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Change in plans

/ Re-Farmer / 22 Comments

Amazing what a difference a few hours makes.

This morning, I had pretty much decided, Costco would wait until tomorrow. Which freed up my day for other things.

I was just starting to make a ham, leek and potato soup when the phone rang.

It was my mother.

After an atypical hesitant start in the conversation, of my mother saying she hoped she wasn’t interrupting anything (red flag! red flag!) she started asking me about a particular plaque that used to hang in the entry, above the doorway into the dining room. It had hung there for many decades, and was it still there?

No. It isn’t. She knew this, too, because we hung a cross of our own up there, made of olive wood from the Mediterranean, with the Lord’s Prayer engraved into the wood. She and I had had a conversation about it when she saw it. That was a while ago, so no surprise that she didn’t remember.

Then she started asking where the plaque was, asking if I even remembered it, and so on. I did remember it, but I did not remember where we packed it. I figure it’s on the storage warehouse. This building used to be a workshop, but it is now jammed full of my parents’ belongings, to the point we can barely move around in it.

She wanted me to get it for her, because she would like it now.

…

I reminded her that we can’t get to the warehouse because of the snow.

Oh, of course. It can wait until spring and the snow is going.

I pointed out that this is a very small item and would be very hard to find (in fact, I am not even sure it ended up in there, but it’s the most likely place) in all that stuff.

That’s okay, she tells me. It’s very important, you see. It’s patriotic.

The plaque has a Polish eagle on the front, and the Polish national anthem on the back.

*sigh*

Hopefully, but spring, she will forget all about it.

This is something that has frustratingly become more common. My mother suddenly remembers some possession she left behind when she moved out of here, decides she absolutely MUST have it, and then I have to find it and dig it out. Which isn’t too bag when it’s a large item, like a couple of framed prints she now has on her wall, but there is just no way we can keep on top of the little things. There was just SO much STUFF we had to pack away, just to be able to have the movers bring our own stuff out here, never mind the stuff we packed away, clean out and disposed of over the next couple of years. By the time we were cleaning out the old kitchen, we were having to put things in the old storage house in the front yard, because there is no more room in the warehouse. And the storage house is already full of junk and is so far gone, cleaning it up would require haz mat precautions. I don’t think we went in there even once, last year.

My mother has a very tiny apartment. The room I’m now using as my bedroom/office is probably bigger than her entire apartment. She has frequently rejected gifts, in her typically rude manner, because she has no room for them (then showing off the gifts given to her by family members that have been abusive towards her, but that’s a whole other issue…). Now, she’s suddenly wanting these old possessions she abandoned years before we even moved out here, with absolutely no consideration about how difficult it would be to even find these, while also worrying that someone is going to go into the warehouse and steal the things, and ALSO insisting we don’t throw anything away, because “they have value”.

*sigh*

I really don’t think anyone is interested in my late father’s old clothes, or the underwear she left behind in her dresser, along with the piles of old junk they just couldn’t let go of. Yes, there is some good stuff in there, too, but those pieces are literally buried in boxes and bags of stuff.

Thank God neither of them were actually hoarders!

Anyhow, after that conversation was done, my mother started saying she needed to run errands.

Which I will be helping her do tomorrow, thanks to her car being all fixed up, checked over and home again.

Since Costco tomorrow was not going to happen, maybe I should just go it today?

Nope. Not going to happen. Costco will wait another day.

I went back to making my soup.

After that was done, I came into my room and my daughter joined the cats on the bed as we got caught up on things. Even Butterscotch came out for attention, so she stayed longer.

There’s a problem with that.

I have a very comfortable, very large, bed.

It was covered with warm, sleeping cats.

We both got sucked into the cozy.

I fell asleep.

My daughter, sweetheart that she is, got up, laid more cats on top of me, covered us with blankets, then put away my glasses for me. She had some problems with my glasses, though, discovering that they don’t close anymore! LOL

Some time later, I got up, found my glasses, put them on and…

They don’t sit right on my face anymore.

It seems she bent them somehow, while trying to close them. They are so old and fragile, I don’t dare manipulate them too much.

So now I’m wearing my “spare” glasses, which are no longer the right prescription, but right now, the eye strain is slightly less.

Which means my plans for my tax return have changed.

With how much my progressive lenses alone cost, I’ll be lucky if I have anything left of my return by the time they’re done. Yes, we do have insurance, but only a few hundred dollars. Less than what my lenses cost – and that was years ago. At least the eye exam will be fully covered.

I just double checked. The plan covers 90% of lenses and frames, but only up to a certain amount. I go for the bargain basement frames, since I really don’t care to pay hundreds of dollars for a brand name and fancy colours. Maybe I’ll have something left over. We’ll see.

*sigh*

Well, it was nice to think about getting that portable greenhouse for a little while, at least…

The Re-Farmer

Remembered to order: from Lee Valley

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

One of the things we found after moving here, was my father’s scythe, hanging in the old garden shed. I remember my father showing me how to use it, long ago, when our rag tag collection of lawn mowers happened to all be broken down at the same time. The lawn got so tall, my father used the scythe to cut the grass.

