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Stock up shopping at Costco: this is what $680 looks like

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

Good grief.

With today being a new holiday, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I first checked to make sure Costco would even be open, and they were, for slightly shorter hours. They will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, which is the second Monday of October – 2 weeks from today – so I figured it would either be pretty dead, or insanely busy.

It turned out to be insanely busy.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I left for the city before having breakfast. I considered eating at the Costco, but there really isn’t anything they have at their cafeteria that I can eat, anymore. I don’t care for their hot dogs or pizza, and the coating on their chicken strips has just enough spicy heat that I can’t tolerate it.

There is a mall nearby, though, so I figured I could go to the food court.

Nothing was open, yet. With the holiday, they weren’t going to open until 11, and I was there shortly after 10.

The Dollarama beside the food court was open, though, so I went to see what I could find there. I ended up getting one of those little snack packs with a tin of chicken salad, a few crackers and a stick for a spoon, plus a drink.

That actually tided me over until I got home!

The parking area for the mall shared access to a Canadian Tire, so I went there, next, and got 4 bags of stove pellets for the litter boxes. That came out to $33.56

My next stop was the Costco gas station. The price of regular there was $1.229/L, while the other stations in the city were generally $1.299. Much to my surprise, there was almost no one at the gas station, and I was able to get to a pump right away. I was at a bit under 3/4 of a tank, and filling cost $41.03.

I always reset my trip meter after filling at Costco, so I have an idea of how much we drive in a month. When I reset it, we were at just over 2400km – about 1000km more than usual for us! All that extra driving I’ve been doing for my mother really added up!

With how quickly I got through the gas station, I figured the store couldn’t be too bad!

Boy, was I wrong.

This is when I finally got in line. This is near the back of the store and, pretty much immediately after I got in line, so many more people got in line behind me, it had to do a switchback into the other aisle. When I got to the end of this aisle, The end of the line was already past the same end of the other aisle!

As the line moved forward, I found myself next to a second line. I knew there would be a third one – two for the cashiers, one for the self check. Self checkout being limited to 12 items or less. I hoped I was in the correct line and figured I was, since just about everyone else in the line with me had larger cart loads.

I was wrong.

The line I was next to eventually split off around the other side of the centre displays. So that one line was actually for the two lines to the cashiers.

The line I was in turned out to be the self checkout line.

Thankfully, someone in the other line let me in in front of him. Once we got to the cash desks, he ended up getting to a cashier before I did, so that worked out well for him, at least!

The weird thing is, it seemed as if more people were standing in line to pay than were shopping! The shopping itself wasn’t all that busy. The only real problem I had there was trying to get to places while pushing a flat cart. I kept having to navigate around people in line!

This time around, I didn’t put the cat supplies on a separate bill, as most of the dry kibble is going to be purchased at feed stores.

Everything all together, including pet supplies, came out to $680.88 after taxes.

Yeah. That far from full flat cart load is almost $700.

This is what we got today.

What you can’t see in the photo above, among the larger items, is two cases of canned cat food and a box of puppy pads.

For bread products, I only got four packs of tortilla warps.

Hhmmm… I could have sworn those were supposed to be on sale for $7.99, not regular price at $9.99 I don’t trust my memory for that right now, though.

There’s a case of Coke Zero in there, along with laundry detergent, a giant box of ramen noodles, and a big bag of paper towels. Not the ones we usually get, but these were on sale. We got facial tissues and toilet paper, too. There’s a bag of Basmati rice, frozen perogies, and a variety pack of sliced meats.

Among the smaller items in the cardboard box, we got 5 pounds of butter. I picked up a couple of 2pk salad mixes, whipping cream, cream cheese, goat cheese and a block of Old Cheddar cheese.

There’s a bag of hazelnuts, a jar of olives and a jar of Kirkland brand mayonnaise, which is a bigger jar for a lower price than the Hellman’s we usually get.

I got some pickerel filets for the girls, which were on sale, plus some lean ground beef. That ground beef… I can’t believe it cost more than the pork loin, which has a lot more meat! The package of pork chops was about the same weight as the ground beef.

Remember when ground beef was the affordable meat?

I picked up a 3 pack of Spam, a big bag of tortilla chips for my husband, a double flat of eggs and a giant pumpkin pie. While standing in line, close to the cashier, I threw in a box of Sweet and Salty granola bars, too.

That’s it.

There was stuff that was on my list that I didn’t get, because I was already going above budget for today. I decided to go for it since some of the items – the paper towels and facial tissue in particular – will last us a couple of months.

This time around, when I was offered assistance in loading, I accepted. When I got water refills yesterday, I used the wagon to the house. After unloading and starting to take the wagon back to the garage, I stopped to reach for something my daughter had, but my hand got caught in the handle of the wagon. I twisted several fingers, with one being twisted the most. That finger it still hurting.

Which puts me in a bit of a pickle. The nerve damage in my left elbow means I have to be careful lifting or carrying anything heavy with my left arm. The finger I injured is in my right hand, and I now have almost no grip strength in that hand because of it. On top of all that, our current temperature whiplash has resulted in every joint in my body being stiff and sore, including all my finger joints.

I nearly dropped that jar of olives, three times, because I couldn’t hold it!

So… yeah. I got help loading the truck.

Mostly, I was bagging things in our hard sided grocery bags. I brought ice packs to use in the insulated bags. While I was doing that, the guy helping me loaded up all the stuff too big to put into a bag. He started having trouble working around the litter pellets, so I brought out our garden claw tool that we keep in the truck and used that to push the bags further in. He was really happy and commented that they need to have something like that handy at the store for times like this!

That done, I could finally start heading home.

Before I left, I got a message from my SIL, letting me know my brother was coming out today, along with the guy with the triple axle trailer. They decided to move some decorative limestone blocks they have out here, and all of it together was way too heavy for their trailer. My brother had one more antique looking piece of equipment he wanted to bring out, too.

I have no idea what it is.

I thought I was miss my brother entirely, but he was still here when I got home, though the guy with the big trailer had already left.

Before I even started to unload, I went to say hello – and goodbye! He was gone before we finished unloading the truck. At least I got a hug in, first!

I unloaded most things to my daughter at the door, then she took care of putting things away while I finished unloading the larger items going straight into the old kitchen. Then I had to feed the outside cats, to get them away from the truck, so I could park it.

By the time I got back, everything was put away.

Except the pumpkin pie.

There was no room in the fridge for it!

So… we just had to sacrifice ourselves and eat it. Along with some whipped cream my daughter made. 😄😄

But not before I finally had some real food. I’d got the Crockpot going last night, with half of one of our winter squash on the bottom, and a whole chicken on top. The squash was so big that, even using just half, there was hardly any room for the chicken, even after spatchcocking it. Once everything was seasoned, I covered the top with parchment paper then pushed the lid on. It still couldn’t close all the way but, as the squash cooked, the chicken sank down. During the night, when my older daughter checked on it for me, she was eventually able to remove the parchment paper.

It was really nice having that to come home to!

I can’t say I like this particular squash all that much, though. Of the two we’ve tried so far, they were both… okay. Not as tasty as the Banana or Candy Roaster squash we grew last year, nor as good as the Red Kuri/Little Gem we’ve grown before.

But that’s why we tried this Wild Bunch mix this year – so we can taste, without having too many of one type we might not like!

Anyhow…

The last of the stock up shopping is now done, and I am so glad that’s over with! We’ll just need to get more dry kibble at the feed store, and fresh stuff locally, throughout the month.

Meanwhile, the winds have been wreaking enough havoc that we’ve lost power, momentarily, a few times, so I’d better publish this before we have another one and my computer gets shut down again!

