brother was able to finish what he’d come to do and head out before the rain started up in the evening, though we’d had light rain on and off before then. We’re not getting anything heavy, but it should be enough that we won’t need to water the haskaps and the little spruces still in pots. It also means we’ll continue to have much warmer temperatures, including overnight. As I write this, we’ve been at our high for today of 11C/52F, and it’s supposed to stay like this all day. Overnight temperatures are supposed to stay above freezing for a couple more nights, and even after that, in the 10 day forecast, we’re expected to just barely dip below freezing overnight.
Which means we don’t need to put the hoses away yet. We just need to make sure the water is shut off and the spray nozzles are open for the night.
I am so appreciating our very mild fall, and holding out for an equally mild winter. I don’t mind the snow so much – we need that winter moisture for the spring – but I could really do without the sub-arctic temperatures!
Today has been a day of quiet rest and recovery for most of us.
The girls took care of the usual outside cat stuff. The yard cats are unhappy with their cat soup. We are out of the donated cat milk and canned cat food we’d been using, so it’s basically just softened kibble. We aren’t in a position to buy more right now.
My older daughter is pushing hard on commissions with end of month deadlines. My younger daughter has been dealing with pain issues after pushing to get things done outside, yesterday. My husband’s pain levels have been pretty bad lately, too.
I discovered the cats had done much destruction in my bedroom during the night. By the time I got it fixed up, I was pretty drained. Besides getting tired fast, though, I’m doing well. The last of the medical tape and stitches at the incisions on my abdomen have come off. I have been taking painkillers only before bed, and it’s been for my ridiculous shoulder pain, not anything surgery related.
My younger daughter accompanied me when I did my walkabout before things got too dark. She was caning it and having more pain issues while walking than I was.
We are coming up on 9 years, here. This blog just had its 9th anniversary. My younger daughter and my husband were already here, while my older daughter and I finished getting ready for the movers before driving out.
I have to admit, things have not panned out as expected, but then, who could gave expected all 4 of us ending up having serious health challenges?
Today, my daughters got some progress outside. The last 4 haskaps have been planted, and all 144 of them got a deep watering.
The garlic bed also got a deep watering, before a straw mulch was added. If all goes well, the garlic should start growing under there, before the ground freezes.
Over time, the haskaps need to be mulched, too, but with so many, that will be done slowly, over time.
I was able to head outside for my daily walkabout, before things got dark. Of course, I checked on things and did what little I could. I even remembered to move the trail cam and it’s stand away from our sign at the corner of the property, since we no longer have to worry about the sign being vandalized. I’m hoping to find a way to use the stand to hold the solar critter cam to monitor the isolation shelter, once it’s set up under the kitchen window for the winter.
While looking at where my daughter planted the last haskaps, I noticed the spade was forgotten, so I took it to the sun room.
Where I promptly startled four skunks
!!!
I left the sun room, since the cats and I were blocking the exit. Three left.
One stayed and looked like it was settling down for the night. 😆
There’s really no way to persuade it to leave from there. Too many things between it, and the door. Namely me and swirling cats, wanting their evening feeding!
So I took care of that and left the skunk alone.
Aside from that, I’ve spent most of my day in the cat free zone, doing little crochet projects. I’m trying to use up two colours of mill end cotton I’ve had for quite some time. We now have more dish cloths and coasters, and I’m working on another bowl.
I’m hoping to have a better night tonight. Last night, I went to bed early, and promptly became wide awake. At one point, I gave up trying to sleep, got up and made another pot holder in Tunisian stitch, because why the heck not? I’d love to do more than drift off and wake up, over and over, all night again, though. Not something surgery or recovery related, as far as I can tell. In that respect, things are going quite well.
Normally, tomorrow would be our second stock up trip to Costco in the city. That will be delayed. If we need anything over the next week or so, we can make a short trip into town.
I didn’t get a picture of the cart this time, though. My daughters both came along and had their own shopping, and everything was in one cart.
It was just a trip to the nearest Walmart, not the big city trip where we would go to multiple stores
I also don’t know when we’ll be able to do the Costco shopping. It might be a couple more weeks. So this is a larger shop at the Walmart than we usually do on stock up day.
With both girls along for the ride, they secured my walker in the box of the truck, since there was no room for it in the cab.
We did get gas long the way, and we took the route through multiple towns along the lake, as our usual route is still construction hell. In town, two gas stations were at $1.829, but the Shell station was $1.799, where I get my 3¢ off/L with my CAA card. I didn’t pre-pay, so that came off as a discount, not as more fuel. $50 filled the tank.
Along the way, we saw prices ranging from the $1.829 to $1.719
The shop itself was all right. Physically, I handled it well and needed to sit on my walker only a couple of times. The only problem was other shoppers blocking the aisles, cutting me and my walker, off, etc. The usual. The staff restocking shelves had inventory carts, etc. that partially blocked aisles but they, at least, saw me and made a point of making space for me and our cart to get through.
It occurred to me that, when I say I hate shopping, it’s not really the act of shopping I hate. It’s other shoppers. There’s a reason retail jobs tend to be a revolving door. So many customers are just awful. We encountered some great staff, though.
Anyhow, this is what I got for my $400.
For cat supplies, we got two 9kg bags of kibble and a 32 pack of wet cat food, plus a 100 count case of XXL pee pads.
In other non-food stuff, we got a bottle of CLR, a spray bottle of bathroom cleaner, some personal hygiene product, a bottle of hair conditioner and a total of 9 cans of Monster energy drinks for the three of us.
As my husband’s request, we got him a couple of bags of Doritos and some Ginger Snap cookies as a treat. We also got two bags of frozen chicken wings for myself, and two of chicken strips for my husband, that were almost half off. Not the brand we usually get but, I suspect, I better brand.
