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Found it! Also, my mother’s car is very small

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I had a bit of time this morning to prepare before working on the old kitchen garden. My plan had been to use the four foot length of logs left over from when the branch piles were chipped to build up the walls of garden bed, end to end, held in place by stakes. As I was doing other stuff around the spruce grove yesterday, I realized a tree top from a dead tree we’d cut down was still stuck in the cherry trees we need to get rid of (they are non-productive, and invasive), and it was nice, long and straight.

So this morning I worked on getting that out, then went through the spruce grove to see if there were other dead trees that were already on the ground I could make use of. That was then I spotted something red among the dead grasses.

Look what I found!

These are the bird feeder parts that disappeared, a year and a half or so ago!

This was about 40 yards away from where it had been hanging. No wonder I couldn’t find it back then! I guess it really was the racoons that stole it away.

The cannister was still intact, but the rest was broken into many pieces, which got cleaned up.

I did manage to find more useable trees that I dragged closer to the old kitchen garden, and then I headed out to see my mother. I left early because I wanted to go to the pharmacy first, then grabbed some fried chicken and wedges for lunch. My mother has told me not to, in the past, because she decided the chicken was making her sick, but she had no complaints at all when I showed up with it! The other choices weren’t open today, or opening later, so there wasn’t much choice.

So we had lunch, then she gave me a list of the few things she needed at the grocery store and I picked those up for her. While visiting longer after that, I discovered our vandal has been swinging by her place again, and had left more phone messages. I listened to those and recorded them with my phone. I’m concerned, because our restraining order is expiring about now. I’d hoped to not need to file to renew it. I still sometimes see him on the security cameras, just going by. He hasn’t been doing things like coming up to the gate and messing with it, or giving the finger down the driveway, nor has he done things like follow me home and yell at us from the road – but once the restraining order is expired, there’s nothing to prevent him from starting that up again. From his messages, he’s clearly still obsessed with us living here on the farm, and still portrays himself as a victim, and me as trying to put him in jail and destroy his life. Truth is, I don’t even think about him until he shows up on the camera files, or starts bothering my mom again.

Frustrating.

Anyhow.

After finishing up my visit with my mother, I went to the hardware store. I found some things to use to keep the frames I want to build from bowing out, and also to pull in the walls of the raised beds. The long sides are made with board that are 6′ pieces and 3′, joined by attaching them to pieces of 2×4. What I didn’t expect was for the 2×4 to start splitting lengthwise! So all three beds are bowing out, some more than others, at the joins. If I can get those pulled in and straight again, the frames I want to build will sit properly on top.

For the frames, I wanted to get 1″x2″x10′ boards, but when I got there, they only went up to 8′ long. Since these will be moved around a lot, I did not want to be cobbling the long sides together to make 9′. The next option was 1″x4″x12′ I’d intended to get a dozen of the 1″x2″, but went with 10 of the larger size. After taxes, it came out to just over $80, which was more than I’d wanted to spend! But, I needed the lumber.

So I got the lumber, then drove into the yard to have it loaded into the car.

Slight problem with not using the van right now.

If I’d been able to get the 10′ size, it would have worked, but at 12′ long… well…

I folded down the front passenger seat, so they could be slide right up to the windshield, but they were still sticking out the back. They gave me a flag, but didn’t have any ties. I had to go back inside and buy a couple. The car happens to have metal loops on the sides so I could attach the longer one across the boards to secure them, but I still had to secure the hatch. The shorter tie was still too long. I went back in to try and find shorter one, but there was nothing. The hatch had a small hole I could put the hook into and that’s all there was to secure it there, so it’s not like I could use rope or something. I ended up pushing the end of the tie through the loop in the middle that the hatch locks into, shortening it a bit, and that was the best I could do.

I drove home doing only 80km/h all the way (speed limit on the highway is 100km/h), with one arm over the boards! I did pull over at one point to adjust them higher into the front of the car, and even used the flag to tie around the ends of the boards (in the photo, it runs under one board, to keep it from sliding off), just to secure them a little bit more.

The ties I got are going to stay in the car, and I’ll probably get some cord or rope to include in our emergency kit, too! That’s the red and black bag to the right of the lumber in the photo.

As I was driving home, I was thinking about how these 4″ boards would be just too wide for the frames I want to build, when it finally occurred to me that I could just cut them in half, length wise!

Which means, I could have gotten away with buying only 6 of them, instead of 10.

Ah, well. It’s not like the extra will go to waste!

So that’s the plan with these. After I’m done with the old kitchen garden, and the girls have finished with the sun room, I’ll drag the table saw out of the sun room and use it to cut a few of the boards in half, length wise, to start with and then build the first frame. I think I’ll make the first one over the spinach bed. I don’t like the floating row cover sitting right on top of the soil. As light as it is, it just seems like it’ll weigh down the seedlings when they germinate. That will be my prototype, so if I need to make any changes in the plans I have in mind, I’ll do that when making a cover to replace the hoops and plastic over the carrots.