That rain we were supposed to be getting right now has been pushed back a couple more hours. Time enough for me to do my evening rounds!

The Re-Farmer

First stock up shop: this is what $513 in total looks like

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Okay, so today turned out to be completely different then planned!

Today was supposed to be a day to catch up on things outside before I have to do things with my mother for the next couple of days. Then I noticed that my husband’s CPP Disability came in earlier than I expected. So it was either do the first stock up shopping trip today, or do it on the weekend.

Today, it was!

My daughter came along this time, so we could try a different place for the shoes she’s been trying to buy for herself. There was going to be a prescription delivery this morning, though, so we just needed to wait until that was done.

Then the phone started ringing…

One of the calls today was from the home care guy, about my mother.

The first thing he brought up was that one of the aides that comes in to help my mother with her medication found a notice slipped under my mother’s door. It was about the bed bug exterminator coming in to check/spray her apartment today, and did I know about that? I told him about the call my brother got, and that they will be coming in on Friday afternoon – a manager and a tech, just to do her place – and that I would be there.

They are really bending over backwards to try and not have to evict a 93 yr old!

So for that day, while my mother is supposed to be out of her apartment for at least 6 hours, he has cancelled the home care visits.

I also explained that she does not seem to actually have bed bugs, but it looks like her neighbour does. So until this is taken care of, the home care aids will be wearing shoe covers and gloves and the like when they visit her. Hopefully, that will help my mother to take things more seriously.

Probably not.

Then he told me that the home care aids have been coming in in the mornings, and found that my mother had already taken her morning medication. That would be her usual 5am time, which has never been a requirement, but it seems she’s always been doing that. We’ve told her, she can sleep in. Take them when the care aides arrive.

When it comes to her before bed pills, she now has two, but insists she only takes one, and the other one she will take before she goes to bed, some hours later. They come in at 9 for the nightly pills. She should be taking both. She has been told this, too.

Then there is a confusion of bubble packs, and they are finding blisters have already been opened. It looks like she’s been taking the pills out and deciding what to take and what not to take? Either way, it’s hard for them to keep track.

He’s asked us to talk to her about it. If she can’t stop messing with her medications, they will have to put the bubble packs somewhere she can’t reach.

This could be a real problem.

After we got that call, I got another one… from the same home care guy! This time, it was about my husband. They’re supposed to do annual checks on those getting services; in my husband’s case, it’s about the state of his hospital bed and if it’s still in good shape (he had to have one replaced a couple of years ago). They also need a couple of signatures for his file, which I can do, so I will be leaving for my mother’s early tomorrow, so I can stop at their office, first.

Then I tried calling my mother. I ended up leaving a message, telling her I got the call from home care, and saying she needs to not touch her bubble packs, and only take her medications when they are there to help her with them.

I tried to be quick about it, because we were expecting the pharmacy delivery driver to call. It turns out he’d tried to call while I was on the phone with home care. While I was leaving a message with my mother, my daughter heard the honking at the gate, and ran out to get the delivery.

I’m so glad she did, because I never heard a thing!

That done, we could finally get what we needed – particularly ice packs – and headed out.

Our first stop was for my daughter’s shoes. We went to a factory outlet place she had recommended to her.

I so need to go there for my next pair of steel toes.

It’ll take some saving up for it, though!

While looking around at their displays, we could hear noises from other parts of the building. Those were the sounds of boots being made! It truly was a “factory” outlet, and every pair of shoes and boots in there were hand made.

Other stores carry their brand, though. In fact, the last time my daughter had herself a really excellent brand of shoes, it was this factory’s brand. She wore them until she outgrew them, and cried when they didn’t fit anymore.

She found the same boots!

She is so incredibly happy now. She’s been needing good shoes for a long time; her feet are almost as messed up as mine! They cost about $300, which took her a while to save up for, but these should last her a lifetime.

The entire rest of the day, she was practically dancing beside me as we walked around! No more foot pain. No more back pain!

This outlet happened to be not far from our first stop, which was the international grocery store.

This is what $123.57 looks like.

That doesn’t look like much for $123!

The seafood, oat milk – regular and chocolate – and coffee creamers are for my daughters.

This is where we like to get some excellent cheeses to try as treats. This time, we got both a honey gouda and a beer gouda.

The herbal tea is nettle; something for us to try. We do have nettles and could probably make our own, but we don’t have a lot and I like to leave them for the butterflies whose caterpillars like them.

The other tea is Irish Breakfast; something we haven’t picked up for a long time.

There is also an instant milk tea on there. We’ve tried something like this before, but it was a different brand. It has individual packets to make 1 cup of milk tea, which can be very handy at times.

The soy sauce is the Filipino brand my husband likes.

The applewood smoked bacon is a locally made brand I’ve not seen anyone else carry. After much searching, we finally found ground sage – a strange thing to be out of stock all over for such a long time! Last of all, we picked up some sweet potatoes (yams, on the receipt). We have a lot of peppers right now, and I found a recipe for a bell pepper and sweet potato soup that my daughters might want to try. Something I will taste, but I’m not likely going to be able to eat!

We also had a lunch at this store, before we did the shopping. Dim sum and smoked salmon sushi, which was really delicious. I forget what that cost. It was out of a different budget.

Our next stop was a Superstore. There wasn’t much we wanted to get there, though. It’s probably the smallest shop I’ve done at Superstore in a very long time!

This is what $91.12 looks like.

The only things we were really after was torpedo buns, a giant block of cheese, and to check out their energy drinks section, in case they had Beaver Buzz in stock.

They did not.

We got the torpedo buns, as well as a sourdough loaf, and a giant block of mozzarella cheese. After that, we just took a quick look around and added a big bag of bacon and cheddar cheese perogies, a couple of bags of pot stickers, two 1L boxes of orange juice, some prosciutto and a large package of chicken breasts.

Next, it was time to hit the Walmart, for what turned out to be the biggest part of our shop. This is what $298.73 looks like.

Yes, that’s a canopy tent in there! It was on clearance, and we needed one.

The canopy tent was on clearance, at $39, so I really didn’t want to pass that up.

The planned purchases included a large bag of dry kibble and two cases of 32 cans of wet cat food, for the inside cats. I also found a package of the XXL (30’x30′) puppy pads that I wasn’t able to find last month.

We got some toilet paper and a couple of spray bottles of eco-cleaner.

There is a couple of packages of hot dog buns to go with the hot dog wieners we got. The roti was a last minute grab; I haven’t had roti in ages! It won’t be as good as fresh made, but I don’t care! 😄

There’s some lean ground beef in there, as well as a frozen turkey – Canadian Thanksgiving is coming up, so it’s cheap turkey season!

We got some coffee, some ice cream to have with our melons, and there was a good deal on the soy milk my daughters like so we got two 2L of those, too. At the request of my older daughter, we also got a bunch of energy drinks.

We also got a couple of cold drinks for the road, and a package of cookies and cream donuts, which I’ve never seen before, as a road munchie.

The donuts were… okay. I had no desire for a second one! 😄

There are a couple of items visible in the cart that aren’t on the bill, because my daughter bought those.

So that was our stock up shopping for today.

On top of that, we got $40 of gas on the way out, at 1.329/L In the city, though, we were able to get gas at $1.269/L, so I put in another $40. We’ll do a fill, and I’ll reset the trip meter, at Costco.

The gas is a different budget, but gas and groceries together totaled $593.42, plus our lunch.

I’m certainly glad we brought along all our ice packs. Our high for today, here at home, was 26C/79F, but it would have been at least a couple of degrees hotter in the city. Plus, the truck would have gotten even hotter inside. By the time we got home, even in insulated bags and with ice packs, things were starting to thaw out!

Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter, with a high of 28C/82F, and very windy. Since I’m going to be taking my mother to the eye specialist, I’ve asked my daughters to give the garden a deep watering for me. We’ve had some rain over the past few days, but nowhere near enough.

Meanwhile, I have not been able to get through to my mother today. I’m at a bit of a loss. My brother had called her about the exterminator coming out on Friday, and that I planned to be there, but if they showed up at her door today, she might have thought he meant today – and would be wondering why I wasn’t there! She may be staying out of her apartment for the required minimum 6 hours.

That’s just a guess, though. For all I know, she’s hanging out in the common room with some of her neighbours.

Well, if I don’t get through today, I’ll be finding out what happened, tomorrow!

I’m just glad we got this first stock up shopping trip done now. I really did not want to do all this running around on a weekend!

Now, we just need to do the Costco shop next.

*shudder*

The Re-Farmer

An unexpected shop: this is NOT what $60+ looks like

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Well, my upcoming stock up shopping schedule has changed again.

Normally, I would be heading into the city for our first stock up shop in a couple of days (Thursday), but I’ll be taking my mother to the eye specialist, instead. With that in mind, I’d already picked up a few things I knew we’d be running out of, yesterday, when I got more cat kibble in the town north of us. Grocery prices there are much higher, so I didn’t much at all.

Today, I wanted to refill our two empty 18.9L/5 gallon water jugs in the town nearest us. The only other thing we needed was more bread. Before I left, I asked my daughter to message me if she spotted anything else we were out of that couldn’t wait until Friday.

When I parked at the store and checked my message. Nothing from home to add to the shopping list.

There was, however, a message from my brother, asking if he could call me this afternoon about my mother.

Nothing he was in the office today, I figured it was urgent! So I let him know I’d just parked in town and that he could call me on my cell phone right away, if he was still able to.

He was.

Long story short, he got a call from the public housing department that owns the building my mother lives in. They don’t want to evict a 90+ year old woman, but if she doesn’t let them in to check/spray her apartment for bed bugs again, they have no choice.

They are going to be there on Friday. They even have an exact time (usually it’s between 9am an 5pm, and would have been done tomorrow, not Friday), and a manager will be there, due to her accusations of theft.

Right away, I assured my brother that I would be there. I had already been planning to go there tomorrow, as they usually come on the last Wednesday of the month.

The city shopping can wait.

As her Power of Attorney, my brother gave them permission to do in. I’ll shoot to be there earlier to move things away from the walls – they just need room for the wand to reach – and run interference with my mother. She has to stay out of her apartment for at least 6 hours. Given that she has respiratory issues, it should really be 12 hours, but that would mean spending the night somewhere. None of us have homes accessible for her, and she is no longer willing to rent a motel room. It was during a time she spent the night in a motel that she believes the exterminator stole stuff from her. Stuff that makes no sense for anyone to steal.

The guy my brother spoke to told him, they have to deal with this sort of thing all the time, unfortunately.

He also said they don’t think my mother has bedbugs, but they’ve been spraying her neighbour’s place for the past several months. If her neighbour has them, it would not take much for them to spread to her apartment. Plus, the eggs can stay dormant for up to a year. However, if the egg casings get sprayed, when the hatch, the hatchling will die as soon as it emerges. So even if she doesn’t have bed bugs, they still need to spray a certain number of times to ensure it stays that way, as far as the eggs go, at least.

So that pushes the city stock up shopping off to Saturday.

Ah, well. We’ll deal!

I still only intended to get just bread and water refills, but I still looked around.

It turns out they had some really good sales on. So good that some things were completely out of stock. The sale ends tomorrow, so that’s not surprising.

The store itself in in the process of being completely rearranged, too. From what I’ve seen so far, it’s going to be a lot more logical in organization – and it looks like they’re expanding their international section, too!

So I ended up getting more than intended, and not all things I would normally get.

This is what $61.89 before taxes would have looked like – not counting the 60¢ for the bottle caps that got paid for when I picked them up at customer service. I cashed in a winning lottery ticket that paid for them. 😄

My loyalty card, however, had $20 I could take off the purchase, so this actually cost $41.89 before taxes.

This is what I got:

Each item shows how much the sale prices took off. You can see on the bottom that the total discounts and savings was $39.11, or 39% of the sub-total. That would be the sub-total before the $20 was taken off, so that means I had $59.11 in taken off altogether, leaving me with having to pay only $43.33 after taxes.

The things I normally would not have picked up were the boxed cereals, the instant puddings and the granola bars.

With the whole chicken, I try to get those on sale whenever I can – especially with it being over $8 off, like today.

The fruit juices were something I was looking for specifically for my daughters. I find fruit juices way too sweet. They’re basically like mainlining sugar, but it gives my daughters something different to drink.

With the bread, I usually get rye bread, but at $2 a loaf, I got two regular loaves of whole wheat bread, one whole wheat Texas Toast and one white sandwich bread.

With the cereals and granola bars, I got four different types for our 4 very different tastes.

The instant puddings were only $1 each and, at first, I picked 4 different flavours. Then I noticed they were all “low fat”. Fat is flavour, so that means they had to replace the fat with something else to make them taste good; usually sugar. So I went for the regular kind, but there were only two flavours that weren’t sold out.

Funny. There were plenty of low fat versions in stock. 😄

So, not the shopping trip I planned, but a pretty good one, I think. We got some things that are very occasional treats that I only pick up when the prices are good. Sometimes I’ll get them at Costco, but there usually isn’t a lot of space on the flat cart for what are essentially frivolous purchases.

Not too shabby, I think. Especially with today’s food prices!

The Re-Farmer

Cat isolation shelter progress, and a productive day

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I must say, I’m pretty happy with how today went! It was a lot more productive than expected.

Aside from the triple harvest I wrote about in my previous post, I was scheduled to go to my mother’s to help her with errands.

I left earlier, as I wanted to stop at a store to find something I needed, then hit a bank machine before picking up some Chinese food for our lunch. My mother told me she’d had their steamed rice and vegetables for lunch after church and really liked it, so that’s what she wanted me to order.

I am not sure what she ordered, though, as that is not a typical menu item. At least, not as a combination meal for one. She also said it was “brown rice”.

They don’t serve brown rice.

They did have the steamed rice and mixed vegetables as separate items, so that’s what I ordered for her. Another reason I am not sure what she actually ordered that she liked so much; the mixed vegetables alone were more expensive than any of their combination meals. It, and the steamed rice, is meant to be shared by several people!

She’ll have enough to last her for a couple of days, at least!

I ordered a meal combo for myself.

When my mother saw the food, she was surprised by the rice being white rice. It was supposed to be brown! Sure enough, she had eaten stir fried rice, and somehow thought it was plain, steamed brown rice.

The vegetables were what she wanted, though.

They did, however, include small amounts of meat, which had my mother hesitating. She even asked me at one point, do you think it’s okay? before eating it.

She is still completely convinced that the Chinese restaurant serves cat meat. She’s given me several different stories as to why she thinks this. The first time, she told me one of her neighbours had told her this. Then she said she saw it in the news (though that turned out to be about a restaurant in the city, who know how many years ago). Then it was because she saw more stray cats around, so that must mean they’re serving cat. Talking about what she wanted me to order last night, she said that their prices are so much lower than the restaurant the specialized in deep fried chicken, so in her mind that must be proof they’re serving cat. *sigh*

She likes their food, their prices and their generous portions a lot, though, so she just can’t resist going back.

We had an excellent lunch.

My mother had her first home care visits to help with her medications last night. She would have had two visits last night, and one in this morning, by the time I saw her, so I asked how it went. That set her off into talking about how she couldn’t sleep last night, and it had be because of “all the pills” they gave her.