I got a package of sliced deli chicken and another of turkey for sandwiches. Those are something that have been very much a “shrinkflation” thing, where there’s barely enough for a couple of sandwiches. These ones had quite a bit of meat in them, and the price was what I remember it being before, so I got them.
In dairy, we got 4 pounds of butter, a 2L of 3% milk, along with a big block of Old Cheddar cheese. I notice Oat Milk is not on the list, so it looks like the girls paid for that, themselves.
There’s a flat of 30 eggs in there, plus 4 loaves of sandwich bread. We picked up a 10 pound bag of russet potatoes; we’re pretty much our of our own, and these were under $5 a bag. There were also double packs of fresh ravioli pasta at under $5 a pack, so we got two. We also got a case of frozen waffles – something we haven’t bought in years, because we didn’t have a toaster. We now have my mother’s toaster, which we keep in the cat free zone. We lost our own toaster when we discovered a cat had peed on it!!!!
There we have it. A total of 41 items that cost $382.22 before taxes.
Not a typical stock up trip but it should be enough to last us until we can do the Costco shop, which might not happen for 2 or 3 weeks, depending on how I feel.
Which is, overall, good. I did feel twinges at incision sites when I started to get tired, but that’s about it. I definitely would not have been up to doing multiple stores, like we usually do on this first trip. I’m glad that we were able to at least do this trip.
When my older daughter headed out to feed the outside cats this morning, she found two legs on the canopy tent had been pulled up and were walking away in it. The ties were bundled up at the corners so, after she set them back, she was able to secure the ties to the isolation shelter nearby. No wind is blowing that thing away!
Tomorrow, we’re going to need to do a walkabout to see if we’ve lost anymore trees and branches.
To the north and west of us, they got snow, and in one area, they are expecting 30-40cm/12-15inches of snow over 24 hours. !!!
My brother had come out to do winterizing around their stuff. Being an absolute sweetheart, he used his zero turn mower to oull his smaller trailer over to where the haskaps were planted. He was able to load all those heavy hoses for the drip irrigation system into it, to store in the barn for the winter. He was also able to grab all the empty pots and trays. I don’t know where he put those, but they are meant for the dump. He even repositioned all the trays with seedlings still in them, clustered together under a big crab apple tree, to protect them from the wind.
We didn’t make it to the dump today.
I don’t know what else he did. I am feeling good today but, strangely, both very sleepy and very hungry, too. I woke during the night and couldn’t get back to sleep because I was so hungry, so I made a sandwich and could finally sleep. A few hours later, I woke to take my morning meds and was feeling so hungry, I was light headed. I accomplished very little today.
I’ve been moving with a bit more care as well. Yesterday, I removed some of the dressings. The 5 little incisions had two dressings only them. A small gauze with medical tape, first, which was covered with larger gauze and a waterproof bandage on top. One of the incisions had bled a lot more and saturated the gauze. It was supposed to be replaced, but the nurses decided to just add more gauze – about an inch thick! – to cover it and taped it in place to secure it. Not with waterproof tape. So much for being able to shower with them!
Sponge baths for the win.
I had been told I could remove the top dressings in about a week, but to leave the dressings underneath to fall off on their own, with instructions on how to wash with them there. What I quickly discovered was that the waterproof tape stuck to the medical tape below and did NOT want to let go.
It didn’t want to let go of my skin, either.
One incision is right above my belly button, and that came off entirely, because a gap had formed under both dressing tapes. On another incision site, both dressings came off before I realized the problem. I managed to keep the smaller tape and gauze on another, but the one that got the extra gauze on it was a problem. It had to come off, because there was a big, black, dry, stiffened layer of blood under the tape. I had to get my daughter to get that one off. There was one last one I ended up leaving, mostly because I simply couldn’t get an edge loose from my skin. I managed to get that done this morning, and not pull off the tape and gauze below. So now I have two incisions that are completely uncovered. They are looking fine, but I’m taking extra care with my movements to avoid stressing or straining anything.
Which meant spending most of my day in the cat free zone, working on some double ended crochet, and not moving much.
Aside from the sleepiness, I’m feeling really good, though my left shoulder has been getting worse. I really need a shoulder brace, but no where we’ve looked so far has them in stock. I don’t want to buy one online.
I did manage to get outside for a bit of a walk, while my older daughter did the outside cat feeding. After looking at what my brother had done, I spotted these.
Almost all the leaves have been blown off the trees, but the apples on this one are hanging on! Even with having several frost nights in the past while, the apples are still in excellent condition, with no cold damage – and they are tasty! I ended up shaking a branch and bringing a bunch inside, using several of them to cook up and with a bit of oatmeal as a sort of desert.
Aside from that, my daughter and I got emails from our doctor today.
We’re losing her.
She’s moving to a clinic in the city. We have to find a new doctor.
A new clinic was being built all summer in town. While chatting with my SIL about it today, she told me it was open – and we know the doctor that built it. He’s the same doctor that had treated my mother during several local hospital trips. So we will see if anyone there is open for new patients. I’d be happy with this doctor, but I think my daughter would prefer a female doctor. Personally, I don’t care.
Hopefully, we will find one before our doctor officially leaves on Dec. 1. We’ve gone without a doctor quite a few times since moving out here. Few doctors are willing to stay in rural communities longer than they have to.
I had a more pleasant surprise than losing our doctor today.
I got a call from my mother.
Yes, I said pleasant!
It was a very short call. She didn’t actually have anything to say. She had managed to go for a “walk” today (sitting on her walker and rolling herself with her legs). She asked a little about how things where. The last time I talked to her, she had suddenly become worried about her citizenship papers (from 70 + years ago!), and I was able to confirm that my brother had them. She then said she didn’t have any news. Neither did I, since I’m mostly house bound.
