The cats just love this busted up bin with the garden netting in it.
When we first put the netting in it, we had a hard time stuffing it in enough to close the lid. The cats kept knocking it off the shelf, with both lid and bin, then used the netting as a bed. Now the netting is packed down so much, you’d never know it once filled the bin!
Also, I counted 37 cats outside this morning. Three times.
Which means that not only did the “missing” cats come back, but we seem to have gained another one. !!!
After the morning rounds were done, I was off to the city to do our second stock up shopping trip. This trip had three stops, all in the same general area, which is part of why we don’t do it at the same time as our Costco stock up trip. Another reason is because the Costco is in a different part of the city, and I just don’t want to drive around that much. I dislike shopping, and find it very draining, and one Costco trip on its own is as draining as the three stops I made today. Four, if you count getting gas.
My first stop was at Canadian Tire to get more hardwood pellets for the litters. That was just under $16, after taxes. We now have enough pellets to last us at least a couple of months.
My next stop was the international grocery store, where I finally had breakfast, at lunch time. I quite enjoy their dim sum. That, plus a drink, cost pennies over $20.
I completely forgot to get a picture of what I got there. I also can’t find the receipt; I think it’s still in the truck. 😄
It was a small trip. I hoped to get more fresh produce, but ended up just getting some bananas that will need to be eaten quickly, and mandarins. I did get an applewood maple smoked slab of bacon, which is one of the things we go to this store for. They also had a good sale on pork loin, but that was all I got for meat. Their sugar shelves in the baking aisle were empty, as they carry the Rogers brand of granulated sugar. There was cane sugar available in the international section, but it’s not granulated, and I’m not sure how it will do for baking. As I was still planning to hit the Walmart, I didn’t get any sugar here. I found some drinks, including the Beaver Buzz energy drinks we can no longer get locally – and they only had one flavour in stock. I got two boxes of Earl Grey Bergamot tea that was on sale, plus a spray bottle of cleaning vinegar of a type my daughters prefer. I even found a large block of Old Cheddar cheese for almost $25.
I can’t remember what else I got there right now, other than grabbing one of their food bank bags for the hamper. One bag includes pasta and pasta sauce, canned fruit, and a few other shelf stable items to make a complete meal for at least 2 people, with extras. The bag was only $9, which brought my total bill up to $108 and change.
My next stop was Walmart, and I did remember to put that receipt into my pocket.
I made a donation to the Children’s Hospital as well, so minus that, the final bill after taxes was $181.21
Yeah. This cost almost $200.
The food items: It’s cheap turkey season, so I got a medium turkey for $24 The creamers were on sale at 2 for $9 The crackers were on sale at 3 for $7 Large jar of olives: $8.97 pecan halves: $7.00 walnut pieces: $5.00 Dark sugar: $1.97 They were, of course, out of the Rogers brand of sugar. With that shortage, they were also sold out of the Redpath white granulated sugar, but there was still some Redpath brown sugar left. We still have enough granulated sugar at home to last us, as long as we don’t do any serious baking, but we were almost out of brown sugar. house brand popcorn, 2 bags at $2.47 each. I normally buy popcorn at Costco, but I never found it. Also, the popcorn we grew won’t pop, and I don’t know what we’ve done wrong! vegetable bouillon cubes, 4 packs at $1.47 each sour cream: $5.98 coffee: $9.97
The non-food items: I got toilet paper for the pantry, as we currently don’t have extra. That was on sale for $13,97 Paper towel: $16.97 Facial tissues: $8.97 All purpose cleaner: $9.97 One “extra” item I got was a new cutting board, to replace one of our plastic ones that needs to be tossed. Because of how our counter is, I got one with a grippy bottom. It cost $11.47 Another “extra” item I got was examination gloves. We’ve finally worked our way through the boxes we brought with us in the move, plus the ones that were here that the homecare aids used before my dad went into the nursing home. My daughters like to use them when doing deep cleaning. Especially in the basement. One box of 100 gloves: $15.97
Then, for the road, I got an energy drink for $3.27, plus a water bottle for $1.47
Before heading for home, I remembered to fill the tank again. On the way out, I normally stop in the town my mother lives in for gas, but I skipped it this time. The price for regular was 150.9¢/L When I got to the city, I saw 143.9¢/L all over the place. Domo, however, has 5¢ off per L on Mondays and Thursdays. Today is Thursday, so I filled up at 138.9¢/L About a quarter tank still cost me $43.45.
With all three stops together, including donations, I spent almost $300 today. I had intended to check out the Fresh Co that’s along the same strip, but just didn’t have the spoons for it. I was okay for most of it, but after driving for over an hour, my feet, knees and hips stiffen up, so I’m limping for the first while until my joints are “greased”. By the end of it, it’s my lower back and hips that’s starting to go. Then it’s another hour + drive, leaving me with stiffened joints again when it’s time to unload the truck. At least then, I’ve got the girls to help me!
That’s basically it for our stock up shopping. We will do one more city shopping trip for my daughters, probably next week. They have their own list and budget. That can be a time for me to check out the Fresh Co, finally. Other than that, anything else we need, mostly fresh produce, will be purchased locally.
With December having so many stat holidays around weekends at the end of the month, my husband’s disability payments are always on different dates. Normally, he gets his main payment on the last business day of the month, and the CPP Disability on the third last business day of the month. In December, the CPP Disability comes in several days before Christmas, so that will likely be when I will do our first January stock up shopping trip, as well as anything we want to get special for Christmas dinner. The last few years, we relied on our stocking up supplies for January, as we often didn’t manage to get to the city at all until February or even March, either because of the weather and being snowed in, or both vehicles being too frozen. This year, between the mild winter we’re expecting and having the truck instead of the van, we should actually be able to do another stock up trip in January. I sure as heck don’t plan to go to the city to shop between Christmas and New Year’s, if I can avoid it!!
I would like to crawl into my cave and hibernate, now.
I’m pretty sure we exceeded our predicted high for the day, though we were in the city at the time, which is typically a couple of degrees warmer, just from the Urban Heat Island effect.
When I fed the outside cats this morning, I was able to do a head count and got 33, several times. Then I saw two more come running, while I was setting up for our departure. When we got back, we pulled up to the house to make it easier for my husband. I fed the outside cats early so that I could safely get the truck out of the yard and into the garage. I did another head count, and got 37! Repeatedly!
I have no idea where these extra cats are coming from, or which ones they are!
