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A much more effective shop, plus updates

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Yesterday, while in a much larger town, I did a bit of grocery stopping. Just a few things to tide us over until we do our first big stock up shop in the city next week. The grocery store I went to has a really good inventory, and I would have loved to get more, but everything was too expensive.

What I forgot to do was bring our water jugs for refilling, so I needed to do that today. Being a much warmer day, I called my mother to see if she needed any errands done, or if she were up to going to the bank.

Thanks go her Meals on Wheels three times a week, her groceries stretch quite a lot further, so all she needed was milk. The only other thing she wanted were some croissants to go with her tea. She discovered croissants only recently and just loves them, and sometimes the grocery store in her town has some excellent prices on them.

So I decided I would get my water refills at her local grocery store, then maybe pick up the sandwich meats they have that are prices better than I’ve seen anywhere else, including the city, on top of my mother’s two items. She was getting her Meals on Wheels today, so I was going to pick up my own lunch of fried chicken at the gas station before going to her place.

Once at the grocery store, I had time to spare before I knew the gas station’s fried chicken would be ready, so I took my time and looked around.

What a difference from yesterday! This grocery store not only had better regular prices, but there were sale prices that were just awesome. Where, yesterday, I didn’t get the extras I would have wanted to, today I got extras I never expected to pick up!

I didn’t get a chance to get a photo before everything was packed up, so here’s just a picture of the reciept.

From the top, the first item is a jar of sliced pickles for sandwiches. The Dawn Ultra is for our basement, to clean the septic pump’s filter basket.

The “bakery reduced” is three bags of croissants for my mother, that cost only $1.75 each. This is even better than Superstore in the city, where they have clamshells of croissants available for $5, which is a great price, but far fewer croissants for the price compared to the tree bags I got. The 2L of milk was hers, too.

The boneless pork was one of the amazing sale prices; you can see on the receipt that the sale price discounted over $17 – more than half price for a very good sized roast! It was the thing with the fresh chicken legs and thighs. I ended up getting two packages of those. If I’d had the budget for it, I would have gotten more!

I got around 500 grams each of the sliced deli meats; the maple ham was a touch under, while the two chicken breasts were a touch over. That is their regular price, which is about $2/100g lower than most places.

The instant pudding was a spur of the moment thing. Four boxes for $5 is a really excellent price, as you can see by the amount discounted. While I just got a flat of 30 eggs yesterday, when I saw that the 18’s of house brand eggs were priced lower than a dozen, I just had to grab one. We can never have too many eggs! The rye breads are regular price; the same brand and price that we get at Walmart.

The water refills were the one thing that is more expensive, both the new caps and the water itself.

So of all this, $9.44 was for my mother. Which means that, of the $106.60 total, after taxes, we paid only $97.16 for our own stuff.

Which was a heck of a lot more than what we paid almost $130 for, yesterday! Particularly since I ended up getting so much meat on this trip!

After I finished the shopping, making sure to bag my mother’s stuff separately, I had time to spare before I would go to the gas station to pick up some fried chicken and wedges for lunch, so I went to a small department store to see what they had. I remembered there were a couple of things my mother wanted from there. One was a candle, for when she says her prayers. The other were slipper socks of some kind. Her feet get cold at night, so she wanted something she could sleep with. I actually found both, though I’m not sure if the slipper socks will work for her. They are supposed to be one size fits all, but my mother has massive bunions, and that might be a problem. We shall see.

I still had extra time, so I parked at the gas station and messaged with my brother for a bit. When I did my morning rounds, I checked the ejector, as he asked, but the pump hadn’t gone off during the night, so there was just fresh snow in front of it. I did feel the heat tape and it was warm, so that’s still working. Before I left home, I made sure to top up the filter on the septic pump and asked my family to keep an ear out for it, as it would probably go off while someone was taking a shower.

After updating my brother on things, I went inside, only to find all the chafing dishes were completely empty. Not even the potato wedges or deep fried perogies and pizza pops that get cooked first were there.

It turns out their frier was on the fritz. The food was being cooked, but it would be a while before anything would be ready.

Thankfully, they had a bank machine, so I took some cash out and went to the Chinese restaurant next to my mother. They are cash only. It’s been a few months since I’ve gotten anything there, so I was far from unhappy with having to change plans.

From there, I finally went to my mother’s. Today was warm enough that I didn’t need to worry about my groceries and the water jugs freezing in the truck cab.