Then, oddly, she started telling me how good my “English” was. By which, it turns out, she meant she liked how clearly I spoke and enunciated my words. She said she liked to hear my voice.
???
Then she cut the call off short, herself, in a good mood.
It was so strange. I’ll take it, though. Good calls from my mother are rare things!
As I finish this, we’re coming up on 7:30pm, and it’s completely dark outside.
I’m ready to crawl back into bed now, and sleep for a week.
I honestly wasn’t sure if I was up to the trip today, health wise. Pain levels increased again during the night. Not especially bad, except the bleeding suddenly increased, too. I found myself feeling quite dizzy in the morning. I thought, at first, it was because I was really hungry but, even after I ate, the dizziness stayed. I didn’t think I’d lost that much blood, though!
My daughters, meanwhile, ended up not being able to sleep at all last night, so if I couldn’t drive, neither could my daughter.
In the end, though, I found myself feeling before by the time we were ready to leave, and kept feeling better the whole time. My daughter, meanwhile, was able to get some sleep during the drive in, though she still wasn’t feeling well throughout the day. Bad PMOS (formerly PCOS) day.
We got it done, though! Under budget, too, though I did skip a couple of things I would have liked to get, but couldn’t justify the expense. Others, I didn’t get because we simply couldn’t get to the displays. Too many people blocking the aisles.
On the way out, we did stop at a gas station and put in $30 in gas. Just enough to make sure we didn’t drop below half a tank before getting to the Costco. Surprisingly, the gas prices were down to $1.689/L When we got gas in town on the way to Walmart on Sunday, the prices were $1.829 When we reached the Costco, the first thing we did was fill the tank. The price of regular gas there was $1.669 Usually, Costco gas is at least 5 or 10 cents lower than elsewhere, which suggests that prices in the city were still high. Odd, that. Filling the tank cost $61.74
For a moment, I considered using a handicap parking spot but figure there wouldn’t be any spaces, so we parked further out. While toodling by on my walker, my daughter using her cane, I was glad I didn’t bother trying. Every single space was filled, and they have a lot of them. That’s pretty typical.
The shopping itself went rather well, in general. The only frustration was all the people who kept abandoning carts in the middle of the aisle while looking at things, stopping in bottlenecks to get their free samples, or just hanging out and chatting, leaving little space for a cart to get through, never mind a flat cart. Several times, I just gave up and we turned around to another aisle, skipping whatever we would have gotten otherwise. It if was just one person, I’d have politely asked to get by, but it wasn’t. It was usually half a dozen carts, with their scattered people, blocking almost the entire aisle!
I really, really dislike shopping.
Anyhow. This is what $485.98 looks like.
With the trip we managed on Walmart, it meant we needed a smaller Costco trip than usual. We did include a couple of treats.
Okay… bottom of the basket stuff…
We got two rotisserie chickens. The cashier caught herself accidentally scanning on of them twice. There’s a case of Monster energy drinks, which my daughter sent funds for. More toilet paper, because we just can’t really have too much toilet paper in this household. For the cats, we got two 11.6kg bags of kibble; one for the inside cats, one for the outside cats. Given this is the middle of the month already, this might last us until the next stock up trip, just over 2 weeks from now. We did not get more canned cat food.
We loaded the belt first with cold/frozen stuff and heavy stuff. They had 4L jugs in 3% milk, so we got one of those (normally, we get 2L cartons locally). There is no difference in price at Costco, since milk is price controlled by the government, but my daughter informed me that we were out. There’s a 3 pack of 2L oat milk for my daughters. I picked up a brie, because it was on sale. Two panini packs for sandwiches. A block of Old Cheddar cheese (we still have some at home, so I just got the one). I wanted a heat and eat for my husband, and the same weight of dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets cost less than the ones that weren’t in fancy shapes, so we got the dino nuggets.
I got only 3 pounds of butter, as I’d already picked a couple up at Walmart. The name brand butter at Walmart was a better price than the Kirkland brand Costco butter.
We got a 2 pack of butter chicken sauce that was on sale, some peanut butter, and a large container of canola oil. There’s a double flat of eggs. We also got a 2 pack of loose mild Italian sausage meat, and our treat was a pack of 120 mini Halloween chocolate. We don’t do Halloween – no one comes out this far – so it’s just for the four of us.
I remembered to grab a 2 pack of parchment paper; something we find we use quite a bit, making washing up much easier. For bread, I got just one 2 pack of rye bread and our usual 2 packages of wraps, but I also picked up two large bags of the triangular ciabatta buns. There is also a large sushi platter for the girls, which my daughter sent funds for.
There we have it. Only about $80 of this trip was cat stuff, too.
My husband let us know, after the Walmart trip, that he had started his last bottle of distilled water for his CPAP humidifier. Costco doesn’t carry that. We considered making a side trip to a Walmart on the way out, as they have the best prices for that, but in the end we decided it wasn’t worth it. Tomorrow, I’ll be going in to pick up prescription refills for my husband, and my daughter has refills as well, so we’ll pick up distilled water in town tomorrow, instead. The difference in price is not enough to make up for the extra cost of gas to get them at a Walmart. I need to remember to stop at a Home Hardware as well, and see if they have any Roof Melt in stock. We need to make sure no ice dam forms over the sun room roof again. Even with the new roof, we had water starting to leak into the sun room because of the ice dam that forms.
Once we had the truck loaded and headed for home, we did make a stop at a gas station just outside the city to use the facilities. I got some snacks and a drink for my daughter, and remembered to pick up some gum for after my surgery. I still find it so weird that they actually tell you to chew gum as a way of reducing gas. Gum can often lead to the opposite effect, but they also say for 5 minutes, before or after eating, so… maybe that makes the difference? Either way, I now have gum.
