catching up

Feeling better and catching up

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Just a quick catch-up for now. I’m hoping to get outside and get some mowing down.

Yesterday turned out to be a good day to be sick. It rained off and on all day. I think it’s finally dry enough to mow. I want to get the area I allowed to get overgrown with alfalfa and whatnot, so the pollinators would have something. I’m not seeing a lot of pollinators of late, though. I think all the smoke has caused problems. The area is done blooming, though, so time to get it under control!

I still don’t know what happened to me, in getting so sick so suddenly. I had a chance to chat with my SIL and mentioned what I was feeling. She told me that she suddenly got sick like that, too, while they were out camping with the grandkids. The dizziness got so bad, she thought she might be having a stroke or something. Then my brother got sick, too. That was a few weeks ago, and neither have fully recovered. Hearing I was sick actually was a bit of a relief for her, as she now things they caught some sort of virus, though she felt back if they passed that on to me.

Somehow, though, I don’t think that’s it. By late afternoon yesterday, I was feeling good enough to go outside, do the evening cat feeding and my evening rounds. By the end of the day, I was feeling normal again and went back outside, just to enjoy the fresh air.

While checking on the garden beds, I found that a few of the Turkish Orange eggplants had damaged leaves. Just on one side of the plants, and among the ones that were more forward in the bed. I suspect it is cold damage when the overnight low dropped to about 6C/43F.

The drooping leaves, however, exposed something else.

There’s a ripening eggplant under there! It’s small, but from the photos of the ripe eggplant, it looks like it’s very close to being fully ripe. I think it’s supposed to get a darker orange, still.

The second photo has my hand in the photo, so you can get a perspective of the size.

This eggplant is so low on the plant, it’s resting on the ground, so after I got the picture, I took one of the dead leaves off the plant and put it under the eggplant in such a way that any water would drain away from the fruit.

We are all very curious as to what this variety will taste like!

The Sweetie Snack Mix peppers around the corner of the wattle weave bed have more fruit on them now, but they are all still very green. They should ripen into red, yellow and orange. At this point, there isn’t even a blush of colour on even the oldest peppers I have been keeping an eye on.

While doing my rounds, I noticed Pinky and her babies on the old tire that’s holding a door on one side of the garage open – I keep that door, plus the back door, open all summer for air circulation. The tire is still on a rim, so it’s heavy enough to keep the wind from blowing the door around. Pinky and her kittens were milling around on the tire, leaning into the rim.

They were thirsty and drinking the accumulated rain water!

There is food and fresh water by the house, but the kittens just won’t come over. I’ve seen the white and grey sneaking over to the shrine food bowls, and I think I’ve even seen him go into the isolation shelter or catio. The smoky kitten, however, will not go more than a few feet away from the garage. I only have a food bowl for them in garage, not a water bowl. I want them to come to the house! Pinky does, but she hates other cats and any kittens not her own. She will attack any that come too close. If they come near the garage, she will drive them away. Even the littles.

The white and grey, however, is starting to get used to me. The smoky kitten ran away, but the white and grey stayed while I pet his mother. After a while, I was not only able to pet him, but I was able to pick him up and snuggle him!

And confirm he is male.

I put him back on the tire and got some pictures while the smoky kitten started to come back. She (I think) does let me pet her while she is eating, sometimes, and I think it starting to learn that the giant, hairless food giver is not something to be scared of. She came closer while was there, but not all the way, so I left so she could finish drinking.

Later on, while walking behind the cat shelters near the sun room, I spotted Adam in the middle of them all, covered in kittens.

At least two ran off when they saw me in the gap between the shelters. She was nursing the whole lot of them. I don’t think any of the kittens in the picture are actually hers.

Of course, when doing the cat feeding this morning, I saw all sorts of kittens, including the “new” ones under the cat house creeping out. Some of them are even brave enough to go into the sun room already! I am 99% sure the kittens from the collapsing log building are Ink’s babies. I’d seen her climbing up into there a few times over the summer.

I don’t think I’ve seen Ink around for several days.

She was always one of the more feral cats and would run off faster, so that’s not too unusual, but after what happened to Poirot, it makes me wonder.

As I was finishing up my rounds, I spotted this baby under the shrine.

I don’t recognize it. It’s hard to know for sure, as the “new” kittens run and hide so quickly, but I think I would have noticed one that had all white around one eye, and black around the other like that.

Today, I had to go into town and my daughter and I headed out in the late morning. She wanted to come along, just in case I wasn’t feeling as well as I thought I was! I went ahead to the truck with the big water jugs that needed to be refilled when I spotted Slick in the grass, under the canopy tent.

She was nursing two babies!

One ran off, and it’s possible that one was the kitten in the photo above, but I didn’t see its face well enough to be sure. The other looked more like Mom. I gave them a lot of distance, so as not to scare it away. My daughter spotted the two of them still there as she came out a few minutes later. She tried for an indirect photo, trying not to startle them, but isn’t sure if it turned out yet.

