I had thought this was two trunks, twisted around each other, but no. This is one trunk that split and twisted as it fell. There are still three trunks remaining around this old willow.
We have some cooler, wetter weather over the next day or two, so it might be a while before we can start breaking this down and cleaning it up. Running an extension cord this far out, for our chain saw, is going to be an issue.
We could really use a gas powered chainsaw!
Ah, well. We use what we have.
There are some branches on there we might be able to keep and use for wattle weaving.
This tree may be about a hundred years old, is rotting and dying – but it’s a willow, and they are very hard to kill! There are suckers growing around the base, and even the deadest parts of the tree can suddenly shoot out fresh growth. I’m pretty sure the four (now three) trunks growing out from a rotted out base are suckers from an original tree that died long ago. When I was a kid and climbing this tree, it was always these four trunks, and they were pretty big, 50 years ago. I suspect that even after we eventually lose the remaining three trunks, we will still have willow growing here.
I might even deliberately stick a sucker into the rotted out centre. With willow, you can just stick the branches into the ground, and most of the time they’ll start growing.
Somehow, I feel we can learn a lesson from such resiliance.
First up, I’m happy to say that I did NOT end up having a bad pain day today. With how I was feeling last night, I was rather concerned, but it seems to have worked itself out. Plus, my daughter is doing the morning rounds, and that allowed me to sleep in.
As for my potential plans to work outside, that didn’t happen. It was too wet out for the sort of work I wanted to do. It wasn’t even really raining, either. More fog and mist all morning.
So I was just about to start cleaning out litter boxes when I got a phone call from my mother.
She started out asking how things were going, so I told her about some of things I did yesterday, and things I planned to do tomorrow, which is supposed to be warmer and mostly sunny – though the predicted high keeps changing! At one point, my weather app was telling me we could get as warm as 10C/50F, but I just checked it, and it’s now saying the high will be only 7C/45F Which is still nice. More importantly, it’s supposed to be dry, so I should be able to get certain jobs involving power tools done!
Then I asked how she was doing.
Well… she’s out of milk, of course.
*sigh*
I keep asking her to please have me do her grocery shopping before she runs out of everything, but she refuses. If there’s food in the house, she says, she has to eat it. Temptation.
She wanted me to come tomorrow, of course.
It was barely mid afternoon when she called me (though it was already starting to get dark!), so I suggested I head over right away, instead. That threw her for a bit, as she thought it was much later. She wanted to go to the bank, and wasn’t sure it if would be open still.
It would be, of course.
So I updated the family, quickly changed and was soon out the door. When I got to her place, my mother was ready and waiting, with her winter parka on! We quickly went over her list, then headed out, first to her bank.
Going in and out of the vehicle for that was the limit for her, though, so she stayed in the truck while I did the grocery shopping next.
By the time everything was done and her groceries put away, she wanted me to stay for a visit, but it was getting near sunset. I didn’t want to be driving home in the dark. Too many deer!
When I got to the truck, I checked my phone before I headed out. I’m glad I did! There was a message from my husband, with a phone number. The septic company had called and needed me to call back for a confirmation that they could come over.
Tomorrow morning!
I called them immediately.
The first thing they needed to confirm was where we are. He tried finding our physical address on an online map, found a road with the municipal number, but it ends well to the south of us. I had to explain that the part that goes past our place isn’t listed on the maps, and gave him country directions. Then we confirmed things like making sure the gate would be open. They should be here around 8:30-9am. I also told him about the other gate, with the chain and electric fence across it, that they’ll need to go through, but that just needed to be unhooked. The renter’s cows aren’t here now, so the electric fence isn’t powered.
That done, it was time to go home. I did take advantage of being her town, though, and stopped at the feed store for a 40 pound bag of cat food before heading home.
Now I’m doubly glad I convinced my mother to let me do her grocery shopping today!
What I’m hoping is that we won’t need to hook up the diverter for the septic tank. I really don’t want to punch a hole through the insulated opening and run the septic into the maple grove. So tonight, we’ll be doing as much of the water stuff as we can. Showers before 7:30am. Dishes washed. Cooking that included draining off water. The only thing we don’t have to worry about it the laundry, since we’re still running the drainage hose out the front door, anyhow.
As for how long things will take, it’s hard to say. If everything goes smoothly, it could take as little as 4 hours. If things don’t go smoothly, it could take 8 hours.
The fact that the expeller started working again, though not to its full capacity, may be a good thing. It means the area that was so saturated before isn’t a quagmire anymore.
With today being an inside day, I did finally start working on editing the garden tour video I have planned.
Then I got a message from my SIL.
My brother was soon to be on his way to our mother’s, to put her AC away for the winter – something he hasn’t had the time to do for weeks. Did I want to be there?
Of course!
Being able to see my brother is always a joy.