Which reminds me. I got a call on my cell phone while driving out. My daughter was able to answer and put it on speaker phone for me. It turned out to be the hospital. They were looking at my very short medications list. I have one prescription I’ve been on for many years, morning and night, and I need to stop taking that as of today. I can still take my T3s, though. I should see if I can get more of those while at the pharmacy tomorrow, as I am out of the stronger stuff I had only a 2 week prescription for.
I also remembered to call the eye doctor and reschedule the joint appointment for my older daughter and I. I booked it after they called to reschedule, but before I had a surgery date. Being only a week after the surgery date, I figured it wasn’t a good idea to do it so quickly. I wouldn’t be driving myself, anyhow, since I would be getting the eye dilation drops, but it still seems too soon. It is now booked for the second week of November; almost 4 weeks after surgery. That should be safe.
Just a few more days. I am so looking forward to getting it over and done with!
Stocking up takes on a whole new meaning when we’re not sure when we’ll be able to go shopping again.
Thankfully, my daughters and I are all feeling better today, recovering from our colds. I actually seem to be recovering faster and never got as sick as they did. Today has been a pretty much zero pain day. My messed up left shoulder bothered me more than anything else, and only if I tried to move it in certain ways.
Which meant we were up to a smaller, non-Costco stock up trip – though with all this, our Costco trip is going to be pretty small, too.
Before heading out, I remembered to grab the collection of hard sided reusable bags from the house and returning them to the truck. I fired up the compressor while sorting them into the truck, so I could check the tires. They didn’t need much topping up, but the front tire on my mother’s car is flat again, so I pumped that up again.
Then I went to open the gate and, on the way back, spotted a furry friend.
We seem to just have the one hanging around this year, and rarely see it. He (she?) is certainly a handsome furball!
Since we were going to the nearest Walmart in the smaller city, we went by a highway we usually cut across to, to avoid driving through many small towns and frequent speed limit changes. With major construction on the highway we normally would take, though, this was a more efficient route. It did mean going through town and I was just under half a tank, so we stopped to put in some gas.
At $1.829/L Last time we went through town, it was $1.799
We did go to Shell station, where my CAA gives me 3¢ off per liter. I got $50 in gas, since I plan to do a fill at Costco. I also picked up some drinks and large bag of beef jerky, since my daughter hadn’t had breakfast. It was cheaper than elsewhere for that size of bag, plus I was able to use points to take $20 off my bill, and my CAA card also gives me 10% off anything bought in the store, so the grand total was about $67, and put me at above 3/4 tank.
Then we took the rather slower route to the Walmart, though it still got us there faster than if we were stuck going through the construction zones. Because of the steep drops where the shoulders normally would be, the speed limits drop significantly, even when no one is actively working. Which has been the biggest complaint I’m seeing on the local highways group. People are wondering what’s going on, because they are seeing so many days with no actual construction happening. The problem turns out to actually be a political one, rather than a construction one. Which doesn’t surprise me in the least, considering which party is in power right now, and who our Premier is.
*sigh*
Anyhow.
Thankfully, things were not all that busy at the Walmart when we got there – I think a lot of people do their celebrating today instead of tomorrow – so we were able to get what we needed rather quickly.
This is what $310.12 looks like.
That’s not even a full cart.
*sigh*
This is what we got for our money.
Top of the list is a package of paper towels (on sale), toilet paper (on sale), a case of canned cat food and two 9.1kg bags of kibble for the outside cats, since we won’t be able to get more 40 pound bags of kibble until Tuesday, at the earliest.
It’s cheap turkey season, so I got a medium sized turkey for $23. I wasn’t planning to get it, but when a whole fresh chicken costs almost $20 right now, getting a turkey for a few bucks more for the freezer just makes sense.
There is a bag of frozen pizza bites for my daughters and chicken nuggets for my husband and I. The fresh pasta packages are ravioli in flavours my daughter chose, one of which will be part of our Thanksgiving dinner. I also got a couple more pounds of butter because, at under $5 each, these are cheaper than Costco.
I got a total of 6 cans of energy drinks; two for me, and my daughter chose the other four flavours for herself and her sister.
I spotted some large couscous pearls and grabbed some. I think I’m the only one that likes them. We also remembered to grab some olive oil; I’ll probably get more at Costco, as the price is much better there, but we’re almost out so we didn’t want to wait. Same with the mayonnaise.
Next on the list, my daughter chose a couple of flavours of coffee creamer, plus some oat milk.
We remembered to grab some argan oil for our brittle, brittle hair. I remembered to look, but was not able to find the type of shoulder brace I was looking for, though.
The cinnamon mini donuts were a treat for the drive home, with enough for the rest of the family, too.
I remembered to look for a de-matting comb. We had to go into the dog section to find it. The one we had has disappeared, and several cats are getting mats in their fur again. Ginger in particular, which is remarkable for a short haired cat! He enjoys being brushed, but he still gets matted, the comb I’m stuck using just can’t get them out, and we don’t want to shave him this late in the season.
Next on the list, we have 2 loaves of white bread, 2 loaves of brown bread, and a lemon crumble pie. We’ve never tried this flavour before and wanted to try is as our Thanksgiving day desert. Last of all is a flat of 30 eggs.
There we have it. That’s just under $300, before taxes.
While I managed to get some lower prices today, the reality is that a lot of the sale prices are still higher than what regular prices were, just a few years ago; none of which can be blamed on the recent tariff wars. I suppose we still got a decent amount for our money, relatively speaking. Counting the de-matting comb, cat supplies was over $100 of it, so about $200 for four adults isn’t too bad.
I have to admit that, now that we’re down to a dozen outside cats, the kibble does last longer. I do wish it was because we adopted cats out, not because they have simply disappeared, though. 😢
When we finally do the Costco shopping, it’s going to be a couple of weeks later than usual. Which will actually come in handy, I suppose, since we’ll be well stocked just before I have my surgery. One less thing to worry about.
