Getting used to the new normal

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This afternoon, my husband had an appointment with a new doctor.  For a GP, we don’t need to find someone in The City, so he booked one in the nearest town with a medical centre.  It took about 15 minutes for him to input the list of medications, which my husband handily keeps up to date on his phone.  The process has been started to get his files transferred over from his old doctor.  We will have to apply for new medical numbers, which we have 3 months to do (by mid-February), though the earlier, the better.

I had forgotten something about this town.  The distinctive smell from the distillery, when the wind is right.  The smell of fermenting grains.  Like a giant bakery.  It smells delicious. Continue reading →

Energy.

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So much work to do.  So little time to do it.  I am so close to finishing things in the master bedroom. Unfortunately, I’m at that stage where the only things left are weird sizes and shapes, and I don’t know how to pack them.  I am running out of energy so quickly, now, and there is no end in sight. First, there was weeks of sorting and packing our old place. Now, weeks of packing the stuff here. Then our own stuff will get here, and we will have to unpack that.

My energy levels are dropping fast.

Speaking of energy…

My mom never transferred the electric bill to us, so she got the bill for the month my husband and daughter were here (the meter readings go in mid-month). It went from over $60 to keep an empty house from freezing, to over $300.

With all four of us, the next bill will probably be higher. At least for the winter.

It’s transferred over to our name, now. We want to pay my mom back, of course. That might delay getting a new hot water tank, though. My brother found what may be the last two bands in the country, if not the continent, and ordered them.  Hopefully, replacing them will work. It will not be easy. The old bands will need to be slid out, then the new ones pushed around the inner tank, all through the panel openings.

Here’s hoping that does the trick.

Meanwhile, my husband has been looking up solar. It’s available through the power company, so it gets paid for with the energy bill.  It’s a grid tie in system, so excess energy produced in the summer, for example, goes back to the grid and we would credited for it. Theoretically, if we get a big enough system, and a sunny location (not the roof, as it slopes the wrong way), we would consistently generate more than we need, and our electricity bills would just be paying off the system, or slightly more.

The catch. It has to be done by the home owner.  Which is my mom. We would need het permission to do it.

But that is to look into more in the future.

Now I need to find the energy to get back to packing.

The Re-farmer

Movers Update

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Some time after I posted our saga of the movers earlier today, we got a call back from them.

They will be here on Saturday (today is Wednesday). !!!

They will load the truck tomorrow, but only once they are paid in full, by 5pm Thursday.

I’ve already sent the maximum my bank allows for etransfers. Received and acknowledged. Tomorrow, I send them the remaining balance.

Hopefully, all will go well, and we will have our stuff in three days.

We still have lots to do, but most importantly, we have furniture to move out. Then, Saturday morning, we take the current beds out. 

The girls had to rearrange the shed to make room for it all.  People have been putting things in There, willy nilly, for a long time. No one was thinking an entire house would end up in there.

Tomorrow, we take the mirror off my mom’s big dresser, then figure out how to fit it in the van.

Too bad we don’t have a trailer hitch we could hook a trailer up to, like we originally planned. 😕

Meanwhile, we hauled another load to the shed as well. The cold has my van making a horrible whining noise. I am so paranoid out the engine failing or something. When our last vehicle died, we went a month without a vehicle.  That was extremely difficult, and my husband had to cancel medical appointments because taking the bus was too painful.  Being as isolated as we are, losing our vehicle would be a major blow. This vehicle is older than our last one, with a lot of miles on it. It was all we could afford, and the dealership screwed us over. Our mechanic assured us the engine was sound (we had a lot of other work that needed to be done, just to make it roadworthy). 

But I am still paranoid.

We shall see.

Meanwhile, I am so looking forward to sleeping on our own mattresses again.  I might even be able to stop taking pain killers before bed.

Nah. Who am I kidding? Lol

The Re-farmer 

Our Cat is Smrt

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There was a large framed mirror we were not sure what to do with. We decided to just hang it back in the same place, oriented differently.  The base is now much closer to the floor than before.