I wasn’t very good at it, but my dad made that thing sing!

I was very happy to see the scythe still here, and would love to be able to use it, but we have not found a sharpening stone for it. I can’t even remember what my father used to sharpen it. I’ve been looking for a scythe sharpening stone, but they aren’t available locally. No one carries scythes, either, so that’s not surprising. I did finally find one at Lee Valley, and after much forgetfulness, finally remembered to order one, last night.

Images belong to Lee Valley.

This is a “Water Stone for Traditional Austrian Scythe”. The Austrian scythe is what Lee Valley carries. It is not what we have. I think I prefer what we have, as the handle has a curved, ergonomic design.

Since this is a wet stone that gets used frequently while cutting, I needed one more thing.

A “Watertight Holster for Scythe Stone”. This holster can be clipped onto a waistband, pocket or belt, and water kept in it. The water not only keeps the stone appropriately wet, but any grit on the stone will get washed off as well.

In some areas of the outer yard, a scythe is going to be the only way we can cut the grass and weeds. We haven’t done it since moving here, and it drives me nuts, because it’s such a fire hazard.

Which means we’re going to have to get into the swing of scything!

Here’s a video I found that shows both how to sharpen the blade, and how to use the scythe.

You can definitely see why keeping the blade really sharp is going to make a huge difference! Can you imagine trying to do that with a dull blade? :-D

We’ll have to be super careful using it in the outer yard, though. The ground is uneven, and there may be rocks or sticks hidden in the grass. I would hate to finally be able to use the scythe, only to break it on a hidden rock somewhere!

So the order is in and still being processed. There’s no real hurry, since we can’t even get into the garden shed, yet. The main thing is, it’s ordered and will be here when we need it.

The Re-Farmer

Changes of plans, and look who blinked first (convoy talk)

/ Re-Farmer / 7 Comments

One of my goals for today was to start more seeds and transplant some little tomatoes, after I did some baking.

My younger daughter usually does the bread baking, but she not well today. So I did a double batch of oatmeal and chia bread, then another double batch of herb bread made into mini loaves and buns.

Of course, the phone kept being busy today! After my phone appointment with my doctor, he forwarded a 90 day refill for my prescription – but for some reason changed it from taking it twice a day, to once a day, which was not what we talked about on the phone. The pharmacy caught the change and called me about it. In the end, I went ahead and took what they could give me, while they sent another fax to the doctor for find out what was going on.

After that, I left the phone with my husband!

Even so, I happened to glance out the kitchen window while shaping loaves, and saw someone walking by with a cat carrier and some bags of cat food! He didn’t even go to the door, but let them near the cat shelter. I got outside just in time to wave goodbye to them as they drove away.

I’m assuming the guy was the Cat Lady’s husband. With no chance to talk, I quickly sent a thank you text. It turned out she’d tried to phone ahead, but … well… we do live in a cell phone dead zone, and this time, she had no signal at all. The cat food bags they left with us were very small bags; it actually made more sense when I saw them, after she told me she’d got them for only 27 cents each, but couponing. It should be enough to last us until after we get the van back and can do some shopping.

Then the pharmacy delivery guy called, but my husband was able to take care of that, while I finished shaping the last of the buns.

The down side is, by the time I finished kneading the second batch and setting it to rise, my left hip gave out. It’s still bothering me! I was able to finish the baking, but I’m afraid I had to leave most of the clean up for when my daughters to the evening chores. Which means mostly my older daughter, once she’s done working, since my younger daughter isn’t feeling any better, yet – and my older daughter has her own joint issues to deal with!

What a gimpy bunch we are. :-D

While I was doing all this, what I was NOT doing was keeping on on the Senate debates before voting for or against our Prime Dictator’s invocation of the Emergency Measures Act. They’d debated all day yesterday, and the people I knew who were watching it live were mostly incredibly disgusted by what they saw. A lot of the senators were repeating the same lies and slander our politicians and media were pushing.

I must say, though, this brief clip was probably the worst example.

The “ceased” guns she was referring to had nothing to do with the protesters, the vitriol wasn’t from the protesters, but… honk honk equals Heil Hitler?? Really? It’s one thing to see idiots saying that on social media, but coming from a senator?

There was some calm and measured speeches, though. This one is worth a listen.

The fact that she has been working right where the protests were happening, and could confirm what was really going on, was important.

Funny how people who weren’t there were the ones who complained about the disruption and noise of the protests more than people actually living there. I even had one person on my friends list claim they could hear the horns, even though 1) they live an hour away from Ottawa and 2) the honking had stopped.

A constant refrain I was starting to hear from people living there is that the police blockades were far worse than the protesters ever where.

The Liberals didn’t like it when the New York Times managed to accurately report on the police actions.

Meanwhile, organizer Tamara Lich was denied bail.

This video dives into the many problems about that.