We left early enough to stop at the post office where a parcel for my husband was waiting. It turned out to have a custom’s duty on it, so I had to pay $30 to pick it up. The postmaster told me she was processing a lot more customs duties of late, and thinks it might have something to do with the new tariff wars. Customs duties are a different category of taxes, though, not tariffs. If it is, that means it’s our own government charging us for stuff they didn’t before. Anything that gets shipped into Canada can potentially be charged duties. Usually, it’s the equivalent of what the sales tax would have been if the product was purchased in Canada. We have very rarely been charged duties on anything we’ve had come in from the US, whether by mail or courier. This was some stuff from a leatherworking supply company he’s purchased from before, without being charged duties.

Now I’m wondering if our government is going to tax me on all those seeds I ordered from MI Gardener that are making their way through the USPS right now. I’ll find out, soon enough, I guess.

Once in town, our first stop was at the pharmacy, where my daughter was able to get her own refills as well. Then we popped across the street to check out the Red Apple; one of the things my husband asked me to pick up is slightly cheaper there. Then it was off to the grocery store to refill the water jugs and get a few little things as well.

Seeing the prices change in just the last few weeks can sometimes be mind blowing. For example, I sometimes like to buy shelled pistachios as a truck snack. There is a brand that has them with various seasonings. About a year ago, they were still under $7. That price has been creeping up until even at Walmart, they went from just under $8 to almost $9 per bag within a couple of months. Locally, they were already just under $9 for some time. That’s what I saw them as, about a week ago.

Today, they were just under $12 a bag. 🤯

Needless to say, I haven’t been buying shelled pistachios.

We didn’t need to pick up much, though, and were soon on my way home. Now I want to get out and mow around the kibble shelters first, before the outside cats get their evening feeding. This is going to spook the heck out of the littles, so I want to get that done as quickly as possible!

Hopefully, I’ll be able to get quite a bit done, but we’ll see. That left hip of mine is causing more problems, so the point that I have to do things like sit down to put my pants on, because it’s too unstable for me to stand on my left leg.

Something to talk to my doctor about when I see her at the end of the month. Looks like I’m due for another round of Xrays!

Ah, well. It is what it is. I’ll deal with it when the time comes!

The Re-Farmer

Oh, what a lovely day!

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It is just gorgeous out there!

I took this picture while doing my rounds this morning. Rounds which finally included switching out the memory cards on the trail cam again! It was about -7C/19F at the time. As I write this, we’ve dropped to 0C/32F, from a high of 2C/36F. We’ll be even warmer over the next few days, with Wednesday – the last day of January – expected to be anywhere from 4C-6C/39F-43F, depending on which app I look at.

Checking the 30 year records for today, the record high was 3C/37F in 1989, and the record low was -37C/-35F, in 2019.

I well remember that year. Both our van and my mother’s car froze, and we were stuck here for weeks. 

And that, my friends, is why we try to have at least an extra month’s supplies stocked up for the winter! I am so enjoying this year’s El Niño temperatures. It’ll probably be another 30 or so years before we have one like this again!

I headed into town today, as three of our four 18.9L/5 gallon water jugs were in need of refills. I was just on the far side of our little hamlet when I saw a car in the ditch, with someone walking around on the road. 

The north side ditch, which is deep and steep!

I stopped to check on the driver, who had been taking photos of her vehicle from the road. I’m happy to say, she was unhurt. She’d had a deer run in front of her! She had a tow truck called in that she was waiting for, and thanks to our warm day, she was in no danger from the elements. She was pretty shaken – understandably! – but being able to talk to someone for a while seemed to help her relax a bit. Thankfully, it doesn’t look like her vehicle is damaged, so once it’s towed out, she expected to be able to keep driving. Someone else had stopped that was willing to pull her out, but her vehicle had nothing to attach to, so tow truck it is!

The car was gone when I was driving home. Hopefully, she was right, and was able to drive home without any issues.

Once in town I decided at the last minute to go to the dollar store, which is close to the beach. I was actually surprised to see the ice fishing village set up. I was sure this winter hadn’t been cold enough for the ice to freeze to a safe thickness. I guess this close to shore, it’s less of an issue than further out onto the lake. It makes me wonder about the ice roads up north, which is the only time some of the fly-in reserves can be accessed by road.