Since I was able to get what my mother needed along with my own stuff, after we had lunch, I did other errands for her. It was her day to do laundry, so I changed her bedding for her, which was enough to make two loads for her. Once those were started, I did some light housework for her, and all those little things that she now finds difficult to do. The one unusual thing was trying to figure out why her TV wasn’t working After trying various things, it just kept reverting to a message saying to check the network connections. I checked everything I could think of before I finally took a picture of the message on the screen and sent it to my brother; he bought her this TV and did all the setting up, so he knows it a lot better than I do. A quick message back from him, and I found the setting that my mother somehow accidentally turned off. She has a habit of button mashing her remote control when things don’t work the way she expects, but when things go wrong, she has no idea what she did that caused it!

All in all, we were able to have a pretty good visit today, which is really unusual for the length of time that I was there. I really appreciate days like today. No personal attacks. No attacks on my family. Only mild attempts to attack my brother that I could easily address. No racist rants or bizarrely conflated topics she likes to rage about, even though she has no idea that she’s talking about completely different things. She still can’t figure out why she’s getting fundraising mail from a political party she is no longer a member of. I’ve told her, she’s on a mailing list and would need to ask to be removed. She things that “the government” (meaning, the federal government) is spending all this money to mail things out using taxpayer dollars. I’ve tried to explain to her that party mail is paid for by party members and party donations. They cannot use federal funds for stuff like this. I can tell she simply does not understand what I’m trying to explain.

One thing she did bring up is that she is noticing her own cognitive decline. She’s still convinced that she is dying, and told me she’s feeling all sort of pains, but it’s different now. How is it different? All she could do was vaguely gesture at her chest and stomach. She just doesn’t have the vocabulary, or understanding of anatomy, to explain what she is feeling and where. Aside from that, though, she’s finding it harder to remember words she uses regularly.

She’s still doing pretty darn good for being 93 years old! She does acknowledge that and is grateful for it. But she does need to be in assisted living of some kind!

At least she does live in town, and has home care coming in three times a day for medical assist with her prescriptions. The help she needs, though, home care out here cannot provide, nor can my siblings and I.

So we do the best we can. In the end, my mother really is doing amazingly well to still be living independently! I would not be at all surprised if she outlives us all. 😄

Anyhow.

Once done at my mothers, I got home while it was still light out (I am SO loving the longer days!). After the truck was unloaded, I made sure to check the ejector. The pump had gone off while my daughter was showering, and I could see by the melted splash area that the ejector still has a decent amount of pressure behind it.

On checking the pump, I saw the water level in the filter was getting low, so I topped it up again. After putting the lid back on, I could see air bubbling in from the intake opening as it started to drain. It has to be the back valve again. I took some video of the bubbling and updated my brother about it. He’s not saying much but, knowing him, he’ll probably find a way to come out this weekend to look at it again.

Tomorrow, though, we have to do a much needed trip to the dump, since we didn’t do it during our recent deep freeze. The dump is open longer hours on Saturdays, and I hope to get that done as early as possible. We’re supposed to be colder tomorrow, but nothing extreme. For the next while, it’s going to feel like spring!

I’m quite looking forward to it.

The Re-Farmer

Not quite done yet

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

*sigh*

It started again.

After my brother discovered the rag stuck in the back valve on the septic pump, he made sure to give the valve a once over. It was in good working condition – once it was no longer filled with cloth! – so everything was put back together as it was, instead of being replaced with the not-quite-what-he-wanted new parts and pieces he’d found, after much running around in the city.

Once it was all together, the pump was working great again. It now runs so quietly, I can barely hear it when I’m sitting at my computer, which is pretty much directly above it. The filter, now that the pump was working right, actually filled more than we can fill it when we prime it, with water completely filling the dome shaped cover.

With all the troubles we’ve been having, I’ve been paranoid about it, and frequently go down to check when I hear the pump running.

Which is why I was there to notice that something had changed.

The water level in the filter was dropping, ever so slowly.

Each time the pump ran, instead of filling completely, there was space in the dome, and when it stopped, the level would be a little bit lower than before.

At one point, while watching it until the pump stopped, I saw it was low enough that I decided to prime the filter again. Once I filled the filter with water and closed it up again, I saw air bubbles coming in from the inflow opening and watched the level go down. !!! I filled it again and saw the bubbles again, but the water level stayed high enough to completely cover the inflow opening.