They’re the exact same pills, from her bubble packs.

Then she said she’d gotten up in the morning and had a bit to each, then went back to bed. Just as she was finally falling asleep, there was a knock at the door. Home care was there for her morning meds.

I asked my mother if she had taken her pills at 5am, like she usually does (she’s already been instructed not to, but to wait for home care).

I didn’t quite get a straight answer out of her, but I think she did.

Which has me wondering; did she take a second full set of pills when the home care person arrived, or just the new supplement for her eyes, which is the only one that’s still separate?

The whole point of getting home care to help her with her medications is because, even with the bubble packs, she is getting confused about them.

Hopefully, she will remember to NOT take her morning pills at 5am (there has never been any reason for her to take them that early), but to take all her morning pills, including the new supplement, with breakfast, when the home care person arrives.

After lunch, we went over her list and added a few things she had forgotten. She needed to go to the bank for cash, though – the one thing I can’t do for her. She really didn’t want to go out at all, with how she was feeling, but she had to. I told her that, after going to the bank, I could take her home again and do the rest of her shopping. She liked that idea.

For someone who wasn’t feeling well, my mother was pretty darn spry!

Getting in and out of the truck was hard for her, as usual, but once she was at her walker, she just took off like a shot! I actually had a hard time keeping up with her! I honestly don’t know how she does it, at times!

After she was done at the bank, she decided to come along to the pharmacy, but to stay in the truck. Her bubble pack refills were set to be delivered today but, since I was there on her behalf, anyhow, I could pick them up, then pick up some other stuff she needed from the pharmacy.

That was her limit, though, so I took her home from there.

Talk about timing.

She was unlocking her door when her phone started to ring. It was the eye doctor, following up on her. They’re already tried calling me and left messages, and were trying my mother’s next.

My mother now has an appointment to see the eye specialist in the city.

The clinic is in the opposite side of the city from us. The drive will be well over an hour, plus the appointment is expected to take about 2 hours in total for all the tests they need to do.

This is going to be a very long day for her!!

She’s going to have her eyes dilated, and they wanted to make sure she had sunglasses. I have extra sunglasses that fit over regular glasses in the truck, so that’s taken care of.

The appointment is on the day I was planning to go into the city for our first stock up shopping trip for next month, but that’s okay. My mother’s appointment is more urgent!

We were very happy about the timing with all this!

The call done, I headed out to get my mother’s groceries, then put everything away for her. There wasn’t anything else she needed for me to do, and she was more than ready for a nap, so I left soon after. Gas and a stop at the post office was in order. The items that were supposed to arrive yesterday, but then tracking said they would arrive on the 26th, were all in.

After I got home, I was soon back outside. After harvesting the winter squash, I started working on the cat isolation shelter.

I was able to finish tacking down the mesh covering the pallet floor with pieces of wood lath. There was just the back that still needed to be done but, with the wire mesh already in place on the back, it was the more difficult one to do. There is now nowhere any tiny kittens could squeeze through the pallet floor and get out.

Then it was time to start enclosing the top level. The not-door sections needed to have insulation cut to fit, then covered.

Here is a slideshow of how things went.

The first section I worked on had the shelf across the back to work around. I had cut it to fit snuggly, but it was a bit too snug, and the insulation snapped at the shelf cut. A bit of trimming, and the pieces were fit in.

Yes, there’s a gap at the angled corner support. It was large enough that I could cut a strip from the corner that had been removed and fill it in.

I don’t have enough paint to pre-paint the pieces anymore, so that will have to be done later. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get a colour match.

I had a number of wood lath pieces left from my last bundle that weren’t all the same length, or had damage in areas. I cut 14 pieces to 16″ lengths, which left me with a 15th piece that was just a touch short. I wasn’t sure if I’d needed it, though.

This first side has floor boards that are ever so slightly too long. I hadn’t bothered to trim them. I made use of the excess length to hold the first piece of wood lath in place. Then each piece was lined up with that first one and nailed into place.

If you look at the second picture of the slideshow, you can see I had to use that slightly short 15th piece! That corner has the brace in it, so there was extra material to hammer the nails into, to secure it. Plus, it overlapped the top frame piece that it could be nailed into.

The other side was easier to do. The insulation for there just needed a 45° cut in one corner.

If you click through to the third photo, you’ll see I didn’t quite get the angle cut right! 😄 That shouldn’t be a problem, though.

I had to start a new bundle of wood lath to cover this side. They are supposed to be all 4′ long, but a few were just a little bit short. After finding 5 pieces that were all the same 4′ length, I was able to cut the stack into 16″ lengths, then nail them over the insulation.

In the last two photos, you can see how it looks on the inside.

It can be assumed the cats will try to use the insulation as a scratching post. There’s something about this insulation that they just love for that! In fact, in the photos of the insulation pieces before they were covered, you can see all the cat scratches!

I didn’t want them to pull the insulation right out if they did scratch at it. I had some nails just barely long enough to go through the insulation, so I used some of those to tack it to the wood lath from the inside. You can’t really see the nails in the photos.

The problem is, these probably won’t hold against cat scratching. Using any longer nails would just go right through the wood lath. I’ll have to think of some other way to keep them in place. I even tried nailing a piece of wood lath vertically on the inside, but I’m left with the same problem. Any nails long enough to secure it in place would go right through the wood lath on the outside. Any nails short enough to not do that can be easily pulled out.

I am more than open to suggestions in the comments!

After this, it’s time to cut that clear plastic I brought up from the basement. I found out from my brother that these were used to cover windows in the house, on the inside, to stop drafts. All but one of the windows were replaced before we moved in here. He thought these were from what is now my bedroom/office/craft room, but that window still has a covers over each half, as it was the one window not replaced. The frames on them are quite different from the frame of what I brought to the garage, so I still don’t know where these came from. It does tell me, though, that it is probably Lexan, which is good, since it can handle UV light and weathering better.

I’m going to have to be careful cutting it, though. My brother tells me there’s a possibility of shattering!

The first piece to cut will be to cover the front of the shelter’s upper level. That should leave enough material to use as clear doors on the sections that did not get covered today.

Hopefully, that will be a job I can work on tomorrow.

Little by little, it’s getting done!

Aside from all that, we got some good news today.

The electric company is currently doing a lot of work in the area, replacing power poles, doing over due maintenance and repairs, etc. – and clearing trees away from the power lines.

We got a call from them today.

They would like to come onto the property some time in the next while, to clear any trees or branches near their power lines.

We had to pay a tree company to do that, about 5 or 6 years ago. Things are starting to grow back and getting too close to the lines again.

The power company will be doing it, and there will be no charge.

They will only clear around their own lines; not the lines to the house, garage, barn or pump shack. Which is fine. The lines to the garage and barn don’t have trees near them. The one to the pump shack is something we can keep clear ourselves. The one to the house is almost directly under the main line to the pole the meter is on, so it’ll be cleared by default.

The guy I spoke to couldn’t tell me when they’ll be doing this, but it doesn’t really matter, except for the gate. I asked if they could call ahead, so we can unlock it for them. We’ll see how that works out.

So… yeah. It’s been a pretty productive day today! We’ve got all sorts of things falling into place. 😊

May things continue to go as smoothly and productively!

The Re-Farmer

More progress on the cat isolation shelter

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I’m glad I was able to get work done on the cat isolation shelter today! I’m hoping to get more done tomorrow, too, but we shall see.

Next week, I won’t be able to get much of anything done.

On Monday, I’ll be taking my mother to a hospital in the city. Thankfully, she found the letter they’d sent her about the appointment. We now know that this test was something her previous doctor had written her up for, before he moved to another clinic. I believe that makes it more than a year, waiting.

