We’re back from town and picking up the packages in the mail. One of my daughters came along to do her own shopping, so I had both company, and help bringing things to the house!
Here’s one of the packages that came in; we finally replaced the outside heated water bowl that stopped working.
It’s the same size as the one that’s in the sun room. I had intended to buy another large one at the local hardware store again, as the price was better than ordering the same larger size online, but my husband went ahead and ordered this one before I got around to it.
I like the pretty colour. 😁
I was happy to see our order of lysine came in a couple days earlier than the tracking information said it would.
Then there were these.
I decided to get a new USB extension and adapters, instead of using the old ones we’ve got. The ones we’ve got would be from before we moved out here, so probably close to 10 years old. I figured some newer, more up to date items would be better! The adapters came in a three pack, so we have extras for anything else we might need them for. So many things come powered by USB these days!
Of course, I had to test it out on the lights that came with the seed starting kit. We can easily fit 4 of them on one shelf of the mini-greenhouse at the window. Then, since we don’t need to start seeds for a while yet, I decided to set three of them up. I’ve got the tray with the eggplants and hot peppers on the second level right now, and two trays of onions at the top level. Since whatever is on the second shelf wouldn’t be getting as much light, I would alternate them every few days. Of course, they would also need to be rotated regularly. What I did was place three of the LED grow lights from the kits on the top shelf, over the side of the seedling tray that gets the least amount of light.
It should be interesting to see if it makes any noticeable difference.
Meanwhile, I’ve been looking up the bulbs for one of my aquarium greenhouse lights. We have one burnt out bulb, and the other is starting to look dim. I got them from the same fish supply store my daughters bought the aquarium set at (hugely discounted for Boxing Day, or we could never have afforded it!), and never really looked into the type of bulbs. I just knew it was the right kind for our tank.
Well, it turns out these bulbs are general grow lights, not just aquarium bulbs. Which, unfortunately, makes them a bit more expensive. I found them on Amazon, but I don’t want to buy them there. I’m going to check out some hardware stores, first. At least that way, I can be sure any bulbs I get will make it home without breaking! Plus, I might be able to just buy one or two, instead of packages of 5, 10 or more! Not something I’ll have the budget for until next month, anyhow, but I can look.
As for our drive to town and back, our road is STILL not plowed, but at least the main road to the highway is. I am starting to think they’re not going to bother plowing side roads like ours until after tonight’s expected snowfall. I am SO thankful for our truck!! If we still had the van, we would have been dragging the undercarriage through the snow the whole way. My mother’s car wouldn’t have made it at all.
When I got home, there was a message from the salvage yard I’d contacted to see about getting rid of things like our collected aluminum, and the 13+ large batteries we found while cleaning out the basement and parts of the garage, plus a few other things we could get rid of, like the broken appliances. Other stuff, I would want my brother to be there to say what can stay and what can go. I called the guy back. He told me they’d be in our area in the next while, however we can’t get to the barn right now! So I suggested we wait at least a couple of weeks. When I told him about how some things would need my brother’s okay to clear out, and we’d have to book it in such a way that he could arrange a day off to come out here, he suggested we wait until we can do that. By doing one trip for everything, they only have to bring the equipment out once, and can give me a better price. This company actually weighs the scrap metal on location, rather than hauling it away first, then weighing it. That way, the customer can see exactly what the weight is, right then and there.
So that will wait until spring, or at least until enough snow is gone that we can get to areas like the car graveyard well beyond the outer yard.
I will be really happy to finally get a lot of that junk cleaned up. And I’m sure the renter will be happy to see it gone, too. That way his cows won’t be getting into stuff and possibly hurting themselves!
That includes digging my way to the garage, first, and clearing enough of the front that I could open the doors and lease little Spewie from hibernation. That little snow blower got a real work out, today!
Well, it looks like we got a total of about 6 or 7 inches of snow by this morning. This may well be the largest single snowfall we’ve had this winter.
I didn’t get much of my usual morning rounds done. I started digging around the house a bit. Just enough to clear the doors, the space inside the cat shelter set up, and a path to the gate.
We’re going to have to break out little Spewie, but probably not until tomorrow. It’s just too windy out there!