That’s right. The judge who denied Lich bail is a T2 supporter who even ran for election as an MP, for the Liberal Party.

Then I started getting messages from people.

Our Prime Dictator revoked the Emergency Measures Act himself.

That’s right. It’s done.

Gone.

But not over, of course.

He went from saying the EMA would need to be in place for months, even though the “red zone” in Ottawa was cleared of protesters, because they might come back. His party was even talking about making some of the EMA powers permanent.

The Conservative Party had already filed a motion to revoke, which would have been discussed on Monday, should the Senate have voted to support the invocation of the Act. Under the Act, the EMA is in force for 30 days, when it either expires or gets extended by vote. Any party, at any time, could move to revoke the Act, at which point our Prime Dictator would have to justify keeping it in force again, then the House and Senate would have to debate and vote on it again. The NDP would be supporting the Liberals every time, which means it would always be the Senate that had to have the final say.

A process that could, potentially, keep happening, over and over again.

Meanwhile, it began to appear that not enough senators would vote in favour of the EMA. A number of them voiced displeasure at the pressure they were getting to just rubber stamp the invocation. They were still debating it when our Prime Dictator made a live announcement that, since the emergency was over (the emergency that was never there in the first place), it wasn’t needed anymore, so he was ending it.

I have not watched his speech, because seeing and hearing him makes me physically ill.

Trudeau blinks; the truckers win; the Emergencies Act is dropped. But it has shown us who the tyrants were, didn’t it?

Literally today, as Trudeau was writing his short speech announcing that he was abandoning his Emergencies Act, his shills in the Senate were standing up and speaking in favour of it. Imagine burning up a lifetime of political capital, only to have Trudeau walk away from it moments later. Oh well – it was a useful exercise.

Which politicians — including in the Conservative Party. Oh yes, I didn’t mention it?

The cowards in the Liberal Party who announced that they were very much against it — but that they were going to vote for it anyways, because Trudeau was “forcing” them to.

But is it over?

No, of course not.

The reasons for the protests are still there. The federal mandates have not been lifted.

There continue to be protests across the country and, even near Ottawa, there are protesters set up and ready to come back, if necessary. People’s bank accounts that had been frozen are slowly being un-frozen. The law suits are still files and making their way through the process.

Ottawa’s newest Chief of Police was going to continue his witch hunt.

Will that change, now that the EMA is no longer in effect? I don’t think so.

Will this mean that our Prime Dictator will just invoke the EMA every time there are protests he doesn’t approve of? Or will his party just find other ways to grab power? For example, while all this was going on, they have been trying to push a bill that would make vaccination – but just one specific vaccination – a condition of employment, by federal law. Never mind that making any vaccine mandatory is illegal in Canada.

This is not any sort of victory. Our Prime Dictator has simply blinked first, but not until after his jackboots used illegal and violent measures to remove a legal and peaceful protest. This is not the first time he’s tried to make a power play. This is just the first time it involved the general public in such an open manner. A lot of people who were typically on board with him, even if they didn’t like some of the stuff he was doing, have had a very rude awakening.

A lot of people have also realized what a precarious position they are in, in many ways. I saw a huge leap in people moving towards increased self sufficiency, working to get out of the cities, and some even leaving the country. I foresee the “homesteading” movement to continue to grow because of what’s been happening these past two years.

For us, we’re still going to be pushing ahead with our one original goal to be as self sufficient as possible. The only change is to see how much we can speed up the process.

This is not over. Not by a long shot.

The Re-Farmer

Sad times (convoy talk)

/ Re-Farmer / 25 Comments

There are so many people posting video and live streaming what’s going on in Ottawa right now, it’s hard to keep up.

One of the most insane things is that Parliament got shut down yesterday. The irony of using the Emergency Act to shut down Parliament, when they are supposed to be debating about invoking the Emergency Act, is off the charts. This video explains a lot of the Parliamentary process, with questions answered.

This is Andrew Scheer, who used to be the leader of the Conservative Party, and was Leader of the Opposition until 2020. Personally, I think the Conservatives have seriously dropped the ball on things, and have done a terrible job as Opposition, contributing to the state we are in now, but there is a lot of good information in this video.

One of the black marks of yesterday involved an elderly woman being knocked over and trampled by police horses. There are a lot of histrionics about what happened, with many claiming she died of her injuries. She did not. Family has spoken out. She did suffer a dislocated shoulder and, of course, it hurts, but she is otherwise fine.

The really insane thing is that the Ottawa Police are lying, repeatedly. They have claimed that the protesters were being aggressive to the police. They were not. They tried to claim a bicycle was thrown at one of the horses – complete with an aerial image with an arrow pointing to the walker on the ground, as if it was the “bicycle” in question – which did not happen. As the video above shows, there was a bicycle in the crowd, but it wasn’t near the horses, and the guy had complete control over the bike the entire time.

The Ottawa Police chief resigned not long ago, and his replacement resigned after only 2 days. I don’t know who they have now, but they seem to have found someone who is completely on board with police brutality.

