Of course, sundogs only happen when it’s really cold. We may not be as severely cold as the rest of Western Canada is right now, but…
I took this shortly before heading outside. -23C/-9F is one thing. A wind chill of -38C/-36F is something else! And to think that where were used to live is seeing -38C/-36F or colder, before wind chill!
Needless to say, I did the short rounds this morning!
This thermometer is mounted in a very sheltered corner that is south facing. It is shaded by part of the house through the morning, though.
This thermometer is almost flat against a cold wall, in the sun room. If anything, it’s reading a bit low. Especially with that frosted window beside it. The other window is a double pane window. The frosted one lost one of the panes before we moved here.
No question as to why the outside cats have pretty much moved into the sun room! Especially with the ceramic heat bulb, a cozy soft swing bench, and a cat bed under it. Plus, there are floor mats and sheets of insulation scattered about to keep their little toe beans protected from the concrete floor. Add in food and water, and they’re all set. Except for the lack of a litter box, they have little reason to go outside. I checked as best I could through the reflections on the windows, and I could see no cats at all in the cat house this morning.
Today we’re supposed to reach a high of -19C/-2F, then tomorrow, dip back to -20C/-4F. After that, it’s supposed to start warming up, eventually reaching a high of -5C/23F. The weather app on my desktop that had been forecasting 1C/34F for New Year’s? It’s now saying we’ll see a quick drop to -10C/14F
That’s still really pleasant for the time of year, so I don’t have a problem with that!
It now hangs in a place of honour in our hallway. Steve is an old friend and former employer of mine, and incredibly talented. He painted this for me, because I post so many cat pictures on Facebook. From the letter he included “… I myself think they are evil to the core so I painted you a cat picture depicting a particular large and nasty one who is SO EVIL it has taken Ernst Bloefeld, the power behind SPECTRE in James Bond movies, and has turned him into the one who sits getting continually stroked whether he likes it or not.”
He made a metal paw print, heating it like an branding iron, to burn in those paw prints. Then he sanded them and painted them black.
Last I checked the tracking for my Baker Creek order, it was still hung up in Illinois, so it was a wonderful surprise to get it in, along with the Heritage Harvest order I knew had arrived in yesterday’s mail.
The hulless seed pumpkins, carrots and onions are all repeat orders. The free Merlot lettuce seeds are a variety we’ve ordered before. We hadn’t planned to buy lettuce seeds for 2023, but there they are!
The Hedou Tiny Bok Choy is something I’d not heard of before! I don’t know if we’ll plant the lettuce for 2023, but I’d sure like to try this variety of Bok Choy! From the description, they are a cool weather crop, so we should be able to grow them all right, here.
Well, would you look at that! Thanks to the free seeds, we now have two types of lettuce! Jebousek lettuce. “A wonderful heirloom deer tongue lettuce from Czechoslovakia. Ella Jebousek of Brooks, Oregon received this variety from a descendant of the family who brought it from Czechoslovakia. Looseleaf type.”
We’ll see if we try them in 2023 or not.
What I’m looking forward to is going through that seed saving book!
I don’t think we’ll be ordering more seeds after this. We will be ordering other things, though, that will be shipped in the spring. Potatoes, for sure, and likely raspberry bushes or strawberries. That won’t happen until after the holidays, though.
I’m glad to be home and done with it, though. Looking at the life security camera feed, I’m seeing a lot of whiteouts from blowing snow!
So… First the sort of bad, sort of good news.
I dropped the van off early and talked to the mechanic in detail about what was going on, including that the warning light had turned on again when I drove in, then went for lunch. Normally, I would have walked around town to run as many errands as I could, on the way to where I usually go for lunch, but the winds were too brutal today. Instead, I basically crossed the parking lot to a hotel across the way, and went to another Chinese restaurant. Just that short walk was more than enough to convince me to stick close!
The van was done by the time I got back. He’d done the oil change it was booked for. As for the rest…
*sigh*
When he hooked up his reader, about 40 codes came up. He cleared them, but two wouldn’t stay cleared. There is a bearing in each of two tires that is starting to go. This was a known problem, and not extremely urgent, but they do need to be replaced. The problem is, replacing them will cost at least $1000 – more than the van is worth. Getting the rest fixed as well would bring the cost to over $4000.
So… I paid for the oil change.
The bearings will last a bit longer, so we can use the van, but it’s on its last legs. I’d already talked to him about replacing it, and to be on the lookout for a truck or van for us for January or February, but it looks like we can’t wait.