However, my presence would also help prevent some of the nasties my mother likes to throw at him when no one else is around.
By the time I headed out, the predicted rain had hit us, and it was pouring! The driveway was already full of water. It was also full dark by then, so the drive to my mother’s town was NOT done at highway speeds!
I left our place not that long after he left his, and he still got there before I did! I didn’t realize that until he phoned me, asking if I could pick up some milk for our mother. The grocery store was closed by then, because it’s Sunday, so I made a dash to a gas station to get some milk for her. By the time I got inside, he was almost finished, so there wasn’t much left for me to help with.
Then we sat for a visit and a chat.
A somewhat serious chat.
It turned out our vandal showed up to visit my mother recently. My mother didn’t remember the exact day, but it was a day when her Meals on Wheels arrived, so we know it was at least on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday.
She was all impressed that he’d brought some chicken drumsticks for lunch, though he ate them himself because she had her meal delivered while he was there.
Her big surprise was when the social worker that volunteers to deliver this not only knew our vandal, but greeted him with a big hug.
There were a few other things she crowed over with his visit, which really bothered my brother and I. It doesn’t seem to matter how badly our vandal acts; all he has to do is bring some chicken or go to a town meeting she approved of, and she can’t say enough good about him.
The conversation did remind my brother that he had another “carrier message” voicemail notification from his phone. He’d deliberately not listened to it because the only calls like that have been from our vandal, even though his number is blocked, and my brother just didn’t need that stress in the middle of everything they’ve been doing with the move.
So he brought up the message, and all three of us listened to it.
Yes, it was from our vandal.
Wow.
It was absolutely vile.
Some of the things he was saying about me and my daughters were just disgusting, mostly centered on our weight, the fact that we don’t “work” (meaning, not having outside jobs he considers real jobs), and involved a lot of swearing.
There were a number of other things that showed he was just making things up in his own head, some of which left us scratching ours, trying to figure out how he came to those conclusions.
He somehow found out about my saying something on Facebook – my personal page – about our hot water tank and went on a bizarre tangent about that. Apparently, if we had outside jobs, the tank would… not break? Magically fix itself? I have no idea.
He has obviously noticed that there are a lot of commotion and things showing up here at the farm. He made a comment about it, lamenting that he can’t come over to see, because he would instantly end up in prison.
That’s not how things work, but if it keeps him away, I’m good with him believing that.
He has no idea what’s going on, and it seems to be driving him bonkers.
As horrible as the things he was saying was, my mother needed to hear it. The version of him that shows up at her place lately is not the real him. These phone messages are the real him. He is absolutely obsessed with his hatred of me and my daughters (he seems to forget my husband exists). He used to direct this hate at my brother, and still tries to say that our late father wanted this property to be bequeathed to our vandal, not my brother. Meanwhile, we have a telephone message my father left on my brother’s answering machine, shortly before he died, saying he wanted it to go to my brother.
Thankfully, ownership has already been transferred to my brother, so it is safe. There is nothing about it in my mother’s will for our vandal to try and contest.
This was quite a wake up for my mother, to hear all this. This message would have been left shortly before or after he had visited my mother in person. She should not be allowing him in. Perhaps after hearing this, she may stop. Unlikely, but it’s one more reason it would be better for my mother to be in a long term care facility, as she wants. Our vandal doesn’t have to know where she is, and if he does find out, he can be on file as not allowed to see her.
It also got us to talking about what he seems to be trying to do. He somehow seems to think my mother can still give him the farm, as if she could somehow take ownership back from my brother. Our vandal has his own acreage, and oodles of equipment and out building and vehicles… he is quite well set up. He doesn’t need this place, nor anything on it.
It’s not about him wanting it for himself so much as to make sure I don’t have it – even though it’s my brother that owns it. He is a shining example of what it means to “covet” something. To covet is not just to want something that someone else has, but to take what someone else has from them.
So… Marxism on an individual scale. 😄
Even my mother was able to understand this.
All in all, it did put a downer on the visit but, considering how my mother responded to our vandal showing up at her place, it was really important that she hear it, and that we could talk about it with her.
We couldn’t stay too much longer, though. My brother no longer takes vacation days on Mondays, now that the move is done and the new owners have taken possession of the property they sold, so he had to get back home. Their new place is slightly closer, but it’s still at least an hour’s drive for him. Plus, there was a break in the rain that wasn’t going to last long, so I wanted to get home before it hit again, too.
I will be back to help my mother with her grocery shopping and errands soon, but she needs this far less often, now that she’s got the Meals on Wheels deliveries.
The weather predictions for the next while look pretty mild, so hopefully I’ll get more done outside. Tomorrow, however, I’m hoping to get the truck loaded up with the bags of aluminum again, and this time actually make it to the scrap yard! The rain is supposed to continue until about 10am tomorrow, but I’ve got a tarp over the sorted bags, so that should make loading the truck less unpleasant!