Anyhow…
My older daughter was not feeling well, so she stayed home. Having someone at home was probably for the best, anyhow, with our vandal’s freak out over the scrap cars being hauled away. I got a call from my brother this morning, to check on us – no, my mother did not call to apologize, nor did I get a response from my email to my sister. He, however, checked his home answering machine and found a couple of messages from our vandal, with his usual ranting and raving. I’ll be getting copies of those, when he gets the chance to send them to me, for our records.
The drive into the city went well. Highway conditions were great. Road conditions in the city were not as good, but not because of the weather. I was told that apparently the city has fixed all the streets over the past while, but you sure can’t tell from how badly the residential roads in particular are falling apart. My husband, unfortunately, feels every crack and pothole. I try to drive gently, but there’s only so much you can avoid!
The visit itself was really excellent. My BIL, his wife and adult children have been to our place, but this was the first time in about 5 years since we’ve seen my FIL, and the first time we’ve seen my SIL since she moved back out here a couple of years ago. My FIL is having a lot more mobility issues, which but he’s looking great.
There was only one unfortunate thing that happened, and it was me. *sigh*
Their dining room is a step lower. A step my FIL has difficulty with, so they have a sort of platform that’s half a step high, making it easier for him to get down into the dining room.
I was going to help clear the table, grabbed a dish of mashed potatoes and the gravy, turned to take it to the kitchen and…
Caught my toe on the edge of the platform.
I went flying.
Mashed potatoes went flying.
Gravy went flying.
I landed hard on my left knee.
In the mashed potatoes.
Of course, everyone was concerned that I wasn’t hurt. I was more upset over the waste of food and making such a mess!
Oddly, while there is some minor swelling and I’ll likely get a bruise, it doesn’t hurt much at all. It seems I’ve landed on that knee so many times over the years – I actually don’t fall often, but when I do, it’s always been onto my left knee! – it seems to have just stopped hurting. Mind you, with the OA and bone spurs, I might just have such a high pain tolerance by now, something like this just doesn’t phase me anymore.
So that was unfortunate. 😕
That was the only down side of the visit.
My husband, meanwhile, held out as long as he could, but could only push himself so far. He hides it well, though. My daughter and I could see the signs that he was struggling to remain upright, so we called it before dessert. Which also meant we got home while it was still light out, which is always a good thing.
As soon as we got home, my husband hooked himself up to his TENS, took his evening meds and his “take as needed” painkillers, and went to right to bed. He’s going to pay for this trip for a while, but to see his father again was, for him, worth it.
Another reason to be so glad we got this truck. He could not have managed this trip at all, even if we still had the van. The seats on this truck are so much better for his back, he can handle the drive much better.
With my daughter coming along, we had to put one of the back seats down, so the walker had to go into the back of the truck. We were able to secure it so it wouldn’t slight around. Before we left, I grabbed a crate and started returning some of the stuff we used to keep regularly in the van. Booster cables. Tire iron. Stuff like that. We’ll need to look for some sort of storage box to install on the back for this stuff. The typical truck box I see that is mounted behind the cab is too tall; we’d have to remove the cover, and we like the cover! There are storage boxes that fit over the wheel wells that would be more ideal, and easier for short people like me to access! 😁 We were also talking about getting things like straps and tie downs and other things that we would find useful with a truck that weren’t needed with a van. Little by little, we’ll get the tools and supplies we will need!
Another thing we talked about was our next fix. My brother has told me to keep the money from the sale of the cars, so that’s going to go back into the property. For the amount we have, there are a few things we could do, but there’s what feels “urgent” vs what needs to be prioritized first.
Among the things we need to do is get the well pump replaced. My brother has already bought a pump and all the fittings he could think of that would be needed to install it. The problem is, shortly after we moved here, we noticed issues that might mean the foot valve is starting to be a problem. One plumber came out and actually went into the area above our well – the concrete well cap is about 12 feet down – to look at the pipes to pump in the basement. This well was dug in the mid 70’s. Since then, the standard size for well pipes has changed. If there were any issues, we couldn’t simply replace the pipes. We’d have to find and special order that size, or have a new well dug. At that point, we’re looking at many thousands of dollars.
So no plumber dares replace the pump. The risk is low, but if that foot valve goes, we have no water until we can afford to get that fixed.
Water is our one weak spot. If we lose power for an extended period, we are okay with everything else. We can cook, stay warm, use the outhouse… the only thing we have no back up for is water.
But we do have that original well with the hand pump.
So that will be our priority fix.
I just talked to my brother about it, and he’s quite on board with the idea.
Over the next while, I will look for a company that can service a hand pump. I’ve been able to pump water, but it took a long time for it to start flowing, and if I slowed down pumping, the water would stop. So it does seem to just be a matter of replacing the leathers and getting a proper seal again. I’ve watched videos on how to do this but none of them involve a pump like what we have. I’ve looked up suppliers for the leather gaskets, and they’re pretty cheap, but I have no idea what size or type we need. Once we get someone to do it, we will probably be able to do it ourselves after that, though new leathers should last for years.
Once that is done and we have back up water, we can look at getting that new well pump installed. It should be just fine but, if things go wrong and we lose water, we will have that back up. We might end up hauling water for an awfully long time, but that’s preferable to not having any water at all!
It will probably be a while before I find someone, but that will be what the funds will be set aside for.
*sigh*
I suppose I should phone my mother and see how things are with her. She and I talked about the old well, and she was quite thrilled when I said I wanted to get it going again. So she should be happy to hear that this is what we’ve decided to do next, but she also wanted me to get rid of those old cars, only to become furious when I actually did get rid of a couple, thanks to our vandal.
*sigh*
We’ll see how that goes. Hopefully, she’ll have calmed down, and the day will end as well as it began.
Six years ago today, the four of us were finally altogether, here at the farm. After over 24 hours on the road, and a near-deer experience (I’d forgotten about that!) my older daughter and I arrived in the wee hours of the morning.
After our first sleep, all under the same roof, it quickly became clear that the state of things here at the farm were quite a bit worse than I expected – and I already knew things were not anywhere near “perfect”, like my mother claimed it was!
And that was before we found out how bad things would get with the movers!
