Could be worse! Plus, phone troubles, again

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I checked the weather before heading outside this morning.

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

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

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

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

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

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

One of those things was the phone.

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

Which is why I saw the blinking red light.

Yup. The “hold” light was blinking again.

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

The bottom of the handset was also wet.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Still crackling.

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

Before calling, though, I checked the phone.

We have a dial tone again.

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

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

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

We shall see how things go.

The Re-Farmer

First real tests

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

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

The answer now is…

A lot.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The roads were not plowed.

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

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

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

I am so glad we have this truck now!

I still would rather stay home, though!

The Re-Farmer

Not the worst!

/ Re-Farmer / 8 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Re-Farmer

We have a land line again!

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

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

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

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

He was almost completely done before I headed out!

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

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

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

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

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

It was done before I got home, though.

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

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

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

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

The Re-Farmer

It’s coming

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Today is supposed to reach a high of -7C or -8C, after which the temperatures are supposed to drop. An Alberta Clipper weather system is blowing its way through the prairies. The snow is supposed to start this afternoon, for a total of up to 15cm over 36 hours.

We already have a light dusting of snow right now. I didn’t get a head count, but the cats definitely prefer to be in the sunroom, or the cat house. Only the super fluffy ones, like Driver, here, are staying out. The sunroom was at just below 0C when I came in this morning, compared to -12C outside.

Today’s jump in temperature makes it a good day for the phone tech to come out! My brother tried to phone me yesterday and, instead of the crackling noise as before, he got a busy signal. Even when I pick up the phone, I now only hear the light crackling of an open line. My brother says we just have a short, somewhere. The question is, where?

I will be taking advantage of the warmer day and heading to town to pick up a few things. I hope the local hardware store has stove pellets for the litter. I don’t want to drive further afield, but we’re running low. We had lots, but have been going through it faster. Using oil in the cat’s ears, and the subsequent grooming, has had unfortunate effects on their digestive systems! Nothing like so many cats having the s***s at the same time!

We’ve taken a break on doing their ears right now. The next time we do them, we need to keep track of which cats still have too much detritus in their ears and keep doing them. Some are nice and clean, so no need to keep doing theirs, anymore.

Hopefully, the phone tech will come in the next hour or so, before I plan to head out. Otherwise, I’ll be leaving the gate open for him. He’s supposed to try and call my husband’s cell phone, first, but who knows if he’ll have enough signal.

Meanwhile, it was nice enough out that I shoveled the outer yard paths, to the garage, burn barrel, and electricity meter. Depending on how much snow accumulates over the next few days, we might need to break little Spewie out and do the driveway. For now, though, the truck can easily clear the snow we have so far.

I’m so happy we have that truck!

The Re-Farmer

It may be cold…

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… but gosh, it’s pretty.

I have 2 weather apps on my phone. One of them changes every time I open it, leaping from -30C to -16C, then back again! There is a new version of that app, but I ended up unistalling it because it sucked so much. The other one cane with my phone. It reads -26C right now.

We will be rescheduling my husband’s eye appointment. Between not being able to plug in the block heater and the highway conditions, it’s not worth it. I thought we could do it just fine, looking at the earlier forecasts, but boy, where they wrong! I hate canceling on the day of an appointment, though, but when it comes to weather conditions, most places are okay with it.

On the plus side: I got some shoveling done around the house, so the sunroom doors were left wide open longer than usual. As I was coming in, I saw the thermometer, which is against an outside wall, was at “only” -15C. Which means it had been even warmer, earlier. Now that the doors are tied off, it should warm up again.

I counted 26 or so cats this morning. Twenty of them were in the sunroom. I was pleased to see all three of the smallest kittens in there, though they are all super fluffy cats. I saw Adam and Driver today, and they are so fluffy, they look like Siberian cats! They look so huge! I didn’t see Brussel this morning, but when I saw her last night, she was looking equally massive and fluffy. Their winter fur is really doing the job!

I had a chance to chat with the Cat Lady today. They are still settling into the new house, of course. I asked about the idea of officially becoming a rescue.

She did not recommend it!

The only benefit, really, is at tax time. They ended up spending more out of pocket for expenses. Dealing with fosters is hard (she had to drop several fosters), and there is the constant drive for donations. The phone is constantly ringing with people having unrealistic expectations.

Then there are the adoptions. To give an example;

One of the sick kittens they took from us never fully recovered. We had not expected it to survive at all, but she saved him. He’s doing great, but his lungs are damaged and week, do he’s prone to respiratory problems.

