Well, today went not at all as planned. I’m actually going to be able to stay home today!
I was expecting to be picked up by a friend at 8am this morning, and was starting my morning routine a bit early. Before making the kitten soup, I popped into the sun room to grab the one bowl for it that I knew was still there.
Opening the doors created a massive scramble, with all sorts of crashing and bashing.
A BIG raccoon ran out the sun room door, but her four babies all squeezed themselves into the space between the counter shelf and the window.
These are not small babies.
Well, the mom was beside herself. She wanted to run away, but her babies were stuck inside!
The growling noise she makes is so… unique. It’s almost like a deep, throaty barking noise, but it’s a growl. Once of these days, I need to try and record the sound!
Meanwhile, I could hear the babies scrambling. I tried to give them time to leave by mixing up the kitten soup and getting all the bowls and dry kibble ready.
Eventually, two did run out, but two others ran back into hiding. I decided to go ahead and start setting out the dry kibble.
I let them eat for a bit, then tried to get a broom behind their butts to push them out to the door.
They pushed back, wanting to get back behind the shelf, instead. Which was blocked by the broom.
So they just sort of stood up, squeezed between the broom and the table saw the food tray is under.
Looking at me.
With those eyes.
I gave up.
There was so much commotion, I had to let the for socialized kittens into the old kitchen so they could eat their cat soup, while I started setting the other bowls out. The little feral orange kitten has been brave enough to come to the house! Which was great, except he ended up missing out on the kitten soup, as he was eating dry kibble by the laundry platform, instead. Hopefully, he got some later.
Going back and forth, the two raccoons went back to eating. One of them moved out from under the table saw and was eating at another tray. They didn’t stop eating as I went by.
I admit it.
I couldn’t resist.
I pet the raccoon.
Just a little!
They have very course fur.
The raccoon was so focused on food, it just looked up at me, then kept eating.
After that, I did my morning rounds. While coming back from the driveway, I spotted them on the steps in front of the house. They were clearly looking for Mom!
Mom, however, had done the opposite direction.
When they spotted me, they ran up the tree in front of the kitchen window. The one that cats really like, and use to get onto the roof. Yes, there were a couple of cats in the tree, and they weren’t sure what to make of the new additions!
I continued my rounds and when I came back, I found them like this.
At some point, this tree was cut short (it should have been cut down!). Over the years, branches had grown up and around the top, but there is still a flat spot that the cats love to hang out on. I found the raccoons, snuggling each other, huddled up on the flat spot.
Checking later on, they were gone, so I’m guessing they are reunited with their mother.
The morning stuff done, I headed out to meet my friend at the gate for 8am.
She never showed up.
I didn’t want to message her, in case she was driving, but after a while I finally did.
Long story short, she thought her car drop off was on the 28th, not the 23rd. That’s what she had written in her schedule. I’d put it into my own phone calendar. So I looked up the number for her and she called the garage.
It was supposed to be today.
She ended up rescheduling to the 28th.
Okay, that meant I could stay home?
Not really. My mother needs a grocery shopping trip. My sister, however, was planning to visit today, too.
I called my mother and got her up to date on getting the blood work requisition for her, and the doctor’s appointment I made for her. As for her shopping, she will get my sister to do it.
I get to stay home!
Then I got a call from the autobody shop.
I’ve got my eye appointment tomorrow (Thursday), then I’m supposed to drop the truck off for the insurance claim on Friday. They had arranged for a courtesy car for me to use until it could be picked up on Tuesday.
The courtesy car is broken down and won’t be ready on time.
They wondered if I could bring it in on Thursday night, they’d do the repairs/painting on Friday morning, then I could take the truck back until they are ready to install the cover, and I would bring the truck back for that.
I told her about my eye appointment, and that I won’t even be able to drive myself home, because my eyes will be dilated.
As we were talking, and she asked where I lived, she even offered to drive me home after dropping off the truck! In the end, what they will do is have someone come get the truck from here, on Thursday, just before they close. They’ll do the repair work and painting on Friday morning, and will figure out how to get the truck home for me after that. Likely, a drop off. Then, I’ll get a call to bring it back to install the cover. For that, I can just stay and wait until it’s done.
They are really bending over backwards to help me out here!!! Wow!!
So that’s been my morning.
I get to stay home for day.
I’d love to be productive and all, but so much has been going on, I feel totally drained – and I’m still not completely recovered from yesterday’s… reaction… to the lunch I got from the grocery store before our doctor’s appointment. Even my arm is still giving me grief.
Oh, crap. I forgot to take my anti-inflammatories while eating my lunch. Maybe it’s not too late! I’m still full…
Done.
I did take some yesterday, then went to bed early. I did NOT take any painkillers before bed. I did have some pain during the night, but nothing like I normally do, even with painkillers. It’s too early to draw any conclusions, but for a first dose and first night, that’s very encouraging!
I didn’t take any painkillers this morning, either.
So far so good!