But that will have to wait.

I’m not sure if I’ll be working on the old kitchen garden tonight, anymore. It’s supposed to be warm out there – we’re at 11C/52F but the winds are still high. It’s not just about being chilly. Even with a hat on and wearing the hood on my jacket, I still got ear aches from the wind.

We shall see.

I’m hoping to be able to set up for another time lapse video of the process. I have a GorillaPod to hold the phone I’m using to record video, but it’s a smaller one, which limits what I can attach it to. There are several options, though, so it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out.

I’ll decide whether I’ll start on it tonight or tomorrow, when I do my evening rounds and see what the conditions are like.

Now that I’ve got the lumber, though, I’m really itching to build those frames!

The Re-Farmer

Monthly grocery shop: this is what $688 looks like

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Well, the Costco shopping trip is over and done with.

Dear Lord, was it busy!

Things did go well, in general. It does make me shake my head when I’m lumbering around with my loaded flat cart, and people with near empty carts seem to think that cutting me off or whatever is a good idea. Like, Dude. I can’t stop on a dime, here. Or trying to make my way down an aisle with pallets of inventory all down the middle, leaving just narrow spaces on either side, and people with small carts seem to think I can steer around them, better than they can steer around me. Annoying.

There’s a reason I like being a hermit.

Still, I did have an excellent exchange. The first things I load up on are the bags of kibble. The 11kg bags were on sale, too, which was bonus! There was an older gentleman that was loading several into his cart when he saw me starting to add several bags to my flat cart (I ended up getting six altogether). He commented on having a lot of cats, and before we knew it we were having a grand conversation! It turns out that he and his wife have been caring for a colony as well, including providing warm shelters and heated water. They’ve currently got 12 indoors, including three kittens. Outdoors, they’ve had as many as 72!! When he found out we were caring for a colony, too, he started asking me questions, and I ended up telling him about using the stove pellets for litter, and about the help we’ve had from the Cat Lady. Turns out, they’re selling their house and moving to an apartment, and have to rehome their cats! He told me about his experiences with rescues and the humane society, which have been pretty touch and go. For the last few months, none of the places he’s left messages with have called him back, and the humane society won’t deal with people outside the city at all anymore, using the mandates restrictions of the past couple of years as their excuse. Some have told him they’re overwhelmed with dogs from the reservations up north, so they’re not accepting any cats at all. I ended up sending his contact information to the Cat Lady, and she recommended a rescue he hadn’t heard of yet. Hopefully, they will be at least more receptive. All in all, it was a great conversation, and he was the sweetest guy. I hope it works out for him and his wife!

Then I had to get back to shopping. *sigh*

This is what $688.62, after taxes, looks like.

That’s only 42 items.

This is one item I did NOT buy.

This wasn’t even the most expensive cut of meat, at $44.99/kg !!!! Good grief!

I got most of what was on my list, dropping a few non-essentials that can wait until next month.

This is what we did get:

Two bags of Basmati rice, in the brand my husband likes, for $17.99 each.
Large jar of regular Hellman’s mayonnaise: $10.99
Canned chicken, 6pk: $18.99
Peanut Butter, 2kg size: $10.49
Pasta, 6pk with 3 different types: $15.99
Goat cheese, 2pk: $10.99
Crimini mushrooms: $4.99
Strawberries: $8.99
Extra strength acetaminophen, Kirkland brand: $10.99
Extra strength ibuprofen, Kirkland brand: $9.99
Bacon, 4pk: $21.99
Polish sausage: $18.99
Whipping cream, two 1L cartons at $4.79 each
Cheese; both Mozzarella and Old Cheddar, at $14.99 each – they still don’t have the big blocks we used to get all the time
Cream cheese, 4pk Kirkland brand: $9.49
Sour cream, Kirkland brand: $5.49
Pork loin: $29.97 (I used to be able to get roughly the same size loin for under $20, not long ago!)
Top sirloin: $31.14 These were the cheap steaks! Four steaks in the package.
Pork chops: $22.64 At least this had a lot of chops in the package for the money!
Ground beef, lean: $29.41 (remember when ground beef was the cheap meat?)
Bathroom tissue: $22.99
Butter, five at $5.49 each. Costco’s butter is about the only butter I can find for under $6 a pound.
Cat food, 11kg bags, six at $29.99 each. Regular price is now $37.99, which is about what a 7kg bag size costs, locally.
Vinegar, box of two 5L jugs, $8.99
Rotisserie chicken, two at $7.99 each
eggs, 60 count, $17.29
wraps, 2 packs of 36 for $9.99 each
Ziploc freezer bags, size medium, 3pk, $17.99

Subtotal: $657.68. I paid $30.94 in taxes.

That was just painful.