While I’ve been able to confirm that the woman is all right, I have not been able to find out anything about the guy. From different angles of video I’ve seen, he tried to shield her with his body before they both got pulled under the horses. It didn’t look like they were together, but just happened to be next to each other. Of course, there are people saying that he’s dead, or critically injured, but usually from the same sources still trying to claim the woman had died.

What was interesting to find out is that she is Mohawk. Strangely, when it comes to protests right now, even though all peaceful protests are still allowed if the Act is invoked, certain “classes” or protesters are exempted from our Prime Dictator’s list, including the Indigenous, refugees and illegal immigrants.

Which kind of shows just how our current federal government views our First Nations people.

Pissing off the Mohawk is not a good thing. Just look up the Oka Crisis of 1990. Which, even though it involved the police, the military, a whole lot of guns, and the death of a soldier, did not result in the invocation of the 2 yr old Emergency Measures Act.

Oh, and while the police in Ottawa were going after peaceful protesters, there was an actual eco-terrorist attack.

It was reported approximately 20 people, some armed with axes, were attacking security guards and smashing their vehicle windows. It was initially reported that some CGL employees were trapped, but all had managed to safely leave the area.

Upon police attendance at the 41 km mark, the roadway had been blocked with downed trees, tar covered stumps, wire, boards with spikes in them, and fires had been lit throughout the debris. As police worked their way through the debris and traps, several people threw smoke bombs and fire lit sticks at the police, injuring one officer.

Amazingly, while looking up a link to the story, I actually saw a headline claiming the attack was done by “Anti-Vax protesters”.

Insane.

The Ottawa Police are not the only police branch that’s openly and brazenly lying.

I remember seeing the first story when it came out – complete with the photo – and how it was confirmed by the RCMP that the incident was unrelated to the Coutts border protest. Then suddenly, the same photo was being posted with a story about the Coutts protest being raided. Except I’m pretty sure the protesters had already cleared the area before the story “broke”.

The problem with the Federal government, legacy media and the police lying so much is that everyone is busily recording everything and posting it online for all to see. Like this one.

You can see that the police moved in all at once, on an order, not due to any aggression on the part of the protesters. The woman that was injured (not seriously, thankfully) is a reporter for Rebel News, which is funded mostly by donations. No government money. Our current federal government has been trying for years to shut them down, or at least prevent them from being part of the Press Gallery, but the courts ruled against the government on that one.

I didn’t see any tear gas in the above video. People are saying pepper spray has also been used. The Ottawa Police have claimed no pepper spray has been used. They may not have been using pepper spray, but from videos I’ve seen, they were definitely spraying something onto the protesters.

Another thing that’s been happening is a whole lot of arrests. Apparently, over a hundred. However, there are many videos out there of people who had been cuffed, taken away… then released soon after. They were arrested for “mischief”, but never told what they had done that they were being arrested for (one video I saw, a guy was arrested for flying a Canadian flag on the side of the road!). They were driven anywhere from 15 minutes away, to 1 1/2 hours away, before being released. Many described being “dropped off in the middle of nowhere”.

They all made their way back to the protest site.

Of the violence that has happened, it has ONLY happened at the instigation of the police.

In reality, there is a lot more of this.

While the government continues their action, and organizers are being arrested, they’re not succeeding. As I write this, there is a back-up convoy on the way, and I know many people who are either already on their way in their own personal vehicles, on their way.

This is far from over.

Which reminds me; the police themselves are creating their own blockade, unlike the protesters. Word is, they will be preventing food from entering the city, which will then be blamed on the truckers, as an attempt to turn support against them. Divide and conquer. This is as much a psychological battle as an ideological one.

On Monday – two days from now – there is supposed to be a vote in the House of Commons. The NDP are siding with the Liberals, so unless there are enough Liberal MPs that break ranks, the invocation of the Emergency Act will be approved by the House. However, it still needs to be voted on by the Senate, and they have stopped Trudeau in his tracks before. This is not the first time he’s made a power grab. Just the most blatant.

Assuming our Prime Dictator doesn’t decide to just suspend Parliament entirely.

The Re-Farmer

Just a quick note (convoy talk)

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

I am not going to say a lot right now, because I’m a bit out of the loop at the moment. About all I can say is that, right now, Canada has taken political prisoners, through the Emergency Act.

There are a few videos I’d like to share, but I haven’t found them in a format that I can embed into WordPress. So I will start with this, which was included in an email I will share part of, below it.

Many citizens believe the Emergency Act is already in effect, by the mere use of the word “invoked”.

This is not the case.

The government has 7-days within which to provide details as to which section of the Act is to be invoked and how the measures are to be carried out.

Then the House debates, they vote on it and IF passed then it will go to the Senate.

The Emergency Act (EA) must not and cannot override the Constitution (Charter of Rights & Freedoms) and the rationale to implement the EA must be demonstrably justified by the government.

Many have stated that the Federal Government never invoked the Emergency Act for the Covid-19 calamity because, in order to get this passed, they would have had to produce ALL scientific evidence available to support the narrative and not just cherry pick which science suited their agenda.