He has been adopted out, three times.

He is now permanently back with them.

One woman who took him promised she would care for his vet needs, fully informed of his condition.

She brought him back the next day, after he sneezed blood.

Another woman was told by her vet to euthanize him. Rather than do that, she brought him back and requested another kitten.

This particular kitten had bonded with their dog, and they adore him, so they were happy to have him back, but there’s a reason they have 27 permanent cats now.

Actually, I think it’s more than 27 now.

She just spent another $2400 they don’t have on surgery for another cat, who is currently recovering in a bathroom with an open catheter.

They have several other cats that are unadoptable, due to high medical needs. The amount they spend on special cat food and medications, out of pocket, blows me away.

So becoming an official rescue would not actually help our situation.

*sigh*

I’m glad I talked to her about it, first.

Oh, I just heard my husband talking to the eye clinic. Appointment for today is off.

Thank goodness, at least his cell phone works.

Tomorrow, the tech from the phone company will be coming by to check our lines. Hopefully, by the end of the day, the landline will be working again.

The Re-Farmer

A bit off…

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The low for last night was forecast to be -25C, before starting to warm up.

We are supposed to be well into the “starting to warm up” part by now.

Almost 8am, and we are at -30C?? We are supposed to be closer to -23C by now.

That’s off by quite a bit!

I just checked the critter cam. There are surprisingly few cats in the sun room. I’m glad that heat lamp came in yesterday, though!

Hopefully, things will warm up a fair bit over the next few hours, since plugging the truck in, is not an option. At least it’s closed up in the garage!

I do wish we didn’t have to go out in this, for my husband’s eye appointment, but it wasn’t supposed to get this cold.

Well, time to bundle up and feed the outside cats!

The Re-Farmer

Set up

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Well, it wasn’t how I hoped to set it up, but it’s pretty much the only option.

I took the platform out completely to work out how to hang the heat lamp, as well as to reach where the power bar is hanging. This gave me the opportunity to remove one of the shop lights, as it will be needed in the living room, when we start our seeds.

All the possible places to attach the lamp were too far to the sides, and too close to stuff being stored. I tried to set up the metal saw horse in the middle of the space, but that put the lamp way too low. So the platform got put back, and the lamp was hung directly to the side of the frame. No need to make holes in the insulation.

It was first secured with garden twist ties, both on the hanger, and the clamp, so it can’t swing around. Then zip ties were added, for extra security.

The platform bounces a lot when the cats jump on it, so that needs extra support. I think we have long enough boards, salvaged from a shed, in the basement. A pair of those under the platform should be sufficient.

I think this location is best, too. If I’d put it on the other side, it would be right over the cat beds, which might actually get too warm. We don’t want to mess with their ability to acclimate to the outside temperatures. Plus, that would put it close to the windows. The temperature differences, inside and out, could lead to glass cracking. That’s already a concern.

The insulation under the platform mesh will help keep the warmth under the platform, even with the lamp to the edge like that. It is over where some of the food bowls are, which I’m sure they will appreciate at feeding time! This room does not need – and should not have – a lot of heat in the winter. I think this set up will be just enough for the coming cold.

I just checked the critter cam my SIL gave us, and I can see a pair of cats almost directly under the lamp, while others are on the cat beds, as usual.

So far, so good!

The Re-Farmer

It’s in! Plus, computer news

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Just in time!

I just got back from the post office and brought this home. The heat lamp for the sun room. It’s assembled and ready to hang up. I’m going to let it all come to room temperature before I try to hang it up and turn it on.

This is much better than what we used before, which was never intended to be used for anything other than keeping the pipes under the kitchen sink from freezing. This is a brooder lamp, so it’s meant to keep critters warm, safely. The bulb guard being particularly appreciated. Sure, a cat could still stick it’s head in, though I’ll be sure to hang it where that is not likely to happen. More likely is an accidental brushing. Between the bulb guard and the depth of the reflective shade, that is no longer a concern.

There is the option to hang it from a hook, or using a clamp. I expect to be using the clamp, but it’s good to have choices.

We are not expected to have daytime highs below -20C for a while yet, but overnight lows have already dropped to that point. The city we lived in last is expecting to drop colder than -30C, so we don’t have much to complain about.

In other news, I got a voice mail on my cell phone. It never rang, but at least it took a message.

It was the computer repair place, letting me know my machine is ready to pick up.

!!!