But, between the three trips, we are well stocked for the month, plus a bit set aside to top up our stockpile that we always need for the winter months. After this, we’ll still need to make local trips for fresh produce, and of course for getting fresh eggs from the egg lady. We just started our last 18.9L jug of drinking water, so I’ll need to head into town with the two clean and dry ones for refilling. The siphon pump can’t quite get all the water out, so we’ve got a jug with a couple of inches of water still in it to finish off, then set aside to dry out.

One thing about all those bags of kibble; I think this is the heaviest I’ve ever loaded my mother’s car, which had me a bit concerned. I made sure to load the heaviest things more to the middle, and spread the weight out as evenly as I could.

When it comes to my mother’s car, there are a couple of things in particular that has always driven me nuts. One is how noisy it is. There are always things rattling around in the back, and I’ve never been able to find what’s making the noise. The other is that it’s a much lighter vehicle than our van, so it constantly feels like I’m bouncing all over the road, either from bumps on the highway, or gusts of wind.

All that weight in the back, however, sure made a difference! It was the quietest, smoothest ride I’ve ever had with this car! Not a rattle to be heard from the back, and even when I drove through a downpour briefly, that little thing stayed hugging the road. 😄

I had intended to tank up while at Costco, but the lines were so bad, I took the route to town to tank up, instead. Costco was at 156.9/L today, but in town, the gas station I go to is still 155.9/L Nice!

So all in all, it was a good and productive day. Just very draining, to be around all those people. I’m glad to be home, that’s for sure!

The Re-Farmer

Monthly stocking up: this is what $270 looks like

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Okay, it wasn’t my plan for the day, but there’s a particular grocery store we go to that started a case lot sale today. Since I’m planning to go to Costco tomorrow, and don’t want to drive in the city on the weekend, I wouldn’t make the trip until Monday at the earliest, and by then, inventory will be low.

So, I made the trip today. A lot of what I got is to top up our pantry supplies.

This is what $270.84 after taxes looks like. Almost.

Not in the picture, because I already loaded them into the car, is a 12 pack of double roll toilet paper and a case of canned baked beans. The receipt lists the regular price of the sale items, then under the name of the item it prints the sale price or promo, and under the regular price is shows the discounted amount. Which makes for a very long receipt! At the bottom, however, it listed my total savings, which was $90.07

The receipt also printed out in alphabetical order, by brand or item name/description, so that’s more or less the order I’ll be doing below…

I happened to be shopping while they had their “happy hour” flash sale. Today, it was for in house made fresh sausages in the deli, so I went ahead and got 4 each of two different flavours. One of them was Apple Pork, and the other was Tuscan. Their regular price is $3.49 each, so I paid $13.96 for all 8 of them.

It wasn’t on sale, but my daughters like to cook with coconut milk, so I got a 1L resealable carton for them, which was $4.39, instead of the cans we normally get. I got some bananas for $1.88 (they were $1.095/kg). Bernardin snap lids were 10% off, so I got one each of regular, at $4.04 and wide mouth at $4.49 for our supply. We have mostly wide mouth jars, but it’s always good to have extra of both sizes of lids.

I got a boneless pork half loin for $11.22. That was not a sale, but a very good price for a big hunk of meat. I also got a wheel of brie for $8.99, which was more than half price. It was also the last one in the display! The case of 12 bakes beans was on sale for $17.99. Alfredo pasta sauce was on sale, so I got three different flavours for $2.99 each. The 20 pack size of Coke Zero was on sale for $9.49, and for my husband I got four pomegranate flavoured Crystal Light, because that flavour was being cleared out at $2.99 each.

I had a bit of a splurge with a bottle of apple cider vinegar. We still have, but aside from a really cool bottle we can reuse, it was barrel aged. If we like it, it would be good to have some to use as the starter, the next time we make our own crab apple cider vinegar. That and it was only $9.99, which is pretty cheap for good apple cider vinegar.

I got a case of Mandarin oranges, which was on sale for $7.99, and a bag of mixed peppers at $4.99. I picked up a case of Kraft Dinner at $10.99, mostly for the girls. Kraft Dinner isn’t cheap anymore; the regular price was $17.99, and I’ve seen it higher.

There was a deal on ground beef, where all the packages were $7 each, so I got the two heaviest ones I could see. We’re starting to run low on our quarter beef ground beef supply. Although my daughter baked bread yesterday, I still picked up a couple of loaves of rye bread. They weren’t on sale, but at $3.29 each, it’s still a good price. I got more coffee for the girls’ supply, too, even though I just got them some yesterday. $10.99 for the size of container I got is a very good price.

Another pantry item was a couple of cases of Mr. Noodle ramen noodles; one chicken, one a variety pack that was half chicken and 1/4 each of beef and vegetable. They were $7.99 per case instead of $11.89. There were some good prices on a particular locally sourced variety of dinner ham – an actual chunk of meat cut off the bone, not the processed loaf – that was $13.18 for a good big piece.