I think I’ll actually try lying down for a bit, then see how I feel before trying to get some work done outside. I really need to let that arm heal.
We had some bitterly cold temperatures last night – dropping to -24C/-11F, when I was awake to check. There was no wind chill, though. In fact, the “real feel” was slightly warmer than the actual temperature.
When heading outside to feed the yard cats, I found a whole crowd of them inside the isolation shelter – all in the top level, too!
Including the isolation babies. Both Kohl and her fluffy partner were in there.
With so many cats and one bowl in a corner, the littles weren’t able to get at the food as well, so I dropped a handful beside the fluffy boi.
With the cold, a lot of the food trays still had a lot of food in them. None of the cats, understandably, want to be outside eating, and even in the sun room, they prefer to huddle together in their various shelves and beds and under the heat lamp. I saw several through the cat house window, near the heat lamp in there, too.
The food bowl in the isolation shelter, however, didn’t have a single crumb left in it, and even the water bowl was mostly empty. At this point, I think the top of the isolation shelter may be the warmest place around!
The insulated box nest, however, seems to be in the way. I am considering taking it out and putting it in the lower level, where the little box is. We had to take the cat bed out from there, since they were using it as a litter box. Since this box nest is insulated, it would probably get used more in the bottom level than it is in the top level. The food bowl can then be put in the middle where the box is now, and more cats can eat out of it at the same time.
Moving the box nest will require moving the entry box shelter away, so I’ll save doing all this for when I have a daughter available to help out.
Meanwhile…
My husband and I had plans today. We were going to head to the nearer city, where he can go in to exchange his cell phone, as the 2 year plan is up. He doesn’t use it much, but if he simply kept it, we’d be charged almost $700 for the balance on the phone. Or, he can return it and get a credit, but would have no phone. Alternatively, he can exchange it, have another phone on a new plan, and still get a credit.
So that’s what we were going to do and, thanks to a generous monetary Christmas gift from my mother, we were planning to have an actual sit-down dinner date, too. It might just have been to Subway or something, in the same shopping commons as the phone place, but it still would be a fun and rare treat for my husband.
With the cold, we waited until things warmed up in the afternoon before we started heading out. It was -19C/-2F and the time we left. I went ahead to take out the shopping bags in the back of the cab to make room for his walker while warming up the engine a bit. Since we haven’t been able to get the block heater cord repaired, I made sure to run the engine a bit while I was doing the morning rounds, too.
Soon we were loaded up and on our way.
We got maybe 5 or 10 minutes out, when it happened.
The console started dinging, and the “oil pressure low, shut of engine” light started flashing. The oil pressure gauge had suddenly dropped right down.
We already had the oil sensor replaced from the last time it happened.
So I popped on the hazards and pulled over.
Of course, the first thing I did was check the oil level. We had an oil change done when the sensor was replaced, so it should have been full.
It was. Looked pretty clean, too.
I still added a small amount. It was a fight to get the oil cap off (thank goodness we keep a stool in the truck, or I couldn’t have reached it!), and one of the first things I noticed was the interior. It looked almost as if the black plastic was blistered.
It wasn’t.
It was ice.
So I added a bit of oil, then cleaned out the inside of the cap as thoroughly as I could before putting it back and running the engine for a bit before checking the oil again.
Definitely plenty of oil.
Well, we weren’t going to take a chance. Once everything was put away, we turned around and went home, while my husband messaged our daughters to open the gate for us.
The warning light did not turn on again, and the gauge stayed within the range it was supposed to.
The gate was ready and open for us, so I pulled straight in to the garage, stopping only to get the walker out for my husband before pulling the rest of the way in.
As soon as we were inside and settled, I called the garage and left a message describing what happened. Our mechanic called back within minutes.
He asked a few more questions, and he basically confirmed what I already suspected. Most likely, there was a bit of ice from condensation getting into the sensor and triggering that warning. Basically, the engine needed to warm up longer. He has seen this before, but only with GM vehicles.
Hmmm.
Since we know there is plenty of oil, he basically said, if it happens again, it’s not a panic. That was the main thing. The last time it happened, the truck turned out to be almost completely out of oil, even though there were no visible signs of a leak, nor were we burning blue. There is a separate warning light for low oil, and that never turned on. Replacing the sensor also took care of the leak, and the oil level has been steady, since.
Well, I’ll take this as a sign we weren’t meant to go to the smaller city today.
Tomorrow morning, I’ll be meeting with my brother at our mother’s for a visit. It’ll be earlier than usual, since he has to leave by noon, but this is his Christmas visit to my mother, as they’ll be visiting the grand kids for Christmas and New Year’s.
If the cold we got hit with last night is why this happened with the truck, though, it should be fine, tomorrow. We’re expected to dip below -20C/-4F for a few hours this evening, but start warming up throughout the night. By the time I should be leaving in the morning, we are expected to be warmer than we are right now. Long range forecast no longer says we’re supposed to get as warm as 6C/43F around Christmas, but it does still say we’ll be hovering around the freezing mark on those days. We will be doing our dinner on Christmas Eve. I will be setting aside a couple of meals and plan to go to my mother’s to have lunch with her on Christmas day.