I told my brother about it, thinking maybe we need a new O ring after all, though it did seem well sealed when I opened it to prime the filter. As we messaged each other back and forth, he said that with the filter, there’s no way another rag or large object could be blocking the back valve again. He suggested I see how it’s flowing out of the ejector and compare it to the video he’d taken when we first got it going again. The problem with that is, even though the pump takes longer to empty the tank now that it’s pumping the fluid all the way out to the ejector, in the time it would take me to bundle up and walk over there, the pump would be done emptying the tank. The alternative would be for me to play with the bypass wires on the switch and have someone turn it on manually, after I’ve already gone out to the pump, and I really don’t want to do that!

Today, after we finished our running around, I was at my computer when I heard the pump start running while my husband was in the shower.

Which is when I heard that too familiar vibrating sort of noise.

I went down stairs to check. In the filter, I could see that it was mostly drained. There was inflow, but it wasn’t enough to fill even the bottom half of the filter while the pump was running.

I stopped the pump, primed the filter, then turned the pump on again.

The filter immediately drained, but there was no inflow anymore.

!!!

Priming process repeated. Pump turned on again.

This time, while it did drain quickly again, there was enough inflow that the water level reached high enough to cover the inflow opening, but that was about it. It never completely filled. I kept watching until it stopped, and even took some video to send to my brother.

While my brother is right that there is no way something large could get through the filter and block the back valve again, something occurred to me.

When we discovered the rag stuck in the back valve and my brother cleaned that out, neither of us thought to check the pipe from the filter to the valve. There’s a short length from the filter, which was still attached to the filter, then a short pipe with an elbow at each end that joined that filter outflow pipe to the back valve. That section with the two elbows was what my brother was originally going to replace with a new brass back valve, removing the one in the pump completely. What he hadn’t been able to find was the part he wanted that would attach to the pump where the original back valve is. The closest he could find was a steel piece, which would eventually corrode, but absolutely no one had the threaded piece he needed in plastic. So he was quite happy to be able to put the original parts back on again, which meant he could also return the parts and pieces he’d bought but never used.

So while it’s possible there might be something going on at the ejector, I think it’s the back valve again. I think it’s more likely that some sort of crud inside the pipe came loose, now that the water was flowing full power again, and instead of being washed away, got stuck in the valve.

Now, in theory, I could take that section off myself and check it. The problem is, I really don’t have the right tools for the job – my brother had to use his heat gun to warm up the plastic so he could get it apart, then put it back together again, for starters.

At this point, all we can really do it keep monitoring it. If it really is just a piece of crud that came lose and got stuck in the valve, it might just eventually get washed away.

Whatever the cause is, it’s very frustrating. It was working so well, then suddenly this is happening again!

At least, with the heat tape on the ejector, we know that shouldn’t freeze up again! The pump running with low flow again could potentially cause that to happen.

*sigh*

I was really hoping we were finally done with the septic system problems!

The Re-Farmer

A quick shop: This is $128???

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

So, today didn’t quite work out as planned, but close!

With the time for my daughter’s doctor’s appointment being when it was, we decided we would leave very early so that we could run some errands first, then she would have her appointment, and we would be heading back early enough to pick up parcels at the post office before it closed. We planned to leave by noon, or after the prescription delivery came in. The new delivery driver is a bus driver, too, and he does the deliveries in the morning after he parks his bus for the school day. Usually, that means he gets to our place in the late morning.

Usually.

When it was past noon and we hadn’t heard from him yet (he calls in advance, so we can open the gate, or meet him at the gate), I called the pharmacy to make sure the delivery was still happening. It was. He just had a lot of deliveries today.

My husband was having another really bad pain day, so there was no way he could meet the driver outside, and my older daughter was in bed for the day, having finished her work night at about 5:30am. By 1:00, though, we couldn’t wait any longer. My younger daughter and I had to head out, leaving the gate open for the delivery driver.

I later got a message that the driver arrived almost half an hour after my daughter and I started heading out.

Our first stop was at the feed store for a 40 pound bag of kibble. We weren’t out of feed store kibble, but we did run out of regular kibble, so the inside cats got feed store kibble this morning.

They don’t like it!

Spoiled buggers!

Since the feed store is so close to the gas station we usually pick up from fried chicken for lunch at, we could have gone there. The medical clinic, however, happens to be near a Subway, so I asked if my daughter wanted to go there, instead. I knew she hadn’t eaten yet today and would be really hungry, but she was willing to wait longer. It’s been ages since she’s been to a Subway.

So that was our next stop. We had enough time for a comfortable sit down lunch before her appointment. We were going to do the grocery shopping part together, before her appointment, but that changed. The grocery store and the clinic are in the same shopping complex, though, so that was convenient. I just went on my own after my daughter checked in at the clinic for her appointment. I didn’t have much on my list, so I took my time to see if there was anything else I thought we might need.