The driveway is blown completely flat, and the winds have packed the snow down. Not a single tire track of shoveled path is visible anymore! We’ll have to dig out the doors just to access where snow blower is stored.
Thankfully, we don’t need to go anywhere, and we are well stocked, so there is no urgency to get things cleared. It does look like the road has been plowed, though, which is good.
As I write this, we’ve already reached our predicted high of -11C/12F. The wind chill brings it down to -27C/-17F. Tomorrow, we’re expecting a high of -13C/9F, but without the winds we’re getting today, so it’s going to feel much nicer. After that, we’re expected to start warming up and, a week from today, we’re supposed to start hitting highs above freezing, and staying above freezing.
As much as I appreciate the mild winter we’ve had, I’m looking forward to it being over!!
The predictions for today have been off in many ways, but the storm being pushed in from the US is hitting us now – and is it ever blowing!
I took this while doing my morning rounds, when it was just starting to pick up. We were supposed to get a break in the snow right now (it’s just after 11am as I write this), with more snow hitting us this afternoon, but of course, nature does what it does. Now they’re saying the snowfall will continue until 7am tomorrow, without any breaks
The temperatures, at least, are still mild, though with the wind, our -4C/25F is feeling like -20C/-4F right now. The wind direction is ENE, but with the gap in our sheltering trees, what’s hitting us is ESE and blowing right into the yard. Checking on the gate and switching out the gate cam memory card, it was blowing straight down the driveway from the East and feeling pretty vicious! We’re supposed to get about 10cm/4in of snow today, but it looks like most of it is being blown away!
The weather map shows “extreme” weather stretching from Alberta through into Ontario, as well as parts of the North Dakota and Montana, where they are getting a mix of rain. I heard from my SIL this morning, and they got hit with sleet this morning. Dangerous conditions, indeed!
What’s interesting is looking at the prevailing winds map. There is a massive spin in wind direction happening over the northern US states that’s pushing the system up from the south. I sure wouldn’t want to be in North Dakota right now!
Oh, look! The weather app changed again. Now they’re saying we’re having a break in the snow (looking out my window, I can actually confirm that), and it’s supposed to start snowing again from 4pm – 7pm. I bet if I check again in 5 minutes, the forecast will be different again. 😄
While the temperatures may be mild, the yard cats are quite happy to get out of the wind and hunker down in the sun room. The thermometer on the wall in there was reading 0C/32F this morning. The cats, of course, are snuggled in great piles under the heat lamp, over the heat lamp, and on the various beds, blankets and sheets of insulation we have for them.
These temperatures are pretty average for our area. In fact, we’re a bit warmer than average right now. The record high for today was 9C/48F, set in 2000, while the record low was -34C/-29F, set in 2014! I’ll take what we’ve got now, thanks!
Looking at the monthly forecast, we’re expect to get a few chilly days next week, but after that we’re expected to warm up and, in the second half of March, we’re supposed to have highs consistently above freezing. In the last week or so of April, our lows are supposed to remain consistently above freezing, too.
Spring is going to get here, eventually!
For now, I’m going to enjoy being indoors, and not having to go anywhere in these winds!
I’m sure glad I finished our stock up shopping yesterday, because winter is not done with us, yet!
Check out this forecast.
Yup… they’re predicting up to 25cm/9-10inches of snow! It’s supposed to start snowing tonight, but the storm that’s coming up from the US is supposed to hit our area by the end of Sunday. We’re under a storm watch, but from everything I’m hearing, it’s the south end of our province that is going to be hit the hardest. How much makes it up to our area is questionable.
We’ve been so spoiled with our mild and mostly snow free winter this year. There’s almost always a blizzard or two in March and/or April. These storms are important in helping get enough moisture in the spring. Even with the flooding we had in April and May a couple of years ago, it wasn’t enough to bring our water table back up after years of dry conditions.
Well, whether the storm hits us or not, we’re well stocked and don’t need to go anywhere. We could hunker down for weeks, if we had to.
I am so glad to have the stock up shopping done, and to be home. While it’s still light out, too!