We shall see what the day brings.
Meanwhile, time to get back to editing some video…
Today was my day to head into the city for our monthly stock up shop at Costco. Another city stock up shop was done just a few days ago.
Normally, when I do a Costco trip, Costco is my only stop of the day. My husband was running low on distilled water for his CPAP humidifier, though, and Costco doesn’t have that, so I this time I made a stop at a nearby Walmart.
I did the Walmart trip first, since there would not be anything that needed refrigerating. It was also my breakfast stop, at the in-store McDonalds, since Costco no longer has food in their cafeteria that I can eat, or like.
Gosh, I miss their Montreal Smoked Meat sandwiches!
Of course, while in Walmart, I looked around for other things that we might need. Including a small donation, this is what $62.99 looks like.
The items on my list were the water bottles for my husband, and the pumpkin seeds to grind into powder and include with the cat’s food.
I remembered that I needed a new notebook. The one I’m using now to keep track of our budget is on its last page.
The New England Clam Chowder was on sale for $2.97 each. These days, those are usually around $5 each, depending on the store, so I got that for the pantry as a treat. I also grabbed a refill of liquid soap for the bathroom, plus some laundry detergent that was at a better-than-Costco sale price.
That’s it.
This didn’t even half fill one of my hard sides bags (not counting the large containers, of course).
Then it was off to Costco.
The first thing I did there was fill up the tank and reset my trip mileage counter. Most of the city was at $1.249/L, but Costco was $1.179/L, so it cost me $48.44 to fill my tank.
Doing Costco on a weekend can be pretty hectic, but today wasn’t too bad. Just the usual trying to maneuver a flat cart around people who think I can stop instantly, or turn on a dime. 🫤
I had hoped to keep the total down but, even with not getting some things I normally would get, I spent more than I intended to.
Remember when beef stew meat was the cheap meat?
This was not one of the larger packages, either. We used to get stew meat at Costco all the time, but just can’t afford it anymore. The price has pretty much doubled in the last few years.
This is what $711.89 looks like.
I got only three bags of kibble this time, buried under other items.
There were a few things that were still priced all right, and I stocked up. The flour tortillas, for example, are still $9.99 a package. I also got two, 2 pks of rye bread.
I got a case of water bottles; that has gone up in price, but it still cheaper than elsewhere. We don’t use bottled water a lot, but it does come in handy for in the truck. There’s a 30 pack of Coke Zero that is a better price than elsewhere, too.
For the pantry, there is a large pack of ramen noodles and a 9 pack of baked beans. Those have certainly gone up in price.
There’s two cases of canned cat food and three bags of kibble – I’ll be getting more kibble for the outside cats from the feed store, so this is mostly for the inside cats.
There’s toilet paper, of course.
There is a double flat of eggs (60 eggs) that I think has gone up in price since last time. For meat, I got a pork loin that was on sale, and a chub of ground beef, which was slightly cheaper/kg than the family packs. There’s a pork blade roast – pork is still reasonably priced – and a panini pack of sandwich meats. I also got 2 rotisserie chickens, as they are cheaper than buying uncooked chicken.
Their salad mixes are a much better price than elsewhere, so I got a couple of their double packs in two different mixes; Asian Cashew and Mexican Corn salad.
There’s 5 pounds of butter, plus avocado oil and sunflower oil, one liter of whipping cream, marble cheddar, extra old cheddar, frozen perogies, the Kirkland brand of mayonnaise, a big container of popping corn, plus some vitamins; gummie multi vitamins and B12. I also picked up a package of the clear leaf bags that we use for our recycling. Last of all, AA and AAA batteries. I got the Kirlkand brand, because the usual Duracell ones were just too expensive.
In total, there are 46 items for that $700 plus.
Altogether, including gas and breakfast, today was an $843, plus change, day.
Ouch.
Thank God my husband’s private insurance disability payments are as good as they are. We can juggle the numbers and make things work, still. Others are not so fortunate, so we are grateful for what we have, and to still be able to get a few non-essentials as “treats”.
And feed the cats, inside and out. I’ll be honest; things would be a lot better if we weren’t feeding so many cats. The rescue has helped so much in getting them adopted out, but we’re reaching a point where we need to seriously consider culling some of the outside cats. Particularly any we aren’t able to catch to get spayed or neutered. Even with the inside cats, we’ve been trying to adopt some of them out for years. Ginger and Toni, our two tripods, were supposed to be taken for adoption almost a year ago, and that hasn’t panned out, as sick or injured cats took priority.
We’ll figure it out, of course. It’s just getting harder to manage.