Hopefully, the truck sensors will behave!
For the rest of today, though, it’s another home day, after all! I’ll be working on more garden analysis posts, instead. 😄
On a semi related note, a while back I wrote about how I was suddenly seeing ads on YouTube again. I ended up getting an updated version of Firefox and installing their adblocker, as it was the only one that still worked. I was still getting them on my phone’s app, to the point I could no longer play YouTube videos at all, they were so intrusive. Which meant, no playing background playlists to help me sleep.
Well, that has stopped as suddenly as it started. I no longer see YouTube ads on any browser I use, nor on my phone app. None of them had gotten updates, either.
Very strange, but I’ll take it!
Oh, this is too funny! I just got a message from the Cat Lady.
One of the cats they took from us was a muted calico we called Muffin. She was an outside cat friendly enough that we could get her into a carrier. She went to them to be spayed, get the usual vet checks, then go up for adoption. Instead, she bonded with the Cat Lady’s husband, and they are still inseperable.
Today, she is out with him, delivering Christmas bonuses and drinking Starbucks.
Muffin still hates the Cat Lady, for some reason – she’s never had any other cat behave like this towards here before. Muffin still tries to bite her, every day, even though she doesn’t have teeth anymore. But she adores the Cat Lady’s husband, attended Zoom calls with him, goes out to job sites, and when she has to stay home, sits at the window, crying for him all day. It’s got to the point that all these hardened contractors now look forward to seeing Muffin. Too funny!
Well, time to adjust my plans and see what I can get done, now that it’s turned out to be a home day.
My daughter came to me last night with some concerns over strange and severe dizzy spells.
Of course, my plans got changed.
We are now sitting at the nearest walk in clinic, a 45 minute drive away. We’ve been waiting for almost anout 1 1/2 hours, now.
On the plus side, the doctor she will be seeing is accepting new patients. Depending on how things go, she may later book an official meet and greet appointment. I’ve heard good things about this doctor.
I still need to pick up more kibble and a few groceries. Where we do that will depend on how things go here, and how my daughter is feeling.
I’m just really glad the weather and road conditions are good. Other parts of the province got hit with a storm white out conditions, still ongoing this morning. We are currently clear, and the highways are dry.
First up, I’m happy to say that I did NOT end up having a bad pain day today. With how I was feeling last night, I was rather concerned, but it seems to have worked itself out. Plus, my daughter is doing the morning rounds, and that allowed me to sleep in.
As for my potential plans to work outside, that didn’t happen. It was too wet out for the sort of work I wanted to do. It wasn’t even really raining, either. More fog and mist all morning.
So I was just about to start cleaning out litter boxes when I got a phone call from my mother.
She started out asking how things were going, so I told her about some of things I did yesterday, and things I planned to do tomorrow, which is supposed to be warmer and mostly sunny – though the predicted high keeps changing! At one point, my weather app was telling me we could get as warm as 10C/50F, but I just checked it, and it’s now saying the high will be only 7C/45F Which is still nice. More importantly, it’s supposed to be dry, so I should be able to get certain jobs involving power tools done!
Then I asked how she was doing.
Well… she’s out of milk, of course.
*sigh*
I keep asking her to please have me do her grocery shopping before she runs out of everything, but she refuses. If there’s food in the house, she says, she has to eat it. Temptation.
She wanted me to come tomorrow, of course.
It was barely mid afternoon when she called me (though it was already starting to get dark!), so I suggested I head over right away, instead. That threw her for a bit, as she thought it was much later. She wanted to go to the bank, and wasn’t sure it if would be open still.
It would be, of course.
So I updated the family, quickly changed and was soon out the door. When I got to her place, my mother was ready and waiting, with her winter parka on! We quickly went over her list, then headed out, first to her bank.
Going in and out of the vehicle for that was the limit for her, though, so she stayed in the truck while I did the grocery shopping next.
By the time everything was done and her groceries put away, she wanted me to stay for a visit, but it was getting near sunset. I didn’t want to be driving home in the dark. Too many deer!
When I got to the truck, I checked my phone before I headed out. I’m glad I did! There was a message from my husband, with a phone number. The septic company had called and needed me to call back for a confirmation that they could come over.
Tomorrow morning!
I called them immediately.
The first thing they needed to confirm was where we are. He tried finding our physical address on an online map, found a road with the municipal number, but it ends well to the south of us. I had to explain that the part that goes past our place isn’t listed on the maps, and gave him country directions. Then we confirmed things like making sure the gate would be open. They should be here around 8:30-9am. I also told him about the other gate, with the chain and electric fence across it, that they’ll need to go through, but that just needed to be unhooked. The renter’s cows aren’t here now, so the electric fence isn’t powered.