He has used vehicles for sale that I walked past, and I noticed a 2008 SUV, among several others. My husband’s walker should be able to fit in the back of an SUV all right, plus it would be something he could climb up into, like a van or truck, rather than down into, like most cars, which is incredibly painful for him. We hadn’t considered an SUV because we wouldn’t be able to do things like haul the gas powered snow blower to be serviced in it, but we don’t have the luxury of choice right now.
I asked him about it, but the 2008 was already sold. Of the others he had, and discussing our needs, he suggested a 2013 Ford Explorer. It was actually a lower price than the other, older ones, but it has 260,000 km on it, which brought the price down – and he lowered it even more, for us, if we’re interested. And yes, he will take the van as a trade in, though it’ll only get us about $300 towards it. This particular vehicle is all wheel drive, and has a number of amenities that would be quite useful. It also happened to be owned by a family member of his – just one owner – and he’s been the one that serviced it the entire time she had it. He told me about some of the work he’d done on it.
In the end, I got information about it from him, along with a form to apply for financing. We’ve already talked it over as a family and have decided to go for it. We just can’t be without a reliable vehicle, and with my mother’s car – which doubles as our back up vehicle – sometimes not starting on us, that means we have two unreliable vehicles right now! What choice to we really have? I’d much rather have another van, but beggars can’t be choosers. Plus, the price is really good for a 2013 vehicle!
So we’ll have to start that process. It’ll be a moot point, if we don’t qualify for financing, anyhow.
Once I had the van back, I contacted the lady about the eggs, then went to the grocery store. I also updated the family and asked my husband to send our regrets to his brother; we’d been invited to do Christmas Day at their place, but we will be driving as little as possible until the van is replaced.
We traditionally do our main celebratory meal on Christmas Eve, as part of Polish tradition, and already have a turkey thawing out. I got more for the meal, plus a few things to make sure we won’t be running out of things until after New Year’s.
This is what $264 and change looks like. Though I got a lot of things on sale, it’s still about $50-$60 or more higher than if I’d been able to get to the city to buy it. Especially when including the cat kibble.
My husband requested some Caesar Salad mixes, plus I got a couple of kit salads for our Christmas and Christmas Eve dinners. Potatoes in 10kg bags were on a very good sale – less than $5 a bag – so I got one of Russets, one of red. There’s sweet potatoes, broccoli, rye bread and wraps, Mandarin oranges, Caesar Salad dressing, cheddar cheese, mozza cheese, some chicken “fries” as an appetizer for Christmas, and a cake for dessert. There’s bacon to drape over the turkey when we roast it (we plan to spatchcock the turkey), and some pork chops that were a good price. Oh, and a big bag of potato and cheddar pierogi. Last of all, an energy drink for the ride home!
I think I remembered everything.
That done, it was off to pick up the eggs!
Two flats of farm fresh eggs, for $25.
That done, I stopped for some gas on the way home – I considered getting a car wash, to get rid of any ice and snow built up under the van, but it was closed due to the cold temperatures. Their convenience store had a lot of stuff for Christmas, including a big box of Stroopwafels, which is a rare treat for us, so I had to get that!
And yes. I bought lotto tickets, too!
One last stop on the way home was the general store and post office. I got some drinks and alcoholic eggnog for Christmas and picked up the mail. I knew there was one package waiting for me, but there turned out to be three. I was very excited when I opened them, with one of them being an incredible surprise, but those will get their own posts!
After that, I finally headed home. One of my daughters got the wagon to the garage for me, since we can’t pull into the yard to unload right now, so that got loaded up. By then, it was late enough to give the outside cats a feeding and top up the sun room water bowl.
Shortly after I got home, I started getting messages from the cat lady. The vet that does the spay clinics just set a date for another one, and did we have any females to do? She also wanted to take the bitties.
Long story short, I now have one white and grey kitten that’s female in the baby jail. My daughter was able to catch the grey and white bitty tabby, but not the bitty tuxedo. We don’t know if the bitties are male or female.
Oh, dear.
The bitty is so small, it has already managed to get out of baby jail, but the white and grey just squeezed out, too!
Marlee does not like the kittens, and has been snarling any time she sees them!
Ah, well. I will let them explore until it’s time to do the evening wet cat food feeding. Hopefully, I can get them into the baby jail to eat in peace. After that, I suppose I’ll have to watch my feet during the night!