I can’t even imagine how much the Cat Lady and her family spend on their cats. They’ve taken in so many that are not adoptable, mostly for health reasons. Between special cat foods, medications and vet bills, it must get insane, and yet they still try to help us out, too! They are just awesome.
But I digress.
I’m happy to have been able to do our second stock up shop today. We’ll be good for quite a while, now. 😊
Today (or, should I say, yesterday, by the time this is published!) I headed into the city to do the first of our stock up shopping trips. I was using the car loaned to us while our truck was being repaired, so it was not at large as it would have been, if we were using the truck.
My first stop was the international grocery store, where I had breakfast – Dim Sum and a drink cost just over $20 – before I started shopping.
This is what $147.62 looks like.
Yeah. That little cart load is almost $150.
This store is where we tend to get some things I would consider treats, though.
The coconut milk was on sale, and my daughters like to use it, so I got a couple of cans. The evaporated milk is for my younger daughter’s baking. They also requested the jar of Lao Gan Ma chili sauce.
The Coke Zero is for myself and my husband, while the Cranberry Ginger Ale is for my daughters – buying both got me the sale price.
My older daughter requested the Monsters, but they are for both my daughters, plus myself, and I took advantage of another 2-for- sale to get 6 cans. The cases were not on sale; just individual cans.
For meat, I got the locally produced smoked bacon slab, some pork chops and some ground beef.
The two types of Gouda are treats. I can’t remember if we’ve tried Forest Mushroom before, but we certainly haven’t tried Smokey BBQ before!
I got an extra bottle of my husband’s favourite soy sauce. For my daughters, I got a couple of cartons of oat milk – the brand of soy milk we used to get is having issues and has started to go bad very quickly, so they’ve requested oat milk in another brand. I thought I was getting plain, but got vanilla, instead! They mostly use it in their tea, though, so that works.
I picked up some black teas that were on sale – a variety pack, plus Irish Breakfast, which was not included in the variety pack. I got a flat of eggs that should last us until we do our Costco shopping, were I get double flats of eggs. I also remembered to grab some recycling bags. They’re smaller than what we need, but it was the largest size they had, and we are completely out. I’ll pick up our usual size bags at Costco.
Using my loyalty card saved me $18.54, which isn’t too bad, I guess.
I had considered hitting a Superstore after this, but I was messaging with the garage and with my SIL about getting our truck home, so I decided to skip it and went straight to Walmart.
This is what $226.69 – including a $10 donation – looks like.
Yeah, that cart looks even emptier.
This is what I got.
The big expenses were the wet and dry cat food. I just got one bag of kibble for the inside cats. I will get more at Costco. For the outside cats, I get 40 pound bags at the feed stores.
Thee was an excellent sale on whole chickens, so I got two. I also found plain oat milk for my daughters – at a better price, too. It’s the same brand.
I got packages of sliced turkey and sliced ham for sandwiches. The light rye bread has gone down in price, so I picked up 4 loaves for now. Oh, and I grabbed a couple of cheeses – Havarti and Old Cheddar.
In the non-food category, my daughters requested some personal care products they will pay me back for later. I also got a 15′ extension cord rated flexible to -40C/F This will replace the one we currently have plugged into an outlet inside the cat house. The current one can have only one thing plugged into it, and it’s used for one heated water bowl. A second one is in the sun room, and now we have a third.
So these two shops came to a total of $374.31, including taxes and a donation.
On the way home, I picked up a bag of kibble at the feed store, which came out to just over $63 after taxes. Next time, I’ll go to the feed store to the north of us, where they have a brand that costs less, and the cats seem to enjoy more. Variety is good, though.
Adding in the feed store kibble and the food, that brings things up to about $457. Plus, I filled the tank on the loaned car for $38 and change, then put $30 of gas into the truck after we picked that up, though my CAA card gave me a bit of a discount. Gas prices had dropped to $1.279 today, so that helped. All in all, we’re looking at $525 total, give or take some change, for the day.
Oh, and another $320 for truck repairs and an oil change, bringing our total spending for the day up to about $845. My daughter will be covering the cost of the truck repairs later, though, so at least that will be going back into the budget!
The next trip to the city for our Costco shop won’t be for a few days. Possibly not until after the weekend. We’ll see how things work out.
If nothing else, it’ll give more time to catch up on getting things done for the winter, outside!
I hadn’t heard from the garage about the status of our truck, but today was my day to do our first stock up shopping trip (which will get its own post later). Once I was in the city, I texted our mechanic and let him know I had a reliable signal, so he could update me whenever he had the chance.
Long story short, it was fixed and getting its oil change, and would be ready soon.
Yay!
Now, to get the truck, I was thinking I would have to do it another day, as I would first be driving to the city to get my SIL, then we’d drive back to the garage, pay and get the keys, then my SIL would take their car to their home and I’d take the truck to ours.