I had thought it was a lost cause, but no. He got it going. It takes about 5 minutes to boot up (it was taking that long for a while, now), but it’s working again. The total bill, including saving and backing up my data, is almost $300. Much cheaper than a new computer!

I do still need a new computer. The hardware is giving out and it’s not worth replacing it all, but it does give us time to figure out getting the funds for a new machine. Or even a refurbished one.

I don’t know when we’ll be going into the city next, to pick it up. That gives us time to scrape the money together to pay for it.

Then there is the cost of replacing the valve stems on the truck.

Then there is getting my mother’s car in to see what the damage is, and how much it will cost to fix.

My husband has an eye appointment coming up and will need new glasses. The last time he got glasses, it cost over $1500, most of it for his special lenses, some 15 or so years ago. His insurance currently covers only about $400.

Then there is…

Then there is…

Then there is…

It just doesn’t end, does it?

However, the kitties will be nice and warm. I think the lamp is ready to hang up, now!

The Re-Farmer

A pleasant visit

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First, the cuteness!

By the time I finish my morning rounds, the outside cats are done eating and settling into their cuddle piles. The three smallest kittens are in this one.

I want to snuggle the fluffy tabby so much! S/he will not allow it. The white and grey is friendly. Once in a while, I manage to sneak a pet on the grey tabby with white, on the left, but rarely do. The other two littles do allow me to pet them, and sometimes pick them up. The tortie does not like it, but tolerates it a bit more.

I ended up heading to my mother’s, today. My brother was planning to visit her and set up a call blocker, to stop the scam calls my mother gets, as well as the abusive calls she gets from our vandal. He was going to start while she was in church, as her place is so tiny, it’s easier that way. I came over to help him out.

He has a much longer drive than I do, and we ended up meeting elsewhere, then going to her place together. I’m glad I was there to help out, even if it was just passing him things. Before we started, though, we checked my mother’s answering machine for her. She can listen to messages, but can’t figure out how to delete them.

There were two messages from our vandal.

He was quite upset that I answered her phone while I was there. Had all sorts of nasty things to say about me, of course. Apparently, he’s poor because of “what [I] did”, and his $7000 in legal fees. Of course, no taking responsibility over the fact that he was caught vandalizing the gate and that’s why I pressed charges. Or his stalking behavior, etc. No mention of his trying to sue me for $13,000, for stuff I never claimed to own. He’s lucky my mother and brother aren’t up to doing him for all the stuff he took from here, over the years. That total would be over $40,000, and that’s just for the stuff my brother could remember, and that we know is at our vandal’s place.

Oh, and apparently, I have lots of money, and cameras all over the place. Well, if he thinks we have more cameras than we do, I’m good with that. Those cameras are probably the only thing keeping him away. Also, apparently God says he should be allowed on the property.

My mother has been getting these abusive calls for at least 10 years. My brother has copies of hundreds of them. It will be so good for my mother to not have this anymore. The only thing is, she will probably still call him, eventually. She does not understand why she should not do that.

Setting up the call blocker took more time then it should have, of course. The device itself was easy to do, and our vandal’s numbers were already programmed in. To block the over 5000 known scam numbers, however, required going through a process to link and turn on through the phone system.

It didn’t work, of course. Even though my brother made the arrangements and paid for the service already. The numbers should still be blocked, but that’s something he has to work out with the phone company. They should be able to set it up remotely – he used to work IT for them, years ago, so he knows they can. But they insist he has to do this from my mother’s phone.

Still, we got as much done as we could.

My SIL had packed a lunch for my brother to bring, so by the time my mother came back from church, we had tea made and lunch out and ready for her. She did not know I was going to be there, do that was a surprise, too.

It was a very good visit. Plus, there were a few little fixes she got my brother to do. I dud have to laugh when she started telling us how, when our sister had been there, she fixed the glass shade thar came off her bedroom lamp, but she had no idea when she did it.

It was funny, because I was the one that fixed it, the last time I was there. She’d stepped out of her apartment and, while waiting for her, I saw the shade and reassembled it. Then I went to help her with things and forgot about it. She did not notice it was fixed until after my sister left her place, the next day. 😄

I’m glad I was able to be there. Not only to help my brother, but with both of us there, she was on much better behavior. She tried to go off on a racist tangent only once, and was easily deflected.

The only downside is, both my brother and I forgot to pick up some milk for her, before heading home. So maybe I will be heading back, tomorrow.

We shall see.

The Re-Farmer