And, since Teresa Tam was a no show on February 11th after she had been invited to discuss the science with Dr. Paul Alexander, Dr. Hodkinson and Dr. Byram Bridle, one could assume that just maybe the scientific evidence her department purports to have — either does not exist, is flawed or is not comprehensive enough to support the imposed restrictions and mandates.

For further reading:

Trudeau Does Not Want To End The Protests Peacefully. He Wants Violence

The only way to understand the actions of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the past two weeks is that he wants the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa, which so far have been entirely peaceful, to descend into a violent confrontation between protesters and police.

Everything Trudeau has done, from his initial dismissive remarks about the protesters being a “small, fringe minority” with “unacceptable views,” to his ongoing refusal to meet with them, to the unprecedented invocation of the Emergencies Act this week, has served to escalate the situation in Ottawa and increase the likelihood that it ends in some kind of violence.

SHOCK POLICY: Ottawa may euthanize truckers’ pets as punishment

The same day that videos emerged of Ottawa and Quebec police gearing up to go after peaceful Convoy supporters in the capital, the Ottawa government has warned protesters that their pets may be confiscated following their arrest.

Moreover, position statements issued by the Ottawa Humane Society reveal that they may unilaterally euthanize any animal that they deem to be “not suitable for adoption.” Arbitrary behavioral and health tests would be used to make the call. 

These decisions about the life of a trucker’s pet would, thus, be made without their consent or knowledge while they are imprisoned for indefinite periods of time via the Emergency Powers of the Trudeau regime.

I find the above link particularly… coincidental, considering this came out after a popular video started making the rounds, of a trucker and the puppies that were just born in his truck.

There Is a Limit to the Tyrant’s Power: Ottawa Freedom Convoy Tears Down Illusion of Democracy in North America

Mainstream media and political hacks have been working overtime to paint the Freedom convoy that converged on Ottawa on January 29 as an “insurrectionist movement” full of “white supremacists”, “Russian stooges”, and “Nazis” out to “overthrow the government”. Even the Bank of England’s former governor (and World Economic Forum Trustee) Mark Carney chimed in on February 7 stating that “this is sedition” and that “those who are still helping to extend this occupation must be identified and punished to the full force of the law”. Carney, the perennial financial darling of Goldman Sachs and the City of London (and Prime Ministerial hopeful) called for a targeting of all those who donated money to this domestic terror operation.

Faced with an organic civil rights movement of blue-collar truckers, farmers and tens of thousands of supporters who have convened on Canada’s capital to demand a restoration of their basic freedoms, the current Liberal government has failed to show even an ounce of humanity or capacity to negotiate. This shouldn’t be a surprise for those who have seen the hypocrisy of neo-liberal “rules-based” order ideologues in action over the past few years who are quick to celebrate the “liberty” of citizens of Ukraine, Hong Kong, or Xinjiang when the outcome benefits the geopolitical aims of detached technocrats hungry for global hegemony. The moment genuine self-organized labor movements arise demanding basic rights be recognized, then the masks comes off and the rage of tyrants show their true faces.

Wherever you live in the world, don’t think that this won’t happen to you. Even here in Canada, many are in denial over what is happening right now.

There is much more I could share, but things are happening so fast, it’s hard to keep up, and I just don’t have the stomach for it right now.

Be well, my friends. Stay strong. Love, laugh, sing and dance. Our joy is the greatest weapon we have. Tyranny doesn’t know what to do with it.

The Re-Farmer

Sump pump issues!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

In the 4 summers we have been here, I think our sump pump turned on only a couple of times, in the first two years. Conditions had bee so dry the next two years, the reservoir was pretty much empty. The only times it turned on was when we had to empty the hot water tank completely, to replace it. We partially drain it to shock it hydrogen peroxide every now and then, but not enough drains out to trigger the float.

So when I heard a pump running while in the bathroom during the night – we could hear it nowhere else – I didn’t even recognize it for what it was. When the noise was still going the next time I was in the bathroom, I was flummoxed. At first I thought the sound was actually coming from the space heaters our daughters use upstairs. Sound carries strangely in the house. I thought nothing of it, and went out to do the morning rounds.

Later, I tried to use the hot water in the kitchen, and had issues. I didn’t know my daughter had shocked the tank last night, after I’d gone to bed, so I went to check in the basement.

Which is when I found this.

This is our sump pump set up, which is directly under the bathroom. The pump was running, but there was enough seepage to create that puddle on the floor. The water was not draining out of the reservoir. Thankfully, it wasn’t getting any higher, either, but the pump just kept running.

So back outside I went. The first thing I had to do was dig out the end of the drain hose, which runs into the old kitchen garden.

It was under a drift, of course.

There was no sign water had drained out the end, and it was completely unclogged.

Then I dug out the area in front of where the drain pipe comes through the basement wall. Once that was free, I could pull the hose from where it ran along the side of the house and the sun room, all the way out, then run it down the access path to to the wall.