The date for the spay clinic is Jan 2 and, after I explained about our van issues, the cat lady said she will come out, likely Dec. 31, to pick them up. We should be able to catch the bitty tuxedo by then, and maybe another outside female, but we’ll also get Tissue done – the last inside cat to get fixed. This will give us time to socialize any we can bring inside, too. The bitties will stay with the Cat Lady and she will adopt them out, but the others will come back to us. The vet does ferals, so if we can catch any of the unsocialized females, they can be added to the list, too!
The bitty tabby is hiding somewhere, but the white and grey is busily playing with the cat tree behind me. 😄
So… it’s been a much busier day than expected, that’s for sure!!!
The temperatures are pretty brutal out there right now, but we are very fortunate where we are. We aren’t getting any weather warnings, for starters. Western Canada is being absolutely blasted with extreme cold right now. Eastern Canada has their own weather warnings, though not as cold. Here, in the middle, we’re in a gap of almost mild temperatures.
Speaking of which…
Can you believe this?
I took this screen cap of the weather app that came with my computer, just a little while ago. We’re at -22C/-8F, with a wind chill of -30C/-22F I was definitely feeling that wind chill while doing my rounds, and actually skipped switching out the memory card on the sign came. Because my parents planted tall trees close to the house, rather than along the fence line, there is far less protection from the wind once I start crossing the old garden area. The lilac hedge and few trees that are there do help, but not that much.
I made sure to start the van and let it run for a while, while doing the rest of my rounds, though.
What’s unbelievable, though, is the forecast for around New Year’s. According to this app, not only are we going to warm up, but actually reach highs of 1C/34F!
I actually don’t believe it. My phone’s AccuWeather app says we’re going to reach -7C/19F around New Year’s. I think that will be more likely!
Still, that’s really incredible and, according to the AccuWeather website, which has extremely long range forecasts, what we’re getting now is almost the coldest we’ll get for the rest of the winter. There’s a few days they’re predicting will hit -22C/8F again, but not cold snaps that last days, like we’re in right now.
When I was looking at the Farmer’s Almanac forecast for this winter, they were predicting some areas getting brutal cold, while others having a mild winter. From their map, we were in a sort of in between area that could go either way. It’s starting to look like the Farmer’s Almanac was pretty spot on, and that we lucked out by getting the milder temperatures this year.
After the last couple of winters, I consider that a huge blessing!
It’s still pretty fekkin’ cold, though.
The large heated water bowl gets a thick ring of frost around the top edge, but the smaller one actually gets a sheet of ice that hangs like a shelf above the warmer water!
I’ve completely stopped trying to knock the ice out of the metal bowls and refilling them. The cats are mostly using the sun room for shelter now, so I’m putting more food out in there, and topping up the broken heated water bowl. It freezes over night, but from the level the ice is at when I pour in the warm water, they are getting plenty to drink before they have to go outside.
Both bitties have moved into the sun room, for the most part. I sometimes see the tuxedo outside. There’s no litter box in there (it’s in the cat house), and they seem to be going outside to do their business. At least, so far, I’m not seeing any messes in the sun room.
After breakfast, they all go back to their favourite spots!
I just had to get a picture of these two.
Pointy Baby (in front) and his older cousin are such a matched set! The older one is so fluffy! They both seem to have that mix if white and black fur on their sides that make them look like they’re going grey!
Pointy Baby is extremely friendly and can’t get enough attention, but we’ve had no success in socializing his cousin.
In other things, today we bring the van to the garage. I am really, really hoping it’s just some minor thing that he can fix right away. If it’s major… well, we’ll have to make some decisions.
If all goes well, after the van is done, I’ll finally pick up those eggs I was supposed to pick up earlier, then do at bit of grocery shopping to last us until after New Year’s. There is no way I’m going into the city for the big shop I was hoping to do, this close to Christmas, and I figure it won’t be much better after Christmas, either.
I am so nervous about what the van’s diagnosis will be!
Marlee has discovered a new, favourite space to loaf in.
As I was going to bed last night, she was wandering around and I started to pet her. Bending over hurts after a while, so I lifted her onto the bed to sit with her. She does NOT like to be picked up, and likes being carried even less, but once she was on the bed and I started petting her, she turned into a purr monster. Rolling around, grabbing my hand, insisting I pet her face, doing cozy toes against my hand, and generally ensuring I was not going to bed any time soon! At one point, I think she saw a cat moving out of the corner of her eye and started to hiss and purr at the same time!