I took advantage of the gorgeous morning temperatures (-7C/19F at the time; we ended up hitting 3C/37F by the afternoon) and shoveled the last paths to the compost pile, outhouse and back door to the garage while doing my morning rounds. Then I headed out early to go to my mother’s, so I would have time to shovel away the plow ridge at the end of the driveway, plus have time to fill the tank before going to her place. I still ended up earlier than we talked about, so I called her from the gas station to make sure she was ready for me to show up.
She almost was! 😄
She really did not want to go out, and would rather have just given me her list, but she needed to go to the bank – the one thing I can’t do for her.
Because I was there so early, I mentioned that after I was done helping her, I still had time to go to the city. Of course, she immediately tried to guilt trip me, saying things like “can’t you at least give me one day?” Obviously forgetting that I normally do exactly that. She also seemed to completely forget that she was planning to go to Stations of the Cross in church this afternoon, so I wasn’t going to be able to stay long, anyhow. Then I got the spiel about how I go to the city sooooo often! So many trips to the city! Why do I need to go to the city so often? I told her, I go two days a month so I can save money by stocking up. It basically comes down to, she doesn’t need to go to the city to do her shopping, therefore no one else needs to go to the city to do her shopping, and she hasn’t gone to the city in 10 years!
Which isn’t true, of course. I went with her at least once for a medical appointment, and I know my brother took her for other appointments as well, just in the 6 years since we’ve moved here.
I reminded her that when she was still driving, she would spontaneously go exploring all over the place, and no one gave her a hard time, so why is she giving me a hard time now? I think that finally seemed to make sense to her, because she stopped after that.
So we did her errands, and she’s now well stocked up, including her prescription refills – that, at least, I can go in and get for her without her having to get out of the truck! By the time everything was put away, I think she was tired enough to be glad for me to go! 😄 She did really well, though. Considering how sick she said she was feeling yesterday, it was good to see.
As for my city shopping, I hadn’t really had breakfast yet (does a bag of beef jerky eaten while driving count? 😄), even though it was already past noon by the time I was back on the highway, so my first stop was at the international grocery store, where I got myself some dim sum before doing my shopping there.
This store was a smaller shop, but it’s things we don’t find at any of our other usual places we go to. This is what $148.36, after taxes, looks like.
I even remembered to take a picture of the receipt this time.
The Beaver Buzz is for myself and my older daughter, and this store is one of the few places that still carries it. Our local grocery store used to carry it, but stopped a year or two ago. 😔
There’s a gallon jug of soy beverage we don’t see anywhere else, plus some soy milk and oat milk for my lactose intolerant daughters. There is a half chunk of caciocavallo cheese my husband requested; no one else seems to carry that cheese, and he loves it as a treat (in spite of the fact that he is also lactose intolerant!). It’s quite expensive, though. The little flavoured goat cheeses are another thing we don’t find anywhere else, plus, they were on sale. My husband also asked for mustard, which is odd, since he doesn’t usually eat mustard. We rarely buy it, so I made sure to get a good one, choosing a more expensive, locally make, herb and white wine mustard. The applewood smokes slab of bacon is also locally made. The coho salmon was on sale; that’s another one for my daughters, but they’ll have to share the shrimp with me. 😁 Another purchase for my husband is a Filipino brand of soy sauce he likes. I even found some sushi seasoning for the girls that was out of stock, the last time I was here. Bananas were the only fruit fruit that I picked up because, even with the sales, everything else was really expensive. The coconut milk was a last moment thing, when I saw the display while waiting in line. My daughters like to use coconut milk in their cooking. I don’t. I was feeling dehydrated, so I got a couple of water bottles for the truck. They were only a dollar each, if bought in pairs. I also remembered to grab some septic tank treatment stuff. We’ve been out for a while, but I keep forgetting to get more.
Almost $150, and it split between one insulated and one non-insulated hard sided grocery bag, with the gallon jug on the side, with room to spare.
*sigh*
My next stop was the Walmart, and whether or not I would go to Canadian Tire depended on whether they were in stock of the stove pellets we use for litter.
I did not have to go to Canadian Tire. The only thing on my list that I couldn’t find was vermiculite, and I didn’t feel like going to Cdn Tire to look for it, when there was nothing else on my list that I needed to get there.
This is what $206.79, after taxes, looks like.