From the flexibility of the house, I could determine that the first couple of feet from the wall had ice in it. The rest seemed pretty clear. Yes, I could hear the crunching of ice in places, but no blockages. I didn’t want to bend it too much, though, so as not to crack the frozen plastic.

The next thing to do was set up an extension cord and a hair drier.

Since I was going to have a cord running through the doors, this meant Butterscotch and Nosencrantz couldn’t stay in the sun room. I was able to get Nosencrantz into the old kitchen, but one of my daughters had to catch Butterscotch and get her into the old kitchen.

Well, we were talking about bringing them in earlier. My daughter had through Saffron and Turmeric would be going to the vet yesterday, not next week. So we talked about bringing them in tonight.

Nosencrantz is currently isolated with me in my bedroom/office right now. Butterscotch is still hiding somewhere in the old kitchen.

I had to unplug the power bar for the heated water bowl and ceramic heater bulb in the sun room, then run the cord across the outside wall.

The next while was spent warming up the hose, pausing to try and break things up inside very now and then (using the snow shovel to keep the hair dryer off the snow!). Meanwhile, a daughter was in the basement with one of the space heaters, trying to warm up the hose where it came through the wall, as it seemed to be blocked straight through.

Things did start to drip. Which should have melted ice from the inside, so that the water could finally get pumped through, but it never got more than a drip.

After doing as much as I could outside, I joined my daughter in the basement and simply used a bucket to drain the reservoir. It’s not all that deep, but deep enough that I ended up having to attach wire to the handle of the bucket, then used the handle of a broom to push it down and fill it with water until I could pull it up with the wire. Then I could drain it into the old laundry sink. My daughter, meanwhile, was stuck standing there, holding a space heater and aiming it at the pipe.

Once we could be sure the pump wouldn’t turn back on again, we stopped. That the water didn’t drain at all in this time has be concerned that the blockage might not be ice, but some sort of crud. Which shouldn’t happen. The foot of the sump pump has a filter to keep stuff out.

I think the only way to know for sure would be to take the hose off the pipe on the outside and actually look. There should not have ever been water in there to freeze. Not only because the pump hasn’t turned on in ages, but even if it had, water should have drained away from that section of pipe, not sat there to freeze.

It’s not something we can do now. I don’t want to risk cracking hoses or pipes or fittings in this cold. We’ll just have to keep an eye on the reservoir and make sure this doesn’t happen again. The hose end, meanwhile, now runs into the main path, and we can see it from the kitchen window.

Meanwhile, we are now working on Nosencrantz and Butterscotch. Butterscotch could not be lured out even with cat nip, though I have at least seen her skulking around under shelves and whatnot in there.

Nosencrantz, on the other hand, is quite happy in her new surroundings. The girls came in while I was writing this to give her some attention, and she was just luxuriating on the bed, reveling in skritches. We will slowly let other cats in, one or two at a time, to introduce them. Right now, Cheddar is in here, as one of the more laid back cats. Nosencrantz did hiss at him a bit, even though he was just sitting there, looking at her.

So far, so good.

Let’s hope it stays that way!

The Re-Farmer

Sometimes, I hate being right (convoy talk)

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I was really hoping to not be making another post on the topic. At least not unless it was a positive one.

Yet, here it is.

Something I predicted years ago, given our Prime Dictator’s openly displayed love of… well… dictatorships… that he would do whatever he could to keep power, including doing what his daddy did, when PET was in the big chair: invoke the War Measures Act.

Well, he just did it. He has declared war on all Canadians.

Happy Valentine’s Day, from our federal government. :-/

The Act now has a different name – the Emergency Measures Act – but it’s basically the same Act, and it is be invoked only under the most extreme circumstances.

Let us be very clear, here.

There is no emergency.

The protests are legal. They are peaceful. The media and our Prime Dictator like to describe the protests as an “occupation”, filled with hatred and violence and certain objectionable flags. They’ve been described as a cult, and accused of desecrating war memorials, blocking hospitals, harassing people, and so on.

None of it is true.

The most recent ones have been stories of truckers ramming police cars, which there is zero evidence to show has happened, and that a cache of weapons had been found among the truckers; an incident had had nothing to do with the protesters.

What violence there has been, has typically been done by counter protesters, or even the police. Specifically, the RCMP.

Yeah. First they requested the excavators, parked on private land with the owner’s permission, get moved out of sight of the highway, and then the RCMP “disable” them. The damage done to these machines is incredibly excessive, and will cost a great deal to repair.

I’ve said a few times that, unlike the protests, the restrictions and mandates are illegal, because they are unconstitutional. You don’t have to take my word for it. Canada has had its own constitution for a very short time, and one of the people who helped write the thing is still alive.

And suing the government.

Now, his suit is specifically about travel, however a lot of people invoke paragraph one (pdf link) to justify the restrictions. It doesn’t, and Peckford has made it very clear that, when it was written, the conditions that needed to be met could only be met by extreme circumstances, such as war. None of our mandates and restrictions met those three conditions specifies.