She is such a sweet cat!
In other things…
While doing my rounds this morning, I tried starting my mother’s car.
It didn’t start smoothly, but it did start. It may have been plugged in, but it was still -25C/-13F at the time, so it’s going to complain. I left it to run for a bit, and it was fine.
At this point, I find myself thinking that her car not starting when it was time to leave was God’s way of telling me I should use the van. It was only while driving the van that I realized the car would never have made it through the snow in the driveway at the time.
Of course, I started my rounds with feeding the outside kitties. The kittens spend most of their time on the swing bench now. The thermometer in there was reading -12C/10F. It’s right against an exterior wall, so it likely reading colder than the ambient temperature.
Some of the kitties run off when I come in with the food, while others crowd in front of the door, giving me no room to step down, and try to get into the old kitchen! It would be a lot easier if I could keep the kibble bin in the sun room, but that would just attract racoons.
While I was bending over to set out kibble, I looked up to find one last kitten on the swing bench, looking right into my face.
It was the grey and white bitty tabby! This is the first time I’ve seen it in the sun room, though I did figure it had found its way in by now. I dropped some kibble in front of it and it ran off, but I did see it eating with other cats on the floor, soon after.
The bitty tuxedo was outside, and went after the kibble I put in one of the openings to under the cat house. When it was still there after I topped up the water, I reached over to pet it. It hissed at me and ran the rest of the way under, but at least I got to touch it!
When I was finishing my rounds and going inside, I spotted the bitty tuxedo on the swing bench.
I just love that teeny, tiny white mustache!
Later, my husband got this photo from the bathroom window.
The bitty tabby is at the front. It looks like it’s nursing on its mama – along with one of the grey and whites! Broccoli seems just find with nursing whatever kitten wants to!
They crowd so close together on the swing bench, it’s hard to count them. While looking through the bathroom window, before my husband got the above picture, I counted at least 11 cats on the bend, three more above the heat bulb, and three more on the floor, eating. I couldn’t tell if there were any in the cat bed under the bench.
That cat lady is working to make space for the bitties. She’d like to take them within the next couple of weeks. I don’t know if that will work. They are still too skittish. I’m glad they’re going into the sun room, though, and taking advantage of the huge pile of body heat on the swing bench!
Today is going to be a quiet day of staying indoors and warm as much as possible! Tomorrow, I take the van in to the garage. I’ll be getting an oil change, as well has getting it checked to find out what’s going on with the brakes warning we’re getting. It could be as simple as the brake fluid is low (or too cold). Hopefully, it’s not something major. If it is, we’ll have to decide whether it’s worth fixing, or if we’re trading up sooner rather than later!
What a day this turned out to be – and it’s still the afternoon, as I write this!
Here’s a bitty, so start things out on a positive note!
I eventually saw both bitties, then I saw the tuxedo eating in the sun room. As I finished my rounds, I spotted him in the cuddle pile on the swing bench!
At least the morning started off well.
My mother had called yesterday, and we arranged for me to come over to help her run errands. With that in mind, while doing my rounds, I started her car and let it run for a while. Everything seemed fine, so I shut it off and plugged it back in before going inside.
The woman I’ve been getting our cardboard for the garden from has been selling eggs. I decided to get 2 flats of eggs from her, instead of Costco, and we made arrangements for me to get them while on my way to the city, tomorrow. She’ll be away, though, so her mother has the eggs, in the town nearest to us – but not the town I normally go through on the way to the city. I got her contact information, and was going to just make a side trip to get them on the way out, but since I was going to be running around today, and picking up cash for the eggs in the process, I figured why not make the side trip to get the eggs today, on my way home, instead of tomorrow, on the way to the city?
So that was arranged before I headed out to my mother’s. I was planning on going to the bank then pick up lunch, first, so I headed out very early. I even remembered to grab the empty water jugs to refill.
It’s a good thing I headed out as early as I did!
First, my mother’s car wouldn’t start.
I turned the ignition, and there was nothing. No sound. The fan and the radio turned on, but that was it.
After trying several times without success, I plugged it back in, then headed inside to switch keys. I asked my husband to call my mom and let her know I’d be coming with the van and why, then headed to the garage again.