$513.19, to be exact, but that’s not the total for the day. Just the two I got pictures of.
My younger daughter and I headed out for the city shortly after 10. Normally, we would have taken the highway that, once reaching the city, because the street that goes past all the places we were planning to hit. There is still major construction there, so we took the highway closer to us. This one passes through one town along the way, so we stopped for gas. I put in $30 in gas from half a tank, then went in to pay and gets some drinks and some beef jerky to snack on until we reached the city, since neither of us had had breakfast, while my daughter cleaned the windows. Total was about $50. The $30 of gas, at $1.729/L, brought us to just under 3/4 of a tank. The last I’d heard, gas in this town was $1.809/L, which was a drop of 9¢/L, so seeing another 8¢ drop was good to see – even if the prices are still insanely inflated.
My daughter was cleaning the passenger side of the windshield as I came back to the truck when the squeegee caught on the driver’s side windshield wiper, pulling it off the arm.
She spent several minutes trying to get it back on, but it simply would not stay. The passenger side wiper was already being held on by the pressure of the arm alone, and she finally got the driver’s side wiper to stay the same way.
That changed where our first stop was going to be. We’d intended to go to the Walmart first, this time, since we pass it before we pass the Canadian Tire, and I wasn’t planning to get anything that needed refrigeration while there.
We went to the Canadian Tire, first.
I’d meant to get only the litter pellets there, originally, but of course we had to get a pair of windshield wipers. I ended up getting a staff member to help us find the right one for our truck. We’d tried using their computer tablet by the display and got several options that didn’t make sense. While the staff member was looking it up on his computer, I got a message from my daughter saying she’d found it, based on what came up on the tablet. Which turned out to be the wrong one – a couple of inches too short, to start with! It was also a single blade in the package that cost almost $50 by itself, and we needed two. We found the one the guy had found in his system, and it was a two pack at pretty much the same price. !!! I’m glad I asked the guy!
Along the way, we spotted some AAA batteries on sale, so I picked it up. It’s just a small package and I expect to pick up a bigger one when we do the Costco shopping, but we were out at home and I needed them.
Since the wipers were an unexpected purchased, I used some of my Canadian Tire dollars against the bill. I didn’t want to use too much, as we are saving it up, hopefully to be able to use against a new pressure tank. To get the same size as what we have now would cost about $500 after taxes, so every little bit will help.
Total at Canadian Tire, $57.79
This location is attached to a mall with a food court, so we went there for “breakfast” (it was past noon by then). I ended up getting some Pad Sew at Thai Express – something I haven’t had in years – and they even gave me a 15% off coupon to use, so the total with a drink was just under $14. My daughter ended up going somewhere else and paid for her own lunch, so that didn’t come out of my own budget.
Sadly, my lunch was not as good as I remember it being, the last time I had it. It certainly wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good enough that I’ll want to get it again.
On the way out, we passed a Dollarama and went in. I’m still looking for larger mirrors to go with the small ones I got through Amazon for the decorations with shisha embroidery I want to make.
There were zero mirrors.
In the end, I did get some gold and silver glitter felt, plus we picked up some more votive candles for our stash, plus found some taper candles that would fit the church candles we brought from the old church that was burned by an arsonist a few years back, before it was torn down.
I never did go back to bring home some pews or benches. I do regret it, but had nowhere I could store them until we could clean them up and find a place for them. I hope someone else was able to take them. To properly dispose of anything in a church, what can be burned is burned, and what can’t be burned gets buried. I would hate for those beautiful, it soot covered, pews and benches got burned! I did, at least, get a pair of candle holders with red glass globes. The candle is put inside the stems, where a spring slowly pushes it up as the candle burns down. Until today, I hadn’t found straight candles that would fit inside the stems, so I made sure to pick up a package.
I got something else as well, but my mind is drawing a blank right now. 😄 Grand total was just over $12, though.
Next stop was back tracking to Walmart. This is what we got for $163.
The stuff in the smaller basket is stuff my daughter picked up herself. Originally, I only planned to get cat supplies, but got a few extra things.
The cat kibble, wet cat food and large box of XXL pee pads where on my list. Between this and what we have left from last month, we won’t need to get any more for October. We’ll be getting toilet paper at Costco, but when I saw large packages on sale, I grabbed one. Because in our family, we can never have too much toilet paper!
My daughter remembered that we were almost out of conditioner, so I got a large bottle, plus some antiperspirant – the cheapest brand – for myself. The orange yarn is for some ear warmers that fit over a baseball cap that I want to make to sell.
Grand total (including a donation to round it up) was $163.
*sigh*
My phone’s alarm went off for my scheduled painkiller while we were finishing up and I almost forgot to take it. I had my T3s with me, not the Tram-acet I’ve got only a 2 week prescription for, and my daughter got that for me while we were driving to our next stop.
Superstore.
Normally, we would go to the international grocery store, but I wanted to make it a bigger trip today, just in case our Costco trip got delayed. I was supposed to be going for surgery by the end of the month, but still haven’t heard from the cancer clinic in the city. I’ll be calling my specialist’s clinic again to see if I can find out what’s going on, since I have no idea who to call at the cancer clinic.
Plus, Superstore has some things we wouldn’t get anywhere else, including Costco.
Today, that included a free turkey. !!
This is what $350.19 looks like.
You can just barely see the frozen turkey under the cart. For the promo, the cashier apparently didn’t need to even scan it, so it isn’t on the receipt.
I do like that their receipt prints out sorted by category.
First up, under “grocery”, we got a can of roasted, salted cashews for the truck, as we try to always have some sort of food in the truck for emergencies, or for those days we have to drive around and don’t have time to stop for a meal.