I found a few small things at the dollar store before heading to the grocery store. Of course, I picked up a few extra things besides the water refills. With three jugs to refill, there wasn’t much room in the cart, but that’s okay. I’ll be doing Costco in a few days. One thing I was excited to find were boxes of papadam! I haven’t seen these in years. When we were living in the city, we picked some up at a Wholesale Club and loved them, but then they stopped carrying them, and we never saw them again. For some reason, I suddenly started craving them, and have been trying to keep an eye out for them for at least the past year. I supposed I could have looked up a recipe and tried making them, but I know I wouldn’t be able to do as good a job. Especially with rolling them so thin. Even in the city, yesterday, I was keeping an eye out for them, yet here I find them at the local grocery store, as a new product! The boxes have 10 each, so I grabbed the two boxes I could reach. 😄

Must… resist… cooking them now! I want to save them for later today. 😊

I’m just itching to be outside and working on something right now, but there isn’t anything that needs to be done, that can be done before the snow clears. Ah, well. I’ll just enjoy the lovely day, instead!

In other things, I’m quite happy to have my computer up and running again! Yesterday, I was able to upload the files from the memory cards I’d switched out a few weeks ago, then go through them. Normally, I keep quite a lot of the stills, and a few of the videos as well, but not anymore. Unless our vandal is in the file, or there’s something specific I want to keep (I’m a suck for critter catches!), I’m going to be ruthless about the deleting. 

When I uploaded the other set of cards this morning, I was glad I didn’t have to hurry. The sign cam typically doesn’t have many files on it, but it still had almost 200. Stills are fast to go through, though.

The gate cam is another story. It’s set to take one still, then one 10 second video, every time the motion sensor is triggers. The gate sees a lot more activity, partly because the motion trigger can be triggered again after a shorty time, and partly because if we are doing things like unlocking the gate, driving through, then locking again, or meet the prescription delivery driver, each even ends up with as many as half a dozen pairs of files. This time, though, it included my daughter using little Spewie to clear the driveway, so there would easily be a couple dozen files of her going back and forth.

There was almost 500 stills, which meant almost a thousand files to go through.

Again, the stills were fast to go through. The videos took quite a bit longer! I could skip through a lot of them, like my daughter with the snow blower, or any time we were driving through, but others needed to be watched all the way through. 

And yes, there were some with our vandal in them that were kept, just in case. 

Then I made sure to empty the recycle bin on my computer!

Now that the machine is up and running, I need to continue getting rid of old files and clear more space. I should have regularly purged older files over time, but just didn’t realize how much space these trail came files were taking up! Especially since we got the newest camera. Having better quality images is a trade off, as the files are so much larger.

Meanwhile, my computer has an operating system update that needs to be downloaded and installed. I’ll to that at the end of the day.

Hang in there, little computer. You can do it!

The Re-Farmer

Running around

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Today is the first morning with actual sunshine instead of fog for quite some time!

It’s been sunny all day, but while the high of the day is supposed to be warmer than yesterday, it doesn’t seem to be happening. According to the hourly forecast, we’re supposed to be -7C/19F right now, but in reality, we’re -14C/7F, with a wind chill of -26C/-15F Quite the difference!!

A while back, my husband told me he’d ordered a new heater. I had just picked one up to replace one of the heaters the girls use upstairs that stopped heating. The fan still works, just no heat. So we talked a bit about letting the girls decide which they wanted to use. He mentioned setting a heater up in the sun room, but personal heaters aren’t supposed to be left unattended, so that didn’t seem likely.

Well, it came in, and it turned out to be something entirely different. Why he didn’t correct my assumption, I have no idea, but he’d picked up one of those radiant “chicken coop” heaters we’ve been seeing on Amazon. I’d already looked at them and decided against getting one, but… well… now we have one.

I wasn’t up to setting it up at the time, having had a bunch of things to deal with already, so he ended up setting it up himself. Except he didn’t notice the open plug in the old kitchen wall, so when he ran the cord through the window, he use a power bar he’d taken from the kitchen, which we have to keep the breaker from tripping if we have two things being used at the same time. He unplugged the extension cord to the cat house so he could plug the power bar into the power bar on the wall, then plugged both the extension cord and the heater into the power bar he took from the kitchen.

Heaters aren’t supposed to be plugged into power bars at all. That was even in the instructions.

Then he set it up in the sun room, turned it on and left.

Without securing it.

I found out about this when he told me to go into the bathroom, leaving the light off, so I could see into the sun room. The heater was lying on it back, and there were three or four cats trying to crowd onto it.

Nothing is supposed to be on the surface, which the sheet that came with it warned could get as hot as 75C/167F

!!!!!

Needless to say, I went out and changed things around.

*sigh*

There’s a reason I’d decided not to get this, and now there are more reasons.

For starters, it’s really small. The images all have chickens photoshopped beside it, with no perspective, making it seem larger than it really is.

But that would not be a problem if it actually worked.

I’ve got that thing set as high as it goes, but when I touch the surface, I feel only low warmth in one patch off to the side.

The instruction sheet, meanwhile, is in pretty bad Google Translate. Especially the “Profile” part at the time. As for the operational instructions…

  1. Turn the switch clockwise to turn on the heating panel
  2. Keep turning the switch clockwise to raise up the power and it will heat up faster
  3. The heat-sensitive sticher will turn red when the panel heated up
  4. Turn the switch anti-clockwise to reduce the power or turn off the heating panel.