He came out here to take a look at the vent and plumbing stack to see if he could find why we have had a leak in the bathroom ceiling. When my SIL told me he’d stopped at the hardware store first, I couldn’t think why, but then thought… oh, no! He’s buying us a new fluorescent light fixture for the kitchen! That fixture had a “temporary light” label on it when we moved here. (It didn’t even have the cover anymore; that fell off while the roofers were here, and dropping heavy packages of shingles on the roof.) I’d asked my brother about it when we first moved in, and he told me about not being able to find the right fixture for there, anywhere. He was very frustrated about it, too. I got the impression that it had something to do with the electrical, which is pretty janky in this house, so when the light blew two bulbs, which had been replaced not that long ago, for fluorescent bulbs, it was our first warning something was going wrong. Then, when we replaced the bulbs from the extras in the basement, they started going strange things. They were darker at the ends, and we started to see waves of gases flowing inside… Not good! So we stopped using it. I told my brother about it and asked him again, why it had not been replaced. We were not going to take any chances with replacing it until I knew for sure we actually could!
It turned out, the local hardware stores simply didn’t have the right size in stock. 😄😄 If I’d known that, we would have probably replaced it, long ago!
So we were going to just replace the fixture when we had the funds for it. Getting the truck, then getting cats fixed, were a priority. The only inconvenience, really, was how dark it was to do dishes. They sent me some photos of lights at a hardware store they were visiting one time, and asked me what my plan was. At that time, I told them we had no plans, yet. We just needed to know if there was an electrical issue.
What I did NOT want them to do was spend several hundred dollars on a replacement fixture.
So when I heard he was at the hardware store, that’s what I thought he might be doing.
When he arrived, though, and opened up the back, what I saw was a package of pink fiberglass insulation and some rolls of heavy duty plastic. Still more than I wanted him to spend, but at least that made sense!
He then climbed up to check the stacks and they looked okay, overall. There was no obvious area a leak could have been happening. I’d sent him a photo from the ground before I roof raked as best I could around there, and you could see an island of clear roof in that corner. Clearly, we were losing a lot of heat in that area, which might also have been a contributing factor.
It was VERY slippery up there, though, so he had to be so, so careful as he came down to get his bucket of tar. He went back and forth a few times, which was quite nerve wracking! However, he basically slathered that vent, not just around the new shingles, but up the sides as well. Then he put more around the opening for the plumbing stack, next to the vent. If there was water coming in through there, it sure as heck wasn’t going to be getting through anymore! He had to work fast, too, because it was cold, and he had to get it done while the tar was still warm and pliable. He was glad to have been able to get here and get it done while it was still light, too. It gets dark awfully fast, this time of year!
As he was putting away his ladder and stuff, we were chatting and I mentioned how our roof rake, when full extended, can reach all the way to the peak of the roof over the main entry. Since we were looking at it anyway, I mentioned the eavestrough there is something we needed to repair or replace in the spring.
My bad.
The eavestrough was coming loose in one spot, causing a bend at a join, so water would drip through a crack before reaching the downspout.
Next thing I knew, he was setting his ladder up in the pile of snow I raked off the roof and climbed up to take a look. Seeing what he was doing, I got hammer handy – apparently, not a “real” hammer, but it’s what we’ve got! – and he was able to secure it in one spot, but in another, the nail is completely missing. Still, for now at least, there is no longer a sagging area. We can deal with the rest in the spring.
Then he went inside and upstairs to look into the area that’s above the bathroom.
To explain, the upstairs is what might otherwise have been an attic. When it was converted to bedrooms, my dad raised the roof on one side for head room, and that’s where windows were added. My daughters use one of those windows to get onto the roof over the new part of the house to shovel it. The other wall, however, is right under the roof and at an angle. In the room that is above where the bathroom and my husband’s room is now (which used to be a combined living room and dining room, when I was little), there is a small section under the angled portion that is now walled off. When we got an indoor bathroom, it was built to cover the vent and plumbing stack.
This is what it looked like, when we first peeked in there back in February, 2018, just 4 months after we were all moved in.
How or why that stuff was in there, I have no idea.
You can see, however, that there are very old water stains in the wood, however, it is dry in there.
We were able to get the stuff closer to the front, but none of us is able bodied enough to actually crawl in.
My brother, however, could.
He was able to get all the way past that vent, with a little broom and dust pan, sweeping away decades of dust and pieces of wood. I tried to help as much as I could, but that was little more than passing him things and holding a flashlight, in addition to the one he had in the tunnel with him.
I’m just comparing the photos now, and can see that the water stains have grown, however the floor is dry. Wherever the water was coming from, it has been pooling under those floor boards somewhere, before dripping into the bathroom, without getting anything wet in this tunnel.
After sweeping the worst off the floor, he started pulling out the stuff he was finding. Some odd pieces of linoleum with a bold floral pattern I’ve never seen around the farm, and yet somehow feel like I should recognise. My brother also felt he recognised the pattern. He dragged out a folded up… vinyl table cloth? We aren’t sure. There was a box with leftover tiles that cover the floor upstairs! What good are spare tiles, if they’re hidden in a tunnel behind a wall, where no one can see or reach them? Then, most curious of all, he tossed out an object for me to see. Before I could even shine a flashlight on it, something about the shape looked oh so familiar to me.
It was a plastic toy kangaroo, with a joey in it’s pouch.
I remember playing with that toy! What it was doing way back in there, I have no idea!
It is also now sticky and disgusting. It’s old enough the plastic is degrading in that slimy way only “vintage” plastic can do!
Once things were clear, my brother began working in stages. He cut plastic to lay down as a vapour barrier, then began stuffing in the fiberglass insulation.
He literally filled the tunnel with insulation, using a garden hoe to push it into place at the back.
When he got to the vent and plumbing stack, he used spray foam, top and bottom, to seal around them, laid down more plastic, cut to fit around the vent, then kept added more insulation.
Every time he went in, he had to inch his way in like a worm, then inch his way back out again. He did that dozens of times! Oh, he was so exhausted by the time he finished the bag of insulation. It didn’t quite fill the space right to the entry but, by that point, there is the attic over the old kitchen on the other side.
We don’t go in there.
That tunnel above the bathroom is now the most insulated space in the house.
We’ll be keeping an eye on the roof in that area. There should be no more escaping heat melting the snow off there, anymore, that’s for sure!!
By this time, it was completely dark out, and I helped my brother pack things back into his truck. Then I went to feed the outside cats to get them away from the truck, so he could safely leave.
He didn’t leave.
The next thing I know, he’s at the counter between the kitchen and the dining room, clearing it off and setting up to reach the light fixture.
Yup. He bought us a new light fixture.
I suspect they actually bought it that day they sent me the pictures, and asked if I had a plan.