Yup. More cat food! I got four different flavours of kibble, to change things up for the cats. They were all the same price, but two were 7.5kg and two were 7.21kg
I remembered to get a picture of the receipt for this, too, though I forgot to have the cat food on a separate receipt.
With four more bags of kibble, plus another case of wet cat food, we should have enough for the month. With the warmer temperatures, the outside cats aren’t eating as much, so we should be going through less of that now. With the inside cats, we’re trying to increase how much wet cat food they get while reducing the amount of dry cat food. Mostly because of Leyendecker; wet cat food is cheaper than vet bills!
I only got one bag of pellets because, with the cat food, I didn’t have room for two.
I had a request for nacho fixings, and we already have plenty of cheese, so there’s nacho chips plus a big jar of olives in there. My daughters were running low on coffee, so there’s that, plus a couple of flavoured creamers. I grabbed a couple of boxes of cereal that were on sale; with non-dairy milk, the girls actually enjoy eating cereal and not getting sick. There’s a big case of facial tissues under the cart. My last moment spontaneous purchase was the strawberries. The display was near the line for the cashiers, and they were over half off, so I got one clamshell for each of us.
Thinking about the kibble prices, while shopping with my mother, I was stunned to see 11.6kg bags selling for $55.99 each – and that was on special!! Yeah, it’s most definitely worth it to make the trip to the city for kibble.
So that’s it; our second stop up shopping trip, for a grand total of $355.15.
I look forward to not having to do this again for another month!!
Ah, who am I kidding. I’m sure something is going to happen, and I’ll have to make another trip. 😄
Between yesterday and today, we spent $1313.33 in total – and that doesn’t include the cost of gas or meals while I was out.
Ouch.
One positive thing I can say right now is that I’m glad my husband’s disability payments come in monthly. It’s a lot easier to budget that way, and a lot easier to do these monthly stock up trips. His payments – both his private insurance and CPP Disability – do actually go up a little bit every year, but the cost of everything is going up so much more! We are very fortunate, in that my husband’s private insurance is as good as it is. We are making ends meet, even with the new monthly payments on the truck. We have much to be thankful for.
I finally made it into the city today, for our first stock up shopping trip!
I am so, so tired.
But not because of the shopping. More on that, later!
Today was expected to be a much nicer day than yesterday, except for a quick system blowing through this morning – heavy in the “blowing” part! I was going to meet my SIL for a late lunch, so I didn’t start leaving until shortly before 11am – about an hour later than I originally planned. The wind was so wicked cold, it was painful just to unlock and open the gate! I’d brought along my down filled parka, just in case, and ended up wearing it over my light coat, and was still feeling that wind!
By the time I reached the city, though, things had cleared up quite a bit. I got to the restaurant I was going to meet my SIL at about half an hour early, which turned out to be a good thing. There was a message from my husband waiting for me. My mother had phoned, and wanted me to call her back. I had time then, so I called her from the waiting area in the restaurant.
When I asked her how she was, she launched into how she was feeling soooo terrible, and was wondering if she needed to go to the hospital…
I know my mother well enough by now to recognize the tone. She was wanting attention.
I told her I was calling from the city, and she started back tracking immediately, saying she’d been in bed all morning, and was feeling well enough to get up and make herself some food. After talking about her symptoms, I suggested she call the public health nurse and they could better say if she should call an ambulance or not (I knew they wouldn’t, based on what my mother was telling me). Then she told me that the exterminators were supposed to show up today. I only knew about that already, because my sister told me yesterday! My mother didn’t say a thing about it to me, even after telling me about the last time they came by, and how they checked but didn’t spray. Since she wasn’t feeling well, though, she hadn’t done anything to prepare for them.
Anyhow; she told me she would call the public health nurse after she had something to eat, and I asked her to call us at the farm number and let us know how things went, even if it was just to say something on the answering machine.
Then I got a table, and my SIL came soon after, and we had a fantastic visit. Of course, we talked about my mother’s situation. Unfortunately, she has done this to my brother several times, calling for him to take her to the hospital, only for her to actually turn out to be fine – except for the one time she got food poisoning. She still insisted my brother and his wife drive the 1 1/2 hours out to her place, then drive her another 20 minutes to the emergency room, where she was told she should have called 911! She doesn’t want 911. She wants us to take her to the emergency, and spend the hours with her in the waiting room while she complains about how terrible the staff is because it’s taking so long, or makes nasty comments about the other people in the waiting area, etc.
