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Tracking?

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Today should be the last day of our cold snap, locally. These are the current conditions.

It has warmed up slightly. My morning rounds were still on the short side, but I did get a few extras done. There was barely a breeze but, my goodness, it doesn’t take much to really drive it down! At the time I was outside, the windchill was at -35C.

The sunroom has been consistently at least 10 degrees warmer than outside. Often more like 15 degrees warmer. The yard cats are loving it!

It looks like I won’t be able to pick up my computer until I go in for our Costco shopping at the end of the month, so I’m still using my phone as my computer. Last night, while going through some settings, I found I had a blocker for app tracking. So I turned it on. I can now quickly check and see how many trackers are being blocked, and where the trackers were coming from.

Some make sense. My weather app, for example. You would expect it to be tracking things since I use it so much, on top of it regularly refreshing itself. But only one of my two weather apps has Bern trying to send tracking information.

Other things make no sense at all. Like this one.

I don’t have a Twitter/X account and never have. I don’t have the app on my phone. I have, however, gone to blog posts that have tweets embedding in them, and have followed links to individual posts on X.

That’s not where it’s coming from, though.

It’s coming through the Jetpack app, which is what I’ve been using to blog since my computer broke down. According to the blocker, three companies are trying to track my information through the Jetpack app. Google, Twitter (it hasn’t been upgraded to X yet) and something called Functional Software.

Interestingly, since turning it on, there have been almost 700 tracking attempts blocked, and they are all from only 6 apps. Google used 4 of them.

Oh… Make that over 700 attempts, already…

Interesting.

The Re-Farmer

It’s a bit nippy out there

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We have a clear, sunny sky that looks so lovely right now!

It’s a lie.

It’s warmed up a degree from before I started my rounds this morning.

Short rounds, today!

I went to dump the cat litter sawdust buckets this morning, which had been waiting overnight in the old kitchen. Half the contents were frozen to the sides.

The sunroom, however, never dipped below -15C on the wall thermometer. I should use the temperature gun one of these nights, and see what it’s like under the platform, where the cats pile up.

This is the entryway door right now. All three windows are like this. This would happen every winter for as long as I can remember, since this part of the house was added on. There is frost built up on the bottom, too. We had tried attaching a sheet of insulation to the outside of the door in the past, but the air pressure change between the doors when it was opened would tear it off.

Replacing these doors with modern, insulated exterior doors is on the list, along with the matching door in the dining room.

Right about when we win the lottery. *sigh*

Our temperatures are not much to complain about. Certainly not like in parts of Alberta, which I’ve read was the coldest place in the world, yesterday. Temperatures dropped below -40C in places, with windchills below -50C.

At those temperatures, propane is a solid, so those with propane heat were in trouble. EV vehicles, of course, died quickly and took forever to charge. People waiting for their vehicles to charge had to bundle up, rather than use their heaters, or it would take even longer. The province’s wind and solar weren’t producing power, and the government put out a grid warning, asking people to avoid using electricity as much as possible, including the use of space heaters. Saskatchewan started providing electricity to Alberta, to help out.

At these temperatures, the only things that work for home heating is electricity sourced from coal, nuclear or hydro, natural gas, or burning wood. All but hydro is actively discouraged – systemically punished, even – and Alberta doesn’t have the water systems needed to produce hydro electricity.

It’s a potentially deadly situation.

So… yeah. It’s a bit nippy out, but we have nothing to complain about!

The Re-Farmer

We’ll see

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I am so thankful we are not getting the severe cold that is hitting other parts of the country. As I write this, we are at “only” -25C, though the windchill is at -38C.

The sunroom is at about -5C, and overflowing with cats!

Today is supposed to be the coldest day, and the cold wave is expected to break on Monday.

After that, things are supposed to be much more pleasant!

What raises my eyebrows is the long-range forecast.

That’s right! Towards the end of the month, we are expected to reach -4C! That’s going to feel like spring!

Of course, it’s supposed to dip down again, but not by a whole lot.

We shall see how accurate that turns out to be. Especially around when we have to start making out trips to the city!

The Re-Farmer

Not today

/ Re-Farmer / 8 Comments

I had a much interrupted and sleepless night, so my daughter is sweet enough to head put into this for me.

Funny enough 😉, the yard cats aren’t really eating much of the food outside, so it’s mostly the food bowls in the sunroom that need topping up.

The sunroom still manages to stay Warner than -10C, even overnight. The heat lamp helps, of course, but so does the sheer amount of feline body heat!

We don’t have much to complain about, though. These temperatures are more typical for our winters. The areas hit by this year’s polar vortex were reaching temperatures from -40C to -50C last night. Plus, a lot more snow than what we got.