I will have to go to her place quite a bit earlier, so I can go over the letter and figure out where we need to go. She’s supposed to arrive half an hour early, for time to register. This hospital is where the heart clinic is, but that part of the hospital can’t be accessed from the inside of the building. My husband and I had to go through the emergency entrance. Where my mother’s test is going to be will be in the main part of the hospital, but it can be so confusing to find places, they sometimes have volunteers available to act as guides and take you straight to the right place. Other times, we follow colour coded lines painted on the walls.

On top of that, this place is right in the middle of the city, across the river from downtown. I’m going to have to drop my mother off at the main entrance, find somewhere to park, then come back for her. With my husband, I often found myself parking blocks away, as the parkades were all full, as well all the nearest streets. I’ll need to factor in the time that will take, too.

It’s going to be an all day thing.

Then, a couple of days later, I’m taking my mother to an eye clinic, then the day after that, we’re bringing a male cat – whichever one we can catch – to the vet clinic to get snipped.

All that driving around isn’t going to leave much time to get things done at home, including working on the cat shelters.

It had been my intention to see if I could reinforce the mesh that is popping loose on the catio with the steel strapping I have, but I couldn’t find it. So no progress on the catio.

I got quite a lot of progress on the isolation shelter, though!

Here is a slideshow of things at the end of the day.

In between other things, I opened up the roll of 3/4 inch welder wire and cut off a piece to cover the back of the bottom level. At this stage, the mesh is held in place with a few staples. I’ll be covering the edges with wood lath to secure them, later.

I started cutting pieces for the lower level door/ramp to size, and prepared to cover the back of the upper level. I’ve decided I will cover the back first with some rigid insulation. It will probably get scratched up by cats, but that won’t matter too much. The sheet I was using today already has cat damage on it. I cut a section of insulation to size, and will then cover the whole thing with 4′ pieces of wood lath to secure it.

Once I measured and cut and prepared what I needed, I started painting, which you can see in the second photo. The first thing was to cover the edges of floor pieces that weren’t pre-painted, as they were not supposed to be exposed before I had to make changes to the floor plan. The scratching post/ramp to the second level got its ends painted.

In the next photo, you can see the pieces of wood lathe that got painted. Only one side of those need to be painted.

The pieces for the door/ramp need to be painted on both sides. I didn’t have room on the saw horse for all the pieces, though, so I found things on my work table that could support the door/ramp pieces as they dried.

The other thing I did was build the insulated cat “nest”. This is the box that is made to fit under the shelf on the second level. Once it was assembled, and the insulation secured, I framed the entrances for both the insulated and uninsulated boxes with pieces of wood lath. This is not just to them look more finished and pretty. We will probably be adding some sort of cover over the openings that will keep the weather out, and give a potentially frightened cat someplace cave-like for them to hide in. My husband has some leather that he will cut to size to cover the front. Part will be kept solid to be attached to the top of the opening, while the rest will be cut into strips that a cat can push through to get in and out.

I hadn’t intended to paint the cat boxes, but since I was painting things anyhow, I painted them, too.

Tomorrow, I will flip the things that need to be painted on all sides, including the boxes, and finish painting them, then continue working on the back of the shelter. I should be able to start adding wire mesh to the sides and front of the shelter, but not until after I’ve secured the scratching post/ramp in place, and then added anything else I can think of. Once the wire mesh is in place, Nothing more can be build into the bottom half, so I need to make sure I’ve done everything I want, first.

I still haven’t decided how to make the access panels into the top half, nor how to finish enclosing it. I really hoped to be find some clear plastic panels for parts of it, at least. Not just so we can see inside, but so any cats inside can sit in the sun and look out if they want. Plus, depending on how we position the shelter, it can add passive solar heat.

That is something else I want to make sure we can do – heat the upper half of this! I’d like to be able to hang a heat lamp off the frame somewhere, or even the centre support for the roof, and run the cord out the top somewhere. If we are going to have mostly feral cats isolated in there for a couple of weeks in the winter, we most definitely want to have a heat source of some kind in there.

That’s one thing about the clear plastic roof we plan to put on there. It will be thin, so it will have almost no insulation of any kind – but it can also be a source of passive solar heat on sunny winter days.

This whole thing is a complete experiment, and a learning experience, that’s for sure!

The Re-Farmer

A bit of cat isolation shelter progress

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I’ve actually been working on fixing up the donated catio today. I’ll cover that in another post, but at one point I had to wait for a board I had to scrub clean to dry. That gave me time to work on a scratching post/ramp for inside the lower level of the cat isolation shelter.

In the first photo of the slideshow above, you can see the piece of scrap lumber I cut to fit into the space. It had started out as a 2×4 but had been cut in half at some point.

Once I determined it was long enough, I used the vertical supports it would be set against to determine what angles to cut off, so it would be flush. You can see the bottom cut in the second photo. I cut that one first then, once it was set in place, could mark off the angle for the top cut.

In the next photo, you can see the materials I used. I had picked up some hemp cord from the craft section of a dollar store. Usually, sisal cord is used for scratching posts but 1) I wasn’t finding any that was a good thickness for a scratching post without buying online and 2), the hemp cords price for the amount in the hank was right.

One of my frustrations with scratching posts is that, once the cats tear through a strand, the whole thing comes undone. With that in mind, I dug out a can of spray glue I’ve hung on to for years. This actually came out with us when we moved here, almost 7 years ago. This is the first time I’ve used it, since.

Sometimes, being a pack rat, has advantages!

I sprayed the board in sections of about 6 or 8 sections. The first few inches of the cord was secured under the initial wraps, and making sure to press the cord against the spray glued surface, I’d wrap until I was a couple of inches from the end of the sprayed section, spray the next section, then keep on wrapping. The final few inches of the cord was secured with a couple of large headed roofing nails. That end will be the bottom of the scratching post.

In the last photo, you can see how it will be set up in the isolation shelter. As a ramp, it’s really more for any kittens we might had to keep in there. Larger cat would be able to jump straight up the large opening, or use the shelf “step” in the front to get to the small opening.

There will still be room for a litter pan under there, and even an insulated shelter box as well.

By the time this was done, I could start working on the catio again. After my daughter came out and we took care of supporting the tomatoes together, she mentioned that she was going to be making herself a breakfast. That made me realize I was feeling hungry. I was a bit surprised. I’d had a large breakfast. Why was I hungry already?

Then I realized, more than 5 hours had passed!

Uhm… yeah… time for food! I’d say lunch, but it’s past 3pm, sooo…. lupper? 😄

Once that’s done, I’ll head back to continue on the catio. I want to get as much done as I can, since it’ll be a day or two before I can work on it again.

Which means I should probably stop writing blog posts, and finish eating!

The Re-Farmer

Exhausted

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I am so very tired right now, and in a lot of pain.

It was a very good day, though!

One of my goals for the day was to work on the donated cat shelter, which I did get to work on a little bit!

Before I got started, I received a message from my SIL. They, and the guy with the triple axle trailer they hired, were on their way!

I’ll cover the shelter progress, first.

The very first thing I did was remove the last roof panel, then flip the whole thing on its side, to start reinforcing the corners.

In the first photo of the slideshow, you can see how the corners were done. The shelter is upside down in that photo. I added the angled brackets to the inside of each corner. I found I had the flat L shaped plates left over from when my daughter and I reinforced the raised bed covers, and they were perfect for further reinforcement of the corners at the base.

I want to add angled brackets to the inside of the top corners, too, but I’m too broken to go inside the catio to reach. I’ll have to get a daughter to do that for me.