Oh, and in the other warnings and instructions, it says to “Keep out of the water or wet area” and “Keep out of children.”

It’s number three that has me perplexed the most. First, I don’t know what a “sticher” is supposed to be. I figured I would see something turn red and that would tell me, but there is nothing that turns red. Anywhere.

There is so little warmth coming off that thing, the cats only go in front of it because I’ve moved a food bowl over.

So that was a waste of money. Yeah, we could probably try to return it or something, but considering the janky email included, I wouldn’t expect anything to come of that. Mind you, it wasn’t exactly cheap.

Ha! I just looked up the order. Check out this picture!

So… the panel itself is supposed to start glowing? Bahahaha!

And look at how big they try to make it look, behind those chickens. Some of the other pictures are even worse! Like this one!

Bahahahahaha!!!!

According to the listing, 50% of reviewers gave it a 5 star rating, with a total rating of 3.8 stars. It’s also supposed to be suitable for chicken coops, dog houses, or under your desk.

Oh, too funny. I’m looking at the reviews. There are quite a few from Canada, saying “no heat” and “would never buy again” – but those reviews have 5 stars on them!

Several say they had terrible customer service and weren’t able to get refunds.

Why did my husband buy this again? 😄

Anyhow…

Today I headed out to help my mother with shopping. Normally, I buy lunch first, but she told me not to, so I made sure to eat first, but still headed over early. I needed to run some errands, and also wanted to get a visit in, since I had to drive to another town to pick up a package at a Purolator depot. More on that, later! I wanted to get a visit in with her before we did the shopping, since I would need to leave once we were done.

I got there just after she finished calling me to come over sooner, because she was hungry. She was waiting for me, before having her own lunch! I reminded her she’d told me not to bring anything, and she was all, no, I made lunch! I told her that, because she said no to lunch, I ate before coming over. I’d just have a cup of tea.

She made me eat.

There’s a reason I prefer to bring take-out.

*sigh*

At least we had our visit. My mother wasn’t feeling up to the trip, though, so she had a list ready for me. I headed out and got everything on her list, which makes for a much faster shopping trip!, and was soon back. After helping put things away, I started to head out, only to get the usual lecture about how we’re always in a hurry, and if we come to see her, we need to not be in a hurry and be prepared to stay. I reminder her that I’d told her from the start that I needed to go somewhere else. That’s why I came early; to get a visit in, first.

She was not mollified. She simply cannot accept that we aren’t retired like she is, and have things that need to be done. She also can’t appreciate that we *do* take time for her – the fact that we’re there at all (my brother gets this lecture a lot, too) demonstrates that. In her mind, I guess we’re supposed to stay with her all afternoon. Of course, she is completely unwilling to reciprocate. She also expects us to call her frequently, but if we happen to call while Joel Osteen is on or something, she cuts the call off completely. Meanwhile, she does the guilt tripping thing, with how we won’t have her around forever, and when she’s gone, we’ll remember what she said! I’m glad we’re out here, so I can be the one dealing with her the most, rather than my other siblings! That doesn’t work on me. It does make my brother absolutely miserable. She has no idea how badly she hurts him with the things she says.

Overall, though, it was a good visit. She just saved the psychological manipulation for the very end, when she didn’t want me to leave. 😄

But I wasn’t sure where I was going, or the hours of operation. My daughter had placed an order from somewhere that had mailed her stuff out before, so they accepted our box number. However, it went to Purolator this time. They don’t accept box numbers. When my daughter got the notification, she tried to input our physical address, but it wouldn’t accept it. Which, of course it wouldn’t. Our physical address doesn’t exist on maps. According to them, we’re on an “unnamed road”. She tried the live chat and explained the situation to a real human being – who told her, they don’t accept box numbers. My daughter explained that she new that, but they don’t accept our physical address, either. Apparently, the person couldn’t understand that, and we’re out of their delivery are so…

In the end, my daughter said to send it to a depot the next town over.

The problem is, the place that used to also be the depot suddenly closed. Last I’d heard, the Purolator deliveries were switch to a garage, right next door. My daughter had sent me a screen cap of the delivery notification, which had an address, but no location name. Most of the places on that stretch don’t have addresses visible from the road. It was on the same highway, though, so maybe it was still there?

So I went there and…

It was closed. Not open on Saturdays at all.

There was no sign in a window or anywhere to show that this was also a Purolator drop off depot.

Also, I couldn’t find an address anywhere on the building. I ended up just putting it into my map app to look it up and…

It was clear across town. In fact, it was well out of town.

So I drove over there anyhow. The place turns out to be some sort of … marine garage? There were fishing boats parked on one side, and RVs parked on the other.

It was also closed.

They had been open today, but closed about an hour before I got there!