That done, it was time to go home. I did take advantage of being her town, though, and stopped at the feed store for a 40 pound bag of cat food before heading home.
Now I’m doubly glad I convinced my mother to let me do her grocery shopping today!
What I’m hoping is that we won’t need to hook up the diverter for the septic tank. I really don’t want to punch a hole through the insulated opening and run the septic into the maple grove. So tonight, we’ll be doing as much of the water stuff as we can. Showers before 7:30am. Dishes washed. Cooking that included draining off water. The only thing we don’t have to worry about it the laundry, since we’re still running the drainage hose out the front door, anyhow.
As for how long things will take, it’s hard to say. If everything goes smoothly, it could take as little as 4 hours. If things don’t go smoothly, it could take 8 hours.
The fact that the expeller started working again, though not to its full capacity, may be a good thing. It means the area that was so saturated before isn’t a quagmire anymore.
For those who have followed this blog for a while, you might be a bit surprised to hear this, but …
… so was my mother, today. Hopefully, that won’t change.
Let me step back a bit! Things went so different than expected today, it actually feels like it’s been two days!
After I finished my rounds this morning, I grabbed the inner pipe for our septic expeller and headed out towards the barn. Once I got to the outer pipe, I could see that nothing had overflowed the pipe while the venturi pipe was out. I made sure to have my rubber boots on this time and walked around. The saturated area is quite large. Which, I suppose, makes sense if it’s been leaking for at least 6 weeks.
When I put the venturi pipe in, though, I did hear splashing, so there was at least some fluid making it into the pipe.
I had really hoped that somehow, it would be something as simple as seating the venturi valve at the bottom properly, but no. We will definitely need to get it excavated and repaired. Which is something I’ve been really dreading. The last time my brother had to get something excavated here because of a septic problem, it cost him over $5000.
Once I was done and cleaned up, I made myself some breakfast, then sat at my computer so I could start looking up companies while I ate.
Which is when the phone rang.
It was my mother.
Before I even picked up the phone, I knew what she was going to say. Even from the tone of her voice when we said our hellos, I could tell.
She did, however, ask me how I was doing, first. So I was honest with her.
I was doing terrible.
I then – very briefly – told her about what was happening with the septic, that we would need to have it excavated, but we had no way to pay for it. The stress of the whole thing was worse than I realized, because by the time I finished telling her that, I was almost crying – and it takes a LOT for me to cry!
Then, much to my shock, my mother said that she would help.
I never, ever, would have asked my mother for money for this. I know she has it, but when it comes to money, my mother’s behavior is particularly… unfortunate.
I’ll just leave it at that.
I told her that I was going to call for estimates, but couldn’t even guess how much it might cost. She just said, make sure it’s professionals doing it, and she would help.
Which just blows me away.
Unfortunately, my mother does have a history of offering help, and then trying to back out of it. She did it when she said she would pay for the movers, which was part of the deal for us to move here in the first place (in the end, she did pay most of it, but we still needed help from my brother to cover the rest). She tried to do it again after she agreed to pay for the new roof on this “perfect” house she asked us to move into. She’s done it to my brother, many times, over the years.
Still, just that she offered to help at all was greatly appreciated and a wonderful surprise.
After we talked about it a bit more, including my telling her I’ve been talking to my brother about all this, and that he also said, get an excavator, she told me why she was calling in the first place.
It was exactly what I expected.
She thought she was going to die last night, again.
Now, when she’s having these issues, she says she’s struggling to breathe, can’t breath, feels like she’s dying…
She said she tried taking “medicine” for it (most likely Tylenol), but it didn’t help. Then she took the “pink stuff” I’d bought for her.
The no-name Pepto.
I know she’d taken it before and found it helped, but I didn’t realize she’d stopped. She’s already on a prescription medication for acid reflux, so she shouldn’t need it.
She took some last night, and it worked. She felt much better!
She was, however, now out of it.
So we worked out that, after I had my breakfast, then made some phone calls, I would go pick up some more for her, and bring it to her.
My mother hadn’t slept during the night, so she was going to try sleeping in her comfortable chair while waiting for me to arrive.
I then started looking up some local companies that service septic systems, then made some calls. One of them was to the guy my brother usually called for work done here, but I was pretty sure he didn’t do plumbing anymore. He does do excavating, though, so maybe? The last few times I called him and left messages, he never called back, so it was a surprise when he actually answered the phone. I explained the situation, but I was right. He bought a memorial business a few years ago, and that has become his focus. Most of his excavating now is digging graves. He was apologetic, but I was expecting this.
I left messages with two other companies, but got a real human with a third.
I explained the situation and said that I was looking for estimates to pass on to my brother, as I don’t own the property. I know my brother would trust me with whomever I chose, but I would run it by him, anyhow – and it buys me the time to get multiple estimates.
When I described our ejection system with the expeller rather than a septic field, I was told that these are not supposed to be repaired anymore! If they break down, they are supposed to be replaced with a septic field.
