birthday

Birthday treat and playing with bebbies

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Today was quiet, for the most part. We’re all pretty drained, exhausted and fighting different kinds of pain.

I’m incredibly frustrated. The weather and temperatures are absolutely ideal for working outside, and I can do next to none of it.

I never took the hydromorphone my husband gave me, last night. I waited until I was more confident that I had no T3s left in my system and, by then, the pain had subsided on its own. I wasn’t about to take such a high dose without genuine need. When my 6 hour alarm went off during the night, when I would normally have taken more T3s, I wasn’t even dealing with a lot of pain in my hip, so I skipped it. In the morning, there was just a dull ache. This time, I took a tramadol instead.

It made no difference.

Aside from my daughter doing the morning routine outside for me, we mostly just took it easy. We did have a planned outing, though. My husband has a birthday this month and my older daughter treated us to his dinner of choice. Normally, that would be pizza, but he can no longer tolerate dairy, even with Lactase, so he chose Chinese food, instead. With this, we typically order just a lot of meat and seafood, with my husband also getting some chicken fried rice. We order enough to last us a couple of days, at least, which got us some free rice and deep fried wontons, and we prefer to do our own vegetables at home. This time, my older daughter baked the last of the bush beans and summer squash we had in the fridge, which was quite delicious.

My younger daughter and I headed out shortly before 1, to miss the lunch rush and to pick up a 40 pound bag of kibble on the way out. We both were thinking today was Tuesday, though. It’s Wednesday, which means the general store closed at noon. We’ll have to go tomorrow, instead. Which is fine.

When we got to the area around the restaurant, we had to drive around the block a couple of times trying to find parking. There was nothing nearby at all, and we ended up parking closer to the marina. I wasn’t even sure it that area was public parking, or parking for boat owners.

By this point, I was having trouble walking, but still well enough that I turned down a cane when my daughter offered to get one out of our collection in the back of the truck for me. We placed the order and paid for it, then set a pick up time long enough for us to make a side trip to the grocery store. We wanted to pick up drinks for everyone, but ended up getting a Boston Creme cake that was on sale, even though there is still a bit of the Costco slab cake left. I noticed some good sales on grapes and a few other things, so my daughter and I also picked what we needed to have a small charcuterie later on, to go with the new cheeses we got in the city. By the time the groceries were paid for, I was relying on the cart to use as a walker.

When we got back to the restaurant, there still wasn’t any parking nearby, so I dropped my daughter off by the door then pulled over in the lane around the corner. After she got back with the food, I had to ask her to do the driving. My alarm had gone off for my afternoon T3 dose just as we returned to the truck after ordering the food, but it made no difference. The pain just kept getting worse.

It has since subsided again, and I’m down to a dull ache. Tomorrow, my Percocet gets delivered. I’m really hoping that works better than the T3s. If it doesn’t, then I’ll probably end up with my own prescription for hydromorphone – just not as high a dose as what my husband is getting!

After we enjoyed our first day of birthday take out, I felt well enough to go outside and do the cat feeding. I even watered the south garden beds, though I wasn’t up to doing the main garden area, too. After a couple of hours, I went out again to top up the kittens’ bowl of kibble softened with cat milk in the catio, since other critters have been stealing their food. Then I set up the camp chair and started fishing for kittens.

The little black one with the white stripe up the side of its nose is more enthusiastic about it. One of the tabbies got curious and started coming over, but not close. The other kittens were much more interested in playing among the white lilacs.

The Grink wasn’t interested this time, but Sweetie sure was! At one point, she was stalking the lure at the same time as the kitten, but she does not like the kittens at all. Without the distraction of the lure, she growls and spits at them, and I’ve even seen her bat at them.

I did manage to get the little black one close enough that I could reach down and touch its back, but it did not like that, so I didn’t push my luck with it.

Then my alarm went off for my evening meds, so I headed back inside.