Again, there was no sign anywhere to show that this was a Purolator drop off depot.

I went home.

Purolator was supposed to phone after the package was delivered to the depot, but they never did, so we couldn’t even ask them directly. It’s not like there’s a number we can call to find out. All we have is a delivery notice.

I’ll have to try again on Monday.

Which leaves my daughter in a conundrum. She has to order things for her business. If it goes by post, it’s fine. It’ll get to us. But a lot of places are like this order: they accept a box number when you place your order, but then it goes to a delivery company instead of the mail, and they don’t do post offices. However, they also don’t deliver to our physical address, because we’re often out of their delivery zones (though not with all companies).

In the end, she’s going to try what my husband sometimes does. Give the physical address for the general store the post office is in, and have our box number as the “unit” number. Which explains my confusion, because I know I’ve picked up Purolator deliveries at the store, when I was expecting a mail delivery. Purolator, it turns out, does deliver to our little hamlet. Just not to us, because we are “out of town”.

What a pain in the butt!

Hopefully, I’ll actually be able to pick up that parcel on Monday.

At least I’ll have something better to pick up tomorrow.

I was wanting to make a trip to Costco to pick up some quality proteins, so we have more variety in our freezer. Well, I don’t have to do that anymore. At least not for meat. I had been buying pork from a homesteader that lives not for from us, who had been selling at one of the local summer markets. He wasn’t doing that at all last year, and we sorta lost touch. The last I spoke to him, we were talking about getting a half pig in the fall, but never got back about it. Then I saw him posting on a group we’re both on, about having whole chicken available.

Long story short, I’m going to be picking up a variety pack of pork and chicken, tomorrow.

We’re going to have to rearrange the chest freezer to make space! I don’t actually know what we’ll be getting. I just told him how much my budget was and asked him to surprise me with a mix of things to meet that amount. Since I’m picking it up tomorrow, I will finally have a chance to see their homestead! I’m quite looking forward to it. They’re doing a lot of things we’re still slowly building up to.

Meanwhile…

Still no word about the vehicle financing. I’ll have to send an email to see if I can get an answer, one way or the other, so we can just get on with things and start using the van again.

Tissue is still doing all right. She’s still not eating as much as I’d like to see, but she is eating and drinking. Giving her her medication this morning was amazing. She was sitting on my office chair, so I was just going to brace her while my daughter used the syringe to squirt the medication into her mouth. She got most of it in, with no fight at all, and when she moved to squirt the last little bit in, Tissue actually opened her mouth to take the syringe!!

We’ve tried to see her tongue wound. All I could make out was redness. She spends most of her time sleeping, and is currently burrowed under the covers on my bed. She still hisses at Marlee, Nosencrantz and Butterscotch. Much to my surprise, Nosencrantz mostly ignores her. She’s usually the Anxiety Bear, but right now, Marlee is the Anxiety Bear when it comes to Tissue. Butterscotch just sort of puts up with her to a certain point, then leaves. Tissue will even hiss at Cheddar and Leyendecker, when they come in, and they seem quite confused by her behaviour! I think mostly, she just wants out of the room!

Just a couple more days, and we can let her out, I think.

We shall see! She’s still clearly a bit rough around the edges, but it doesn’t seem to be bothering her much. Monitoring will continue!

The Re-Farmer

Appreciation

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Today I found myself heading out to the city, and didn’t get to my computer this evening. My usual morning routine on the computer, such as uploading photos, checking the trail cam files and writing a blog post, got completely skipped.

Imagine my surprise when I had a moment to log on and discovered a big spike in visits and views! To those of you popping by from City Steading Brews, welcome! Another welcome to all those who found their way here to check out my posts about doing things crab apples. It’s definitely the season for it! I hope what you’re finding is useful.

Normally, I post at least one photo with my blog posts, but today I hadn’t taken a single photo! Which is very unusual for me. 😁

So, I instead went back a few days and put this together for you to enjoy.

It has nothing at all to do with anything I did today, but it’s cute kittens, so who cares?

They absolutely loved it while I was raking up that pile of grass clippings – and made it a real challenge to not accidentally rake up a kitten, too!

With things working out for my daughter being able to pay the vet bill for Leyendecker, we no longer needed to delay our city trip to continue stocking up. Today is Labour Day weekend, but a lot of places were open for at least short hours. I was not going to do Costco yet, but was going to try one of the other wholesale places I sometimes go to – only do discover it was closed! I still went to the international grocery store that I planned on, making a quick stop at a nearby Dollarama, then hit a Superstore. This time of year, a lot of places have case lot sales that I took advantage of. More stuff for the pantry, as we work on the assumption that we will have at least two months this winter, stuck at home due to weather conditions.