Well, after much messaging between my brother and his wife, and the garage, it was worked out to get it done today! My brother was bringing one last load here to the farm, with my SIL coming along to help me get the truck, but they weren’t going to make it until well after the garage closed.
With a discount for paying in cash, the total was $320. On the way home from the city I still had to stop at the feed store for a 40 pound bag of cat food to tide us over until my husband’s main disability pay comes in. A branch of my bank is in the same town, so I got the cash, then drove to the garage to pay for the work and get the keys before they closed, leaving the truck until I could come back with me SIL.
I was able to briefly talk to the mechanic about the truck. It turned out to be probable the best of all possible scenarios.
The oil pump’s sensor needing replacing.
He said this is so common, he changes out about one of these every week – which is a lot for a town this size.
There is no damage to the engine at all, which is a HUGE relief.
From there, I finally went home to unload the shopping of the day, then had a quick supper. I took advantage of the daylight to work on a garden bed until my brother and his wife arrived. She and I then left pretty much immediately to get the truck.
Their car is a sweet ride, but it sure felt good to be driving our truck again!
After a quick stop to add a bit of gas, I headed home – absolutely paranoid about all the gauges and lights and warnings a long the way!
It was fine. Apparently, this is why the check engine light had been on, too.
Once we got back, we helped my brother unload. When things were mostly done, my SIL headed home ahead of him – it was already full dark by then. While this is the last load for the farm, they still have a few more things to take care of on their property before the new owners officially take possession of it.
I continued helping my brother until it was all done. The only down side was when I popped the tailgate back onto the trailer. It’s made to slide down channels on the sides, but if it doesn’t drop straight, one end tends to catch. That happened and when I got it loose, it dropped straight down.
Right onto the tips of two of my fingers!
One of them is now quite swollen, making typing rather difficult! 😄
Once everything was closed up and put away, my wonderful, awesome, amazing brother took the time to work on our hot water tank!
The first thing he did was use a different handle for the socket, and was able to get the old anode rod out, while I held the tank in place as best I could. Once those tanks are empty, they are really quite light!
The anode rod was longer than there’s space above the tank, so he had to bend it to get it out. It was quite covered in crud, of course. I honestly expected it to look worse.
Once that was done, it was a relatively simple matter to install the powered rod (not an affiliate link). This is how it looks now.
The rod itself is a lot shorter than what we pulled out, so that made it easier to install. It sticks out a lot further than I expected. There is a ground wire now attached to one of the screws around the top of the tank.
Then it was time to remove the elements.
When he tested it with his meter before, the top one was out. He didn’t have his meter with him this time, but I was sure the bottom one was also burnt out.
After removing the wires, it was quite easy to get the top element out. After making sure the threads were clean and clear, the new element was installed and wired up again.
Then it was time to take out the bottom element.
Wow. That was… something.
It wasn’t difficult to unscrew it, but once my brother starting trying to pull it out, it did NOT want to come out. It was completely covered in crud! He kept having to twist it back and forth to break off the crud and try to pull it out, little by little. It turned out to be longer than expected – and then there was a bend at the end!
Once he got it out completely, we could see that it was supposed to be bent back on itself, but it was so full of crud that, as my brother pulled it out, he actually straightened the element out in the process.
After he pulled it out, he bent it back like it was originally supposed to be – sort of.
Here are all three parts. Instagram cuts off part of the photo, so you can’t see the tip of the anode rod, which has even more crud on it than the rest.
The straight element it from the top. That’s the one that was dead when my brother tested them. How the bottom one was still live at the time, I have no idea! That one was so encased in crud!
The new powered anode rod is supposed to keep that from happening again. Or, at least, not so quickly. This tank was installed only a year ago! The shorted life span of any of the tanks we had – though the previous ones started leaking from their bases somewhere inside, and this one hasn’t.
Once everything was installed, it was time to start filling the tank.
When there was enough water in it, we allowed it to drain out the bottom, to take some of the crud out with it. We didn’t see a lot, though.
As the tank filled, we ran the hot water at the old laundry sink in the basement, while my daughter ran all the hot water taps upstairs, to get the air out of the pipes and clear out more crud. Once the tank was full, we did it again, before finally asking my daughter to turn on the breaker. We also plugged in the powered anode rod.
My brother waited a while longer, checking the elements to make sure nothing was leaking, etc. He couldn’t stay until the entire tank heated up, though, and left soon after.
We do now have hot water, though! In fact, it’s now so hot, we might want to turn the thermostat down on the tank!
No more heating pots and kettles of water, for dishes and sponge bathing!
We’re all so paranoid of things breaking, though, no one has dared to take a shower, yet. 😄
Meanwhile, with this new powered anode rod, we should also no longer have that sulfur smell from the hot water. We’d been treating the tank with hydrogen peroxide to get rid of it, but it never lasted long. Eventually, we just stopped bothering, and put up with the smell.