When first walking into the vestibule of the store, where the shopping carts are, there was a huge display of triple roll toilet paper in 8 packs that were on sale. I was going to get two of them, missing that they were triple rolls, but when I got to the actual toilet paper aisle, I found the 24 packs of double rolls were also on sale. So I got those at $13.89. What was funny is that, as I was loading it onto the belt, the woman ahead of me saw it and suddenly remembered that toilet paper was the reason she’d gone shopping, and she’d forgotten to get it! So she just ran into the vestibule to get a couple of the 8 packs.

I also got a 10lb bag of Russet potatoes. Yes, I did get two 5lb bags of yellow and red potatoes yesterday, but at $4.99, that 10lb bag was cheaper than either of the 5lb bags. I also made sure to get two bottles of the Philippine soy sauce my husband prefers. Not on sale, but still cheap at $4.59 each, and they are quite large bottles. I also picked up some locally sourced smoked applewood slab bacon, for $11.34 I don’t know anywhere else that carries this brand, but they are the same one that made the dinner ham I mentioned earlier. Excellent flavour, and very reasonable prices.

Another one for my lactose intolerance girls was a 4L jug of “soy beverage” I knew they were wanting to try. It was not on sale, and the jug cost $6.39 I did spot a good sale on loose leaf black tea. At $6.99, it was a big, resealable bag at almost half price. Having both tea and coffee in the pantry is always a good thing, because water can get boring, fast! The one frozen thing I got was a couple of bags of Black Tiger prawns, which were 2 for $20. They were normally $16.99 each. Last of all, I got a cold bottle of vitamin water (sugar free) to drink on the way home, which was on sale for $2.25 Normally, I would have gotten an energy drink, but before I did my shopping, I picked up some dim sum for lunch and had a sugar free energy drink to go with it. That’s another thing I love about this store. They have hot food and a dining area, and their dim sum is excellent!

So the sub total before taxes was $265.29. Oddly, $46.32 was GST taxable, while $46.12 was PST taxable. Why the 20 cent difference, I have no idea!

Once I was done loading the car, I did make a quick run into the nearby Dollarama. I didn’t bother taking a picture of what I got there, but I got 4 more of the taller, thicker plant support stakes I found so useful for the apple gourds last year. What I really wanted to get was more of the shorter ones, though, but they only have one size right now. Specifically, I’m looking for ones that are only 2ft long. These are metal rods coated in plastic, and I was wanting to use them to support the hoops we put over the garden beds. We’d been using sticks, but any that fit into the hoops tend to break easily. Anyhow, the ones I got were $3 each. I also got a couple more packages of ground staples, at $1.25 each, so we’re not having to use tent pegs all the time. I also got some plastic coated plant twist ties that are stronger than what I already have, at $1.50, and more label markers for $1.25. One last thing I got was a blue pool noodle, for $2 We’ve been using these as bumpers on the gate, but we’ve lost a couple of the ones that were protecting the hinges. They’re starting to get a bit crunchy as they degrade from the weather, so I might end up replacing all of them. Grand total at Dollarama was $24.36 after taxes.

Since there are other stores along this strip that we like to go to all in one trip, I had originally considered doing more shopping, but by the time I was done, I was DONE, and more than ready to come home. I did take a different route home, though, to hit the town closest to us to get gas, because it’s still 167.9/L regular in the city, while the gas station I go to in town is at 155.9/L It makes a big difference! It might mean I won’t need to get gas while at Costco. I just did a quick check, and found that Costco is at 154.9/L for regular right now, so not enough to make much difference.

The only down side about my running around today is that I’d hope to go to the post office. When I left, they were closed for lunch, so I wouldn’t be able to pick up any parcels, and by the time I got to the gas station, they were already closed for the day. So I will have to make a point of timing when I leave tomorrow to get the mail before I head to Costco.

One thing I know will not be in yet is our live plant order from Veseys. Two transactions went through this morning. I haven’t received the shipping notifications yet, but I expect those to come soon. From the amounts, I think one of them is the mulberry and apple trees. The other thing we’re expecting from them is potatoes, but if it is potatoes, it’s not going to be all three varieties. I’ll see what it turns out to be once the shipping notification comes in.

I look forward to being able to plant those trees in particular!

The Re-Farmer

Stocking up: this is what $282 and $110 looks like

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First, the cuteness!

I only saw about a dozen cats this morning. It was quite lovely out there, with little hint of what was to come!

I knew we were supposed to eventually get rain. The high today is supposed to reach 7C/45F. This morning it was already quite windy, so I made sure to tend the smoldering burn ring so the cover lay flat over it. Normally, I set it so the slight gap faces the wind, to encourage the smolder, but this time I made sure it was facing away.

Turns out I didn’t really need to worry about it.

As I write this, we are at 3C/37F, with the wind chill at -1C/30F, and not only is it raining, but snowing, too!