While moving it around, I found that there was some damage from when it fell out of the truck while they brought it to us. In the second photo, you can see where a part of the frame had cracked. Ideally, I would have reinforced it with a metal plate, but I couldn’t find anything I could use, so I went through my scrap wood. I eventually found a piece that would work, and attached it with a combination of wood glue and 1 1/2 inch screws. Part of the piece of wood sticks out beyond the frame piece, but I can saw that off later.

The mesh on the back of the shelter had two holes in it, which were the openings that allowed cats to get into it from a basement window. There were also the remains of a couple of long screws that were used to attach it to the house. The heads were deep in the wood, so it was easier to just break off the pointed ends. Then I used wire cutters on the mesh, just a bit beyond the largest hole.

The mesh is held in place with staples, and I used pliers to pull those out. Quite a few of them were so rusted, they broke off, instead. The wire mesh was pretty rested out in some places, too.

Once the section of mesh was removed, I measured how much new mesh I would need. There was a corner of the mesh rusted out as well, so I want the new wire to wrap around the frame far enough to cover the hole. In total, 6′ of mesh would do.

The rolls I got are only 5′ long.

I don’t want to be cobbling together lengths of mesh from the two rolls. Not only would that leave me with almost nothing to use on the isolation shelter, but any sort of overlap creates a potential escape point, or a weak spot the racoons could get through. The rolls of hardware cloth that I got are wide enough that there will be a decent amount of overlap, horizontally. I don’t want to also have overlap, vertically.

Which means, I need to find longer rolls of hardware cloth, and that starts to get expensive.

*sigh*

So for now, the repairs need to wait.

Meanwhile, back to the load that came this morning!

It took them about an hour to get here, and the hired guy arrived first.

There were two tractors on his trailer. One was a small tractor with a front end loader. The other was a McCormick that looked very, very familiar.

Yes, it was the one I remembered from my childhood! When I asked about it, I was told that something had broken down on it and my dad told my brother, if he could fix it, he could keep it.

He fixed it, and it’s been working ever since.

The McCormick was very carefully loaded directly over those triple axles!

My brother and his wife had their trailer loaded, too, but the first order of business was to unload the tractors. The front end loader, which had its bucket resting on the gooseneck of the trailer, had to be pushed forward first, then the McCormick pushed towards the front of the trailer, until the fold out ramps were clear. Once that was done, it was a relatively easy thing for my brother to drive it off. The tractor with the front end loaded took a bit more work, though. Partly because it turns out there’s a trick to getting it started and staying running. It also needed to be driven off in reverse, which got tricky over those ramps!

Once that was done and the tractors parked by a shed near the barn, my brother’s trailer needed to be unloaded. One of the things they unloaded was a snow blower attachment for the tractor they brought over last time.

Do you hear that sound?

That’s the sound of my heart going pitter patter.

We might not have to try and keep the driveway clear with little Spewie this winter!

For those new to this blog, Spewie is a 20′ electric snow blower. Actually, I believe it’s marketed as an electric snow shovel. Either way, it’s very small, and we’ve really put it through a lot over the last few winters!

Not that any of us would be setting up and using my brother’s tractors and snow blowers. At some point, he might be able to take the time to show us how, but none of this stuff is straightforward when it comes to using them!

My brother did have something for us in the back of this truck, though.

He brought us a hose that we can use as a diverter for when the septic expeller is being worked on, so we can still use the plumbing in the house. The septic guy was supposed to swing by this evening, and I was going to talk to him about that – they might be able to hook up the pipe in the basement and get it through the foam filled opening in the wall. Once that’s through, it can be set up to this, and drain into the maples.

It’ll stink, but that’s a trade off we’re quite okay with!

Meanwhile…

There was other equipment that needed to be unloaded then, as soon as they were done, they rushed off again. The guy they hired was hoping to do three loads today!

They didn’t manage three loads.

The second load on the triple axle trailer included a square baler, larger than the one that was brought over before, and a hay cutter. Those two things filled the entire trailer!

A tractor was needed to pull the baler off, and they ended up strapping the hay cutter to the bucket on the front end loader, to lift it off the side.

Once that trailer was unloaded, the hired guy and his assistant left. On this trip, my SIL wasn’t able to come along, so it was just my brother and I to unload their trailer.

This trailer was why it was the last trip of the day. It took a lot to get the stuff on – and it was just three things! The hired guy had to use a Bobcat to load it.

We don’t have a Bobcat here. Our vandal still has that and has no intention of returning it, even though there are still parts and attachments, here.

One thing on the trailer was pretty easy to unload. My brother and I could lift it off together. The others needed to be dragged off with a tractor. One of them had to be pulled off sideways, and sections of it got caught on parts of the trailer, requiring another tractor to be used to pull it back again. The front end loader was once again pressed into action, to try and lift it off the end of the trailer, since there was no way it was going to slide down the ramps.

When it finally came off, the same parts that were getting caught on the trailer slammed into a corner of the tractor, punching straight into the radiator.

It’s going to have to be replaced entirely.

Considering how old this tractor is, that’s going to be a challenge. My brother is very good at hunting down parts that aren’t made anymore, though, so I hope it won’t be too difficult to find.

There was still one more piece of equipment on the trailer that had to be taken off. It was a bit easier, but this was a very old piece of equipment, with old and partially rotted wood, with parts attached, that broke off completely in the process. Still, my brother was able to get it off and parked. All of this equipment is being tucked away where there is space. Once the biggest of the items is here, which won’t be until next month, my brother will move things around in an organized way.

It’s a shame so many things were broken or damaged in the process, though.

Meanwhile, we can expect another load on the triple axle trailer next weekend, too!

My poor brother, though. I helped as much as I could, but some things, I just physically can’t. Plus, at one point, he tripped and, while he didn’t fall, I think he did hurt himself. He never complains, though.

All this took so long that, once it was finally done, he had to rush off home again.

I did manage to finally get a hug in, though!

I think he really needed one by then, too!

I don’t know how much more they will be bringing out here. I had thought they might sell off some of the equipment, but I’m starting to think they’re keeping it all, and just bringing it here!

This will actually be of great help to us, in the long term. A lot of this is the sort of equipment my parents had here before, that disappeared. Maybe not so many tractors, though. At least, not that I know of.

The outer yard is going to get very crowded!

More reason to get the scrap company out here to take out the junk vehicles and the old threshing machine.

I have got to remember to call them back tomorrow. It’s not too much of a rush. There are some things I know can go now, but with others, I need to go looking at them with my brother, first, so he can confirm with me, what can go and what stays.

Little by little, it’s getting done!

The Re-Farmer

Stock up Shopping: This is what $825 total looks like

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I am so, so tired.

I’m really not sure why. I got sleep. It could very well be just the accumulation of things. The end of the month always involves a lot of running around, but this month we had a few extra stressed thrown in – both positive and negative stresses, but stresses, nonetheless.

Still, that’s just a guess on my part.

The morning was pretty typical. I wasn’t in any rush to get to the city, and did my morning rounds as usual. Then I grabbed the bag of ice packs and headed out. I didn’t even need to stop for a bit of gas along the way, as I’d put a bit in while in town yesterday, before meeting up with the Cat Lady and bringing home the donated cat shelter. It did mean I was below half a tank when I got to the Costco gas station, and filling up was the first thing I did. Regular gas at Costco was $128.9/L Everywhere else was either $1.379 or $139.9 It still cost me $80.94 to fill the tank!

Before I went to Costco, though, I did make a stop for breakfast (it was well past 10 by the time I reached the city). I decided to stop at a mall and try the food court, since the last time I tried to have food at Costco, I couldn’t eat it. My complete intolerance for spice heat in food means I can’t even have the Costco chicken strips meal. I figured, the food court would have more choices.