Since we’ve moved out here, at least I’m handier to be able to take her, but she still manages to get my brother to do it every now and then, too.
My SIL was totally understanding about what was really going on with my mother. They’ve been through this a lot more often then I have!
Anyhow.
Oh, I just have to share something. When we meet up, it’s been almost always at this Smitty’s location, and there’s a waitress there that even recognizes us by now. Which is impressive, considering we’ve been here once very month or three!
Since I have given up sugar and simple carbs for Lent, I ordered a meat lovers breakfast skillet, and said to skip the toast and skip the hashbrowns, because I wasn’t doing sugars or starches. She started asking what I might want to replace them with, and I told her I was basically doing carnivore, so she was… so, no fruit, then… I did say yes to mushrooms, though.
When the food arrived, she actually sat down next to my SIL to face me to tell me about what I got! The kitchen staff “felt sorry” for me, so they added extra bacon and ham and sausage to my dish! Then she realized the mushrooms were forgotten, which I said I was okay with, but when my SIL asked for a side of Hollandaise for hers, she brought me a bowl of mushrooms! She was just fantastic, and it was so sweet of the kitchen staff to add extra meat to my meal!
After we had our most excellent food and a fantastic visit, it was off to Costco to do my shopping.
First stop was to fill the tank. Costco regular gas was 123.9 cents/litre. When I drove through my mother’s town, regular gas was 134.9/L, while all the stations I saw in the city were 133.9. Well worth it to wait to fill the tank at Costco! A half tank cost me about $50
Here is my Costco shop.
When I going through the cash desk, I had all sorts of people asking if I needed help loading my vehicle, and one of the supervisors even came over to ask if I had an Executive memberhip.
Which I do, and I’m glad she asked, because I had a rebate check I’d forgotten about! I also needed to renew our membership. I’d already paid for the cat food, so it was applied to the rest of our purchases.
With cat food, I got eight of the 9kg Kirkland brand kibble; the name brand has gone up in price, but the Kirkland is still $26.99 so far. I also got 2 cases of canned cat food, at $38.99 each. The grand total for the cat food was $329.17, after taxes.
Then there was the rest of the stuff.
The “bottom of the basket” stuff included a huge Kirkland package of paper towels; with cleaning up after the cats, I finally broke down and got a Costco size package, instead of a smaller one at Walmart or something! I also got a big Kirkland brand package of toilet paper, clear “leaf” bags that we use for our recycling and burn barrel garbage, a big bucket of ghee, dish detergent, four 2 packs of flour tortillas, three rotisserie chickens, a double flat of eggs (60 eggs), a flat of Coke Zero, a sack of basmati rice, and a 9pack of mixed pasta.
Along with that, in the order they’re on my reciept, I got two big jars of mayo, a large container of popping corn, a double package of parchment paper, a large jug of olive oil, a 2 pk of lemon juice, a 6 pack of canned chicken, coconut oil, peanut butter, a package each of AA and AAA batteries, more of that amazing parmesan, black garlic and truffle seasoning powder, a panini pack of sliced meats (three types), two 2 pks of Asian Cashew salad mixes, 1L of whipping cream, a package of smoke ham slices, a wheel or brie, a 2 pk of goat cheese, a 4 pack of cream cheese, a block of Old Cheddar, a block of Mozzarella, a 4pk of bacon, a package of pork breakfast sausages, a package of 4 whole mackerel for my daughters (I’m not a fan of fish!) , two 2pks of rye bread, and a package of walnuts.
I also got 5 pounds of butter, but the cashier noticed they were unsalted, and he double checked if that was what I wanted. I hadn’t noticed, but I was going to just take the unsalted. He insisted that they could get me salted butter instead, so I agreed. So 5 pounds of salted butter was rung in, and a guy left to get them for me while I paid for the whole thing. Since I was waiting for the butter anyhow, I got the other guy to part my flat cart aside while I dashed to the bathroom before heading out.