I was really shocked by how more expensive things were. This is a much larger town – almost a city – and closer to the big city than we are, but the prices were higher than even in my mother’s town! I’m hoping this isn’t a reflection on how much everything has gone up everywhere. Our gas prices increased to $1.569/L since the last time I was in town. I had filled the tank and it was $1.499/L then, already an increase from $1.469/L.

Anyhow. This is what $128.24, after taxes, looks like.

That is a very empty cart.

The thing that was actually the best deal were the energy drinks, which were on sale. My daughters requested them, so these are for three people.

Here is what everything cost.

So the Monsters were only $2.50 each, instead of almost $4. I couple of them were for my daughter and I to have for the ride home. Normally, I would have bought them by the case (4pk), which normally costs about $11 when not on sale, even at Walmart. Elsewhere, they’re even higher, but with this sale, buying them in pairs was a better price than buying a 4pk.

The milk and oat milk were the same price as everywhere, since milk prices are controlled. The 30 pack of eggs were more expensive then locally. The celery stalks were a sale price. The block of cheese at $10.49 used to always be about $6.49 before the prices all went crazy during the illegal lockdowns. The cheese and celery were the only things I got that were not on my list.

The rye bread was the lowest price I could find. It wasn’t on sale, but the on sale ones were sold out. I choked at the price for kibble, but we won’t be going to a Walmart or anything like that until we are doing our big stock up shopping, so I got the cheaper 7.26kg bag. They did have 9kg bags, but it was just too expensive.

We don’t normally buy salad dressing, but I’d bought a whole lot of bagged salads last time, but one bunch of them were a salad mix, not a salad kit, so it they didn’t come with their own toppings and dressing packages.

Last of all where the canned drinks. My husband requested Fresca. Every now and then, he has a craving for it. The Coke Zero is for me. Those were both on sale, but their regular price is pretty much the same as everywhere else.

That’s it. Thirty two individual items, but it’s just cat kibble, bread, milk, cheese, eggs, drinks, celery and salad dressing. There were other things I could have picked up, but just couldn’t justify the expense. Like bananas. They were almost $1.50/lb! Usually, the more expensive ones are 99¢/lb, while most places are 79¢/lb There were all sorts of meats on sale, some of which also had stickers with at-the-till price reductions, but even the sale prices were higher than regular prices I have been seeing elsewhere.

I’m rather concerned that when we do our stock up shopping, I’m going to find major price increases all over.

Anyhow.

After I got the shopping done, I loaded up the truck. My daughter had said she would meet me there, but I my list was so short, I knew I would be finished before her. So I went to the pharmacy adjoining the clinic and cashed in a couple of lotto tickets, and ended up getting myself a pair of slipper shoes. I still haven’t found indoor shoes to replace my usual ones, but they’re really starting to fall apart, so I hoped these would be okay. The price was right and, if they didn’t work out, one of my daughters would have a new pair of slippers!

I’m wearing them now. I’m still not sure if they will work out.

After putting stuff away in the truck, I went into the clinic. I couldn’t see my daughter around, so I asked how long since she had been called in.

It turned out she had just been called into the examination room a couple of minutes before, and the doctor hadn’t seen her yet!

So I waited.

Interestingly, talking to my daughter later, she said she could tell I was in the waiting room because she recognized my cough! I have gotten to the point that I barely even notice my chronic cough anymore. It’s just something I do. Like breathing. Which makes sense, since breathing is what seems to trigger the cough. 🫤

After my daughter was done, she had some stuff for the receptionist to scan for her files, and a follow up appointment was made for the end of next month. She also got another PCOS referral, this time for an ultrasound.

From there, we stopped to fill the gas tank (about an eighth of a tank cost $31 and change), then headed home. By the time, we weren’t sure if we would make it to the post office before it closed. Especially when we found ourselves behind a snow plow! Thankfully, there was just enough of a gap in traffic that we could pass, and we got to the post office, just 2 minutes before closing!

One of the packages we got in the mail was a supplement for the cats that’s supposed to help calm them down. Butterscotch, for example, is still a bundle of stress that not only refuses to leave my office/bedroom, but is so anxious about the other cats, she has limited herself to basically 1/4 of the room (which is still a lot of space, really) and won’t use the litter box unless I chase the other cats out and close the door! I’ve learned to recognize when she needs to go by her behavior. Even once the other cats are out, I still have to pick her up and put her down near the litter box. She will then dash in, use is as fast as possible, before running away and back into her corner.