Tomorrow and the day after, there are people from the rescue available to meet up with us, so I’ve talked to my daughter about working on getting kittens closed up into the carrier. That will mean heading out fairly often to see if they’ve gone in, and maybe setting some treats out as bait. Hard to do that and keep the other cats away, though. Thankfully, the rescue have us quite a lot of donated treats, including some just for kittens, so we could probably set out some for the bigger cats as a distraction, then put the kitten treats out for the little ones.

I pray for quick success on this! With their mother gone, there’s only so much we can do to protect them. We really need to get them in to the rescue for fostering and adoption! Otherwise, their chances of survival are very low. At this point, it even looks like Sprout and Sprig, the two calicos, are gone! Sprout had Sprig last year, along with two others that disappeared. The older white and grey that we are also trying to catch is Sprout’s from this year, and I am sure she actually had more than one kitten.

We have had so many adult cats disappear this year. We would expect that with some of the males disappearing for the summer, then coming back for the winter, but these are mostly females that have disappeared. At least a couple that I’m sure had a litter somewhere. Among the others, both fixed and intact cats have disappeared. The person at the rescue whose daughter had been fostering Domino is pretty devastated that they brought her back, and now she’s gone.

Such is the reality of yard cats.

I say as I hear the sounds of cats fighting outside my window!!!

Excuse me while I go check on that.

The Re-Farmer

I admit, this terrified me

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

So… it happened again, today, but this time at home.

First goal of the day was to make a dump run. As usual, I back the truck up to the house to load it up. My brother and SIL are out for the weekend and my SIL was using their beautiful zero turn mower, so I made sure parked the truck well out of her way.

My daughter and I loaded up the truck, then headed out. Finished up at the dump and head home. With the renter’s cattle now rotated onto this section, we made sure to close the gate when we left, so I stopped in the driveway as my daughter got out and opened the gate. As soon as she did, I went to put the truck back into Drive and…

Nothing.

The shifter just slide back and forth, no resistance.

The steering shifter linkage we’d just had installed as no longer working. Broken? Fallen off? We had no idea.

We just got the truck back. Aside from the drive home, this was the first time we’d driven it! They did test drive it a few times before I got it, but still… it should have lasted.

Damocles dropped his sword again.

Once we got over our disbelief, I left my daughter to take care of closing the gate back up, etc. while I headed in. I saw the barn door open, so I went to see if my brother was there. He was working on some of his equipment, so I told him what happened. He said he was busy, and I told him, I was just letting him know, since the truck was just sitting in the driveway, outside the gate, and told him I was going to go phone the garage – and see if I had any more tows left on my CAA!

I called the garage and left a message, then tried to log into CAA.

It didn’t recognize my password.

I double checked and confirmed I had the right password.

Still didn’t work.

Tried the app. I rarely use the app because I always have trouble with it.

It actually wanted my CAA number input first, but again, I couldn’t log in.

I tried to reset my password. A code would come in to my email account.

It never came in.

I hit resend.

It didn’t come in, and this time, there was no “resend” option.

By that time I got a message from my SIL, telling me my brother was looking at the truck, so I gave a phone handset to one of my daughters, in case the garage called back, and headed outside.

My brother couldn’t fit under the truck to see anything – the guy that had done it before, on the street, was incredibly tiny to fit under there! So he brought out a jack.

The next while was spent getting the truck raised up and secured, with blocks, a second hydraulic jack under the truck, and something I can’t remember the name of that can support up to 2 tons, set up to support the truck’s weight should the jacks fail.

It still terrified me, and it takes a LOT to scare me.

In the first picture, you can see what he found.

Those two pieces are supposed to be attached. The white plastic visible, fits over the metal nib above. It simply fell off.

In the second picture, you can see what terrified me, the entire time my brother was under there. All the safety precautions didn’t matter. The youngest of my brothers had been working under a car. He had taken precautions. It still fell, killing him instantly.

My brother got the linkage connected, but said it would just fall off again, so he looked around.