After turning on the light to see what it was doing, he started taking it apart to look at the wiring. He couldn’t see anything obviously wrong. He then went to find the right breaker to shut off the power (there are some gaps in the labelling), and got to work. The breaker also turned off the dining room light, so I set up our large flashlight to light it from below, plus he had his headlamp. He had to fuss with it a bit, and drill a hole in the base plate for the wiring in the ceiling to fit through, but otherwise it was a pretty basic fixture switch.
Here is our shiny new light fixture!
It feels so weird for there to be so much light over that counter again! The light itself it completely different, and far more yellow than the previous bulbs. The fixture is slightly narrower than the old one, so you can just seen an outline on either side, but who cares? We have a working light again.
That done, he packed his truck up again, and finally got to leave! He was here so much longer than he expected to be, but was not about to leave until he’d done what he came to do. And extra, of course, because he’s like that!
Here we were, happy to have one last “warm” day to do the winter mulching, because it was likely to be the last day above freezing this year.
The forecast has changed.
They’re now saying we’re supposed to hit 6C/43F … in the middle of November!
While I was out, helping my mother run errands, it was just below freezing, and that was enough to set things melting in some areas. Over the next few days, we’re supposed to get snow, or a mix of snow and rain, because we’re expected to go just above freezing again. To have basically a week of temperatures between 4-6C/39-43F, that is enough to melt away all the snow we currently have.
I’m not complaining.
The mulch we put on the garden works both ways; it’ll keep the ground from freezing too much, but will also keep it from warming up too much. Otherwise, the garlic might start sprouting, only to get killed off when the deep freeze hits.
Also, we’re supposed to hit 4C/39F on the day I’m taking 6 cats in to be spayed and neutered!
I was messaging with the Cat Lady about that. She’s really stressing that we need to make sure and use all those slots she’s booking, and stay on the good side of this vet. It seems the last time the vet had one of these steeply discounted spay days, half the people who booked never showed up. Which I find absolutely astonishing. After that happened, the vet basically banned the no-shows from rebooking. Understandable! As for the Cat Lady, she’s been trying to help someone else slightly north of us that has a yard cat colony even larger than ours. That person was one of the no shows. Apparently, the drop off time of 8am was too early for her. Which blows me away. Yeah, it’s early, when you have to drive quite a ways to get there, but the vet has even said that if someone is in that situation and has to stay in town until it’s time to pick up their cats, let them know and they’ll try to do those cats first. For me, I’ll leave earlier than necessary, just in case I get stuck behind slow traffic, or have a breakdown or… who knows. Things happen. I just can’t imagine giving up such a deal on getting spays and neuters, and I especially can’t imagine just not showing up after booking an appointment! It’s happened so often, however, that the Cat Lady says we’re basically the only ones she’s still willing to help out with spays and neuters through her rescue.
We actually show up.
The only stickler right now is, each cat has to be in its own carrier. We’ve got 4 carriers, and need to bring in 6 cats. She’s put the word out to people who have borrowed carriers from her to bring them back, trying to come up with two more we can use.
I got curious and went looking online. If we really need to, there are soft sided carriers available through our nearest Walmart that are on clearance – but only if we order online, it seems. But we’re talking about only $10 or so for a carrier. Heck, I might just order a couple for pick up, since I have to go there soon, anyhow. I’d rather have hard sided carriers, but any carrier is better than no carrier! We’d just have to be careful what cats go in them, because some would tear their way right out of a soft sided carrier!
Well, if I’m going to be doing some running around, at least I’ll have good weather for it!
Just not tomorrow, because that’s when we’re supposed to get both snow and rain.
I took the truck in to get things checked out; along with the “service tire monitoring system” warning on the computer display, I started to get a “left rr tire low, add air” warning. Plus, the check engine light was still on. The battery needed to be looked at, too.
I dropped the truck off, then headed to the grocery store to pick up a few things and wait until I got a text to come back for the truck. This was just a look-see appointment, not an appointment to get any work done.
When I got back, he explained about the sensor issues. And it is sensors that are the problem, not actual mechanical problems. The tire module probably has a low battery, so that will need to be replaced. The part is a somewhat over $60, from what he could remember. As for the battery, he checked, and no, HE did not replace it. The previous owner had replaced it. He looked it up and it’s a 2019 battery, so past warranty. He recently changed suppliers, so he couldn’t give me an idea of the cost.
Overall, though, we should have no problem waiting until December to get this done, if we have to. The priority would be getting a new battery. The sensors are just turning on lights.
That was when I commented about the computer display, and how the manual said there was a control panel for it in a location that is not included in this model, and there’s no button.
Yes, there is!
Of course, I had to get him to show me exactly where it is, because we’ve looked and looked. There HAD to be something, but we just couldn’t find it.
He showed it to me, and I STILL had to stick my head right in to see it.
I took this picture of the dash after I parked at home. Can you see it?
If you spotted it in that V between the top gauge on the right, and the speedometer, you’ve got good eyes! We LOOKED in that area! We looked all over the console. We missed it completley.
He got a laugh about that.
Once I had the truck back and the groceries loaded, I parked long enough to message my family, then cycled through the computer display. I’ll have to spend some time going through the different displays to see what some of them are for, and how to use the trip function, but the main thing is, I was no longer seeing that “service tire monitoring system” thing anymore. I was finally seeing the odometer reading!
Also, the temperature in Celcius.
It took me a moment to figure out why there was a W above the temperature when I realised I was driving West. It has a compass display, too! Woo Hoo!!!
Yeah, it doesn’t take much for me to get all excited. 😄
He asked me to text him tomorrow and remind him to look up the prices of things and send me an estimate. He’s been very busy lately, mostly with tires! Even as I dropped the truck off, he was taking delivery of a cargo van load. People are getting their winter tires, so it’s a good busy!
I will probably not be home for much of tomorrow, though. Thankfully, it was warm enough today, and the ice is all melted off the roads. I will be calling my mother later to confirm, and am expecting to help her with some errands tomorrow. Of course, tomorrow is also supposed to be our last “warm” day. I’ll have to get the girls to take care of the winter mulching for me. I’d rather be working outside and taking advantage of the last warm day. My mother seems to have developed a strange gift for disrupting our ability to get things done that are weather dependant!! It’s not like she pays attention to the weather forecasts and plans this, either. Ah, well. It is what it is!
First, though, I need to have myself a late supper. I was in town for far longer than I expected, and didn’t think I’d need to get food while I was out!
Yep. We’ve been plugging away on here for 6 years now!
At this time six years ago, my husband, with our younger daughter as his mobility assistant, had flown out earlier than planned, as my FIL was suddenly hospitalized and we weren’t sure he would make it. They stayed here at the farm, with a car loaned to them so they could travel to the hospital in the city. The house had been empty for two years and it showed. Thankfully, my FIL recovered and is still with us.