Amazingly, the long range forecast not only has us warming up noticeably after this cold wave, but we were even supposed to get highs bately below freezing!

Yeah, we’ll see about that.

As for me, I need to get some sort of sleep. The first half of my night, I was kept awake by the pain in my left hip. It’s actually worse when I lie on my right side, which is a switch. I finally gave in and took some ibuprofen. I’m out of my arthritis acetaminophen, but it didn’t actually help my arthritis much. Back to the more general version when I restock.

The other interruption was the cats. Nor that they were being rambunctious or anything. They were sleeping pretty soundly. I did have the usual trying to sleep right on me, or jammed up against me, etc. With my various aches and pains, though, I need to shift positions often.

It’s remarkably hard to roll over with the weight of so many cats on top of my blanket. Two of them weigh more than 20 pounds each, and most of them do not move, even as I’m shoving my legs right under them and rolling them around.

Which adds the unexpected problem of pajama pants. With the extra weight on top of the blankets, the pant legs end up twisting around until they are bunched up under my knees. I kept having to get out of bed to stand up and untwist my pajama pants.

What a strange problem to have!

I did get some sleep, at least. Especially when my husband started feeding the cats, and I suddenly had a bed again. Once I was free of cats and could fund a comfortable position, I fell asleep so fast and so hard, I never even heard when my husband came in to do the few food bowls in my room.

So I’m feeling pretty wasted right now.

From the looks of my bed, though, I’m not sure it’s worth trying.

Sleeeeeep. I need sleep!!

The Re-Farmer

It’s done!

/ Re-Farmer / 8 Comments

We ended up getting two trucks come over, and two guys checking the lines.

This time, the problem was definitely inside.

They checked the hub in the basement, which was working, but they noted the condition of the wires.

The problem turned out to be the jack in my room. Badly corroded.

Likely from the kittens going behind the bins and making a mess. However, they debated replacing the entire line, because the whole thing is pretty old. It’s not really accessible from the basement at that end anymore, though, so they left it.

The jack was replaced, and the line is working now.

As we were chatting, we, of course, started talking cats. I mentioned they were mostly rescues, and how hard its been to adopt them out.

One of the guys said he and his girlfriend were talking about getting a cat. I ended up giving him my contact info and telling him to feel free to pass it on, if he knew others who were looking.

The other guy was saying he’d love to have a cat, but had to adopt his Bengal (!!!) out when he moved. He’s looking to move to a new apartment that allows pets, and is eager to have a cat again. While he was outside, Syndol had came over and tried to climb him! He was so stoked about that.

So not only do we have a working phone again, but potential leads on cat adoptions.

After confirming the line at both jacks, one guy made sure all the phones were hooked up, including the corded phones. “Hang on to those!” he advised me. The rotary dial phone, in particular, is a great backup phone. We certainly were glad to have it!

I’m so glad they were able to come over so soon. It’s a slow time of year, and they had basically been sitting in their vans, waiting for a call.

Now we just have to keep the main phone base in the cat free zone.

The Re-Farmer

Good news, goods news, not so good news, and good news

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The first good news.

My husband was able to have his phone appointment with the doctor. The line sucked while he was on it, but he got it done! The doctor will now consult with the pharmacist to figure out what med change is workable, with what is available. The pharmacy simply can’t reliably get one form of his pain meds. They can still get the other form, though, so they may simply adjust that prescription. These are an opioid, so going off them completely is not preferred. He’s done that before, and it has terrible effects on his intestinal tract.

The second good news.

We have some contact cleaner and I fussed with the cordless phone and base charger for a while. It’s now plugged in and the handset is charging. Everything seems to be working fine.

The not so good news.

As soon as my husband finished his call with the doctor, the phone died again. Basically, it’s acting as if he never hung up. The line is open and crackling.

The good news.

I was able to use my cell phone and wifi calling to make another service call. Not only did the call work, but there was a tech available for this afternoon! He or she will be here some time before 4pm.

So I went to open the gate and, since I was out anyhow, shoveled some more paths. Especially the path to the box on the side of the house. They will have to check that one, first, but the problem may be somewhere else entirely.

It’s not even 1pm yet, as I write this. It feels like it should be 3 or later, already!

I guess I’m not making it to my mother’s. I can’t even call her, since the tech is going to call me on my cell phone, so I need to keep the line clear. Maybe I can try using my husband’s phone. Hopefully, my sister will be able to help her out. We shall see.

I’ll be happy once all this repair stuff is over with!

The Re-Farmer

Could be worse! Plus, phone troubles, again

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I checked the weather before heading outside this morning.