The guy wasn’t back with the butter when I was done. In fact, it was quite a while before he returned – with 5 pounds of unsalted butter! It turned out the reason I didn’t grabbed the unsalted butter without realizing it was because there was no salted butter left in the fridge room! He’d gone looking for salted butter and did find a pallet of some, but it would require a forklift to get it. He was very apologetic and said they could get me the salted butter, but it would take a while.
I just laughed it off and said I’d take the unsalted butter!
Having worked at a grocery store before, I knew to ask if they needed to fix my receipt. The other guy had to double check with a supervisor, and yes, he did have to. He took me over to the supervisor’s cash desk, where he had to charge me for the unsalted butter, then refund me for the salted butter I’d already paid for.
I appreciate computer inventory systems, so I didn’t mind going through this at all.
As for the actual main purchase… The sub total came to $672.52. I then had the Executive Rebate, which took off $169.51, while my membership renewal cost $120. After taxes, my grand total was $629.01
That, together with the cat food, came to a total of $958.18
Ouch.
And I still need to go the rest of our stock up shopping, tomorrow!
Maybe.
I was much appreciating our longer days, as it was still light out when I got home, well past 5pm. After everything was unloaded, assembly line fashion, the girls put away the groceries while I fed the outside cats to get them away from the truck, so I could park it!
Once everything was settled, I called my mother to check up on her.
When I asked how she was feeling, she said much better – and what are you doing tomorrow?
…
I told her I’d planned to go to the city for my second shop, but if she needed groceries, I could help her with that, instead.
It turns out she’s apparently out of everything, and started listing all the things she was out of.
*sigh*
I keep asking my mother to get me to do her shopping before she runs out of stuff, but she says she likes to have things “fresh”, plus if she has food in the house, it’s “temptation” so she eats it.
…
Which is kinda what food is there for, but she has decided that eating is bad, because she’s fat.
*sigh*
Then she asked if I could come over early, because the church was doing Stations of the Cross tomorrow afternoon, which is just fine by me. That way, I can still go to the city and finish my own shopping. If she feels up to it, she wants to go out and go to the bank, as she skipped that last month entirely. That’s one thing I can’t do for her! If she’s not up to it, she’ll just give me her list and I’ll do her shopping for her.
That was the easy part of the conversation.
She was clearly feeling much better, because my goodness, she got herself wound up!
Long story short:
The exterminators showed up today to check/spray for bed bugs, but when he arrived and said she had to leave her apartment, she told him she had a cold (from how she described things, I think she’s got hay fever) and didn’t want to leave. So he never came in. She’d already tried to tell them not to come at all, because they steal things from her (she is convinced the exterminator stole a jar of change and her father’s old passports from deep among her papers – a year ago!). I tried to explain to her that they HAVE to come in. It’s a requirement.
That didn’t go over well.
I ended up having to cut that conversation off and bring it back to my coming over tomorrow. Then I mentioned I needed to do a few things, then have supper, as a wind down to the conversation, to which she told me to have a good evening, and don’t eat too much. Because I need to lose weight. Which she managed to repeat several times, and I called her out on it, before I finally ended the conversation because she was winding herself up again.
For someone who was ready to go to the hospital this morning, she sure bounced back to her usual self quickly… 🫤
*sigh*
That phone call with her was more exhausting than the entire shopping trip, and I find shopping incredibly draining.
Tomorrow could get very interesting. Hopefully, my mother will be on better behaviour, but there’s just no way of knowing, from one day to the next! Or even one minute to the next.
Ah, well. Such is life! Tomorrow will bring what it brings. Until then, I’m not going to worry about it!
I’d refilled it last night, which is the only reason there’s any water in it at all this morning. The outside heated water bowl stopped working, so this is their only liquid water right now. As it gets colder, the “steam” from evaporation freezes on the sides as the water level goes down.
All the kibble bowls outside were still full this morning. The cats stayed inside the sun room, rather than going into the cold to eat. Not even the racoons came out to eat their kibble! Checking the critter cam at one point, I actually saw Sprout in there. Sprout almost never comes near the house and prefers to eat at the bowls under the shrine. I didn’t even put kibble at the shrine bowls last night. I want the cats to come to the shelters by the house!