Once we got everything unloaded and put away, I made sure to make cat soup with the supplement. It’s only a small container, though. The does is by weight which, for cats, is the smallest dose recommended. For the amount of cat soup I made, it was probably less than that per cat, but it really comes down to how much they eat. Which means the bigger cats will be eating more of it than the little cats, so I guess it works out. It’ll take a few days, I’m sure, before we can see any difference. If we do, I’ll give more details about the product.

As I write this, I’ve got about a dozen cats sleeping on my bed. I can’t say they’re sleeping because of the calming supplement, though, since that’s pretty much what I usually have on my bed, every day. The main thing will be if we have less fighting between certain cats, or if Finnegan, aka: Dah Boy, stops spraying all over the place. That is definitely a stress response, since he didn’t start doing that until a few years ago, after our indoor population grew to the point it’s at now. We’re all pretty tired of cleaning up after him! If that’s the only benefit we get, it’ll be worth the cost of the stuff!

Meanwhile, we completely forgot to grab water jugs to refill, so I’ll need to head out tomorrow for that. Which reminds me. I need to call my mother and see if she wants me to do her grocery shopping tomorrow. We’re still expected to reach a high of -3C/27F tomorrow, so that would be a good time for it.

For now, however, it’s supper time. My older daughter made us a big batch of cream of potato and bacon soup while we were gone. I can’t wait to have some – it smells amazing!

The Re-Farmer

One more day of this

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

It has definitely been the worst.

I took this screenshot after coming in from giving the outside cats food and warm water. I did NOTHING else out there this morning!

If you can’t see the Instagram image, we were at -34C/-29F with a wind chill of -46C/-51F at 8:32am. It’s now just past 9am as I write this and, while my phone’s weather app hasn’t changed, the weather on my desktop days we’re at -35C/-31F and the wind chill is at -42C/-44F

The heated water bowl in the sun room was almost completely iced over at the top. The one in the water bowl shelter was heavily frosted over. Only the one in the isolation shelter had no frost on it – it’s still pretty warm with that heat lamp in there! – but the sliding window beside it was so frosted, I struggled to get it open. Somehow, the food bowl ended up knocked down to the bottom level. I wasn’t about to move the box shelter over the entrance to get it, so I found another container to put inside. It’s just a light plastic thing, and will probably get knocked down, too, but it will do for now.

On my local highway conditions group there is someone who posts a picture with road and weather conditions at the start of their commute, every morning. They live to the southeast of us. This morning, they posted at 6:45am, and reported the temperature at -37C/-35F They did not report the wind chill.

Today’s high is supposed to be -27C/-17F. Barely, and only for a brief period, before things start dropping for the night away. Tomorrow?

We’re looking at a high of -17C/1F. On the 23rd, when we are booked to bring a couple of cats in for spay and neuter, we’re expected to have a high of -13C/9F. On Friday, the 24th, the warmest day being forecast at the moment, we’re expecting to reach -6C/21F.

If the forecasts are even half correct, this will be the last bitterly cold day of the winter. After this, things will warm up and any cold periods expected will not be anywhere near this several. In fact, the long range forecast into February has us going as high as 6C/43F in the second week of February!

I’ll believe that, when I see it.

I really feel for anyone who has to commute in this, or work outdoors. This is one time where I’m glad we don’t have any livestock animals! Homesteaders I know are having a real struggle keeping their water from freezing. We simply don’t have what we need to care for animals in conditions like this – which is why we still don’t have chickens.

One more day of this.

The Re-Farmer

Yikes!

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

Good grief, check out that wind chill!

It’s past 11pm as I write this, and we are at -30C/-22F, and the wind chill is at -43C/-45F!

I’ve actually snagged a small heater to use in my bedroom/office, because the furnace just can’t keep up. Especially in my north facing, log walled room with the last drafty window that my mother refused to have replaced when all the others were done, before we moved here.

Time to curl up in bed and stay warm with about a dozen cats or so!

The Re-Farmer

Still working!

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

We have another bitterly cold day today. As I write this, at almost 10:30am, we have warmed up a bit and are now at -28C/-18F with a wind chill of -38C/-36F. The extreme cold warnings we were under just ended, minutes ago.

My daughter accompanied me as I did my morning rounds, just in case I had another fall. We did the short rounds, due to the cold, but I did make sure to check on the ejector.

All is working!

My brother redid the heat tape so that it is now wrapped around the elbow and thoroughly secured with electric tape. We don’t want this thing to freeze again! With the septic pump now working at full flow, thanks to that rag no longer being stuck in the back valve, this should not be a concern anyhow, but water was still filling the stack pipe more than it should. I wasn’t about to undo everything to check it it still was.