We are well sheltered from the wind, for the most part, but it doesn’t take much for that “RealFeel” to drop.

We gave up on keeping a thermometer in the cat house, as they kept knocking it down, but I’ve left it outside, in the top of the shelf shelter, so it’s completely sheltered from wind and sun. I remembered to check it this morning.

-21C vs -24C isn’t much difference on a thermometer, but there’s a difference when you’re in it!

The sunroom thermometer was just below zero, still. I noticed there was no food at all left in the sun room, and the heated water bowl was low, even though it was refilled last night, but there was still plenty of food outside. The big heated water bowl was quite full, too. I could see cats in the window of the cat house. Clearly, they are staying indoors as much as possible! I do still see cats coming out from under the storage house. The remains of the basement under there would provide decent shelter, too.

It could be a lot worse, though. We are expecting a high of -17C today. The roads have been plowed, and I hope to get to my mother’s to do some grocery shopping for her. The city we used to live in, however, is expected to hit temperatures of -41C! That’s before windchill, too! That’s just deadly cold.

I tried to go to bed early last night, but of course, things messed that up.

One of those things was the phone.

With the line repaired, I returned the phone base to my bedroom/office. I set it up in a different spot on my craft table, where it would be more visible while I was in bed.

Which is why I saw the blinking red light.

Yup. The “hold” light was blinking again.

I picked up to check the line, and got just a crackling noise.

The bottom of the handset was also wet.

I grabbed some paper towel and found that where the handset rests in the base and charges had a puddle.

There was even a small puddle under the phone, which I could not see until I moved the base.

Now, my first thought is, a cat peed on it. But I’m not sure how. For starters, there was no visible sign of it. How can a cat pee into the phone base, without peeing on the handset? There was also no smell, and the puddle underneath looked like water. Plus, there was no space for a cat to position themselves in such a way as to pee on the phone without knocking things all over.

The alternative is that somehow, my bedside water bottles spilled, but those were still closed and upright.

So it had to be a cat, yet couldn’t have been a cat. !!

I took the whole thing out, cleaned it up as best I could, then set it aside to dry. Then I used a corded phone to test the line using the jack in the living room.

Still crackling.

So a job for today would be to call the phone company again. Before starting this post, I was going to try doing that from my cell phone. My husband went through it, trying to figure out why the wifi calling wasn’t working on my phone. He ended up doing a reset somewhere, and that seems to have done the trick.

Before calling, though, I checked the phone.

We have a dial tone again.

I want to test the other phone and see if it’s still working, but my guess is, it will need replacing.

We need to have a working phone, though. My husband has a phone appointment with his doctor today. He primary pain meds are getting hard to get, so his doctor wants to try him on something else.

Something that actually works better would be nice. Still, even that could be worse. At least it takes the edge off his pain enough to function, somewhat.

We shall see how things go.

The Re-Farmer

First real tests

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Well, we had a couple of first real tests of the winter today.

With how mild the winter has been so far, we didn’t really get a sense of how much difference the new roof has made.

The answer now is…

A lot.

The upstairs is not well insulated. It never has been. My mother never quite understood when I told her about how bad it is for the girls up there. She no longer remembers, and she never spent the night up there. My sister certainly remembers!

Even after putting sheets of insulation against the walls by their beds, and using space heaters, winters are bitterly cold up there. There is just one heat vent, going into the bedroom, but the air has lost all its heat before getting to the second floor. The room with the heat vent is colder than the one the stairs come up into! Sitting or lying near a wall was painfully cold, and they could see their breath. Not this year, though!

One thing they did was hang a blanket in the doorway between the rooms. That stopped the breeze that would hit my younger daughter’s back while she was sitting at her computer desk, and makes it easier for the space heater to warm the bedroom. The walls themselves, half of which are angled directly under the roof, no longer have waves of bone shattering cold coming off of them.

As for the crawl tunnel my brother stuffed with insulation, when we started to have water dripping from the bathroom ceiling…

The corner of the roof around the stack vent would melt away from all the heat loss above the bathroom. So far, there is no sign of that heat loss, and no water dripping from the bathroom ceiling.

The next test was my quick jaunt to the post office.

The roads were not plowed.

The short stretch from our driveway to the stop sign wasn’t too bad. The wind blew it completely flat, with most of the snow being blown down the road, rather than accumulating.