The honey Dijon is for my husband, as he likes to use it as part of a dip with mayo. Normally, we get mayo at Costco, but we’re almost out, so I got one here, too. They had large bags of cornmeal at a very good price (almost $4 less than local, for the same size package). The stuffed olives are mostly for my husband, too. They had Monster energy drinks at a very good price compared to most places, so we picked up two cans each for myself and my daughters, until we pick up a case at Costco. Then my daughter spotted some Beaver Buzz. Yay! They have it again! Two flavours were on sale, so I got three cans in two flavours. We also got my husband’s favourite soy sauce, and the drink in that list was something my daughter picked out of a fridge as we were in line, for the drive home.
Under dairy, I picked up some Old Cheddar and Mozzarella cheese, some butter to last us until Costco, and an 18 pack of eggs.
I’m not sure why eggs is listed under “dairy”.
Under “frozen” (which doesn’t include frozen meats”, we’ve got some mixed berries (mostly for my husband), plus a big package of perogies.
Under “produce”, there’s a bag of Ambrozia apples that were on sale, as were the Mandarin oranges and a bag of avocados.
Next is the “meats” section. My older daughter specifically requested a sausage she wanted to use in a soup. For my husband, we got several different types of frozen chicken pieces – something he is able to cook himself, when he is able to, since his pain levels often leave him unable to eat at regular meal times. I also got a piece of frozen pork loin, plus a package of pork tenderloin.
For my seafood loving daughters, we got some frozen popcorn shrimp, frozen tilapia fillets, and fresh rockfish fillets at a “use tonight” discount price.
Under “bakery”, we got two big bags of torpedo buns, one for the freezer and one for right away, a couple of loaves of 14 grain bread, plus a tin of mooncakes as a treat.
Under “deli”, there’s just a wheel of double cream brie, at a “use right away” discounted price.
Then, there was supper for when we got home, under “home meal replacement”. A massive sandwich for my husband that will be good for at least a couple of meals for him, some teriyaki chicken sushi for myself, and my daughter picked a couple of “family size” sushi platters (one is labeled as a bento) for herself and her sister, plus three taro bubble teas for the three of us (my husband has zero interest in bubble tea).
There we have it. $350.19 after tax. Since the total was over $300, we got the free Thanksgiving turkey, too.
By the time we were done with the shopping, my poor daughter was really starting to struggle. She’d brought her cane and was needing it, badly.
Thankfully, along with my T3s, I also keep some extra strength Tylenol in my purse, so my daughter took some after we loaded everything into the truck.
I was actually doing way better than she was. My lower back was starting to go, but nothing out of the ordinary for all the walking we did, and nothing I couldn’t deal with easily. Usually, by this time, my left hip starts to give out, too. It barely ached. No cancer related pain (just some extra bleeding) at all.
Meanwhile, my poor daughter struggled just to walk to the truck!!
Thankfully, that was our last stop, other than getting more gas. I’d thought to get more in the city, thinking there would be a better price. The prices we saw in the city, however, were all $1.799/L So we skipped it until we reached the same gas station we went to this morning.
I was just under half a tank by the time we reached the gas station – from the gas station, through all the city driving, then back to the same gas station, taking the same rough, used up that $30 I put in this morning.
*sigh*
This time, I put in $40, and we got nothing else. I did, however, use some of my points to get 10¢/L off when I paid for it, so I actually paid $37.69
That put me just above 3/4’s of a tank. That extra $10 made very little difference!
I’ll do a complete fill when we do our Costco trip, and reset my trip meter for the month.
Once at home, I back up to the house and my daughters and I unloaded the truck, assembly line style, then I left them to put things away while I parked the truck in the garage. As I drove out of the yard, however, I spotted something dark, moving in the grass behand my brother’s parked trucks.
It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen one! We had one year, back when we could still afford to buy black oil sunflower seeds to set in the bird feeders outside our living room window, where we had several of them. They would come eat the bird seed, along with a cat or two.
Yes, we had a couple of cats that would eat bird seed.
The groundhogs caused some problems with their digging, and eating our garden vegetables. The next spring, we had massive flooding, and I think the dens they were hibernating in got flooded. Especially if there was one under our outhouse. Even in a normal spring, it floods under there. In the years since, I think I’ve seen only one or two, in about the same area as this one.
They are so cute. Destructive, but cute!
So that’s our first stock up shop for October. The grand total, give or take some change, is $684.67 That includes gas, food, the Dollarama purchases and the extra expense of having to get windshield wipers, though most of that was covered by my Canadian Tire points.
Considering what we were able to get, that’s not too bad for these days.
It also means our Costco trip shouldn’t be as big. I’ll probably get only one more bag of kibble (we still have donated kibble) for the inside cats, while for the outside cats, I expect to be getting 40 pound bags from the feed store.
Speaking of outside cats…
When doing the morning feeding, my younger daughter has been able to give the Shrine Lady kitten all sorts of skritches! She still allows it only when food it around – especially the cat soup – but she is becoming more tolerant of it.
She has the softest fur imaginable!!!
While we were heading home, my older daughter did the evening feeding – and she was able to pet the Shrine Lady, too!! Just a bit, while she was acting very offended that there was no cat soup.
When I do the evening feeding, I have started adding a couple of cartons of cat milk to the food trays in the sun room (my older daughter does not do that). I want to encourage the kitten into there, and it has apparently been working. She does have a favourite tray to eat from, outside the sun room door, but when they’ve gone out to feed the cats lately, she has been inside the room.
Progress!
Hopefully, we will soon be able to get her into a carrier, and off to the rescue for spay. They are overwhelmed and aren’t doing intakes, but she is younger and they might be able to find a space for her. Otherwise, she will come back to us.
We shall see.