A couple of years back, a daughter and I would make these trips and do all the shopping in one day. Since then, we’ve added a couple more regular stores to shop at, and have split things up into two, sometimes three, trips. Thankfully, gas prices have been slowly going down. We’re currently at 165.9 cents per litre locally, though I did see one place in the city that was at 157.9 It’s still way too high, though. I put $40 of gas in my tank on the way to the city, and it gave me just over a quarter tank. I’m saving the fill for when I get to Costco, where the price will be better.

So, aside from stopping at the gas station, I went to three different stores, with two of them right next to each other.

It still left me totally drained. It doesn’t seem to matter how much I pace myself, whether or not I had an energy drink, or took a break for lunch. These trips just leave me exhausted. Being around so many people sucks the energy right out of me.

How on earth did I manage to keep going, when we were still living in the city? I was so involved in things, too. I now realize I must have been running on fumes for years. My mother often goes on about how we need to get out and around people more. Which makes sense coming from her. My mother spent some 40+ years here on the farm, raising 5 kids, growing a huge garden, and doing all the things that comes with running a “subsistence farm”, as it was called back then. Mind you, I do remember quite a lot of visits from their friends in the city, and attending social events, so it’s not like they were hermits. Still, once my mom moved to where she is living now, she had a lot more social opportunities right in her building, never mind the stuff in walking distance for her. My mother is a social person.

I’m not.

She, of course, thinks I should be. She especially brings it up when she wants me to drive her around all over the place, and/or stay at her place for hours, and I point out I have things to do at home. That’s when I get told how I need to be around people! I am allowed to take a holiday every now and then!

She has no idea just how people’d out I still am. I’ve tried to tell her about all the various things I was involved in before we moved here – things which often included a lot of conflict – but it’s completely beyond her experience, so she doesn’t quite get it.

These trips to the city remind me just how much I am NOT a city person, even after all those decades off the farm. I’m not a people person. It’s not that I don’t like people. I just don’t like being physically around lots of them for too long.

It makes me appreciate being where we are now, that much more. Even if it means dealing with our vandal, or getting snowed in repeatedly, or all the vehicle troubles, or living in a house that needs a top to bottom renovation (but I’ll be happy with just a new roof!), and struggling to keep the garden alive, or cleaning up the place with all the working equipment gone before we got here…

It’s still better than what we left behind. We have quiet. We have space. There is so much less stress. And I love the work that I’m able to do here, even if I have to resort to fairly primitive means to get things done.

There’s a reason I haven’t changed my tag line after being here for almost 5 years.

Sometimes, you really do need to go back, to go forward.

The Re-Farmer

While I’m waiting…

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Yesterday, I finished up a garden tour video I made, using my recently acquired software. I’m getting the hand of using it, and quite liking it. It has been a while since I fired it up, though, and there was an update waiting. I have no idea if that’s related or not, but when it came time to export and upload the video (which is does in succession), it saved the export file, but failed the upload. Which is fine. I could just do that manually.

It was incredibly slow to upload. So slow, I thought something must be wrong, and restarted it. When that didn’t work, and it still took forever, I finally had to shut down for the night.

Today, I made a trip into the city for our first monthly stock up shop. When I was finally able to settle in on the computer, I started uploading the file again.

It was just as bad. It shouldn’t take almost 2 hours to reach only 14%.

I ended up re-saving the video at a lower resolution. It’s almost half the file size now, but it’s still slow as every to upload. I’m at 51% right now, and it’s telling me it’ll take just under 3 hours to finish uploading.

I’ve uploaded large files before, without having this much trouble before. I’ll just have to leave it alone and let it do it’s thing. I meant to post the video today, but it’ll have to wait until tomorrow.

While I’m waiting for that to upload, here’s how the day went. :-)

I was able to do almost all of our stock up shopping today. There are just a few things left to pick up later. I wasn’t able to get the spare sump pump I intended to. They were out of stock.

It was another day of sticker shock, too. Yikes! Some things may need to be dropped from the list this month. About the only “good” price I saw was when I got gas at Costco, where it was at 196.9 cents per litre, instead of the 208.9 cents per litre locally. The city was mostly 207.9 cents per litre.

I was able to get more of the 6′ bamboo stakes, in packs of six, for the garden at a better price than the last ones I go, so my splurge of the day was to get 4 packs instead of 2. I also found one package of trellis net of the same type we are using from last year. The problem is, I need 2 of them to finish both trellises, and there were no more to be found. Hopefully, I’ll find another one when we do our second city trip and go to different stores. If I can’t find any, I’ll just have to use twine.

We have a beef order made, which will tentatively be ready for pick up in a couple of days; I’m just waiting for confirmation on that, as they put the pack together. It’s their largest freezer pack on their regular orders, and they choose what’s in it. Since we’re going into summer, they like to put in more cuts suitable for grilling. I find I quite like not knowing what’s in the pack ahead of time. It’s like Christmas. :-D

On another note, while I was in the city, I got a message from my sister assuring me that my mother’s apartment was locked up after getting treated, so I didn’t need to check it on the way home. Which I’m extra glad for, because on the way home, I drove through my mother’s town and completely forgot about it. I do wonder how much of my mother’s stuff they had to put into the hallway before they could access where they needed to spray. Hopefully, the smell will have dissipated before my mother gets home tomorrow. She has become extremely sensitive to chemical smells.