Meanwhile, my older daughter and I were doing everything we could to sell, give away, donate or throw away as much as we could, while packing other things in preparation for the movers, and for our own drive out in the middle of November.
In the middle of all this, we decided to start this blog to document our adventures getting here, and living here. We had such plans!
A lot sure has changed in six years!
We still have plans, but things had to shift quite a bit. Some have pretty much fallen off the priority list entirely, while others that were intended for later had to be dealt with earlier.
For all the unexpected challenges we’ve faced, I’m still glad we were able to make the move. From what I hear, things were we used to live have only gotten much, much worse (don’t ever live in a housing co-op, unless, perhaps, if it’s managed by a separate, professional property management company!!). I’m also incredibly thankful we weren’t living in the city when the world went insane in 2020, and still hasn’t recovered from.
While cleaning up my parents’ stuff in the first couple of years, I found an old journal of mine, written “to” my husband. In it, I’d found long forgotten dreams and plans of being able to buy this farm from my parents (unrealistic dreams, since my parents intended the land to go to my brothers; girls didn’t get land!) and build as self sufficient a life as possible – what today would be considered homesteading and off grid living, but no one really used those terms that way, back then.
It’s taken over 30 years, and some very unexpected twists and turns in our lives, yet here we are. Getting old and rather broken, but with the help of our daughters and the excellent stewardship of my brother as our “landlord”, we’re actually starting to live that dream.
I have to keep reminding myself: I did in one trip what I used to have to do in two or three trips while using my mother’s car.
Still, this is the most we’ve ever spent at Costco in one trip, and… ouch.
I did things a bit differently this time, in that I had all the cat supplies put on one bill, then our own stuff was rung in separately. The total for both together came to $1061.97
*choke*
First, though, was the trip in with the new-to-us truck.
Road conditions were not very good. From our place to the town my mother lives in was packed snow and ice. There was blowing snow, but the visibility was still okay. I was quite okay with being behind vehicles doing only 80 or 90kph in a 100kph zone (100kph = about 62mph). Things started getting messier as I reached my mother’s town. I timed it so I could stop at the gas station to grab some fried chicken for brunch first. That gave me time to respond to some messages from the Cat Lady. She had a cat carrier and some kibble donations for us and we were trying to figure out when and where we could meet. She needed to go into the same area of the city as the Costco we go to, so we would be able to meet up today.
Once back on the road, the further south I went, the more the highway went from slush to water until about halfway to the city, when it all started going to ice and slush again. The truck handled it like it was nothing! In fact, I had to watch myself, because it was just too easy to start speeding before I even realized it. Normally, I’d have just set the cruise control, but with the conditions, I expected to be slowing down more often. I did, but it was usually because I found myself behind vehicles hauling trailers, or heavy equipment.
As I was leaving the city, I stopped at a gas station convenience store to pick up something to drink for the drive. At this point, conditions were deteriorating again, and visibility was getting poor. The further north I went, though, the better it got. I drove out of the snow, and the roads that had been slushy or icy before were now just a bit wet. It’ll be a problem once things freeze during the night, but at the time, it was good. It wasn’t until about 5 minutes from home that I started driving into falling snow again, but it wasn’t an issue at all.
As for the shopping, I forgot to get a photo of the flat cart before I started unloading into the truck, but that’s okay. I got pictures of how it fit into the truck, instead.
The Cat Lady caught up with me as I was starting to pack things into my reusable bags, and was able to pass on the cat carrier and some bags of kibble she had for us. She couldn’t stay long, though. I don’t know how she keeps up with everything she’s got going in her life! She’s amazing.
She is able to do couponing, so those bags of kibble probably cost next to nothing. The new carrier is a perfect kitten size! She’s told me she’s had to turn down donations of cat carriers in the past, because she had no space for them, but now she plans to accept them to pass on to us. We have 1 hard sized and 2 soft carriers, and the soft carriers can potentially be torn out of, so hard carriers are preferable. The wet cat food was part of our own purchase.
I’d remembered to grab a snow brush to keep in the truck and ended up using it to push the filled hard sided bags further in, so I could fit the kibble bags. The TP and puppy pads sitting on the tailgate went on top of the kibble. I didn’t even need to open the cover. In the cab, I had an insulated bag for the hot rotisserie chickens, and a bag for the rye bread. The only thing that didn’t go into the back of the cab were the eggs, which I put on the front seat, instead.
This is what we got for our money today.
Cat supplies: 12 bags, 9kg size, dry kibble @ $26.99 each, for a total of $323.88 canned cat food: $38.99 puppy pads: $24.99 Tax added another $46.54 to the bill, for a total of $434.40
We have got to get that bill down somehow. We’d have no problem at all with having a car payment right now, if we weren’t feeding so many cats! But we’re not going to let them go hungry, either. Hopefully, we’ll be able to adopt more out soon.
Also, I was intending to buy 14 bags of kibble, but the stack on the flat cart was getting a bit tall and less stable, and I still had lots of other things to fit on there.
Human supplies: Toilet paper, Kirkland brand: $22.99 4pk Pronamel toothpaste: $19.79 Coke Zero: $14.69, plus 32¢ enviro fee double flat of eggs (60 eggs): $18.89 AP flour, 10kg size: $9.99 (most places have bags this size at about $15 – on sale!) family size pack of fresh sausages, mild Italian: $20.11 whole chicken, 3 pack: $28.64 2 chubs of ground beef: $28.49 each 1 chub of ground pork: $19.99, minus $5 at the till pork blade roast: $20.87 4pk bacon: $24.99 pork loin: $29.15 Old Cheddar: $14.99 Mozzarella: $14.99 Whipping cream, two 1L cartons, $4.70 each double cream brie: $10.99 4pk Kirkland cream cheese: $9.49 5 pounds of butter: $5.49 each Two 2pks of rye bread: $5.99 each Two 2pks tortilla wraps: $9.99 each 9pk pasta, 3 varieties: $13.99 Mayo: $10.99 dehydrated mushrooms: $19.99 – I haven’t seen these in years!! We used to love getting these before we moved! Kirkland Olive Oil: $32.99 Avocado Oil: $16.99 popcorn: $10.79 hazelnuts: $11.49 Kirkland Basmati rice: $15.99 2kg size Peanut Butter: $10.39 2pk Butter chicken sauce: $9.99, minus $2 at the till 6pk Kirkland canned chicken: $18.99 2 rotisserie chickens, $7.99 each pork rinds: $10.99 (meant to be used in place of bread crumbs) Kirkland chocolate chips: $17.99
plus tax: $10.17 Total: $627.57
The alarming part was paying for this second bill. I’d already paid for the cat supplies, but when I tried to pay for the rest, it failed. Payment not authorized. ??? We tried again, and got the same response. I was asking her to suspend the order so I could check my bank account to see what the problem was when someone came by. Someone that turned out to be a supervisor.