I’m glad I have those carrots I planted yesterday under plastic! The cooler temperature and snow isn’t the problem. Though I covered the seed tape with soil, the wind would probably still have blown some of it away, and whatever didn’t get blown away would have been bashed about by the rain.

Today, my husband’s CPP Disability came in, so I was planning to go to Costco. By the time I headed out, shortly before 11am, the winds had increased to the point that I was thinking I would be changing plans. When I got to the town my mother lives in and gassed up (168.9 cents per liter, there!!!), Costco was off, but I decided to head to the smaller, closer city for the Walmart and Canadian Tire part of our regular shopping. Honestly, though, I seriously considered just getting a few things where I was and heading home. If the price difference wasn’t so dramatically different, I probably would have. Even while parked next to the gas pump, the car got buffeted by wind gusts, and I was facing into the wind!

The route from my mother’s town to the smaller city takes me on a several east/west stretches of road. The wind was coming almost directly from the south, and I was fighting it the whole way. It was better when I was driving into the wind, though the gas gauge sure was dropping faster! I took it slower at times, and wasn’t even getting passed, which is saying something!

Still, I got there safe and sound, and my first stop was at Canadian Tire.

This is what $110.67 looks like.

There were two things I went there for. The stove pellets for cat litter, which were $7.29 each, and another 4 fire bricks, which where also $7.29 each. The plan is to pick up a few fire bricks each month until we have enough for our outdoor kitchen, when we are ready to build it.

The cast iron frying pan was a serendipitous find. For starters, the 10″ size was 80% off! Cast iron anything has become extremely expensive, so getting this for $19.99 was something I did not want to pass up. Even so, I would not have bought it if it weren’t for one other thing: the bottom of the pan is flat. The cast iron pans we have all have a slightly raised ring around the bottom. Which isn’t an issue with a typical electric stove, but we’ve got a glass top stove now. It actually affects how the pan heats up. This one does still have a ring on the bottom, but it is indented, which solves that problem!

It says it’s pre-seasoned, but… we’ll probably season it a few times ourselves, first!

The other thing is that blue metal bar. There used to be a pencil tip bar like that here on the farm – I even remember it from when I was a kid – but it is among the things that disappeared before we moved here. These don’t tend to be in stock very often and, when they are in stock, they’re usually out of budget. This one is a 60″ chisel tip pry bar, which will meet our needs quite nicely. Best of all, it was 40% off, which brought it in budget!

I then made sure I left very quickly, before I found something else to spend money on!

Hardware stores are a very dangerous place for me to be, which money! 😄

That done, it was off to Walmart. This is what $283.38 looks like.

*sigh*

Part of that total was a donation to the Children’s Hospital, for which I was given a lanyard as a gift, which you can see sitting on the case of wet cat food. That case cost $28.77 The 10kg bags of dry kibble cost $29.97 each. I don’t usually get a 16 pack of facial tissue, but it was on sale at $17.97, instead of something like $23 regular price. There is also a 6pk of double roll paper towels at $18.97; another sale price. One extra, off list, thing that I got was a pair of sweats for myself, at $18. The other was a hanging scratch pad for $4.97. The cats in my room tend to ignore the small scratch post I have for them, in favour of the carpet, so I’m hoping a hanging scratch pad of similar texture will better appeal to them.

For my lactose intolerant daughters, there are two 2L cartons of soy milk at $4.78 each, as well as coffee, at $8.97, though that had a $1 off coupon attached to it. There is a bag of mixed frozen berries at $12.97 and four different cheeses at 2/$10. There’s a 4L jug of 3% milk for $5.88, a large jar of green olives for $8.97, and 4 things of liquid Crystal Light drink mix for my husband, at $3.37 each, which is more than a dollar cheaper than locally. There’s a giant pack of wieners for $5, but there was only one package of hot dog buns left, at $3.37. There’s a 5lb bag of yellow potatoes at $5.97, and a 5lb bag of red potatoes for $4.97. Finally, there are two bottles of distilled water for my husband’s CPAP humidifier, at $1.87 each, and bottle of a Coke Zero for the road at $2.27. Of course, all the bottles and jugs also had their 3 cent enviro fee which, in this province, we don’t get back when we recycle them.

The grand total, before taxes and donation, was actually $256.86 However, I see on the receipt that the quantity sales – the Crystal Light was 2 for $6, and the soy milk was 2 for $8 – got deducted at the end, so that brought the subtotal down to$253.82 before my donation. Taxes totalled $19.56

So this was a smaller – though heavier! – shopping trip than the Costco trip I intended to make. Between the 40 pound bags of pellets and the pry bar that weighed more than one of those 10kg bags of kibble, I wasn’t going to get too much more while using my mother’s car. We’re not using the van until I can get that noise in the engine checked, and we won’t have the budget for that until June.