I can’t remember how long it’s been since I’d gone into this mall, but it was long enough that the food court was completely different, with mostly different vendors. I ended up going for Chinese food. A 3 item meal was quite a bit more expensive than where I got Chinese food last time, in the international grocery store, a few days ago! I was, however, able to get a taro bubble tea with it. I don’t think I’ve had bubble tea since before we moved out here! If I have, it’s only been once, and years ago, but I don’t remember having even seen somewhere to get bubble tea since we’ve moved.

The total bill for my breakfast was $24.62. It was good, but I don’t know that is was worth the price, to be honest.

Since I was in the mall and the food court was right next to a Dollarama, I checked that out before leaving. I ended up getting two more table protector sheets – the ones I got earlier are meant to protect the eggplant bed, but these will be to actually use on our dining table. I got some hemp rope that will be used to make scratching posts inside the cat shelters, and a small paint roller that will be used to paint the donated cat shelter’s wire mesh. Last of all, I found a cat toy that I wanted to see if the cats would actually like. It’s got the captured jingle ball, but it’s quite small and on a rocker base that, for the most part, can right itself, plus some feathers on a string out the top. The question of whether they like it is mostly due to its small size.

They like it. If I find more like it, I definitely will pick up more.

The total bill at Dollarama was $19.32

Then, it was off to get gas and do the shopping.

Since I already got some kibble at the feed store, and will be getting more later, the only cat food I needed to get today was for the inside cats. So it was just a couple of bags of kibble, plus wet cat food and puppy pads. The rest was for us humans!

I did get the pet supplies on a separate bill. This is what both bills together, $735.23, looks like.

Well, kinda. Quite a few things are hidden in the image.

The pet supplies receipt is on the bottom. Two cases of wet cat food, two 9kg bags of kibble and one box of puppy pads. Grand total: $182.51

The stuff for ourselves totaled $552.72, but this did include some more expensive purchases that are not at all usual. One of those is something that’s hidden in the photo above. I got a shop light, which cost $39.99 Now that both basements are cat free zones, we’ll be setting the workshop up again, including the giant self healing cutting mat that is currently covering the dining table. My husband will be bringing some of his leatherworking supplies down there. The light will be hung above the work table.

We got a flat of Coke Zero, but the other unusual thing we picked up was a flat of Monster energy drinks, in three flavours. Both my daughters and I drink them, so I figured it would be worth trying a case. That was $44.99.

The other “bottom of the basket” stuff includes a bag of flour – we weren’t out, but at $9.99, I grabbed one, as flour is rarely such a good price, even at Costco. I got a bucket of ghee, as we were getting low – it’s not the same as what we got before but, for the amount, the price is still insanely better than elsewhere. There’s a 9 pack of pasta, two flats of eggs (60 eggs), frozen perogies and toilet paper.

Along with those, there are packages of pork chops, fresh sausages, a panini variety pack and – a treat for the girls – a package of fresh pink salmon! Salmon is usually extremely expensive, but there were three or four salmon in there, for only $24.09. Usually, we’d pay that much for a single frozen fillet, and not a very big one!

I got another 3 pack of Spam for the pantry, and a 3 pack of all beef wieners. There is a big jar of mayonnaise and another of peanut butter. I got a 2 pack of rye bread, and two 2 packs of tortilla wraps. I also got their last 2 pack of hot dog buns. Not enough for the amount of wieners I got, but the shelf was empty. The only reason I got the one package was because someone left it in with another type of bread.

There are also blocks of mozzarella and Old cheddar cheese, plus two 4 packs of cream cheese. My daughter wants to do some baking! There are 5 pounds of butter, a 1L of whipping cream and a 2L of lactose free milk. There are a couple of 2 packs of salad mixes, and finally there are containers of ibuprofen, acetaminophen and house brand lactase.

Both Costco bills together came to $735.23

There were a couple of things on my list that I couldn’t find, though, so I decided to hit a nearby Walmart before leaving the city. I chose to go to the Walmart only because it was physically easier to get to and from than my other options.

I ended up getting more!

Click on the images to see them full size.

One of the things I was looking for was zucchini, for my daughter’s baking. We don’t have enough summer squash in the garden for the amount she needs. The other thing was soy milk. I got the lactose free milk, but my daughters had requested soy milk, and I couldn’t find any at Costco.

The big winner were the bags of salad mix. They were only $3.77 each – normally, they’d be closer to $6, even at Walmart, and closer to $7 locally. I try to get one bagged salad for each of us – it’s just easier that way – but they only had three bags left of the Mexican Corn mix. My husband likes Caesar salads, so I got one of those for him. I also got four bags of Maple Bourbon mix.

I grabbed another 12 pack of mac and cheese, as it was only $8.97. Those usually cost closer to $13, or even $15. There’s a small wheel of brie, a couple of baguettes, and a small charcuterie mix of meats. I’d like to have another charcuterie and Columbo night, this time with both girls, now that my older daughter has hit her commissions deadlines. I got more hot dog buns, so we now have more than enough for the amount of wieners I got at Costco. Last of all, I got myself a cold energy drink for the drive home.

By the time I was ready to go through the checkout lane, I was pretty exhausted. I found a lane with just one cart ahead of me, being unloaded. It was two women, shopping together. One was talking to the cashier while the other was finishing emptying the cart.

As I started unloading my own cart, both women were starting to talk to the cashier, who was no longer scanning their items.

The cashier was trying to hard sell them a Walmart credit card.

And I do mean HARD selling!

Every time one of the women would say no, the cashier would be, Oh, but there’s this benefit, or this feature, or no fees… The women kept saying no, but also listening politely to the cashier, who just kept pushing them to get this credit card, waving around this printout she had with the details…

… and not scanning their purchases.

This went on for quite a while before I finally asked, “should I be going to another lane?” The woman looked at me, and I added, “I’m tired. If this is going to take a while, should I just go to another lane?”

The cashier tired to push the card in them again, the women said no again, and finally the cashier put away the sheet and started scanning their stuff again.

It took maybe a minute for them to finish after that.

When the cashier started scanning my stuff, I got no greeting at all. She basically ignored me until she was done…

… then tried to sell me on their credit card.

Funny. When I said no, she didn’t try to hard sell me on it.

Then, for some reason, when I tried to pay for my purchase by inserting my card into the machine, I got a message saying, customer canceled transaction. I hadn’t touched anything but the bottom of the machine as I pushed the card in. At least I don’t think I did. Given how tired I was, it’s entirely possible my hand slipped and I hit a button, but I don’t think so. She resent the total to the machine and I scanned the chip, instead, and it worked fine after that.

Grand total was $90.11

I was more than happy to be out of there.

So the grand total for stock up shopping, both Costco and Walmart, was $825.43

Add in the gas and the Dollarama purchase, and it totaled $925.60 Plus my breakfast, $950.22

Ouch.

I was very happy to be leaving the city after that. Thank God I won’t have to do this again until next month!

Unfortunately, that nice cold energy drink I got did not accomplish much.

It’s an hour’s drive to the city, plus the driving time inside the city itself. After about half an hour, my exhaustion was starting to catch up on me.

By about 45 minutes, I was looking all over for a place I could safely pull over. I was feeling so tired, I started to be afraid to blink, because my eyes did not want to stay open!

In the end, I wasn’t able to pull over until I reached the intersection outside of the town nearest us, with a gas station. I went in to use the washroom, bought a couple of small things to pay for the toilet paper I used 😉, then messaged my family to let them know where I was, and that I was going to close my eyes for a bit. I was only about 25 minutes from home, but I was just not safe to drive.