What he found was a hook, which holds the weight of the linkage cable. It was bent enough to be touching the transmission. Which meant the weight of the cable was actually pulling the linkage loose.

He thinks something had to have hit the hook. Who knows when or how. He straightened it out and then added some zip ties to hold the cable. Now, the weight of the cable actually pushes towards the linkage instead of away, helping hold it in place.

All the while, he explained things, took pictures and even some video. Some of which I was able to message to the garage.

When everything was done and the truck was back on the ground, I was able to drive it to the garage without any problems.

My brother is the best.

I never did hear back from CAA, so I still don’t know if I have any tows left. When I got inside, I phoned the garage and left another message to follow up. I suggested swinging by with the truck so they can take a look at it at some point. There is no way it should have fallen off so easily, even with the hook bent out of place. Even with what my brother did, it could still simply pop off.

Which meant we suddenly weren’t sure about our next trips.

We were planning to do a combination celebration for Father’s Day and a birthday today. My older daughter was going to treat us to Pizza Hut, which meant a trip to the nearer, smaller city. We would have combined the trip to hit a Walmart and a liquor store along the way.

None of us felt comfortable doing that, even though my brother assured me the linkage should hold now.

We decided we’d go to town, instead.

My younger daughter and I headed in so we would arrive as the pizza place we were going to was opening at 4pm, with my daughter messaging the family to let them know where we were, constantly. We ordered the pizzas, which would take a while to cook, giving us time to go to the grocery store. Along with the stuff we picked up for ourselves, I grabbed a small cake for my brother and SIL as a thank you and a Father’s day gift.

It took longer than expected at the grocery store, so when we were done, we went straight back to the pizza place to pick up our order. Then we made a stop at the liquor store for my daughter to run in and pick up a few things for herself and her sister. Then it was off to home.

Every stop we made, we were both on pins an needles. Would the truck move? Did the linkage hold?

It’s insane.

The truck ran just fine. Didn’t stop us from being constantly on edge!

Once at home, I pulled up to the house to unload, then quickly delivered the cake to my brother, staying just long enough to slip it through their door. They went out for supper themselves, not long after, but they will have desert waiting for them when they get back. 😊

Overall, it’s been a day of “rest” in that I didn’t work on any projects outdoors. While waiting in line at the grocery store, though, I couldn’t resist. I picked up a packet of Scarlet Nantes carrot seed tape. I’ll do another succession sowing of carrots. At this point, I’m basically just throwing as many things into the ground as I can, hoping something will make it. Deer got at the Spring Blush peas in the trellis bed. They’re survive, but a few plants are going to be set back. I really want more of the basics, like peas, carrots and beans. If I could, I’d be doing more potatoes and corn, too, but we won’t have ready space for those, even if we did have the time. There is a space down the middle of the trellis bed where I can plant the new carrots, though, next to the rainbow mix that’s already there. Sort of.

Being the 20th, with tomorrow being the first day of summer, I decided to do the garden tour videos today. I’ll see how the files turned out when I’m done here. Hopefully, I won’t have to do them over again, tomorrow.

So that’s where we are at now. Damocles dropped his sword again, but my amazing brother saved us again, while we had our hearts in our throats the whole time he was under that truck. We’ve all had our pizzas for today – my daughter got us enough to last us a couple of days – and we’re just relaxing until we’re ready for cake or pie and ice cream.

Then I think I’m going to try going to bed early. I feel absolutely wrung out.

Happy Father’s day to the dads out there! I hope you’re having a better time than we have been! 😄

The Re-Farmer

Open fire cooking

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

After all the digging yesterday, today we got to enjoy the fruit of my labour with a cookout.

March is a birthday month, but we never celebrate birthdays on the day, but the weekend before or after (unless the birthday happens to fall on a weekend, of course), plus like to do nice things for the birthday person spread out over a couple of weeks.

The other thing we normally used to do was take the birthday person out to the restaurant of their choice. Which isn’t really an option anymore. So instead, we would do the take out of their choice.