Our inner main entry door also had frost built up at the bottom and all along the hinge side, and the three decorative windows have a rather thick layer of ice on them. I know we were supposed to hit a wind chill of -35C/-31F last night, but I think that actual temperature wasn’t too far from that.
This morning, when I headed outside, it was -28C/-18F with a wind chill of -31C/-24F. I didn’t bother to switch out the trail cam cards, but I did clear the snow off the front steps, and the concrete sidewalk blocks that make up our little patio under the kitchen window, and the path to the chain link fence gate. Yes, I was wearing my down filled coat, but that small amount of shoveling was all I was up to doing this morning! The winds last night were high enough that the path to the compost heap and most of the path to the outhouse and back door of the garage were completely filled in. You can’t even tell where the paths were, it’s been blown so smooth!
As I write this, we’ve warmed up to -21C/-6F, with a wind chill of -28C/-18F. By all reports, the roads are clear and free of ice. I even saw the plow go past our driveway while I was outside, feeding the yard cats for the evening. Our expected high today is supposed to be -16C/3F, though not until well into the afternoon.
So there’s no real reason for me to NOT go into the city today and do our first stock up shop at Costco, except…
Tomorrow, we’re supposed to have a high of -9C/16F, and Friday, we’re supposed to actually reach 1C/34F! At which point, I’m thinking, why do all that driving around in the cold, when it’s going to be so warm, tomorrow? If the conditions were expected to stay cold for the next few days, or if we were actually running out of stuff, rather than just running low, I’d make the trip, but there’s really no need, if it can be delayed another day.
After talking about it with my daughters, my older daughter asked if a short trip were an option, which I don’t mind doing in the afternoon. I’m not too concerned about the truck not having a plug for the block heater, since it’s in the garage, but I’d still prefer not to drive at temperatures below -20C/-4F, if I can avoid it.
So she’s springing for a Dairy Queen trip for supper tonight. 😄
I had a much interrupted night, so I asked the girls to feed the outside cats. I’m supposed to be trying to get sleep right now, but the interruptions continue!
While a daughter was outside, feeding cats, I checked the weather. Good grief!
Twenty below zero, with a windchill of -27C!!!
And my daughter hadn’t bothered to put on a coat!
She informed me that she was able to pet the super fluffy little tabby.
Today, our high is supposed to be -10C. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to reach 5C!
The critters outside must be so confused.
Speaking of critters, the raccoons are showing up in the sun room at night, more often. I chased at least 4 out last night!
Anyhow.
I don’t think I’ll be getting that sleep I need. The interruptions just aren’t slowing down! I’m going to be a useless wreck, today. 🙁
Okay, so I last wrote about the issues I was having with my Windows Explorer. It just kept crashing on me, constantly.
I downloaded and tested two different file manager apps. They both worked perfectly. I had no problem navigating through my system. Even going into the external hard drive was without issue.
The new one. The old one is not even detected right now. I think my old computer corrupted something on it.
I took a break from beating my head against my keyboard, slithered my way in between the cats on my bed and took a nap.
I woke to find a useful comment from Silk (thank you!) suggesting I go to the Windows 11 website. One of those obvious things I probably should have already tried, but I really haven’t had this computer for long.
It turns out that “Windows 11 explorer crashing” is a common enough search term, it was the first term suggested when I started typing it into DuckDuckGo. One of the top results was this link here.
There were a few step by step fixes on the page, and I tried the first one.
Could it really be that easy???
Basically, it was Control Panel>File Explorer Options, select the General tab, open the Open File Explorer drop down menu, and select “this PC”. That’s it.
The screen cap in the instructions showed only “quick access” and “this PC” as options, but mine had a third. When doing the initial set up, after reinstalling Windows, it apparently named my PC with my initials, and that’s what it was set to.
After setting it to “this PC”, I opened explorer and tested it out.
It’s working perfectly.
Not only was I able to navigate through my PC and the external hard drive with zero issues, I found the February sub folder I’d started to upload pictures from my camera into. I’d been able to dump the photos into the folder, but was never able to organize them the way I usually do. I was able to create a series of sub folders and sort all the photos in there, without any issues at all.
The Re-Farmer 