I am so glad my brother was able to take the time to help us with this. Especially when they have so much going on with their move right now. In retrospect, while we might have been able to do it ourselves to a certain point, when it came to getting that bottom element out, we could not have done it. I’ve lost so much grip strength due to arthritis, I couldn’t have done it. My younger daughter injured her wrist while installing the tub surround, and both my daughters have all the joint issues that comes with PCOS. My husband, of course, is the most broken of all of us, and shouldn’t even be doing the stairs.
My goal for today was to finish sorting enough aluminum to fill the truck bed, go to the salvage yard to drop it off, then go to the nearest Walmart to meet with the Cat Lady and pick up more cat food. We also need a few more things for the bathtub tap repair.
It was raining all morning, so I backed the truck out of the garage so I could work on the cans in the garage. Once I had ten bags, I turned the truck around to make it easier to load. It took longer than expected, and I was no longer sure I’d be able to connect with the Cat Lady.
I was able to get 10 large bags in the truck. All strapped down an ready to go.
I got about half a mile before the onboard computer started dinging, and I got a red flashing “oil pressure low, shut of engine” warning.
So I pulled over and shut it off. After waiting a bit, I tried again, but it went off again almost immediately.
We were due for an oil change, but I’ve never had this happen before!
I ended up walking home to get some oil, and my younger daughter walked back with me. As we were going along, we saw a vehicle stop beside the truck for a while. The driver stopped again when he reached us. It turns out he was a neighbour from up the road. He was hauling a flatbed trailer, so he went home to drop that off, then came back to help us.
Long story short, we manage to get the truck home, and I was able to park it in such a way that it can be easily accessed by a tow truck.
Yup. We are down to no vehicle right now.
And we’re going to run out of kibble, tomorrow.
F***
I updated the Cat Lady and she said she would get cat food to us, but I have no idea how. Someone would have to deliver it to our place, since we can’t go anywhere.
A tow has been arranged for tomorrow morning, and the garage is already expecting it. We’ll get a diagnostic and an estimate, but we won’t have a budget for any repairs until my husband’s disability comes in at the end of the month.
Today is the 22nd. CPP Disability comes in on the 29th.
That’s a week with no transportation. Heck, I don’t even know how I will get to the garage to pick up the truck once it’s repaired – assuming it’s a repair we can afford. It’s entirely possible the problem is gunk in a sensor. Or it could be something major. The engine itself sounds just fine.
Meanwhile, we’ll need to take off the load of aluminum before the truck is taken in, but that will wait until tomorrow morning. I just don’t have the spoons to do it tonight.
I’m going to have to go through our pantry and freezer and see what we can use for cat food.
The past 12 months has seen so many things breaking down this year. It’s been insane. It seems like every time we take a step forward, we get yanked back five.
One of those things that broke down has been my mother’s car – our back up vehicle – which started to make a banging noise. Since then, it now has a tire that keeps going flat, even though we’ve been using the compressor to pump it back up every couple of days. Even if it were running, though, we no longer have the budget for insurance and fuel for two vehicles anymore. Partly because we now have the truck payments, but also because the cost of everything has gone up so much.
I am just so tired, right now. Not physically tired. Not even emotionally tired. More psychologically tired.
It was around this time, 7 years ago, that my husband and younger daughter flew out here earlier than planned, as my FIL was in the hospital and things were not looking good for a while. I started this blog on the 29th of October, 2017, and we weren’t all united again here until the middle of November. Those first few months saw some rough times, and we’ve certainly had our challenges, every year since. Even so, we’ve have had so many things break down, one after the other, like we have in the past 12 months.
I’m just pausing to write a quick post, before I go to help my daughter with the bathtub plumbing.
We got the new hot water tank element tool out just a little while ago, and headed into the basement to see what we could find in the two older tanks. The hope was to be able to use one of the elements from the old tanks to replace the burnt out one in the current tank.
Yeeeeaaaahhhh….
That’s not gonna happen.
This is what we pulled out of the first tank, where I’d already opened up the panel for the top element. The bottom one was encrusted in scale on the outside, so that one was clearly not going to be good.
Yeah. That plastic cover is melted. That thermostat is burned.
Click through to the next image, and you can see more of the damage, and how completely encrusted the outside of the element is!
It is an absolute miracle that there wasn’t a fire started.
As for the current tank, we no longer even have warm water, so we’ve shut the breaker off. It looks like both elements are burned out now. Seeing what we pulled out of the old tank, I’m not at all surprised!
When the first tank died, it was after less than 2 years of use, which is why we were able to replace it on warranty. About a year later, when we saw the replacement tank starting to leak on the bottom, we were able to replace that on warranty, too, even though we should not have been able to. We kept the new tank in the box until the second tank finally died. It lasted far longer than we expected.