The van started fine, and I backed out. My daughter had cleared in front of the garage, but had not been able to get back out again since then. I ended up backing into the ridge of snow, so I went back and forth a bit to be in the clear, before pausing to send a message to my brother about my mother’s car, since he likes to keep on top of that. I had to get the van out of the garage to send the message, because there’s no wifi signal in the garage.
I had just finished that and started to move the van, when an alarm sounded and a warning light turned on. The onboard computer displayed the message “check brake system”.
WTH???
I decided to try plugging in the OBDII reader to see if it could tell me something useful.
It wouldn’t connect.
The app just kept scanning for a device to connect with, and never found anything.
After following the instructions to connect, several times over, I gave up. To use the scanner, the vehicle ignition is supposed to be in the “on” position, but without the engine running. I was going to drive it back into the garage and cancel with my mother, but when I started it, there was no more warning.
Did I dare go to my mother’s?
I decided to give it a go.
And promptly got stuck.
The snow on the driveway was deeper than I thought.
Thankfully, I was able to easily back into the cleared area again, reposition the van, and go for it.
I barely made it to the road, but I did get through.
My mother’s car would not have made it, so… silver lining!
I drove until I reached the highway, when I could finally pull over to message my family, asking if the driveway could be done while I was gone. Then I continued to my mother’s town.
It wasn’t until I was pulling into the parking space at the bank that the warning light turned on again. I went to get some cash, started the engine, and it was still there. I drove to the Chinese take out place and parked, but when I started it again to go to my mother’s, the warning was gone.
In the middle of all this, I was contacted by the egg lady’s mother, with an address to pick up the eggs, and had to cancel that, though I offered to pay for delivery, if that were possible.
My mother and I had lunch and visited for a while. I updated the family, and my brother, about the situation, and my husband was able to book the van into the garage to get checked – and for an oil change – the day after tomorrow. I was just starting to message the egg lady’s mother, when she responded to my question about delivery, saying she didn’t drive. Thankfully, I was able to tell her I’d be in town on Thursday with the van, and should be able to get the eggs, then.
Needless to say, I was rather on edge while doing errands with my mother! The warning light did turn on again, in between errands, but then it turned off.
We did groceries last, and I stayed long enough to put away the refrigerator stuff before my mother kicked me out to go home. Usually, I stop to get gas (and buy a lotto ticket!) before going home, but I didn’t even do that. It was straight home – and the warning light stayed off the for the entire drive.
My younger daughter, meanwhile, had spent most of that time doing a marvelous job with little Spewie. It was a real struggle, but she’d managed to clear a lane just wide enough to drive through. I had to stop to let her know I’d arrived, and move the extension cord, because she couldn’t hear me over the snow blower. Still startled the heck out of her!
Did I mention she’d cleared a path just wide enough to drive through? 😄 Getting in and out of the van was a bit of a challenge!
With how hard of a time the little snow blower was having, clearing such densely packed snow, once I was parked and we could see she didn’t need to clear much more by the garage, she went and cleared a path to the gate cam, and enough space to be able to close the gates. I’ll have to open them again tomorrow, for the pharmacy delivery driver, but at least it’s an option, now!
As for us, we are going nowhere tomorrow.
We’re supposed to stay pretty cold over the next four days or so, before things start becoming relatively mild. We’re getting extreme cold warnings, but that’s a relative thing. Some friends in the city we were living in before moving here have been posting screenshots of their weather apps. They’re getting -33C/-27F with wind chills of -45C/-49F today. We’re not supposed to get anywhere near that cold. I’ll be just find with highs of -22C/-8F we’re expected to get a few times in the next week. Even right now, we’re at -21C/-6F, with a wind chill of -30C/-22F, and nowhere near as cold as they are!
Still, this cold is doing a number on both our van and my mother’s car. We’ll be taking the van in, but there is nothing we can do about her car until probably February.
Unless it just starts working again. I’ll try starting it again tomorrow morning, while doing my rounds.
Both vehicles really need to be replaced, but the priority is on replacing our van right now. It’s the most needed vehicle.
Something to talk about while at the garage. Our mechanic now sells used cars, too, and I’ve already talked to him about what we need. Our van is so far gone, if we use it as a trade in, he’d just be sending it to the scrap yard for a few hundred bucks. He suggested we try selling it privately. Someone who can do the work themselves could do well by it, even as just a parts vehicle. But we can’t sell it without having something to replace it, immediately.
*sigh*
So, yeah… a lotto win would sure come in handy right now! I just gotta remember to buy a ticket! 😄
The Re-Farmer 