As for the icicle hanging off the extender my brother added to the elbow, I broke that off then felt around inside. The ice ended just inside the extender. The heat tape around the elbow was doing its job, and it was clear. The next time the pump goes off, the water will melt away and remaining ice as it blasts by. The water is usually warmer, too, since the bulk of the water that goes into the tank is from hot showers.

The pump itself is back to taking about 5 minutes to empty the tank. Which makes sense. It’s now pumping through about 300+ feet of pipe before hitting the venturi valve, then being pushed up a 3/4 inch discharge pipe.

Oh! I just checked the weather again. The extreme cold warning is back. Wind chills in the range of -40C to -45C (-40F to -49F) are expected, particularly in areas to the south of us. We are somewhat protected by the lake effect where we are.

Another good day to stay inside, as much as possible.

Thank God none of us have to commute anywhere.

The Re-Farmer

An unplanned stock up trip

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

Normally, I’d be saying “this is what $X looks like, but I don’t have the photos, this time!

Today, my daughter and I were going to make a trip into town and then, if the truck was behaving, a trip to the nearer city to go to Walmart and Canadian Tire.

My daughter needed to go to town first, and take care of some paperwork at the pharmacy. It was coming up on noon by the time she was done, and neither of us had had breakfast, so we had lunch in town, too.

As our shopping lists had grown, my daughter suggested we just go to the larger city, instead. The nearer Walmart is pretty small and the selection isn’t as good. We decided it was worth the extra drive and did that, instead.

Our first stop in the city was the Canadian Tire, where I picked up a couple of bags of litter pellets.

It was a very dangerous trip for me.

The seed displays are up, and the garden supplies are being set up!

Including a portable greenhouse I’ve been eyeballing for a while now, that was at 52% off. I really didn’t have the budget for it yet, though. I did find a replacement snow brush for the one I broke trying to knock ice away from the tires on the truck a while back. It was on clearance, so I was able to get a much better quality one this time.

Total spent at Canadian Tire, after taxes, was $29.09

From there, we went to the Walmart. I wanted to pick up a bit more cat food and some fresh produce, plus my husband had his own shopping list on a different budget. I didn’t get a picture of the cart, as his stuff was in there, plus I shared the cart with my daughter and her own shopping. Here is the receipt, though.

I got a 32 pack of wet cat food, plus a large back of kibble, which was on my list. The inside cats don’t like the feed store kibble, so I got them this, and the feed store kibble will be for the outside cats.

I remembered to grab a package of regular facial tissues, plus a couple of square packages for the truck that fit in the console between the front seats.

Not on the list was a 24 pack of Cream of Mushroom soup that was on sale for 77¢ each. They are usually almost double that price.

We were almost out of Basmati rice, which is what my husband likes. Normally, we get that at Costco, but I picked up an 8lb bag here. Hopefully, it is a good brand.

There are carrots, which were on sales, a 2L of 3% milk, a couple of pounds of salted butter, mushrooms and bananas. I also picked up some bouillon cubes – vegetable, chicken and mushroom – and a cannister of beef bouillon powder.

I grabbed a couple of bags of pasta that was on sale, and a package of frozen fish filets for the girls. I also got a couple of blocks of cheese that are 2/$12, plus a block of lactose free cheese for the girls.

Aside from a donation, that was it. $200.25 after taxes.

I had intended to get more fresh produce and maybe some meat, but most of it just didn’t look all that good. My daughter was also not able to find some of what was on her list, so we decided to hit the international grocery store for the rest.

Which turned out to be much more productive, with a lot of sales, plus loyalty card bonuses.

Thankfully, I was able to take advantage of it.

This is what $203.03 after taxes looks like.

Along with the sale prices, this week had an extra 20% off all produce as a loyalty card bonus.

Oops. I just realized the top item is cropped off. That’s avocados. Also on the produce bonus sale were blueberries – I got 4 clamshells of those – celery, bagged salads (I got 4 bags each of 3 different types), both red and green grapes, a 10 lb bag of Russet potatoes and a couple of yams.

I got chicken legs and thighs, plus two packages of ground turkey, which were all 25% off. I also got some pork chops and locally produced smoked bacon slab. I also remembered to get some onion soup mix that I forgot to get at Walmart.

Among the non-food items, my daughter found some hair oil for me to try, as the oil I usually use it getting way too expensive. We also remembered to grab some wet wipes for the truck, on finding ourselves finishing off the container we had, just today. I like to keep wet wipes in our vehicles. They come in very handy!