Neither does T2’s invoking the Emergency/War Measures Act today. Even when T1 invoked the Act, there was an actual terrorist organization that kidnapped and murdered a politician.

Nothing like that is happening right now.

Peckford has already addressed this in a press conference.

Gotta love that last throw in, antagonistic question – one that had already been answered by the RCMP, before this press conference.

Okay. I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me back up a bit, and provide some links.

BREAKING: Prime Minister Trudeau invokes Emergencies Act

‘The blockades are harming our economy and endangering public safety,’ Trudeau told a news conference. ‘We cannot and will not allow illegal and dangerous activities to continue.’

What was that quote? About repeating lies? Oh, right…

If you repeat a lie often enough it becomes accepted as truth. - Joseph Goebbels
Source

BREAKING: Freeland announces measures targeting crowdfunding platforms, cryptocurencies to curtail Freedom Convoy funding

Under the Emergencies Act, Freeland said that the government is ordering financial institutions to cease providing financial services to anyone supporting the blockades, ‘where the institution suspects an account is being used to further the illegal blockades and occupations.’

They’re equating the fundraising efforts with money laundering and funding terrorism. For real.

Trudeau invokes martial law, declares war on freedom protesters

Previously known as the War Measures Act, the Emergencies Act grants the head of Canada unprecedented powers that should be reserved for a genuine crisis — whether civil war or a food crisis. Put simply, the Act exists as Canada’s last resort to deal with an existential threat to the wellbeing of Canadians, not as a last resort to deal with a threat to an incumbent officials’ power.

As Canada’s state-run media puts it, “The law empowers Ottawa to do just about anything it thinks is necessary to cope with a crisis.”

The twisting and turning the media has been doing of late has been quite the thing to see. Now they’re trying to convince us that the word “freedom” is a bad thing.

Amid the Canadian Trucker Protests, The Left Has Found the New ‘F’ Word…And It’s Laughably Pathetic

As for the protesters, they’ve already had a vote on how to respond.

There is only one way to respond to tyranny, and that is to stand up to it.

Our Prime Dictator could have ended this, long ago. The illegal mandates and restrictions (which cross both federal and provincial lines) need to end. He could have done that right from the start. Instead, he chose to exacerbate things, while refusing to even have any sort of communication with them. Which is completely the opposite of how he has responded to protests in the past, including ones that actually were illegal and violent.

Even non-Canadians are pointing out the obvious.

Here it is, from the horse’s mouth.

An interesting point is made in this next one.

There is so much more out there, and things are popping up constantly, so I’ll leave you with just one more.

This whole thing is so much bigger than the little dictator in Ottawa.

There needs to be a vote of non-confidence in Parliament. This is just insane.

But I am not actually surprised. In fact, I’m only surprised he hadn’t found a reason to do this years ago.

The Re-Farmer

Digging out

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We got them done! All the paths have been cleared.

I just had to stop, half way to the compost pile, take a glove off and get a photo. It’s hard to tell with my puffy parka, but the snow is now just below waist high on me. The path had been filled in completely at this spot, and was level with the rest of the yard.

The piles of snow from shoveling, on either side, are almost shoulder high on me in places.

The path to the feeding station was also dug out, clearing the steps to the dining room door along the way. We don’t use that door, but it’s one of our emergency exits, so the steps need to be kept clear.

While I was working on the path to the compost pile, the two deer that regularly visit came by! One came all the way to the feeding station, but my being in the path and shoveling ended up being too much for them, and they both ran off. I’m just tickled that they were willing to come as close to me as they did!

We got a burn done as well, so the burn barrel needed to be cleared, with space to move around it. Even with the wide area where we put the bag down, it’s a bit tight to stand next to a fire! I wanted to make sure there was enough fuel for the barrel to keep smoldering, so that it would slowly dry, then burn, the sawdust from the cat litter, so a path was dug until we hit branches from the pile that needs to be chipped. Just far enough to be able to dig some out, or break pieces free. Hopefully, this time it will continue to smolder and burn away the sawdust litter. Last time we did a burn, the sawdust froze before the heat of the fire could dry it and catch.

The path to the electricity meter had to be dug out too, of course, then I checked the path to the pump shack door. I just had to laugh! Our angel with the front end loader wasn’t able to push the snow further back, so it was dumped in front, completely obliterating the path to the door.

It took a lot of breaking things up with the ice chipper to be able to reopen a path!

Ah, the things we do for the yard cats. ;-)

And now I sit with a huge mug of tea, and some freshly baked shortbread cookies, to warm up!

The Re-Farmer

How things are moving along (convoy talk)

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I just wanted to start by addressing the update that I made in my post last night. Specifically, about an Ontario court freezing funds people have donated to the Freedom Convoy 2022.

This sort of pressure by Ottawa is what cause GoFundMe to capitulate, much to their detriment. GiveSendGo, however has pointed out the obvious.

A court in Ontario has no jurisdiction on what they, a company in the US, do with the money people donate using their platform.