I don’t think we can even do that. There are just too many trees and roots to mess with a field. That’s why we have the ejection pump system to begin with.
He was clearly familiar with systems like ours, though. He asked a few questions about what was happening and started looking things up, rattling off the parts and pieces we’d need, factoring transportation from the town they’re in (about 40 minutes drive away), then gave me a number.
$2032, before taxes.
Which was way less than I expected! In fact, it makes me wonder if he somehow didn’t include excavation in the estimate.
And estimate is an estimate, though, so I left it at that, and thanked him for it.
That done, I then got ready to head out to my mother’s, making a quick stop at the post office before they closed over the lunch hours. Not that I was expecting a package, but I’ve been surprised before. 😁
Then it was off to the pharmacy in my mother’s town, I got her “pink stuff”, then headed to her place.
When I got there, I found she had all sorts of food set out, including a hot lunch for me! She had just finished eating herself. I had to say no, as I’d just had breakfast and was still full. I did stay for a while, though, and we had a chance to talk. Long enough that I ate a muffin. 😄
I was very curious as to how she was feeling, before and after she’d taken the Pepto during the night. Particularly when it came to her breathing. She’s confused about it, too, but mentioned she was also dealing with anxiety and panic attacks. Which makes sense, if she literally felt like she was dying, and would also add to the problem.
If the Pepto helps, then it helps. Even if it’s psychosomatic, who cares? She feels better!
It did remind me to tell her the OT that visited her a while back had called me recently, and we talked about their visit. One of the recommendations she’d made to my mother was moving to a larger apartment, where she would have the space to use her walker inside (my mother parks her walker just outside her door, and uses a cane, or hangs onto the walls, counters, etc., inside).
I said that I told her, we want to get my mother into supportive living in the town where my brother lives, and that the OT said she would contact the guy in homecare. He will call one of us to arrange an appointment to go over the panel questions and application process with my mother. The last time he was there, it was a panel for a nursing home, which my mother feels she needs to be in, but she doesn’t qualify. She didn’t even qualify for assisted living.
Given how long it’s been, I said that I should probably call him myself and see if I can get an appointment made. My mother said to tell them, it has to be soon, because she might not be around much longer!
She’s turning 93 within a couple of weeks. She’s not wrong. But then, that could be true of any of us, at any time, as we painfully learned when the youngest of my brothers died at only 45.
We also talked about the septic issue a bit, but not too much, as it was making her feel anxious. I apologized, and told her that for me, right now, it’s hard to think of anything else!
While I was still with my mother, I got a message from my SIL. I just quickly skimmed over the preview, and saw that she was confirming they’d received my earlier updates about the septic system, but that my brother would get back to me about it, later.
I was able to stay a bit longer, but I could see my mother was starting to want me to leave. She was very tired. Her attempt at napping earlier had failed, and she wanted to try again. So I left soon after.
It wasn’t until I got home and on my computer again, that I finally read the rest of my SILs message.
It turns out that my brother is taking vacation days on Mondays now, they’d loaded up the trailer, and were coming out here today!
They must have been on the road already by the time I saw this and responded. I had some stuff to do inside, and planned to be back out before they got here, when I got a message saying they were here!
It’s a good thing my brother has a key for the gate!
By the time I threw on my outside shoes and headed out, they were pulled into the outer yard with their truck, trailer …
… and a bread van?
A large, formerly commercial bead van. Images of bread loaves on the side had been painted over, but the shapes were still very visible.
I had no idea they had one. Was it even theirs?
Then I saw the cement mixer.
*melt*
They had to get the tractor and rotary mower out of the barn first, then back the trailer up for unloading. I helped unload almost everything around the cement mixer. That was on skids. My SIL was on the trailer, moving things, and was able to drag it closer to the end. Once she and my brother got it off the trailer, I helped him move it into a space he prepared in the barn.
Not where he originally intended. He was going to put it in the lean-to side, but I told him, it rains in there! When the metal roof was put on the barn, the lean-to roof was not included.
It should have been.
To get the cement mixer to the space he prepared, we had to skid it over a massive board he’d brought last time, which now had three huge posts – posts he uses as a tripod to lift engines – on one side. Now, the posts would make it easier to move the skid over to the prepared space in an old cow stall, as they would roll, but as we were turning it, my brother stepped on one of the posts and it rolled out from under him. My heart almost stopped as I watched him fall!
Okay, it was a controlled fall. His old Tae Kwon Do lessons didn’t get forgotten. What really got me was how close his head came to the corner of a board on the other side of the barn’s centre aisle! I don’t think he realized just how close he came to a severe head injury!
My brother is my brother, though. He just got up and kept going, like nothing happened!
Gosh, he’s amazing.
Once that was done and the trailer moved away – the stuff remaining on it needed to go somewhere else – my SIL got on the tractor and went to do a bit more mowing. She was going to go where the storage warehouse is, but the truck and trailer were in the way! It was near the burn pile, though, so they moved it closer so we could unload some scrap wood to burn.