It was the debit machine going down.
My order did get suspended and the receipt printed out. The supervisor took it and tried to process it on another till, but that one was down, too. She ended up taking me to their supervisor station over by the bathrooms, where they have a different type of debit machine.
I was not the only one trailing along! There were at least four other people gathering around, waiting their turn.
Thankfully, fourth time was the charm, and I was able to pay for our stuff!
I really ought to use cash, but I just don’t like carrying around that much cash. Especially when I’m not quite sure what the total will be, given how much the prices change.
On top of this, I did fill the gas tank before I even went in to shop. I was at half a tank by the time I got there, but the Costco gas price for regular was 141.9¢/L, instead of the 153.9/L at my mother’s town, or the 152.9/L in the town we usually go to. So it cost “only” $68 and change to fill the tank.
As painful as it was to spend so much in one day, the fact that we won’t have to go to Costco again just saved us another $50 – $60 or so, just in fuel. We do plan to go to the city again next week, but I’m wondering if we even need to make that trip. This would be the trip where we go to the international grocery store, a Walmart and a Canadian Tire, all in one trip. However, the only reason to go to Canadian Tire is for litter pellets, and we still have plenty of those, and to get a few more fire bricks for our outdoor kitchen build, which can wait a month or two. The Walmart is where I get the shredded wet cat food I use for the kittens (the Costco wet cat food is all paté), and maybe a couple more bags of cat food, which we don’t need to do right now. The only other thing we’d be getting is the fresh produce and non-bulk stuff, and we can do that at the closer Walmart or the local grocery store.
We’ll decide on that later. I’m just so happy that I was able to get all this in one trip, with zero issues with the drive!
A few days ago, we finally got a copy of an email confirming our financing FINALLY was approved, and our mechanic was finally going to get paid for the truck. Getting my husband’s full name added to the electric bill was finally good enough for the lender! After I got back from the city and everything was unloaded and put away (and the outside cats fed, to get them away from the truck so I could park it in the garage!), I made sure to send a thank you email to our mechanic and the lady at the finance company. They bent over backwards to get us this truck, and it’s made all the difference in the world.
Best of all, we can work on plans to get my husband into the city to see his family. He hasn’t seen his dad since late 2018, and hasn’t seen his sister at all since she moved back from out of province, a couple of years ago. We had to turn down a planned family gathering, but the seats in this truck support his back so well, he feels he can actually handle the trip!
Which makes having car payments again, completely worthwhile.
Yes!!! It is done! As of today, we are new truck owners.
We are so excited!
Yes, it’s a 2011, yes, it has some rust on it, but the interior is pristine, and everything works!!!
Just look at that clearance! We’ll be able to get through things that had us stuck at home over the past few years, including last year’s spring flooding, when the roads washed out. In fact, we’ll even be able to drive it to the gravel pit and load it with gravel to use around the house, garden and driveway. We’d have to do a walk through, first, and probably clear away some rocks and trees.
And yeah, we definitely need that step to get into it. My husband is going to love it! The seats have adjustments like our Grand Caravan had, plus lumbar support adjustment, which he will appreciate the most of all of us.
It took all day to actually get the truck. After doing the necessary transfers, my daughter and I were ready to head in, in the morning. We were also going to make a quick stop at the grocery store, then my daughter was going to treat us to Dairy Queen take out to bring home. A new Dairy Queen officially opened in town just yesterday, so everyone’s pretty excited about that.
Yeah. It doesn’t take much to get us excited. 😄 But it does mean that, on those days were we’re out all day running errands in the city, we can get take out on the way and it’ll still be hot when we get home.
The first catch:
I got an email from the financing lady, saying the lender had sent the paperwork back, and asking for my daughter’s name, phone number, plus my husband’s email address. I assumed this meant they wanted my daughter’s name on the paperwork as a co-signer, because I happened to mention she gave us funds for the down payment, and would help with the monthly payments. My daughter absolutely was not going to be on there are a co-signer!
Once I explained that, she corrected my misunderstanding. The lender wanted someone as an emergency contact, in case they couldn’t reach us. I told her, she lives with us and has the same number, so if they can’t reach us, they wouldn’t be able to reach her! So I gave them my brother’s land line number.
Meanwhile, I got a call from the garage, just as I was answering the email. He was texting with her as well and wanted to make sure we understand they were NOT looking for a co-signer on the loan or anything like that.
Once that was clarified, we waited for a while, but didn’t get a response right away. So we headed into town, anyhow.
Once we got there, I checked my email and found they still wanted my daughter’s name. I gave both their names. This way, if we weren’t home and my daughters answered the phone, they would be authorized to speak to the girls about our file.
I answered that right away, then went into the garage. He was still waiting for something from the finance lady, but I was able to make the down payment, then sign the various forms needed.
While he was making the copies he needed, and waiting on the response, he gave me the keys so we could go into the vehicle and even asked us to drive it closer to the garage. Which almost happened.
The truck had been sitting there long enough that the battery was almost dead! It wouldn’t start. Oops.
The first thing I had to figure out after that was, how to open the door from the inside! It took a while, but the lever is in a completely different location than in any other vehicle we’ve owned, and I couldn’t see it in the shadows. 😄
So I let him know, he came out with a charger, and we moved it over. Then my daughter and I spend the next while, reading the owners manual and figuring out the different things on the console, set the time and date, and so on.
After a while, with still no email response from the finance lady, I went inside. He just received a text from her and said she was waiting on a response from the lender. I told him we’d run some errands while we waited, then headed over to the grocery store across the street, where we’d parked the car anyway, to do a bit of shopping. Neither of us had had breakfast yet, though, and since it looked like picking up food to bring home would take a while, we got some food at the grocery store that we could eat in the car. Of course, I kept checking my email. Still nothing.
After a while, I walked back over. As we spoke, he suggested we may as well go home, because there was no way of knowing how long it would take the lender to get back to her. Not only that, but once the lender responded, she would be emailing documents to me for us to sign and send back. It could take minutes, or hours.