On yet another note, we are thankfully staying dry enough that I should finally be able to finish mowing. We have extra reason to get the area by the fire pit done. We’re actually going to have company this weekend! We still haven’t worked out exactly when, but my husband’s brother and his family will be coming out. With my husband hardly getting out of the house at all anymore, they have seen each other only a couple of times in the 4 1/2 years we’ve been living here. We used to be able to get together regularly, but with my husband’s pain levels, he just can’t make the trip to the city for any length of time anymore, and their work schedules keep them from coming out here. It’s Canada Day weekend, though, so they have some extra time, for a change. :-)

Ugh. In the time it took for me to write this, the upload has only increased to 58%, and it says there’s still another 2 1/2 hours before it’s done.

I’m going to leave it and go to bed. I’m sure I’ll be awakened by something during the night, and can check on it then!

I will have it posted as soon as I can. I hope you enjoy it!

The Re-Farmer

Catching up

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Before I catch up on things, I just had to share this photo.

This is Little Braveheart, now known as Tissue, cuddling with “grandma”.

That is the protective foam insert that came with the new washing machine. Our old mama cat has claimed it as her favorite bed, but she doesn’t mind a kitten joining her for cuddles!

They do like to chew on it, though. :-D

Meanwhile…

Yesterday, I bit the bullet and headed out to do some bigger shopping. It’s really mostly cat food and litter, where the price difference makes it worth the cost of gas to drive so far to get it. That, and supply. Locally, not only are the prices higher, but they just don’t have the space for much inventory or selection. After hearing about what people have gone though in the city, where we usually go, I wasn’t sure it was safe for me, so I went to the smaller city instead. It’s big enough to have a Walmart. :-D It’s a small store, but it carries what I need, and they don’t bat an eye when I walk in with a shield instead of a mask. I did remember to bring our pulse oximeter, and was glad to have it. It still amazes me that even a shield causes my blood oxygen levels to drop like that. The kitties are now well stocked in kibble again, though. :-)

I had a bit of a surprise later on, when looking up the tracking numbers for various orders that we have numbers for. Our new trail cam is supposed to arrive today, along with some other stuff – maybe. Lots of stuff are now coming up as delayed, as Canada Post is overwhelmed. When checking this time, though, I realized the trail cam wasn’t being sent by mail. It’s being shipped by UPS! So now I’ve got the garage security camera aimed at the gate, with the sound on, to keep an eye out for the delivery. Assuming they even find our place. We don’t exactly show up on GPS. :-/ The first time we tried to have something delivered by UPS, they had the hardest time finding us. The last time, they left the parcel at the general store/post office for us to pick up. So I’m not sure what will happen.

I don’t like ordering things online, and this is another reason why. It’s just that much harder to actually physically get things out here! I’d much rather get things locally, but so many things just aren’t available here.

I look forward to getting to a point of self-sufficiency, where we don’t have to depend on questionable delivery services, supply chains and such. It’ll take quite a few years to accomplish, but with all the stuff going on right now, it’s really been hitting home, how necessary that goal is for us, out here in the boonies. It’s hard enough to get things we need at the best of times, and these are not the best of times!

The Re-Farmer

Topped Up

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We did things a bit differently this month, with our bulk shopping.

A picture of Keith for you to enjoy. His recovery from a certain procedure at the vet has him luxuriating in softness! Such a spoiled kitty!

Usually, we do one big trip at the end of the month, with the bulk of the shopping done at Costco. As we’ve gotten to know different stores that we now go to regularly, that monthly shopping day has expanded to include going to at least 3 different major stores to stock up. Sometimes more.

The van gets very full and heavy. Especially with the weight of cat litter and giant bags of kibble that we have to pack everything else around.

So at the end of February, we decided to split the trip into two. The first trip focused more on stocking up for us humans, and a second trip would be to top up anything we needed, but mostly pick up the bulky bags of kibble and boxes of litter.

Today was our top up day.

Our timing to try this could have been better…

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This and That

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Of course, things have been busy for the past while, even though we try to keep Christmas and New Year’s very low key. I finally have some time to settle in at the computer, so I’m going to take advantage of that and catch up in things.

I’ll be going backwards in time, for the most part. :-D

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Critter pictures, and feeling better

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After another very rough night, and some major quality time with an electric heating pad, I can finally say that I’m starting to feel a bit better.  This morning, I had even managed to get an audio recording of the weird noises my chest is making.  While some was definitely cold related, the squeaking noise actually happens fairly regularly and is related to my chronic cough, so I figure it would be good to have a recording for the next time I go to the doctor about it.