As the day was getting long, I decided to pick up food for supper. For the girls, I could a couple of trays of sushi, and a couple of Chinese food dinners for my husband and I. Then I spotted a display of Bento meals, so I got one of those for myself, so that my husband could have the other two meals. Last of all, I got a drink for the drive home, as I was feeling pretty dehydrated.

In the end, I ended up saving $74.41 with the double sale prices, and instead of what would have been 200 points, I got 4,900 points. I like to save these up for around Christmas, as I can usually get a free turkey or two with them.

Aside from that, we got $30 in fuel before we left town for the city. While in the city, I saw the gas prices were quite a bit better, so I got a fill that ended up costing $28 and change.

So, altogether, this stock up trip ended up costing $432.37, plus about $58 in fuel.

The fridge is very full right now!

We definitely got a lot more for our money at the international grocery store than the Walmart, so I’m glad we ended up making the trip into the city. It was pure chance that we got these double sales, and today was the last day for them, too.

My daughter had her own shopping list for herself and her sister. One of the things they picked up was their favourite sushi rice.

Which they now use the Instant Pot to cook, regularly!

I’m so glad they are enjoying their early Christmas present, and actually finding it useful! 😊

Today has definitely been a good day. With all the bad days we’ve been having lately, with things breaking down or freezing or flooding or… I am extra grateful for the good ones we get!

The Re-Farmer

Can we get a break, please?

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I am so over the plumbing in this place.

Not that we have any choice but to just run with the hits as they come.

With the main drain running from the kitchen to almost all the way to the septic cleared, we could finally do laundry without running a hose out the door to drain it. We did laundry all day before the drain was cleared, though, so it wasn’t until today that any of us needed to do laundry.

One of the things I wanted to do was run the tub clean setting, first, but we had a few extra grungy things in the washing machine, so that tiny load got done first. This new machine automatically adjusts the amount of water to the load, too, which is bonus.

The girls set the hose up before starting the load, but they can’t hear the machine from their “apartment” upstairs, so my husband and I were keeping an ear out. We didn’t hear anything unusual, but when I came out to check on things, I found water on the floor. It wasn’t flooding, as it has in the past. Enough that a few towels on the floor took care of it. I checked the drain pipe. It felt dry and I didn’t see wet underneath. The water and drain pipes are all framed with 2x4s, with cross pieces to keep things secure, and the lower one looked dry, too.

So we figured the problem was the discharge hose. It had been cat damaged in the past, and was taped up, but we figured it sprang a leak somewhere. My daughters taped it up as much as they could while I went hunting, ended up calling LG and ordering one in. It will be shipped by mail.

After taping up the discharge hose, the girls started the tub clean setting. After it ran for a while, I went out to check…

I immediately heard water splashing.

The drain pipe was overflowing around the discharge hose!

So I quickly paused the machine and threw a towel under to soak up some of the water – it’s a tight space and we can’t do much else without physically moving both the washer and dryer. The machine will automatically drain the tub when it’s paused or stopped, after a certain length of time, though – a protective feature so the weight of water doesn’t damage it – so we had to work fast. My older daughter came down to help while I started attaching the sump pump hose we use to drain the water out the storm door window. I got the hoses together, then my daughter started taping it while I started pushing the other end out the window on the door as fast as I could.

The water started draining while my daughter was still taping.

I dashed outside to straighten the hose out. With the tub clean setting, it was straight hot water. The water flowing through the hose melted a channel in the snow under it as it drained.

I didn’t fuss with it too much, though, and went back in to help my daughter finish securing the hoses together, then setting the rest up so there weren’t any lower hanging spots for water to collect.

Then we could restart the machine to finish the tub clean. I just checked on it again. The outside cats are VERY curious about the far end of the hose outside!

So while some water is going through the laundry drain pipe, it still must have a clog somewhere. I could even hear it trying to back up to the kitchen sink. The plumber worked on the pipe right near where the laundry drain reached the main drain pipe, so I know there is no clog near there. With the kitchen sinks, everything has been flowing fine.

But we still can’t drain the washing machine.

Wherever the clog is, the washing machine drains faster than the water can get past the clog.

Which has to be either in the P trap, which was replaced a couple of years ago, or in the short length of pipe from the P trap to the main drain pipe. I don’t think it’s the P trap that’s clogged, but I really don’t think it would be in the short length of pipe to the main drain pipe. Mostly because I could hear water backing up to the kitchen sink, so obviously, water it making it through to the main drain.