I just looked up my old posts. This current tank was installed just over a year ago – Oct. 10, 2023, to be exact. We were able to pick it up as a warranty replacement in April of 2021. Before that, we got a new tank in January of 2020, though it took a bit longer before we could get it installed. The tank that was originally here was replaced in December of 2017, just in time for Christmas. All four of us had been here for little more than a month at the time!
Not counting the original tank – I found the original warranty papers for that, dated 1963, if I remember correctly – we have gone through 3 modern tanks in less than 7 years of living here.
The most recent one lasting just over a year after installation.
That. Is. Insane.
It all really comes down to our water. I remember talking to the plumber during one of the installations, and he told me that this is pretty typical for hot water tanks in our area.
When all this started, these tanks cost a little over $400. Looking at them now, I see they cost about $700 for the exact same tank.
The elements cost about $40 each.
With the powered anode rod that should arrive next week, that will hopefully keep the tank going longer, though we still need to get the right tool to remove the old anode rod. I thought the tool we got for the element might also work for the rod, but it’s way too big. We need to buy the right size socket to be able to remove the anode rod.
For right now, though, I need to go help my daughter. She was able to get the piece out that needed to be cut out. With the adapters, we might not even need to replace the copper pipes to the basement, though the hot water one has the 90° elbows in it, so that one should probably be replaced with Pex, at the very least.
My main thing was to go into town and talk to my favourite manager. We spent a lot of time looking at the photos I took of the bathtub plumbing, and things like whether or not we will be replacing the copper pipe for the shower with Pex as well as the hot and cold water pipes. Plus, we’d need to replace the pipe to the spout, which is completely different and would be removed with all the other old parts, since it would be soldered in place with lead, too.
My brother had talked about using Shark Bite fittings, but the manager suggested it would be better – and cheaper – to use Pex crimps. That meant getting a crimping tool, which is something we’ll need in the long term, anyway, and a Pex cutting tool. I wish I had that when I bought Pex (a different type) to use on one of the raised bed covers.
As we went through various fittings and joins, crimps and, of course, the Pex pipe, etc., there was one type of fitting they only had two of. We figured I would need at least six. He called another store for me and confirmed they had plenty in stock, so once I was done with the local store, I drove to the next town up the highway to get the rest.
He assured me that, anything we don’t use, we can return. Just hang on to the receipt for both stores, because if we want to return anything, we would have to return them to the store we bought them from, even though they are the same franchise.
While I was doing that, my younger daughter scrubbed the exposed walls around the tub, treated it with an anti-mold and mildew spray cleaner, then left the fan running on it. She did that a second time and, when that was dry, she started painting the exposed walls with the mold and mildew resistant primer. So far, that has two coats. I think it’ll need a third.
Once that is done, it will be ready to have the tub surround installed – whenever that will be!
Once I got home, my daughter and I went through the parts and pieces. I was already forgetting what was what. My daughter knew what she was looking at, though.
Having daughters that both used to work in a hardware store comes in very handy at times!
She was in between coats of paint, so I grabbed some tools and headed to the basement. I wanted to see if we could use one of the top elements from the old hot water tanks, and see how to remove the anode rod.
*sigh*
Since both tanks died because they started leaking out the bottom, the bottom panels were already open. Damage on those ones is visible from the outside. I uncovered the top panel on one of the tanks and removed the wires to get a good look.
Hmmm…
After consulting the manual, I realized I would not be able to take them out. There is a special tool – basically, a large socket – to remove them, and we don’t have one.
So I shifted to the anode rod.
Now, this is supposed to be easy. Pop off the cap, remove the anode rod and you’re done.
The cap did NOT want to come off.
I should have been able to slide the tip of a Standard screwdriver under the edge and lever it up, but the edge all around the cap just bent. Eventually, I was able to jam the screwdriver down between the edge of the cap and the metal and pop it off, breaking off something under it in the process.
The opening was full of foam insulation. Oddly, there seemed to be text in the foam. I had to take a flash picture of it to be able to see that yes, there was writing – and it was backwards. Looking at the underside of the cap, I could see the writing that was imprinted into the foam insulation.
There was nothing about this in the manual.
I dug out the insulation until the top of the anode rod was finally uncovered.
Oh… something else that needs a socket.
Back to the tool kit I go and come back with the largest socket we’ve got.
It wasn’t large enough.
*sigh*
So I wasn’t able to get either the rod or the heat element out. With the rod, I just need to know how to do it, for when the powered rod comes in and we replace the one in the current tank. I’d hoped to get the heat elements out and see if at least one of them is still good, so we can switch it out for the burnt out one in the current tank.
I guess I’ll be going back to the hardware store tomorrow. The tool for the heat element is $25. A large socket ranges from about $9 to $14.