As she started digging the pieces out and passing them to me, I found myself setting pieces aside, as they were in good enough condition that I could use them with the small projects we build.
When it became clear that most of what they had was useable, I went and got my utility wagon. We loaded that up with almost all the wood they’d brought for the burn pile, then took it over to the garage. I cleared the top of an old shelf, and we stacked it on top.
I think I have what I need to make a door/ramp for the cat isolation shelter, now!!
Then my brother borrowed my driver, a short board, and some screws. The door to the hay loft on the barn was getting blown loose. It was tied closed on the inside, but that was giving out. So he basically just boarded it up. It’s not like we’re going to go up there. It’s too dangerous. If we need to access through those doors, we can just take the board off.
Over the next while, they traded off doing more mowing. My SIL started expanding the area around the storage warehouse while my brother and I moved some things out of the way. I had a chance to talk to him about having the scrap guys coming out, and what he was okay with them taking.
In short, there’s 5 cars, something we think is part of a truck (it’s almost completely hidden by grasses and burdock) and a threshing machine. With having the aluminum and batteries only, they would come out if they were already in the area. With a threshing machine and several vehicles as well, this should warrant a special trip.
All of this belongs to my brother, so any funds from selling the scrap metal will go towards taking care of the place.
That would include things like repairing the expeller on the septic system!
I don’t know how much we’d get for it all, but this company weighs things on site, and pays the going rate. I assume things like transportation and clean up will be taken off. I can’t even guess what we’d get for it. Probably not enough to cover the entire cost of the septic repair, but who knows? Prices might be good, whenever they get here.
I will just be happy for this stuff to be gone, and look forward to being able to clear out the vehicles in the old hay yard, too! All but one truck can go. I’m pretty sure my brother thinks he can get that truck going again. He’s the one who gave it to our father to use around the property. I don’t think it’s ever going to be roadworthy.
Gosh, it looks so much better! Plus, I should be able to collect some of the “hay” for mulch. Not anything close to the warehouse; there are too many burrs in there! There is lots that should be clean and not gone to seed yet, though.
My brother had already done part of this area, the last time they were here and brought the tractor. My brother took over the mowing after a while, as he had specific areas he wanted to get particularly clear, and went over them with the mower set lower.
He also cleared in front of the storage warehouse up to the three cars that are there, that the scrap dealer can now access. Eventually, they will most a lane to the secondary driveway.
Over the next few days, I’ll have to make a point of putting markers where the surviving Korean Pines are, as well as the ash tree my mother gave us, so they won’t mow over them by mistake!
With all this mowed, we can now access areas where we need to cut saplings away from buildings, before they start causing damage, too! It’s amazing how quickly areas I cleared out have become overgrown again.
Once the space he wanted was mowed to his satisfaction, my brother moved the bread van over and parked it. It turns out they’ve had it for years; I just never saw it before! Since they will be bringing more equipment to store out here over the next while, my brother plans to use this as his “house”. A place where he can change, or even sleep, whether or not we are around. Not that there isn’t someone home at all times, but since my husband has to have his hospital bed in the bedroom closest to the bathroom, we don’t have a spare bedroom to offer. They want to avoid disrupting us as much as possible.
The good thing about my brother doing all this in preparation for his retiring, and no longer haying on their property, is that we’re going to be seeing a lot of them over the next while!
Once all this was done, they had to head home right away. That’s going to be pretty much the pattern, over the next while. Whenever they can manage to come out here, they’ll bring another load of stuff, then will have to leave as soon as it’s unloaded stored.
We’re just happy to be able to see them so often!
I think this would be a good time for us to start going through the storage warehouse. My mother is adamant that we keep her stuff, though I do have permission to sell some of it (she keeps saying I should have a garage sale, which I will not do!), but there are bags and bags of old clothing and similar items, much of it belonging to my late father. My mother even left behind a whole lot of clothing, including a lot of underwear.
Packing those into bags was not the most comfortable of things! 😄
These bags of clothes can’t even be donated. They need to be taken to the dump. Once those bags are out, we’ve got boxes that are starting to collapse on themselves that need to be rearranged. They were labelled as detailed as we could when we packed them, and there is probably stuff we can still use. We just can’t get at things, the way it is now!
What I’d really like to do is get that building cleared out, so it can become a workshop again, and not a storage building!
But that is something we will have to deal with in time.
I got some sad news from the Cat Lady last night. The “problem cat” that they took on from the city shelter is going to have to be put down. For her to make this decision, you know the situation has to be exceptionally bad. She has had vets recommend euthanasia for cats many times, and she’s hung in there and saved so many cats, including several from us that are now living with them permanently. She was even wondering why the city shelter hadn’t already done it, long ago.
In the middle of all this difficulty, she was still thinking about us and her promise to help out.