So why is it not only backing up and gurgling in the kitchen sink, but also overflowing the laundry drain? That’s a LOT of water to get backed up!

We’ve been diligent about following the maintenance instructions the plumber gave us, too. The pipes should be getting clearer, not clogging up.

I just don’t get it.

Meanwhile, we’re back to doing laundry with a hose out the door.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Temperature whiplash – just in time?

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As I write this, we are at -23C/-9F with a wind chill of -29C/-20F. That wind chill has actually improved a bit but tonight we’re expected to get wind chills of -34C/-29F.

When I headed out this morning, it felt even colder. I did manage to check on the ejector, just enough to make sure the heat tape is still powered and doing its thing. I didn’t uncover it or check on how the melt is going, as I did not want to risk shattering the plastic taking off the cap and elbow in what was -35C/-31F wind chills at the time.

In a couple of days, though, I’ll probably unwrap it completely, to help it warm up! We are in for some temperature whiplash over the next while.

Yeah. We’re expected to go from -18C/0F to 2C/36F overnight. We’ll have a couple of mild days after that, then drop right back down again.

Looking at the monthly forecast, the next cold snap is supposed to last about a week, then we’ll be warming up at the end of January.

I hope it does warm up at the end of the month, because we now have two cats booked through the Cat Lady, one male one female (whichever ones we can catch). Which means we’ll have to close up the isolation shelter for 2 weeks again, keeping the other cats out.

A lot of them basically live in the cat shelter right now and hardly leave. Between the heat lamp and their body heat, it must be pretty warm in there!

Meanwhile, I’m waiting until Wednesday, when it’s supposed to go above freezing, to do any driving around and some errands.

I am getting really tired of this cold – and this is far from the coldest winter we’ve had since moving here! I’ve spent most of today drinking tea and eating hot soup, because this house just doesn’t really warm up in the winter.

I’m turning into a suck in my old age. 😄

The Re-Farmer

Thank God!

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That my brother made it out yesterday to work on the ejector, and not today.

I headed out to do my morning rounds and ended up doing short rounds, because of this.

That is -23C/-9F with a wind chill of -35C/-31F. I took this screen shot after I came inside, and it was actually colder than when I first headed out! In fact, even as I was about to take the screen shot, I saw the wind chill drop another degree.

Brutal.

I did manage to do a bit of shoveling and going around to make sure various solar panels were clear of snow. The ones for the lights in the kibble and water shelters were completely buried.

When I got to the gate to brush snow off the trail cam solar panel there, I had to get these pictures.

The photos do not do it justice. Those are the largest sundogs – rainbow or otherwise – I’ve ever seen. You can just see a hint of a complete halo.

Sundogs and halos around the sun or moon happen only in extremely cold temperatures. The stronger and brighter the sundogs, the colder the temperatures.

Needless to say, I did NOT check the ejector. I wasn’t going to uncover it and expose it to this cold. With the bright sunshine, the black tarp should absorb some heat, while protecting the heat tape around the ejector from the cold. The heat tape has all sorts of safety features to keep it from overheating, and is just warm enough to keep pipes from freezing. It wouldn’t take much for temperatures and wind chills like this to basically negate anything it’s accomplishing. I’ll see what the conditions are like this afternoon and decide if it is worth slogging out there to uncover it and check things. We’re only supposed to warm up another degree for the high of the day, but if the wind chill drops, that will make the difference.

On a completely different note, today the girls tested out the Instant Pot with rice for the first time. All the recipes and instructions are for Jasmine or Basmati rice. The rice they prefer is a sushi type rice that usually needs to soak in cold water for half an hour before cooking. I got them an Instant Pot cookbook and they looked at various rice recipes, but the chart that came with the Instant Pot said for 4 minutes for all plain white rice (longer for brown rice). They went with 4 minutes, and it seems to have worked fine.

Once they were done with it, I tried it out myself for the first time, to make a beef stew. I found a basic recipe, though I had to substitute a couple of things – carrots for rutabaga, for example.

The cookbook then said to set the pot to manual for 18 minutes.

Our model of Instant Pot doesn’t have a “manual” setting. It does have a rice setting, which put the time at 12 minutes. It has a meat/stew setting that put it at 35 minutes.

We both used the “pressure cook” setting, which seems to be the equivalent for “manual” on our machine, as it allowed us to select heat levels and time ourselves. The stew is cooking as I write this – oh! it just started beeping! – so we shall see how it turns out.

It smells amazing, that’s for sure!

Time to see if I can have myself a nice hot bowl of stew on this cold, cold day!

The Re-Farmer