Still, I was appreciating that weight on the drive home. By the time I finished shopping at Walmart, it had started to rain. Between the extra weight and having the wind at my back, the car was not being buffeted around anywhere near as much. I was still fighting the whole drive home, though, this time with all the rain accumulated on the highways that wasn’t draining off.

I took a different route home. Instead of going back the way I came, I took the highway to the town closer to us, which is a more sheltered route. It also runs through several small towns, so the speed limit is lower for most of it. When I got to town, I topped up the gas tank again – this time at 155.9 cents a litre! – before the final stretch home. I kept the family updated with where I was, every chance I got, and my daughter kept me updated on what the weather radar was showing. The last leg of my trip was driving east, which meant I was getting broadsided by the wind again, as well as the rain. For most of the drive, I was doing 80km in a 100km zone and, once again, no one was passing me! I did my shopping just in time, though. According to the weather radar, after I left the Walmart area they got hit with the brunt of the storm, and I was safely home before the worst of it hit our area.

And in the time it took me to finish writing this, the rain and snow has stopped! From the looks of the trees outside my window, the wind has died down dramatically, too! Even on the live feed from the garage cam, I’m not seeing the trees in the distance moving at all. Not even the tarp on the shed roof near the barn is flapping anymore, and that thing was billowing when I left!

Ah, weather. If you don’t like what you’ve got at the moment, just wait 5 minutes and it’ll change! Especially in April!

The Re-Farmer

Mystery solved

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While at my mother’s, we went over the shopping list a bit before running her errands. One of the things she wanted to get was some basic, transparent tape. The kind you find in the office or school supply sections.

My mother being my mother, she started hemming and hawing, saying, Oh, I’ve got this other tape. Maybe I should use that first (bringing out a roll of heavy duty packing tape), or maybe I should use this tape up, but I’ve never been able to use it.

This is what she brought out.

Yeah. That’s a fabric tape. With a bright blue backing. She’s never used it, because she has never been able to take the backing off. When she moved off the farm, she took it for some reason, and had no idea where it came from or what it was for. Best guess was that my late brother, who worked in demolitions, might have brought it home as salvage from somewhere.

Curious, I look it over and found this on the inside.

It expired 19 years ago.

I’ve never seen a tape with an expiry date before.

I told her I’d take it home so I could look it up. I could have looked it up on my phone right there, but this way I could get it off her hands, so she wouldn’t have to think about it anymore. She has way too many things taking up space that she refuses to get rid of, and it seemed to distress her. I can’t even begin to think what she thought she would us it for when she took it.

So I brought it home (along with 2 ice cream buckets of vegetable peels for the compost pile, a stack of magazines we’ll never read that are only good for the burn pile, and a bunch of onions. At least the onions make sense. They are on the list of foods she’s not supposed to eat).

I think I figured out why it has an expiry date. It’s fire retardant! Or at least it used to be. This is one listing I found:

POLYKEN 294FR FLAME RETARDANT FIBERGLASS CLOTH TAPE

Polyken 294FR is a printed, linered, flame retardant glass cloth tape for aircraft cargo compartment seam sealing. Very lightweight. White fiberglass cloth printed with F.A.R. specifications. Highly conformable and easy to install. Very flexible accommodating angles and turns. Aggressive adhesive system. Removes easily without leaving residue. High tensile strength. Repositionable.

Applications: Cargo pit applications. Seam sealing (taping) and repair of cargo compartment liners for use on covering pins/rivets where high adhesion and flame resistance is critical. Aerospace industry. 

https://industrialtape.com/catalog/product/298-berry-plastics-polyken-294fr-flame-retardant-fiberglass-cloth-tape.html

Which means it’s likely something my brother who worked in aircraft maintenance brought home. He’s been retired from the industry for about 20 years, so even the dates make sense.

What blows my mind is that most of the links I followed said things like “ask for a quote” rather than listing a price. I found one with the blue backing like this roll, and the 3″ x 36 yards size was priced at over US$85. Another supplier’s same size roll was over Cdn$100. From the looks of the images I found, I’d say this is a little less than half a roll.

I wonder if the age has something to do with why the plastic backing won’t come off, too.

What a fascinating find!

The Re-Farmer

Night views

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I noticed a huge racoon in the sun room, so I dashed outside without grabbing a coat. The racoon was gone, but I looked around with my phone as a flashlight, trying to see where it went. I never saw it again, but the moon and a planet near it was looking gorgeous, so I stayed outside for a while. It was just beautiful out there! Apparently, it’s -2C/28F with a wind chill of -5C/25F, but it felt much warmer.

Of course, by this time next month, these same temperatures will probably feel a lot colder! 😄

I ended up walking past the fence by the fire pit to get a clear view of the moon and tried to take some photos. I just used the night setting on my phone and tried a couple of hand held shot before setting the phone up on the hood of a nearby car.