The original plan had been for both tripods to go to the city shelter and their special needs area, while Ghosty would be going to the shelter that specializes in Siamese cats. However, because our adoptees are going from a loving home where they are well cared for, she feels it would be too stressful for them to go to a shelter, no matter how much they promise that tripods get adopted very quickly. If they were kittens, that would be a different issue, but if she wouldn’t feel right putting one of her own cats in there, she wasn’t comfortable putting any of ours in there, either.
I will trust her on that assessment!
She’s going to give herself some time to decompress from the situation with this other cat, and will then take Ginger from us on the weekend. Ghosty is going to wait until the other shelter has an open space, rather than go to the Cat Lady until they do. Toni is not being bullied like Ginger is, so she is not an urgent adoption. She was even willing to take Leyendecker instead of Ginger, since she’s quite familiar with dealing with cats with urinary issues, but Leyendecker is not the cat being bullied, and the chances of getting Leyendecker adopted out is much lower. His urinary issues are related to stress, and he’s had no issues at all for quite a while – just increasing the amount of wet cat food they all get seems to have helped with that, too.
So we get to keep Ginger a little bit longer. This time, we’ll be meeting in the town nearest us, rather than in the nearer city, half way between our homes.
I had intended to pick up more litter pellets after meeting with the Cat Lady, since I could only fit one bag in the cart along with the kibble. When my daughter wanted to go into town to pick up a few last things for her sister’s birthday, I suggested we go to the nearer city so I could get the litter pellets, too. That worked for her, so we headed out late this morning and ran our errands.
When we got home, I took advantage of our weather to do a job that should have been done awhile ago. We have not been able to do burns often enough, usually due to high winds, so our burnable garbage has been building up. Meanwhile, we’re getting to where my daughter wants to start burning the used litter, rather than adding it to the pile behind the outhouse, to compost. On top of that, we have not been able to cremate the cats we’ve lost over the winter. Today we happened to not only be pleasantly warm, at 2C/36F, but there was virtually no wind at all. It was time to finally get the job done.
The burn barrel is falling apart and needs to be replaced, so we’ve been using a burn ring, instead. That’s getting too full of ashes. So after digging a path through the snow to the burn ring, I also dug out a larger area nearby to basically do a bonfire. We’ve still got all those old rotten pallets we cleaned up from where the wood pile used to be, so I set one of those down on top of the snow where I’d cleared a space, then prepared a space in the middle for our lost ones. Their remains were kept under cover in the burn ring, so I moved then over, then continued to build up a pyre over their remains.
Between our paper garbage and the old pallets, I was able to built quite a fire – and wow, did it get hot! I couldn’t get close to it to tend the fire for more than a few seconds before having to back off to at least 10ft away.
I took advantage of this and cleaned out almost all the old rotten pallets, setting aside the wettest ones where they could dry in the sun, for the next time we need a fire. That junk pile looks so much better now! We’d intended to take the old pallets to the dump, along with all the other oversize garbage in there, but we were never able to hire someone to haul it all away for us. I would have preferred not burning them, since they are so full of nails, but we’ll just have to take extra care in cleaning up the ashes. Right now, I’m glad we didn’t get them hauled away, since they made for an appropriately hot and clean fire to take care of our lost ones.
Not something I ever expected to need to do, when we moved out here!
The good thing about doing something like this, this time of year, is that once things burned down enough, I could leave it to smolder. The fire melted enough snow around it to create quite a puddle under it, and there’s nothing but more snow for a substantial distance in all directions.
So there’s a job that finally got done. Hopefully, not one that will need to be done again for quite some time. This past year had an insane amount of cat and kitten losses, both indoors and out. Something the Cat Lady tells us has been happening all over our province, so it wasn’t just with us.
As for the inside cats, pretty soon we’ll be down one and, hopefully, we’ll be able to keep finding forever homes for more soon. It’s been really all over the place in getting adoptions done, but at least they are happening! I am so thankful we connected with the Cat Lady. She’s been awesome for us!
Today is turning out to be an unpleasant day, so here is a picture of green growing things, instead!
The eggplants and hot peppers are just starting to show their true leaves. With just their seed leaves, they all look pretty identical. The only real difference is the stem colour on the peppers.
They are so pretty! A real boost to the mood. Especially on days like today.
For me, I think the shoveling I did finally caught up to me. Not in muscle pain or stiffness – I’m pretty used to that every morning. No, it hit me in the innards.
Upon my third run to the bathroom, I was definitely reconsidering going to the city today for our first stock up shop. That would mean about an hour plus of driving, with only one place en route with access to public washrooms, before reaching the city. As it was, I had to get the girls to take care of feeding the outside cats.
Then I checked the weather.
Wind chills of -31C?? Blowing snow advisory?
Then I checked my highway conditions groups. Some people even posted video they took, as passengers, while on the highway.
Nope. Not going to the city today!
I even got a message from my SIL saying she hoped I was staying home. I’d told her I was going to Costco today, which is relatively short drive from their place, asking if she were up to meeting for lunch. She already had plans to do ice fishing on one of the lakes, so that was a no go.