So my daughter and I headed home, stopping at the new DQ first. It was just into lunch time, so it was pretty busy, but the line went fast. After placing our order, we got our number and went to the side to fill our drinks and wait. My daughter ended up taking the drinks to the car, as the place filled up even more! They were absolutely inundated, including plenty of teens from the nearby high school, coming over for lunch.
I predict they will do very well here. Especially in the summer, during tourist season.
My daughter came back after putting the drinks in the car, then when our order was ready, she took the bag of food while I collected the Blizzards we also got. She then had the fun job of balancing trays of Blizzards and drinks on her legs during the drive home.
It is not a smooth ride, and a couple of the drinks were a bit over filled! Once we reached the gravel road, she asked me to pull over, so she could clean up a bit.
I drove much slower on the gravel road that we normally would! 😄
So we had our lunch, and then I spent the next while near the computer, checking my email regularly. We did get the documents after a couple of hours, which my husband could go over and sign digitally, then send back. Once I got a confirmation of receipt, I texted our mechanic to let him know.
After maybe another hour, I texted him again, asking if he’d received a confirmation from the finance lady yet.
Of course, I couldn’t be at my computer the whole time, but it was a bit of a surprise when I was back in my room, and our mechanic phoned me, asking if I’d received his text. I checked my phone, and there was no notification – but when I opened my text app, there it was – along with a couple other texts from elsewhere!
I’m so glad he called! Now that the this part was done, he needed us to bring him proof of insurance. It was past 4 by then and, as far as I knew, the insurance place closed at 5.
So we headed out again as quickly as we could, since it takes about 20-25 minutes to get there, depending on the traffic. Thankfully, we did not find ourselves stuck behind slow moving vehicles. Once there, I dashed in to get the paperwork, making sure to thank him for calling, since I did not receive any notifications for his text. He knows we’re in a cell phone dead zone, so he figured it was something like that. He also suggested a different insurance place to go to, that was open later, so that’s where we went.
That part went quickly. There was no one else there besides the staff, and it was all pretty straightforward. I got new license plates, because I didn’t think to bring the ones from the van. I was even given a choice of one set of plates or plates from a new box, in case there was a series that I found easier to remember. I didn’t care, so I got the last plates from an old box.
Everything was done quickly, and the lady that helped me was awesome. As she was inputting stuff into the computer, she was reading some things out loud and mentioned our mechanic’s name. When she did, I couldn’t help but say how awesome he’s been for us, and she quite enthusiastically agreed with me. She’s done quite a few vehicles sold by him, it turns out, and has found he has been really great for finding people just the vehicle they needed.
(As I was writing the above, I got a phone call from the finance lady – there’s still more to be done at her end!!! But I’ll get to that, later.)
So I got the insurance stuff done, then it was back to the garage. From there, he took the copies he needed but, before giving me the keys, he wanted to bring it into the garage. So my daughter took the car home while I waited. He had some other stuff to get done first and, as we chatted, mentioned in passing that normally, he wouldn’t release a vehicle until he got the money from the lender, but it was me, so he was okay with it.
!!!
What a sweetheart! In thanking him, I mentioned that my husband has a medical appointment tomorrow, so the timing of this is perfect, and so incredibly appreciated. He and the finance lady have gone so above and beyond!
Once the bay was clear, he drove it in, and they made sure all the tires were properly full, after sitting as long as it had on the lot, and cleaned the windows from removing the stickers, put on the new plates, etc.
And that was finally it! I could take the truck home!
Almost. The tank was at empty, so gas station first!
When I first started filling, the nozzle kept shutting itself off, like it does with my mother’s car. I’ve asked about it, and I’ve been told dust gets into a line and the sensor in the nozzle reads that the tank is full. It took a while, but eventually it started to fill without stopping. I wasn’t sure how much it would take to fill that tank, but when it stopped again at just under $80, I went ahead and finished there. It turned out to be just over half full. Another $60 probably would have filled it.
Ouch.
We try to never let our tanks get below half, though, so once it’s filled, I won’t be doing any $140 or more fills! I’ll probably top it up tomorrow, after my husband’s medical appointment, though it’s almost worth a trip to the city to fill at a Costco, with their prices usually at least 10¢/L cheaper.
We’ll consider that another time.
Finally, I could bring the truck home! It only took about 7 or 8 hours!
When I got home, the girls were waiting for me by the garage. It’s the first time my older daughter has seen it, other than the photos I took last month. They were all over that thing! It’s got cup holders and charging ports, everywhere. 😄 Then, my younger daughter drove it into the garage.
Mostly.
The back end was still sticking out the door.
Between her sister guiding her from the front, and me watching to see when the door was cleared, she was able to get it in. The truck just barely fits in the garage!!! There’s a counter at the back wall of the garage, and the bumper is just inches from it, and the door just barely misses the back bumper to close it! There is no getting around the vehicle from the inside, once the door is closed!
Not a problem I expected to have. I new it was longer than the van, but not that it was that much longer! We’re going to have to put some sort of bumper or marker so we can see how closer we’re getting to that counter.
So all is settled and fine, right?
Of course not.
As I mentioned, I got a call from the finance lady. She was asking if my husband had any other photo ID, or even an old passport. Well, he did have an old passport, but that was from his days in the military. Which makes it quite old (I just thought about it, and it’s at least 30 years old). We still have it; but it wouldn’t be much good. So she asked me about some other things. Part of the problem is that his Metis ID is hand written. I mentioned his old driver’s license from the province we lived in before moving here, which she got all excited about. She also talked about the “voided check” having only his name on it. Which confused me, because the photo I’d sent them had both our names on it. It turned out she was looking at the digital form from the bank we’d recently had to send, because the banking information had only my name on what is a joint account, since I was the one logged in to get it for them. I’d also sent photos of his old driver’s license, but she apparently never saw it.
Which is when I found out that a number of images I sent her came in a form she could not open. The files were too big, so they were automatically loaded to Google Drive, but when she clicked on them, it wanted permission to access them, which apparently she didn’t get. Which isn’t how it’s supposed to work, but the end result was, she couldn’t open them.
Once I realized that, she emailed me a list of all the files she couldn’t open. I resized them, then sent them back. That worked out, except for his birth certificate. When my husband was in his teens, he had it in his pocket for some reason, and it went through the wash. It was in rough shape, so it’s been in a folding plastic case that was meant to hold a bank book (hands up, how many reading this had a bank book!) to protect it. She asked it if was possible to take it out of the plastic for a clearer photo. I said I would try, but explained why it was in the plastic. Thankfully, in the time it took for me to find my husband’s wallet (I first tried looking in his pack on his walker in the sun room; it wasn’t there, but I did chase four massive racoons out of the sun room!), I saw her response saying not to risk damaging it, and if I could just get clearer pictures of the front and back.