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Hungry Girl and Barbecue came by today.  We are getting significantly less deer visits since the weather has gotten warmer!

Thankfully, the girls have been able to take over for me while I’ve been down for the count.  As I type this, they are busily making supper.  I don’t know what they’re making, but it smells delicious. *L*

Though still feeling sick, I did have to drive into town to pick up a few things.  I’m the only person with a valid driver’s license right now, so it’s not like I could foist it off on someone else, though my husband was willing to do the drive.  This, in spite of having his own rough night and still having really bad pain days.

For the first time since stores started putting them out, I actually used the disinfectant wipes on my hands and on the cart handle, then hid my hands in my sleeves to push the cart, while my daughter did all the touching of product that was needed.  I sure don’t want anyone else to get sick because of me!

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I’ve noticed for some time, the odd fur pattern on Barbecue’s neck.  I have come to the conclusion that it is the result of scarring.

We are really noticing what a difference it has been, not doing that monthly Costco shopping trip in the city.  We’re having to go into town for groceries far more often, and it’s costing us a lot more per item.  We’re still not spending as much as we normally budget, simply because our budget had to be re-adjusted to pay for the work on the van; the money isn’t there to overspend.  However, it’s more because of what we’re NOT buying, that what we ARE buying.  It has set back making up for the costs of the move by at least a couple of months.

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Hungry Girl was nice enough to give me a silly face picture! :-D

But we have a roof over our heads, food on the table, and the bills are being paid, and that’s the important part.

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I think this is the first time I’ve seen a chickadee, just resting on a branch, rather than in constant motion!

Still, we are really looking forward to being able to do the monthly bulk shopping again, and restocking the cupboards and freezer!

The Re-Farmer

Catching Up With Old Friends

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Today was one of those weird days.

I woke up this morning, feeling like I was coming down with something – sore throat, stuffy nose, and my entire body aching.  Even all the knuckles in my fingers hurt.  So I took some pain killers and went back to bed.

I didn’t wake up again until 11!!

I was feeling better after that second sleep, but now I’m feeling exhausted, while having done nothing to warrant such fatigue.

My old daughter was a sweetheart and took care of the feeding of critters this morning.  She posted photos of a couple of cats on her tumblr, which are just too funny.   She even got photos on the big camera for me.

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Rolando Moon was on her favorite spot on the old barrel.

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Beep Beep settled herself in one of her favorite spots.

And yes, that is most definitely grass growing through the snow!

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I’m guessing this is Nasty Crime Boy, up at the top of the dead spruce tree.

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All those cats make the deer nervous! :-D

I was out for much of the day, heading into town to visit with an old friend from high school.  We’ve been trying to connect for a couple of months, now, and finally have!

It was so good to see her again, and there was so much to catch up on!  Too much for just one visit.

We’ll just have to get together again.  :-D

When it comes to playing catch up with old friends after so long, I have been finding it difficult to maintain any sense of order or time.  We start talking about one thing, which leads us to jumping ahead a few years, or back even more years.  Or saying one thing would remind us of something else, only tangentially related.  One big change in playing catch up these days is something I appreciate about or technology.  We were both digging out our phones, able to share photos and video about so many things!  When we left this province, the first smart phones were still just coming out, and texting hadn’t even become that big of a thing, yet.  Very few phones had cameras, and none could take video, yet.  It’s much easier to share things with each other, now!  It’s pretty awesome!

One thing I definitely noticed, as we went through photos, a photo album and even an old high school year book (I could barely recognize our own faces!), is how many people we are now talking about in the past tense.  We’ve both lost siblings and parents, and an amazing number of people we went to school with are no longer with us.

I always knew we’d be reaching that point in our lives, but somehow I didn’t think we’d reach it quite so quickly.

After a wonderful visit, I took advantage of being in town and played a bit of Pokemon Go.  One of the new things about the game is that it reflects the local weather.

Or at least what the forecasters say should be the current weather.

We’ve had all sorts of storm warnings for the Southern half of the province.  We are just on the Northern edge of the forecasted storm area.  I figured we’d at least gets some snow, but we didn’t even get that.  Yet, according to the game, we should have been in the middle of the storm, and the game opened with an extreme conditions warning, where you have to tap a button that confirms, “yes, I’m safe” to continue to play the game!  It was rather funny.

While I was gone, the girls decided to bake some sourdough bread, and make some sourdough “piggies in blankets” – sourdough bread wrapped around wieners and baked.  They even kneaded some shredded cheese into the dough for the piggies.  Hmm.  They were made with all beef wieners.  Maybe they should be called beefies in a blanket? LOL  One of these days, I’ll get some good pictures of them to share.  They’re a nice supper treat. :-)

I have a wonderful family.

The Re-Farmer