Meanwhile, our next stock up trip at Costco should happen on Wednesday, the last day of the month.
Oh, and I’m happy to say that the truck was behaving – and I think we got a confirmation that the cause of that check engine light is dust in some lines. When putting gas in this morning, I used the hold-open latch that lets you let go of the nozzle until it’s either full, or the pump reaches the pre-set amount. Right away, it started clicking off, as if the sensing port was reading the tank as full. After a couple of times, I had to manually hold the lever for it to fill without stopping itself. When we had the 2007 Uplander, before getting this truck, it was doing that constantly not long after we moved here. Driving on gravel roads so often means dust gets into spaces that triggers this. The person I was talking to about it added that getting it fixed is really expensive, and it’ll just happen again, so it’s not worth the cost. It affects nothing else.
I’ll bring it up with our mechanic when I have the chance, but that seems to be the most likely thing. The only difference now is, in this truck, it triggers the check engine light. Which also means it probably won’t turn off, even if we clear the code.
The main thing is, the truck is running well. We’ve got a lot of trips to the city for medical appointments coming up over the next couple of months, and really need to be able to rely on it!
$364.05, to be exact. Plus the stuff I didn’t get photos of.
My daughter did the morning routine again. This morning, she found all six kittens – plus the older singleton! – playing together near the shrine feeding station. She startled them and they ran off, but when she came back with cat soup, she said all seven of them were eating out of the same bowl!
More progress on that later…
We headed for the city around 10am or so, crossing over towards town and stopping at a gas station to pick up drinks for the road, first. We chose this route because the highway goes straight into the city and turns into the street that all our stops are on.
That was a mistake.
While no construction workers were on the highway, there were still limits in places that required reduced speeds. Mostly because of the drop off at least a foot deep where the shoulder used to be! Then we got into the city itself and there was even more construction, with the first intersection we needed blocked to turns, so we had to pass it then turn around.
By the time we got to where the Canadian Tire is, it was lunch time, so we popped into the mall to eat, first. We ended up both going to A&W for some double mozza burgers – it’s been ages since I’ve had one. My daughter had poutine with hers and I chose sweet potato fries, plus we both had medium fountain drinks. It ended up costing just over $42.
*sigh*
This mall has a Dollarama, and I wanted to go there before we headed to the Canadian Tire. I was looking for the 10% acid vinegar in gallon jugs. We didn’t find any; just in smaller spray bottles. So we skipped that, but we did get a few other things. We’ve somehow lost track of a couple of spray bottles we use for water – mostly to use on the cats! – so we got two more. I also picked up two more pet odor remover pucks to keep near litter boxes. I also spotted some absolutely adorable little sauce dipping bowls in a set of four. My love of tiny bowls is a bit of a running joke, but we do actually use them a lot. My daughter noted that they were a very good size and shape, too, so I got a set. While going past the hats display, my daughter went digging and found a hat with the front and visor in rainbow glitter.
I now have a new hat in my sparkly hat collection.
The grand total came to $21.28
From there, we headed to the Canadian Tire. The main thing to get there is the litter pellets, however we also went looking for some other things and found stuff to pick up that we normally would not.
We got two 40 pound bags of pellets for litter. They also had a whole bunch of gallon jugs of 10% acid cleaning vinegar! We got two. Then we headed to the paint department. While there, I found a display of 30% acid vinegar! That one had all sorts of corrosion warnings on the label. 😄 A 4L/1gallon jug of 10% acid cost $4.99 each. The 30% acid vinegar cost almost $30 for a gallon. !!
I also found a new SeptoBac product to try. We have the powder that gets flushed down the toilet to add bacteria to the septic tank. This stuff is meant to be used monthly to help clear and maintain the pipes. We plan to use it from the kitchen sink, as it’s the length of pipe that runs from there to the corner under the bathroom that is of primary concern.
I found and picked up a roll of Tucktape outdoor repair tape, because the one I’d picked up before has simply disappeared, after a single use. I am a complete loss as to what happened to it, as I’d made a point of putting it somewhere in the open, with plans to use it again soon. When I came to get it, it was gone. It hasn’t shown up again in a few months, so I just bought another one.
Then we got a couple of wood conditioners. For myself, I picked up some Butcher’s Block finishing oil, designed for food handling surfaces. Aside from conditioning our wooden cutting boards, I have some elm rounds from the tree that was in front of the kitchen window that I plan to chainsaw into thinner rounds. They’ll be made into live edge, round cutting “boards” to be used with our outdoor cooking. Once the rounds are cut, cleaned and sanded smooth, they will get treated with this oil.
My daughter, meanwhile, wanted something to use on our tools and other outdoor items, and chose a teak oil. The blend has linseed oil in it, but she can work with that. We had been talking about various products during the drive in and she mentioned the warnings about linseed oil they got when she worked at a Home Depot and was paint trained. Be extremely careful with the rags when you’re done, because they have a tendency to spontaneously combust!!!
The oils were both pretty expensive, and they brought the total bill up to $123.48 (it would have been so funny if that 8 had been a 5…)
That done, our next stop was a Walmart, and I managed to get a photo of that cart. 😄
This is what $191.35 looks like.
Not a lot of stuff, really, but there are things I plan to pick up tomorrow after my doctor’s appointment that we didn’t want to bother picking up today.
I picked up some XXL puppy pads to go with the XL size we got at Costco. I usually get a pack of 50 but find I need to get a second one before the end of the month, so I went ahead and got a box of 100.
We have messy cats.
I also remembered to pick up wet wipes. The receipt says “baby wipes” but the packages say “all purpose wipes”. One will be for the truck, and the others are handy to have on hand around the house.