The main road, however, had the wind blowing across it, with a lot more accumulated snow. Especially for that first mile from our place, with trees on both sides. The second mile was clearer, as the wind could blow the snow into the fields. There were tracks I could follow down the middle of the road, at least. On the way back, as I was reaching the crossroad, there was an oncoming car about a quarter mile away. I simply pulled over at the intersection and waited for them to pass by, rather than have us both having to pull into the snow on either side to pass each other. I could see the other driver appreciated not having to break new tracks in deep snow! Snow has this terrible way of grabbing onto tires and drawing them downhill, towards the ditches – and the last thing anyone needs is to end up in these steep, narrow ditches! Four wheel drive or not, the likelihood of getting out without a tow is low!

If I had been driving the van, I would have turned around and gone home as soon as I reached the stop sign by our place and saw the condition of the main road. The truck’s extra height cleared the snow completely. It handled drive quite well, though I certainly would not have wanted to do any highway driving.

I am so glad we have this truck now!

I still would rather stay home, though!

The Re-Farmer

Not the worst!

/ Re-Farmer / 8 Comments

The snow continued through the night, so there was shoveling to do, when I did my morning rounds.

I wish I could figure out a practical way to keep the snow out of the kibble house!

With a north wind, you’d think the house itself would do the job, but it just whips around the old kitchen and sunroom, and right into the cat shelter area.

Thankfully, the sunroom and cat house are sheltered and warm. The thermometer in the sunroom was reading about -5C when I was done shoveling, with the doors left wide open. When I checked through the bathroom window during the night, it was just below freezing.

Right now, it’s -19C, with a wind chill of -27C or -30C, depending on which app I look at. Thankfully, we don’t get the brunt of North winds in most of the yard. Which is good, because my daughter is using little Spewie to clear the driveway right now. Best to get it done, while the snow is still light and fluffy. I can see her on the garage cam, but I can’t tell if the road has been plowed. It seems we have another package to pick up at the post office.

As I expected, we got the edges of the system, not the full brunt of it. Things were worse, further south. I don’t know how common this is elsewhere, but, like many prairie cities, there is a ring road around the city, so travelers can pass around, rather than through, the city itself. Last night, the entire ring road was shut down due to the weather.

From the local reports I’m hearing so far, though, the highways in our area are pretty good. The winds blew the highways clear, rather than the snow building up.

After this, we are expecting a mix of more average cold and above average mildness, if the long range forecasts ate anything to trust.

Oh! My daughter just came in. Time to let her know there is hot soup and hot tea waiting for her!

The Re-Farmer

We have a land line again!

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The phone tech arrived about half an hour before I needed to head out, which was perfect.

I thought the phone company had our section number, like the electric company. We’ve had a tech come out before, a few years back, and there were no issues finding us. This poor guy tried to use GPS! The numerical designation for the road we are on, ends at a cross road some miles from us, then our section restarts maybe a quarter mile off. I’ve never actually driven down that section of road. When I grew up here, it never extended that far, but ended at a farmer’s field, a mile away. The “new” road was built during our decades living in other provinces.

The guy had driven down about 4 miles of gravel road that isn’t very high on the maintenance priority list. He said he had to drive at a crawl! I made sure to tell him where the main gravel road to get back to the highway was.

Once I opened the gate for him, I showed him where the box was on the house, and he asked where the main box was. That would be the one on the fence line by our sign, but there is another one near our secondary gate that I told him about.

He was almost completely done before I headed out!

The first thing he did was test the box at the house. Well. Almost. His first attempt didn’t work, because his test phone was frozen. !! He had to get another one and try again.

What he found was that the voltage was too high. It was definitely an external problem and one that is apparently common. He then went to work on the box at the fence.

As I was about to leave, I couldn’t see him, or his van, anywhere so we checked the phone. We had a dial tone! As I was leaving, though, I saw him parked on the sude of the road, near the box at the fence line. His van had been hidden by trees.

I pulled up next to him and we spoke for a while. He was in the process of calling the phone company. While he got our phone working, there were wires that needed to be replaced, so he was calling that in. He wanted to get that done so it wouldn’t happen again after he left.

I found out from my daughter that he was still there, at least an hour later!

It was done before I got home, though.

I’m glad I made the trip to town today. Along with a few groceries and refilling two of our big water jugs, I did find stove pellets at one of the local hardware stores. It feels strange, buying “premium” stove pellets when it will be used as cat litter! It was a bit more expensive, but not as expensive as driving to the nearest city for it!

We had some blowing snow, but the roads were still good. Looking at the weather radar, the system seems to be stalled at the border between provinces, and dropping a lot of snow! We may end up getting just the edges of it, as it passes by.

We could use the snow, but I’m not going to complain about still having milder temperatures. Assuming the forecasts are at least somewhat accurate!

Now that the phone is working again, it’s time to move the base back to my bedroom/office.

The Re-Farmer