Once back in the truck, I cracked the windows open a bit, leaned my seat back and closed my eyes. I had the radio going which, with the engine off, turns itself off after 10 minutes. I turned it back on again once. I also had to close the windows on one side of the truck, as it started to rain and the wind was coming in from that side, blowing rain into the cab.

I didn’t think I’d slept much, but then my phone started to ring. It was my husband, giving me a wake up call.

An hour had gone by!

Before I got off the phone, I asked if someone could open the gate for me so I could drive straight in, and then set off for home.

When I got home, both girls were waiting for me by the house. Once I was backed up to the house, they ordered me to go inside and lie down, then started to unload the truck.

I went to the bathroom before going to lie down, which is when I first heard it.

Thunder.

By the time I got back to the entry, it was pouring rain. My younger daughter was outside, unloading the truck to my older daughter at the door. My older daughter asked if I could take over while she ran upstairs to close the window by their computer!

So I took over door duty, grabbing the remaining stuff my younger daughter was bringing over. She was laughing gleefully, while getting completely soaked!

Then, as quickly as it hit us, the rain was gone!

The girls took care of everything else while I tried to lie down, but sleep would not come.

Mostly because I had a very persistent Potato Beetle, demanding attention.

He does this by reaching out and grabbing and arm or hand or face, with a single, sharp claw!

One of my daughters rescued me but, by then, I needed to eat something, anyhow.

The rest of my evening has been one of recovery, while the girls take over things. As I write this, they just finished feeding the outside cats and tending to eye baby.

It’s almost 8pm right now, and I think as soon as I finish this, I’m going to try going to bed for real this time!

I am so, so tired.

The Re-Farmer

So… Costco didn’t happen

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

Okay, so after confirming that we didn’t have any flat tires this morning, then getting diverted with a trip to town before doing to the city, the trip to Costco has been dropped entirely for today.

When the Cat Lady and her husband caught up with me, I could see why they had to much trouble with the catio! With her husband’s short box truck, it was leaning against the tail gate. It is really quite light. No wonder it got blown off! They did get a strap for it, though, and ended up giving me the strap after it was transferred to our truck. She also gave me four bags of kitten food that fussy little Button won’t eat!

They’ve had to put a bell on him. He’s so tiny, he kept going missing!

I still used one of my new straps, along with the tarp and some bungee cords to secure it. The catio just barely fit into the box of our truck, between the fenders on the sides, and the rolled up cover by the cab and the tail gate. I did have to slightly bend the remaining roof panel to squeeze it forward, so we could close the tailgate.

The second photo shows it unloaded behind our garage.

The Cat Lady hoped we could at least use the parts and pieces. They’ve had this catio for a while. As we unloaded it, I did see that one corner on the bottom will need to be reinforced. The wind tore off part of one of the fabric cat beds, but my younger daughter is pretty sure she has some heavy duty fabric she can replace it with.

The mesh has a hole in the back that had been the entry through their basement window in their old house. That will need to be patched. It’s the same half inch hardware cloth that I just picked up for the isolation shelter I’m building, and we’ll have enough to patch that up.

I’m surprised that the wire is just held in place with staples! Definitely something heavier duty than what we’ve got. Any time I’ve tried to staple something like this down, the staples tend to pop out again, easily. I was a bit surprised to see that those shelves are just “floating”. They are attached to the wire only, not the frame!

You can see that there is some rust on the wire, too. Once we reinforce the corners and do any other fixes or modifications, we’ll give the whole thing a paint job. If the wire needs to be painted, though, I think I’ll go for black, so it’ll be easier to see through the wire.

We might add a second latch on the door, near the bottom, as it’s bowing out in that corner – reinforcing the frame should fix that. Racoons can figure out how to open those latches, though, so we’ll probably look for something different.

By this time, it was past noon, so instead of going to Costco, I went to my mother’s town and the feed store to pick up 40 pound bags of cat food for the outside cats. While there, I asked about lysine. The guy I spoke to before was there, and he said he found some in 1 pound buckets, so he got two of them for me. They will arrive on Tuesday (after the long weekend).

I was going to get 4 bags of cat food, but they had only 3 in stock. I paid for those, but when the guy went to get the bags to load into the truck, there were only two left on the shelf. More will be coming on Tuesday. I was going to come back for the lysine and another bag of cat food, anyhow, so I’ll get the bag that’s already paid for at the same time. The two bags I got are equivalent to four of the Kirkland brand I get at Costco, so we’ll be good for a while.

That done, I decided to swing by the hardware store. They also carry roofing supplies and materials, so I asked about clear roof panels. They don’t carry them in stock, but they do special order them. After looking at my options, I went ahead and ordered two 3’x8′ panels. They will be cut in half cross wise, and will be enough for both cat shelters, so I won’t be using the salvaged metal roof pieces that I was expecting to use. They couldn’t say exactly when the panels will come in, but will call me. At best, they might even be in by Tuesday, too.

Once home, unloaded and settled, I phoned the septic company that charges by the hour, to arrange to get the septic expeller area fixed. They won’t be able to come out for a couple of weeks, unfortunately, but the owner is going to be in the area on Monday. He will be swinging by to look at the area on Monday evening.

The good thing is, the renter’s cows are no longer here, so we can move the electric fence and chain away from the vehicle opening in the fence by the barn. It’s wide enough for heavy equipment. I should probably head out there in advance, with the extended pole pruning saw, and cut away the willow branches overhanging the expeller.

I was going to do it with the loppers, but I’m not tall enough.

So today turned out to be not at all as I expected it to be, but I don’t mind. We now have the ratchet straps and tie downs we meant to get for the truck kit anyhow. The tarp did get damaged by wind during the drive home, but it’s repairable.

More importantly, we have a cat shelter that can be used until the isolation shelter I’m building is finished. I plan to use some of the wood lath I have to reinforce the wire mesh, because I don’t trust staples, along with any other repairs it needs. Then we can move it closer to the house. Probably on the patio blocks under the kitchen window, so we can see it, though we’ll need to find somewhere else for a wood bench and the swing bench, if we put it there.. The clear plastic roof panels can be added, and any painting can be done, after it’s been moved. Once it’s in place, we can leave the door open and allow the cats and kittens to enjoy it. That way, when we have a cat that’s been spayed and needs to stay in there for two weeks, it will already be used to the shelter.

I might even be able to get some stuff out there done, while there’s still light out, since I’m not exhausted by a Costco shop.

I should probably eat something first, though! I keep forgetting to do that.

The Re-Farmer

Change in plans!

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

I’m happy to say, no flat tires this morning, so I was going to do the Costco shop this morning.

I slept in longer than intended, and didn’t leave as early as I’d planned.  Which is why I was still home when I started getting messages from the Cat Lady.

They had a change in plans, too, and needed to go to the town nearest us.  Could I meet them?  They had cat food for us, but instead of the cat tower, they had their old catio shelter.

Of course, I said yes.  I was heading that direction to detour road work, anyhow.

I ended up going into town early, got a bit of gas, and was going to wait.

I got a message saying they were leaving late, so I went for breakfast.

They have a short box truck, and apparently the cat shelter was really tall in it.  They were going to drive slow.

Then I got a message.

It fell off, onto the highway!

Nothing broke, though.

Some time later, I got another message.

Two roof panels just blew off!

After making sure everyone was okay, I went to the hardware store for ratchet straps, a tarp and tie downs.

I messaged them about it, and she told me they stopped to get straps, too.  The ones they kept in their truck had been borrowed by her FIL.

Oops!

So now I await them in our meet up spot.  I’ve already rolled back the box cover.  Once we have the shelter, I’m going home to drop it off.

I’m seriously considering doing Costco tomorrow!  But a Saturday Cos5co trip would be worse than a Friday one. 😆

The Re-Farmer