I’m certainly glad we still had the old hot water tanks in the basement that I could use to find this out. It would have really sucked to find this out on the current tank!
Since I couldn’t do any more there, it was time to finally start putting away and cleaning up in the garage, so we can finally park the truck in there again, now that the cat isolation shelter is out.
When bringing stuff to store here at the farm, my brother brought me a couple of crane boxes. I have no idea what makes them a “crane” box, other than they are rated to hold up to 1000 pounds. One of them got crushed a bit, but it was still useable. They actually came in handy as surfaces I could use to hold the clear plastic for the isolation shelter. I was able to cut in a gap between the boxes, and have weights on either side to reduce vibration. It worked really well.
The garage walls are unfinished, with exposed joists. When I moved off the farm, the garage was just a single “room”, all the walls were exterior walls, with shiplap boards covering the outside. Over the years, lean to additions were added to each side.
My brother had brought scrap wood they were intending to add to the burn pile, but there was a lot of useful wood in there that I kept, instead. From those scraps, I was able to cut three supports per box and attach them to wall joists, using the shiplap boards as a guide to keep them even, since I didn’t have a level with me.
The boxes each had three “feet” on their bottoms that reached from side to side, made up of stacks of what looks like plywood, nailed and glued together. Unfortunately, they were spaced in such a way that, while two of them could fit in the space between the wall joists, the third one did not. So each box had to have one of these “feet” removed.
That was NOT an easy job. They were nailed together from both the inside and the outside, plus the inside had extra long staples into them.
I had a pry bar handy, though, and was able to get them off.
Once that was done, I could put the boxes on the supports, with the bottoms against the joists. They then got screwed directly to the joists, as well as the supports.
The supports are all longer than the boxes are deep. The boxes have lids. Once I get some larger hinges, I will attach the lids with hinges on the bottoms. This way, they can be opened from the top to form a surface. It will make it harder to reach what’s inside, but I figured having that would be useful enough to be worthwhile.
Once the boxes were hung up, I had someplace to start putting things on my work table away, rather than returning them all to the sun room. Last winter, the cats knocked way too many things down to the ground, so I want to avoid storing things there, if I can.
Eventually, we’ll be making more shelves against the walls, and I will be able to clear the space under these boxes. That’s all on a makeshift shelf that’s just a piece of scrap plywood sitting on top of a couple of 5 gallon pails on their sides. It was meant to be temporary. We just haven’t gotten to working on organizing the garage, yet. There’s just too much stuff in there that I have no idea what to do with.
These boxes have enough space in them that we could probably add another shelf across the middle. Maybe in just one of them, and leave the other open for larger items.
That done, I was able to finish clearing off my work table, saving some of the wood scraps for future projects, while others will go to the fire pit, moving the miter saw, and so on, and the work table got folded up and set on the swing bench in where my mother’s car is stored.
The saw horses that I’d been using while painting now had a screen over it to hold the curing shallots. My daughter wants them to cure a while longer before braiding them, so that got moved in front of the swing bench.
Then came the finicky part.
Getting the floor safe to drive on.
I’d already fired up the compressor to pump the flat tire on my mother’s care, then used the air to clear off the sawdust on the work table. For the next while, I used the compressed air to blow away the sawdust on the ground, too.
I’m glad I did, because I found quite a few shards of glass in there! I have no idea where they came from, or how long they’ve been there.
Eventually, I got to the point where I could start raking the dirt floor, and used a magnet to find any nails or other metal bits that might have been lost.
I had to consider what to do with my brother’s lawn tractor. There isn’t room for it in the lean to’s on either side of the garage, and I don’t want it stored in the barn. I ended up moving some bins to the other side of the garage, where they are now being used to hold recycling. There was a lot of weird odds and ends in the ground under them, like rusted out bolts and very old spark plugs that predate us living her for quite some time. The area got raked and cleaned and raked again before I went over it with a magnet.
In the end, I still wasn’t confident in the space. I had rolled up the protective cover that the clear roof panels were wrapped in. It’s got a waterproof surface on one side. I decided to lay that out on the ground against the wall, and that’s what the lawn tractor is now sitting on, close enough to the wall that the truck has plenty of space.
After a bit more raking and a bit more searching with the magnet – and finding more bits of glass in the oddest of places! – I was confident enough to get the keys and park the truck in the garage.
Finally!
By the time that was all done, my daughter had finished more coats of paint in the bathroom.
So while we still don’t have the plumbing fixed, we still don’t have hot water (though if we leave it long enough, we do have very warm water at times), we did get some good progress today.
The next six days are supposed to be warmer, so I’m hoping to be able to finally work on cleaning up garden beds, but if my daughter needs help with the plumbing, that’s the priority.
The Re-Farmer 