Today, we went around the vehicle graveyard with a scrap dealer that my mom called, to check out what is here that might be hauled away. Among the old farm equipment was this. Can you guess what it is, or what it does.
Here is the front of the device.
And here is a look at the other side.
I have fond memories of using this thing!
The Re-Farmer
First, thank you to everyone who has sent kind words and said prayers for us about the fire. It is so much appreciated!
I have since learned that two homes were lost yesterday. Sadly, one of them did not have insurance. I hope to learn more soon, and see if there is someone organizing help for them.
Just another reminded, of house important it is to have insurance! My mother has property insurance, though it is inadequate, so when we take that over at some point, we intend to improve it. Plus, we have our own content insurance. If anything every happened, we are covered.
One thing I found encouraging when we were preparing for the possibility of evacuating. We now know that, if need be, we could probably be out of the house with our bug out bags and the cats in less than 10 minutes. There just isn’t a lot that we would need to take with us. It’s all just stuff. As long as we have our IDs, medications, and some clothing, plus food for that cats, we’re good. Everything else is replaceable. About the only thing we’d add to the list, if we had time, is the computer towers and laptops.
I went into town with my husband for a medical appointment. We got home shortly before noon. I had to wait until after 2 to go and pick up a parcel in the mail, and my younger daughter came to get some driving practice. We were thinking of going to town to play come Pokemon Go after, but when we got to the post office, there was smoke, everywhere. The fire station parking was full of vehicles from the volunteer firefighters still, but the fire trucks were gone. I asked at the post office and was informed that there is another fire to the North of us.
Of course, the winds are coming from the North, today. :-(
It’s further away and doesn’t seem to be a risk to where we are, but we decided not to go into town. We did drive out to see the fire area before coming home, though.
Here, you can see how the roads themselves can act as fire breaks. This is 1 mile north and about 1 1/2 miles south of our home.
You can’t really see it in the above photo, but there is smoke in the distance, still.
In this area, the fire mostly followed the road, but in some places, when further in.
Every now and then, we’d see an opening like this, and smoke in the distance. The fire is out, but still smoldering in places.
One of the burned out homes. I honestly couldn’t see where the house had been.
It’s a good thing this area is rather marshy, and there are still ponds around as well, with how dry this winter has been.
Still smoking in the distance.
The next videos were taken after the above photo, and while we were on our way back home. Probably about 4 -5 miles from our home, as the crow flies.
Now, if only that predicted rain would actually show up!
The Re-Farmer
Got a call from my brother next door, letting me know there is a fire in the area. We couldn’t see it from our windows until I went out clear of the trees. I then drove a mile south up the road to see better.
This is to the south west of us. The winds are from the south east. It seems to be a few miles away. I called the fire department and did get a call back to confirm they are on site, however we’ve got bug out bags partially packed. The gate is open and the van is by the door. If we need to evacuate, we can be out in a matter of minutes.
Meanwhile, we wait and watch out the windows. I will be going out to see past the trees every now and then.
It’s supposed to rain soon. Pray that it does!
The Re-Farmer
Update:
This fire has apparently been going on for much of the day. It must have been the source of the smoke I was smelling earlier today.
One home has been lost. The fire department has roads blocked and are monitoring, but there isn’t much else they can do. Several farms in the area had done controlled burns in previous weeks, so there is only so far the fire can go before it runs out of fuel. Fires, however, are so unpredictable!
It seems that someone had tried to do a burn on the side of the road, even in this wind. There is an automatic fire ban if winds exceed 20kph, and we were well past that today. From what I’m told, the fire kept jumping the roads and has already covered quite a distance. My brother said he could still see it from a high perch at his place, whenever a spruce tree would go up. Those pretty much explode, they go up so quickly. He, however, was confident enough to go to bed.
I think I’m going to be a bit too wired for that for a while.
Definitely not feeling well today.
Woke up and discovered I’d lost most of my voice, and what speaking I could still do had me sounding like Barry White.
It was a beautiful day, though. My husband actually made it outside. Not only that, but he was able to walk to the end of the driveway and back. Twice!
Okay, that second time was pushing it a bit, and he did have to stop and sit in his walker a couple of times, but it’s the first time he’s been out of the house, aside from doctor’s appointments, in months.
While out, I took a look at the area in front of the shed where we are storing my mother’s stuff. Right around it, things are clear of snow and dry, but there is a large area of water and ice that I’d have to drive through to get to it. We probably could still do it, but I’d rather not deal with all that water while hauling household goods. I’ll check it again in a few days.