Now, in theory, we could have done that this time. My brother got his truck prepped and it’s available for us to drive, should we need it. He is also convinced something is going to go wrong with our own truck! It is a much older truck – I don’t know the year, but I think it’s either late 70’s or early ’80’s. With my luck, I’m afraid that if I drive it, it’ll break down, too! 😄

My older daughter that has a birthday this month, however, insisted we not spend any money on her for her birthday. When I told her, I budgeted for it, she said to put it towards the truck.

*sigh*

So, instead, I decided to do special meals. Today, it was a cookout.

The cooking was done outside, but the eating inside, because dang, it’s still cold out there!

My younger daughter headed out early to get the fire pit going and build up coals for cooking, while I brought out the stuff to cook. This was our first time using our square Dutch oven that I got on clearance at Canadian Tire, months ago.

I had eight baking potatoes, wrapped in foil with olive oil and course salt. They all fit quite nicely in the Dutch oven, as you can see in the second picture.

I got the pictures after she’d had it in the middle of the fire pit for more than an hour (we forgot to check the time), then moved it off to one side to start cooling it down a bit.

The nice things about this Dutch oven. The square shape made fitting the potatoes in much better than with a round shape, which made for more even cooking. As with the other Dutch oven, the lid can double as a separate cooking surface. It’s smaller, and lighter, perfect for if we want to cook smaller portions, and easier to carry when full.

The down sides with this design. It has no legs, so it rests directly in the coals. The lid isn’t recessed, so any coals set on top are not as secure. It’s handles are built in; larger areas on opposite corners, rather than a wire carrying handle that swings up and down, or can even be used to hang it over the fire. There is also no handle on the lid. Which means we can’t use a tool to lift the lid off, nor use a carrying handle to lift the entire thing in and out of the fire pit. Instead, we had to wait for things to cool down enough to handle in some way. My daughter was able to push the lid off to the side so I could remove the potatoes and take them into the house to stay warm in the oven. Eventually, my daughter was able to get the lid out so finish cooling off on the side, but it took quite a bit longer before the rest was cool enough to remove with oven mitts. Even then, it had to rest on top of some logs (so as not to come in directly contact with the snow) until it was cool enough to handle and bring inside.

Then my daughter reset the fire and built up more coals to cook the hot dog wieners. We have a moveable grill surface (you can see the shadow of it in the first picture above) and a cooking tray designed to go on a BBQ grill, for things that would otherwise fall through the grill. It fits a dozen wieners at once.

Wieners that had started to freeze by then!

With the temperatures, once those were on, we had to cover them with foil. I had a metal dish to bring them into the house with, later; with the wind, I ended up setting it on top to keep the foil from blowing off!

When it was time to turn them, though, I realized I forgot something important.

I forgot to oil the cooking surface. The wieners were stilling to it!

As soon as they were cooked through enough, my daughter transferred them into the (now warm) metal dish. They were pretty torn up, but she did the best she cook! I wrapped the dish in foil and went in to keep them warm with the potatoes. Originally, we were going to toast the hot dog buns, too, but quickly gave up on that idea. We would toast them in the oven, so I took the bag of buns in, too.

They were starting to freeze as well!

In the end, though, it all worked out well. The potatoes turned out to be perfectly cooked! I was more concerned about them. The last time we did foil wrapped potatoes in the fire pit, they were set directly into the hot ashes. They cooked way faster than expected, and were pretty burned in places. Cooking them in the Dutch oven protected them and let them cook more evenly. Definitely something worth doing again!

That was for today. Later on, we’ll be baking a cake, and I’ve got fish fillets thawing out for another special dinner – one only my daughters can eat, but that’s just fine! My husband and I don’t tolerate fish – or most seafood in general – well. The girls, on the other hand, love pretty much all seafood.

As for me, it’s back to spending time with the family! It’s been a good day.

I hope you are having a wonderful day, too!

The Re-Farmer