I remembered to grab a two pack of extra strength Pepto-bismol, as we were running low. My daughter remembered that we needed some hair conditioner, too. We also got a two pack of air freshener, plus a couple of spray bottles of all purpose cleaner. Also, a carpet powder odor eliminator and stain remover.
The cats like to be messy on my horrible, horrible bedroom carpet.
We got four 4L jugs of distilled water for my husband’s CPAP humidifier.
My daughter then picked a couple of boxes of teas and a couple of bottles of coffee creamer.
Finally, my one real splurge; a box of moon cakes we grabbed on the way to the check outs.
That done, we headed to our next stop at the international grocery store.
Which took a lot longer than it should have, since we were driving back through that construction zone again.
This trip was not quite as planned, but that’s okay.
This is what $172.69 looks like.
There was one thing I was hoping to pick up, but we never found it. The big blocks of frozen ahi tuna were on sale, but it looks like they were completely sold out of the frozen ones.
I made up for it with a brisket.
The brisket was on sale for $4.99 a pound, which made it cheaper than any of the “cheap” cuts of beef out there. There were only three left and I picked the middle sized one that came to $83.27 by weight. Which pretty much took up the meat budget! Worth it, though.
They also had a significant sale on the locally made, smoked and peppered bacon, so I got two. I also got a dry sausage as a snacking item for my husband.
We found a couple of cheeses on sale that we decided to pick up. One was an ages Havarti, while the other was something we’ve never seen before; Iberico.
The only fruit we got was some bananas; we should be able to get fresh fruit at decent sale prices locally. My daughter also found an instant milk tea mix that was also on sale, so we got one.
My daughter picked up an Arizona green tea for the drive home, then we picked up supper from the restaurant area of the store. I got a hot two item combo of Chinese food and picked a Lumber Jack sandwich for my husband. My daughter picked a chef sampler of sushi for herself and a Poke bowl for her sister.
Last of all was a package of cheesy bread to snack on during the drive home, as we were starting to get pretty hungry again. Once done, we popped over to a gas station next to the grocery store and added $40, which just barely filled the tank. Gas in town when we stopped for drinks on the way in was $159.9 In the city, it was $154.9
Thankfully, on the way out of the city, there wasn’t as much construction. We did cut across to take another highway home, though, so avoid all the construction that slowed us down on the way in.
Which meant we drove through the town my mother used to live in, and saw gas prices at $147.9 !!! It is very unusual for the smaller towns to have better prices than the city.
Ah, well.
Both my daughter and I took our time about the whole thing, but were starting to struggle by the end of it. I brought my walker along and am glad I did, as it allowed me to sit down any time the pain levels started to creep up. My daughter was caning it by the time we hit Canadian Tire. I absolutely credit my daughter’s help for my feeling as well as I did when we got home!
In the time we were gone, I was getting messages from my brother and SIL. Their grandchildren went back home yesterday, as they start school tomorrow. Today, my brother was able to stop to visit my mother and take care of a few things for her before they headed here, just long enough to drop something off. By then, my younger daughter and I were on the road home, and my older daughter took care of feeding the outside cats. I’d let the family know my brother and SIL would be popping by, but she hadn’t noticed they were already their. Totally startled her while she was feeding the kittens in the catio!!
After we got home, put everything away and had supper, I cut the brisket into four chunks, then processed those further. One chunk got cut into stewing meat, another into “steaks”, and the last two into roasts. Three of the packages went into the freezer. These will be something to use the Instant Pot for!
Then I headed outside to check on the kittens. I had started getting messages asking how trapping the kittens was going. I know they are officially closed to intakes right now, but they really want those kittens! I updated them a bit, but they were pushing to trap them right away. Which I can understand, but they don’t seem to be quite understanding how it can’t really be done that way.
The food bowl in the catio was completely empty again, so I put out some distraction cat food in other bowls, then added more kibble with cat milk in the catio.
No sign of kittens.
I then went around the yard to check on things before coming back.
I found three kittens playing around the junk pile area. No kittens at the branch pile.
Time to move the catio!
I took the items on and in the catio and set them in the wagon, then walked the catio over until it was close to the junk pile, then set everything back up again. I kept seeing the three kittens playing around, with one of them even going all the way to the main door on the house! As I was finishing up and checking one last time before going in, I saw a little black kitten at the food bowl. I went over and, instead of running away, it ran into the huge cat carrier in the corner, which its cat bed inside.
Where there were already two other kittens.
!!
At that point, I could have just closed the door, but that would have left them without food an water overnight. I could have closed the catio door, but that would have prevented other kittens from coming in and having access to the food and water bowls near the carrier. So I left things be.
Once inside and at my keyboard, I started answering messages from the rescue group. I explained to them that the catio is our trap, and how we’d used it before to get Pinky’s two kittens closer to the house and socialized to the point we could just put them in carriers and bring them in, with no fight and no trauma. These kittens are much younger, so that will make things a bit easier. Especially with Slick gone, so they rely completely on use for food and water. Normally, they would be too young for weaning, I think. I don’t think they are 6 weeks old yet.
After explaining the progress made, I asked for instructions on what to do for the next time I can just close up the carrier door with kittens inside. I now have some available days and times. On any of those days (including, potentially, tomorrow after my doctor’s appointment) I will close up the carrier on any kittens inside, then contact the rescue group and one of them will be able to meet us to take in the kittens. One of them is making space in her house for them now.
I don’t expect to be able to get more than three kittens at once, and it’s three kittens that are braver and more playful. Once they have been taken in, we’ll have a better chance of getting the shier ones and – hopefully – the older white and grey singleton.
So, that’s where we stand now. Second stock up shop is done. All of it together, with lunch, gas and three different stores, came to $467.33
Those are some of the emptiest shopping carts for a stock up shop we’ve had for a while, but we did get some unusually expensive items on this shop that we likely won’t need to do again for some time.