Not feeling well meant getting some quality time catching up on projects – I finished a rope basket I was making and got it blocking, along with another basket I’d made a while back, with a lid. I’m testing out a stiffening method that uses Epsom salts.
Blocking 3 dimensional objects is definitely a challenge. The round basket and its lid have a forest of bamboo skewers sticking out of it!
I also got a couple of beaded bracelets done. Need to get my Etsy shop going again, and new inventory is always a good thing.
Which all meant I was near the living room window for much of the day, and finally got photos. Along with the deer, I got cats, cats and more cats!
And a story, in pictures.
Nasty Crime Boy: So there I am, munching on a rodent, minding my own business…
Nasty Crime Boy: … when suddenly BAM!!! I get attacked! Like, out of the blue, Man!
Nasty Crime Boy: And then he was gone, just like that. And I was like… whoa. What just happened, Man?
Squishum: I know nothing.
Squishum: The leaf! I caught it! I have vanquished mine enemy! Bwahahahaha!!
Trüllbus the Crime Eater: I am not associated with those guys over there. I just want my sun spot.
The Hand disapproves.
The Re-Farmer
Ah, a much more pleasant day today! Just the winds dying down makes a huge difference. There are blizzard warnings for later on, but not in our area. We’re just supposed to get a mix or rain and snow some time.
I’m still waiting for that last big blow-out before real spring (as opposed to calendar spring) arrives.
Interestingly, the better weather conditions did not translate into increased critter activity outside our window.
Nasty Crime Boy came to check out the birds.
Later, we saw Beep Beep climbing one of the trees. Rolando Moon came out to say hi when I brought the food out, and that was it for the outside cats.
As for the deer, we only saw Hungry Girl and Barbecue. My being in the window taking pictures seemed to make Hungry Girl very nervous, so I didn’t stay for long. I did get a couple of cute photos, though. Including my obligatory tongue shots! :-D I got both Hungry Girl…
… and Barbecue…
… just a peak of a tongue. :-D
It was a quiet day overall, which I’m quite enjoying. Visits with my mother tend to require a few days of recovery time. Seeing her every day for 5 days in a row? I’m going to need at least a week to de-stress! I did get a call from her today, and I was happy to learn she had booked an appointment with her local doctor for tomorrow – that was fast! She didn’t get her brace on, though tomorrow she is hoping to talk to some staff about getting the assistance. I don’t know how the process works in this province yet, but I’m hoping she will be able to get daily visits to put the brace on her, quickly.
I did get a quick trip into town to pick up some things for Easter that will need advance prep time, plus I got my van booked to get the safety done in a couple of days. I really don’t know what to expect with that. I’m hoping it’ll be inexpensive, but my paranoid side is thinking they’re going to find new, expensive problems in the process. Because it just always seems to happen that way! If all goes well, though, I’ll have the safety done in the morning, and by afternoon, I can get our registration and insurance transferred over. Then I’ll finally be driving with this province’s license plates! It’ll only be a month and a half past when it was supposed to get done. :-/
I just know it’s not going to be that simple. There’s going to be something to complicate things, right? :-D
I am so looking forward to this hassle being over and done with!
The Re-Farmer
Well, I’ve gone and done it!
This blog now has an Instagram account.
If you’d like to follow me there, look up The Re-Farmer. I’m looking for people to follow back, too. :-)
Hope to “see” you there!
The Re-Farmer
So I’ve got my monitor set up *beside* me, rather than in front of me, as I’m stuck on the couch with a small table for a typing platform. The monitor is on a shelf, right near the window; while I have to deal with sun issues daily, the view is worth it. Apparently, Finnigan is of the same opinion; you see him here, watching a squirrel intently..
I got up this morning, and found art up on the living room wall. This is awesome!
These are paintings done by my older daughter. Before the move, we talked about what we wanted to put up on the walls once my mother’s stuff was down (which still isn’t finished, but we are getting there…). I told her that, aside from the photos we had, I wanted more of her art up.
These, with green and gold, are perfect beside the umbrella tree and gold framed mirror.
Love it! I look forward to more!
The Re-farmer
It has taken me forever to get a good shot of Rolando Moon. He She is constantly moving!
Rolando Moon does not approve of Beep Beep’s methods of keeping the toes warm.
Bonus Mothman shot.
Strrrreeeetttccchhh…
The Re-farmer