Of course, the hood is curved, so the phone wasn’t level. It was also angled to the south further than I intended, which is why you can see the yard light in the photo. In reality, the yard light is barely a glow on this side, but the long exposure really picked it up! You can’t tell that the moon is a crescent at all. We’re supposed to still be able to see Mars and Jupiter right now, I think, but I’m pretty sure the planet visible in the photo is Venus.

I tried to take a couple of shots of just the stars, holding the phone myself.

This is what happens when you try to take a long exposure shot, and a Gooby decides to climb you. I didn’t intend to take a picture of the moon and planet again, but I was rather distracted with trying to extricate claws from my flesh!

Gooby really, really loves human attention, and he will get it, whether we are ready to give it or not!

The Re-Farmer

You’d never know

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My daughter took care of feeding the outside cats early this morning, so I headed out a few hours later to do the rest of my rounds, including checking to see if any fallen branches needed to be cleaned up, etc.

You would never know that, just a few days ago, we looked like this.

The day after the snow stopped, not only was all this new snow gone, but so was a lot of the remaining older snow! Right now, the only snow left on the ground is either from the deepest piles, or in the deepest shade. Which actually goes a long way to helping me identify where to prioritize new growing zones and high raised beds.

With so little snow and not a whole lot of accumulated water, either, I checked out a few areas in the outer yard I now have access to.

Removing the maple that was allow to grow at the back of this old cabin means there are no longer branches causing damage to the roof, but we have lost a few more pieces of that corrugated tin. There are pieces from a shed that collapsed long before we moved here that can be salvaged to replace the missing and damaged ones, but we have no way to safely get up there to put them on. I really want to cover these patches of roof. This is the last of the log buildings that hasn’t collapsed, and I want to salvage it, if at all possible, but that’s not going to happen if we don’t at least patch up the roof. Ideally, of course, we’d replace it entirely, but that’s not going to happen until we are in a position to repair the building, and that’s not going to happen for a few years, yet. We’ll need to continue cleaning up around it, and cutting away the trees that have been allowed to grow against the walls.

I find myself wondering if the best way to save this building would be to literally take it apart, log by log, and rebuild it on a better foundation (it’s sitting on giant logs that are rotting away and sinking into the ground), and put on a new roof in the process. We’d have to keep track of the individual logs so that they get put back together in the same order, since they are cut to fit just as they are.

When my parents bought this property, this building was used as a summer kitchen. My parents used it as a chicken coop, which never got cleaned up inside after they stopped having chickens, so there’s a lot of work that needs to be done inside. It is actually wired for electricity, though, with a couple of lights, light switches and outlets, so that heat lamps could be used for the chicks. I believe it was powered via the old pump shack, much like the current warehouse is now, except that my late brother buried the electrical cable between those two buildings. The pump shack and the old chicken coop are much closer together. I have no memory of it, but there was most likely a power line running from just under the eaves of each roof. I’ll have to take a closer look to see if there is any sign of where the line went into the cabin at some point.

Then there’s this old cabin.

I was able to get around to the far side of it, and it has collapsed even more. What a shame.

When I was a kid, this building used to be closer to the house, where we now have a parking area. It used to be a house. My parents bought this place from my dad’s uncle, but the family that owned it before had built the cabins. This one, and another before it, had been houses. When the family needed a bigger house, they just built another cabin. The original part of the house we live in now was the last cabin they built. I don’t know if they originally built it on a basement or if that was dug out later, but a second floor was included and what we now call the old kitchen was tacked on later, and is not built of logs. At some point, my dad had this old cabin moved here, and it was used as “storage”. Basically, filled with all the junk no one was willing to throw away, or that friends in the city gave to the farm, because there’s always room on the farm, right? I remember playing inside it as a child, before it was too filled up, then again after it was moved, and more filled with stuff. I even found the remains of the cradle I slept in as a child. I was quite startled by how small it was – way smaller than what is now considered safe for a baby crib – but I distinctly remember the little teddy bear design on the inside of what might be considered the footboard. Of course, in my memory, it was much, much bigger.

I have some very, very early memories.

I also remember playing and exploring in the other log building that had been a house. There had been a foot powered sharpening wheel in there, and I wonder if the one I found when cleaning up my dad’s old forge was from there. I doubt it, but I like to think that at least that one thing was saved. During the years I was away, I’m guessing it collapsed, too. All I know is that it was burned, and there is now no sign of it. Sadly, no one considered these buildings worth maintaining.

I’ve had it recommended that we just light a match to this, but I want to dismantle it to clean it up, and salvage what we can. There are bound to be sections of logs that aren’t rotted out, and they can be reused for things like the cordwood buildings we are wanting to build. Much of this wood is so rotted that yes, it will get burned, but there is so much stuff in there, we need to dig it out and see how they should be disposed of properly.

That oil drum in the foreground would make a good replacement burn barrel, if we had a way to cut the top off.

Because this is so close to the septic outlet, we might have to get rid of those trees that should never have been allowed to grow against the building in the first place.