Then we put my big umbrella tree in front of it.

A chair had been set aside where the plant is now, and once the plant was in place, it just got tucked out of the way beside it.

Later, our darling mama cat was on the chair, and decided to jump into…

A cat’s eye view…

That new space behind the plant.

Straight into the mirror.

She then ignominiously ran away.

Silly girl.

The Re-farmer 

Unexpected problems

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The hard work the girls have done to pain the upstairs has hit an unexpected snag.

And it’s because of our lack of hot water.

At least partly.

This house was very, very dry.  Suck the moisture out of your flesh, skin cracking, dry.

Then the hot water tank died.

Continue reading →

The Saga of the Movers

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I have sort of set up my desktop right now.  It is hooked up to the TV for a monitor, and I am using the tiny Bluetooth keyboard.  It’s difficult to type on, compared to my lovely, ergonomic keyboard, but better than tapping on my phone, so I will finally attempt to pass on the ongoing debacle with our movers.

Why, you may ask, do I have this strange set up for my computer? Continue reading →

Progress

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Working more on the master bedroom, emptying the shelf that used to be part of a store.  It was jammed full, but I am close to getting it done.

Three of these are books and magazines. Does not count the one box of books that will not go into storage. I expect to pack at least two, maybe three, more boxes of books.

All but one of these boxes is from that shelf.  This is on top of the 5 or so big bags of linens, etc. I packed from this room.

Why is this here?


I also found mirror 56, tucked into a box of utility hooks.
The Re-farmer 

Things We Find – part 8

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This was something I found buried in the linen closet. I could not believe they still existed!  They used to be my husband’s.


Yes. My 20 something husband actually wore these!

Back then, we were living in Victoria, BC.  He was in the navy and I worked for a silk screening company.  The owners got a shipment of these for the store. This would be about 30 years ago.  So the pants are between 25-30 years old.

After showing them to the girls, my younger daughter immediately claimed them. The louder, brighter and more garish, the better she likes it.

Today, she is wearing them with a giant sweater my mother gave my husband, because she thought it would fit him.  It reaches halfway to my daughter’s knees.

This is her outfit for our trip to the city today.

I love my crazy family.

The Re-farmer

Things We Find – part 7

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Another item I remember from my childhood.

I had to stop and re-read it.

The girls found this one upstairs. I have no memory of it.

The star nosed mole with laser eyes are not something I remember from the Bible… Lol  I’ll just guess that it’s a different Samson.

Update: I just finished reading it. It’s set in a post nuclear dystopian future. The copyright is 1966. It’s older than I am!

The Re-farmer 

Things We Find – part 6 

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The girls finished off the one colour of paint in both rooms. It needs a second coat before they do the accent walks, so we were going to head to the city for them to get another can.

The weather had other ideas.  Highways are not safe. I am not confident enough in our current vehicle (long story there) to chance it.

So it’s back to work.

First, I have to include a find from last night.  The motherload.

This brings our mirror count to 55. It also answers where the shard came from. Most have remains on the back showing they had been up somewhere, at some point.  Some are damaged. A few are in pristine condition.

Then there are these.

You can still smell the perfume.

I remember them being used. They are glass perfume bottle candle holders.  From Avon, I think.  One has a piece on the top that comes off, but a bit of glue, and it’ll be good.

This morning, I decided to see what drawers need to be emptied.  The night stand is just funny.  Along with a glass cutter, a bunch of screwdrivers, keys, old watches, and a single white sock (among many other little things) I found these.

This is much creepier looking than I remember it.

I remember this switch plate.  I can’t remember if it was ever used.

I remember plastic Jesus, when it was still attached to a cross.

We haven’t really tried to do a Jesus count. My older daughter counted one room. I think she got to 19.

I also remember this compass. It works quite well.

This room is much more distracting to pack then others!

Oh, and we might be able to borrow a record player from my sister. I sure hope so!

The Re-farmer