GiveSendGo rejects Ontario ruling to stop trucker funding

“Know this! Canada has absolutely ZERO jurisdiction over how we manage our funds here at GiveSendGo,” said GiveSendGo.

As of this writing, the total raised at the GiveSendGo fundraiser page is almost US$9 million.

So what was the response?

Well, the Ontario Premier just increased the level of totalitarianism by declaring a state of emergency.

Ontario Premier declares state of emergency over blockades

Fines for non-compliance will be up to $100,000 and up to a year imprisonment.

Aside from his inflammatory, slanderous tone, this part is of major concern.

The temporary order will be enshrined in new permanent law that his government will introduce, he said.

Now, there’s something that should alarm anyone, whatever their opinions about the Freedom Convoy!

Our Prime Dictator is right in there, too.

Perhaps he needs to remember this.

The trucker response?

There’s a funny thing about civil disobedience. It involved being civil. And disobedient.

Which is the stage we are at now.

Also, these government actions are illegal. No law can contradict our constitutional rights. It doesn’t matter if they get passed by politicians or even propped up by courts.

Illegal Government Actions Against the Ottawa Truckers

Interview with John Carpay, JCCF

Manitoba, meanwhile, has made a new announcement. They went from promising to maybe lifting all restrictions by spring (first day of spring is March 20 this year) to announcing all restrictions will be lifted by March 15.

Manitoba ending all COVID-19 restrictions by March 15

This is a legacy media link, but I included it because it included the response from Manitoba’s NDP leader, Wab Kinew; it is so very typical of the NDP.

Alberta and Saskatchewan are also living their mandates, though all seem to be conditional. They could change their minds (again) or bring them back at any time.

The things is, the prairie provinces never had reason to shut down in the first place. Check out these screen captures I took today, from the StatCan Provisional weekly all-cause death data.

The first thing you’ll notice is that Manitoba’s data is a year behind. I’ve been keeping an eye on these numbers for a couple of years now, and they have been consistently behind all other provinces.

Now, during a pandemic of respiratory viruses, there is a distinct pattern. There is a spike in excess deaths at the beginning, usually around early spring. That spike drops dramatically, then a small spike happens at the end of the year, during the usual winter increase in respiratory infections aka: flu season.

Manitoba had no such pattern. The only spike in deaths was at the end of the year – well after it kept increasing the restrictions. Plus, if you look at the ages, you’ll find that that spike is in the 65+ age categories. Manitoba was never part of the pandemic.

Now let’s look at Saskatewan.

Again, no pandemic pattern, but there is an increase in excess deaths for 2021 – after restrictions were mandated.

Alberta, however has something very strange going on.

Something very wrong has been happening in Alberta. This is not a pandemic pattern. These are all-cause deaths. There needs to be a much closer look at what lead to all those deaths – most of which, as with Manitoba and Saskatchewan, happened when the province was locked down and mandates were in place. This could be a reflection on increased in deaths due to lack of timely diagnosis and treatment, or deaths of despair, such as suicide, drug and alcohol overdoses, or vaccine deaths. It needs to be investigated.

These are not the only provinces that were never part of the pandemic, and had no evidence driven reason to shut down in the first place. This is not to say the Wu Flu wasn’t in these provinces, but that they did not meet the criteria for an epidemic, never mind a pandemic.

All of this needs to be questioned, and in a truly free country, we would be able to do so without being censored, demonized and punished.

Here is an Open Letter to the Canadian Truckers that addressed quite a few things that we need to be talking about.

But only one side seems to be willing to address these issues.

Doctors Supporting the Freedom Convoy 2022 to Convene Public Scientific Forum

I found this message from a Canadian army major well worth listening to.

There is no doubt that our Prime Dictator is underestimating the truckers, and our legacy is a disasterous failure, with very few exceptions.

Here is a reminder of just why the truckers are there, and why so many support them.

How will it end?

Well, here are some thoughts on that.

What’s hilarious is that tweet about a “wrecking ball” on a crane. Talk about showing how out of touch of elitists are, when it comes to ordinary working folk.

Just look at these terrible, violent, nasty protesters!

The weekend is coming, and the numbers will increase. How the police are going to enforce these new, draconian edicts is certainly a fair question. Hopefully, they will not resort to the levels of violence that has been happening in Australia and New Zealand.

In the end, though, the best way to face such attempts at authoritarianism is to simply expose it for the joke it is.

I think our political overlords are in their death throws, and they know it. Unfortunately, that makes them far more likely to do something very, very stupid.

Right now, how things go is squarely in our Prime Dictator’s hands, and he shows no sign of being intelligent enough to handle it.

The Re-Farmer

One extreme to the other!

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A twenty degree drop is one thing, but look at that wind chill!

If the screen cap isn’t showing up for some reason, we are at -25C/13F right now, with a wind chill of -45C/-49F.

At this point, I’m glad we had the van towed to the garage yesterday, and didn’t have to try and drive it in, this morning!!

The Re-Farmer