What a shame.

Thankfully, the winds have died down, but to have an idea of just how windy it got…

The winds have been slowly destroying the tarp – or what was probably the roof of some kind of shelter – and I’d put the rocks and old tires to keep it from blowing around as much. The winds were high enough to actually blow that tire on the ground off the roof of the car! I pulled as much of the tarp back as I could – it needs to be replaced, of course, but a little bit of coverage is better than no coverage – and put the old tire back on top.

What’s really amazing is on the left of the photo. Do you see what looks like three sticks poking through the tarp?

Those look like maple. There’s a tree growing under there! It wasn’t there when I put the tarp on, several years ago. Somehow, it has managed to get enough light under there to grow and actually break through the tarp. Once things warm up a bit more (the tarp is still frozen to the ground on this side), I’ll have to uncover it and remove the tree.

Talk about resilient!

Usually, when extending my rounds this time of year, I’m making note of all the things that we’ll need to work on and hopefully complete over the summer months. What’s frustrating is looking at things like this, knowing what work needs to be done, but also knowing we can’t do it for various reasons. Like not being able to safely get up to patch the roof on the one cabin, so it doesn’t end up like the other one.

Well, we shall see what we manage to get done over the next few years.

The Re-Farmer

Covered!

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While the girls took care of most of the morning routine outside, as they took their walk in the snow, they didn’t have the memory cards for the trail cams, so I took care of that later.

The winds were still high while I was about and about. Especially as I got near the end of the driveway. Guess what direction last night’s snowfall was being blown in?

Too funny!

At least with weather like what we had, we can be sure our vandal wouldn’t be out and about in it, so a covered camera won’t matter. The other cameras were sheltered and clear. Only this one is completely out in the open.

We’re supposed to get more snow and “snow showers” over the next couple of days. The south end of our province is supposed to get a heavier dump of heavy, wet snow. The temperatures are still supposed to reach highs above freezing, so it’s going to be messy!

I’m not complaining. As long as we’re not flooding, the moisture is much appreciated.

Today, I’m potting up tomatoes!

The Re-Farmer

Mid month video tour, just a few eggs, and I have the best friends!

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The video I was working on yesterday finally exported into the format I needed without any visual corruption, and I was finally able to start uploading it to YouTube.

It’s only 26 minutes long, but the uploaded told me it would take 2 hours to upload. !!! So I went for a nap for 2 hours.

When I got up and checked, it was at under 50% upload, and said it would take another two hours.

Yikes!!!

So I went into town early to run some errands before meeting with the egg lady. I got just a few eggs. 😉

I’m looking to boil a whole bunch and pickle them for snacks or quick breakfasts.

One of my other stops was to the post office. See that white box over there? Guess what was in it?

Popcorn!

😂😂😂

That all went for the birds when I was done.

Cheddar helped me check out the rest of the contents! I love the vintage jars. Especially the milk jar with a handle on it. I’ve never seen one like that before!

I will definitely have to look up that brand of stock cubes. The store these came from had a brand that used to carry all kinds of interesting flavoured stock cubes. Garlic and Basil, and mushroom, like these ones, but also Fines Herbs, fish, seafood, and pork, along with the usual beef, chicken and vegetable. After we moved and we started running out of the ones we brought with us, I found the company’s website, only to discover they carry just the basics now. None of the interesting ones, anymore. This brand is from Italy. I hope they are available online, from a Canadian supplier. Otherwise, shipping costs would be through the roof! Those Polish candies… what a treat! I’ve loved those since I was a child, but they are not easy to find. After moving out here, I found some and was quite thrilled to buy them, only to discover they were… another brand? I don’t know. They looked the same, but they didn’t taste the same, and were rubbery to chew on. Like they were a knock off brand or something.

Yes, I allowed myself to have one, even though I’m cutting sugar. I’m not going to be too extreme about things!

We’re really looking forward to cracking open the sun dried olives. Even before we moved, the ones we used to get – sundried and packed with salt in jars – seemed to have disappeared. Finding them packed in oil is not that difficult, but there’s just something different about the dry packed ones.

And finally, the seeds! I can’t find a country on the packaging, but that could just be my crappy vision. It looks like they’re from Italy, too. I know forget-me-nots can grow here; my mother used to grow them. My younger daughter was quite excited to see those. I’m the food grower. She’s the one that wants to grow flowers! Of course, we’ll have to try the lettuce, too. At some point, after we’re done with the seed starts and transplants, we’ll be setting up a pot to grow some salad greens indoors. Just a few plants in different varieties. Planting them in the garden was just too much for our needs. Plus, even when we didn’t have groundhogs trying to eat them, we still had to protect them from the kittens wanting to roll all over the beds!

Thank you so much, M, for sending us these! What a treat! You’re awesome. 🧡💛🧡💛

Oh! And here’s that video I was finally able to upload!

The Re-Farmer