Which I was able to do, then resized them and sent them to her. As I was writing the above, I got a confirmation from her that they were good!
Finally!!!
So now, everything should be straight with the lender.
I hope.
If not… well.. I guess we have the loan of a truck for a few days, until my husband can get new photo ID. Which would take a while, because the province’s public insurance provider that does all that is still on strike.
Which reminds me.
When I brought the plates and insurance papers back to the garage, I mentioned that it was the last plate before they went into a new box. He heard the “last plate” part, and said they must be really worried! It turns out that, with the strike, no new plates are going out. So while private insurance companies can process things like vehicle insurance, if they run out of plates, they’re stuck. They could contact other companies to acquire extra, but they’re all running out, too. Thankfully, this place did still have another box, but if this strike goes on for much longer, people who need new plates won’t be able to insure their vehicles at all. It’s like with getting a new photo ID, a new driver’s license, or having to renew a driver’s licence photo. They can do everything locally, except actually give out the card. Only a temporary paper version that’s good for 2 or 4 weeks. Just enough time for the public insurance company to process the paperwork and issue the official government ID, and for it to go through the mail.
Once the strike is over, the backlog is going to be incredible.
So that’s where we’re at now. As I finish writing this, I have not received any other email from the finance lady, which means that – so far, at least – there is no problem with the resized and resent images.
I must say, I do appreciate that we can do all this digitally. Can you imagine if we had to go in, in person, during office hours? Even if they could fax stuff over, it would probably take days just for this little bit of stuff right here. And since this loan is under my husband’s name as the primary borrower, that would mean him having to be driven into town multiple times to sign things, which he would not be up to. Unless I were allowed to bring paperwork home for him to sign, which I have been able to do for some things in the past.
I am just to thankful for all the effort our mechanic and the finance lady have gone through to make it so we could get that truck, in our budget. It was not easy. Especially when, even with the price being dropped so much, we had another $1200 in taxes added on. I made sure to tell her how much we appreciated it, and that if I could, I’d give her a hug! (yes; I did give our mechanic a hug!!) She told me that just hearing that made it worthwhile. I know she probably deals with a lot of difficult cases like ours, and probably worse, but I don’t know that she gets a lot of appreciation shown for her efforts!
Well, I made sure to tell them, because my goodness, not having a winter worthy vehicle with snow likely in a few weeks was a major concern! Thank God!!! What a sense of relief, to that that truck sitting in our garage right now!!
I managed to get a dump run today, then kept on going to town to pick up a few things at the grocery store. Particularly recycling bags, having just run out. Of course, I’m not going to drive all that way for just one thing.
This is what $142.86 looks like.
Okay, so I did splurge a little.
The clear recycling bags, XL size, were $12.99 I got a 4pk of energy drinks for $10.99 – saving a whole 30¢ by buying a case. The enviro fee was 4¢ I also got a case of Coke Zero for $7.49, plus 12¢ enviro fee. Tea – Early Grey Creme: $5.49 Butterscotch chips, 2 packages on sale for $4.99 each (which also earned me extra loyalty points) Ketchup: $3.99 (house brands; I just realized I accidentally bought low sodium. Ah, well.) Popcorn seasoning, White Cheddar flavour, on sale: $3.99 Popping corn, two 1kg size packages, $3.79 each (I need to do a test pop of our own popcorn again, so see if the kernels have dried enough) Whipping cream: $6.79 Ice cream, house brand, on sale: $3.99 – we have all those little melons, and my daughters want to make melon bowls with ice cream 😊 Whoops. I really should read the labels better. The receipt says ice milk, not ice cream. 😕 mandarin oranges, sale price: $8.99 bananas: $2.01 Marble rye bread, 2 loaves, plus multi-grain, 2 loaves, all on sale for $2.49 each. Vitamins, all half price. The receipt lists them differently from other sales. B12, regular price $19.49, minus $9.75, Zinc, regular price $16.28, minus $8.14 and D3, regular price $9.99, minus $5.
Last of all was my “big” splurge, while I was waiting in line near the floral department.
I got a coffee plant. A “premium” coffee plant, no less. 😄 On sale for $16.99 That’s for the girls. It would be cool if we actually got coffee beans, eventually, but at least it’ll be a pretty house plant!
I also got a $10 lotto Classic pack (1 Lotto 6/49, 1 Lotto Max, 1 Extra), using a $10 win I got from a ticket I got from a free play win. So the win from a free ticket paid for the new tickets. 😄
Sub total: $134.27, plus $3.58 GST and $5.01 PST
As I was slowly going through the aisles, looking for things I might have forgotten to include on my list, I went past a woman looking at the pasta. I’d given the section a quick look myself, and even the ones that were on sale were ridiculously expensive. Walking past her I leaned over and asked, “remember when pasta used to be cheap?”
Oh, boy, did that get a reaction! She looked at me with a slightly stunned expression and said, “I’m an American!”
Yeah. I got it. Instantly. Food prices in the US are so much cheaper than here! When I commented on that, she told me about shopping in this store for the first time after moving here, and how shocked she was by the prices. Even taking into account the exchange rate. Yeah, that would have been quite the culture shock. She wasn’t just seeing higher Canadian prices. She was seeing small town prices. She showed me a package of spaghetti that was over $3. That same package where she was from sells for under a dollar. Our KD (Kraft Dinner) is getting close to $2 a box. They’re 75¢ where she’s from (I didn’t think to ask where that was). Boxed cereal was another one she saw a really big difference.
We had an interesting chat about it, and how it really doesn’t make any sense for our prices to be so much higher. A lot of the current increases are directly related to our federal government adding tax after tax to things like fuel, making the cost of just getting food to people so much higher but, even before our current dictatorship went nuts, Canadian food prices were a lot higher than in the US. There isn’t much reason for that, overall. Lord knows, the farmers sure aren’t’ getting much of it. It’s all in those layers between farm and store. That’s without even touching on specifics, like government price controls on things like dairy and eggs.
I think she really, really appreciated being able to actually talk about it with someone, even if for just a few minutes! She was really nice, and I quite enjoyed talking to her, too.
Anyhow.
This is was my small, but expensive, grocery top up.
Hopefully, one of those tickets I got will be a winner of something substantial!
The Re-Farmer 