She canceled her fishing trip. Yes, it would have been in a fishing shack, but – aside from the drive itself – the exposure to winds on the lake ice was just not worth the risk for maybe a fish or two.
So today is a day to hunker down, stay warm, and out of that wind!
My mom was sent home from the hospital after many hours waiting and several tests. What she thought was the problem turned out to not be the problem – but there is a problem! They couldn’t get a good scan, so she was told they would phone her on Monday with an appointment.
Well, they must have gotten a cancelation or something, because they called this morning! I was planning to phone her this afternoon and let her know I would get her there whenever they called her for. Instead, I got a call from her while in the middle of breakfast!
She is booked for this afternoon. She told them she would need to arrange transportation, and they gave her a number to call if she could not get any.
Then she phoned my brother. The one who is farthest away!!! There was no answer, so she called me. She said they were ignoring her calls. I told her, he was with her all day. He’s got a lot to catch up on and was probably outside. She refuses to believe that. *sigh*
Anyhow.
I will be driving her. I just got back from taking her car out of the garage so I could check her tires. They are fine. It’s still a mystery why they were so low, last time!
I messaged my brother and he called me soon after. It turns out they hit the ground running, early this morning, and have already been to several places in the city. At the time my mother called, they were most likely at the gas station, tanking up. They will be out again for more errands before he can finally catch up on things at home.
My brother just goes, non stop!!!
I had a few things I wanted to get done today, but I will have to get the girls to do most of them. They can’t, however, do my garden analysis posts. My last scheduled post went up today, so my buffer is gone. If there I’d no post tomorrow, it would be because things took longer or something, with my mother!
Now to go see how the gravel roads are with her little car. I’m not looking forward to it!
I’ve been analyzing that side wall of the trellis bed with the bowed log on the bottom, and decided we needed to make a change.
The plan had been to cut joins into the horizontal logs and the vertical posts, then secure them in place. There will be four of posts, about 6′ apart but, the more I looked at it, the more I realized that in order for the posts to be in line with each other, I’d have to cut away far too much wood. It would weaken them too much.
There was one solution, though, that could be done before the end pieces were attached. The pairs of logs are attached to each other, but not to the ground.
So I snagged my daughter and some rope, and we reversed the wall.
I neglected to take photos at the start. To carry the logs, we wrapped some rope around the ends and used them as handles to lift and carry the logs around to face the other way. It was awkward, but it worked.
The rebar that joins the logs goes all the way through. At the end in the foreground, barely an inch goes through. At the far end, there’s almost 3 inches of rebar that could be jammed into the ground as we lined up and set the logs in place again. Since I cut the ends of the walls in line with each other, we had to make sure they still matched, so that the walls at the ends will be straight once they’re added.
This shows better, why I decided to switch it around. You can see where I used the chainsaw to flatten the top of the base log, for the other log to rest on! 😄 That worked out on the ends, at least! This is where the bow sticks out the furthest, pretty much in the middle. The vertical posts would have been on either side of this section. The top log is pretty straight, so I’ll probably just flatten the logs where they will come in contact, rather than actually cut joins.
But that will be done after the end pieces are added. Technically, once those are in place, we could still move the entire bed if we had to, but that would not be a very good idea!
It’s a wonderfully cool morning today. The entire time I was doing my morning rounds, it was gently misting instead of raining. And would you look at this!
We still have strawberries, blooming and ripening! Recovering from being eaten by deer has resulted in very late production. I’ll take it! 😄
I wasn’t able to get pictures, but I did have a small harvest today. I wasn’t expecting to, so I didn’t bring my colander and ended up using my shirt. I really ought to keep at least one of our harvesting colanders by the sun room! I was actually able to harvest some ripe looking Black Beauties today, as well as a few Indigo Blues. I left the Romas for later. There were some more summer squash to hand pollinate, as well as a couple large enough to harvest.
In looking over the winter squash and the melons, I just have to shake my head. The melons have been blooming like crazy, with both male and female flowers, but there are only 3 melons forming that I can find. This morning, however, there are suddenly a plethora of female flowers! Too many to even try to hand pollinate. With the size of the flowers, I’d have to use something like a cotton swab, anyhow. Hopefully, the insects will take care of it, though to be honest, it’s coming up on the end of August, so not much time for any fruit to reach maturity. Our first average frost date is Sept. 10, but with the strong El Nino this year, we might actually have a chance.
As for the winter squash, there had been two new Honeyboat Delicata forming, then one shrivelled up. The remaining one is getting noticeably bigger, every day. This morning, however, one of the other plants suddenly has a whole bunch of female flowers! Until now, it’s been all male flowers. One was open enough that I could hand pollinate it. The others should open over the next few days. Will they have a chance to mature? During a typical year, no. It would be way too late in the season. But if the frost holds off… we might just have some.
On a slightly more frustrating note, I saw Junk Pile again this morning. This photo is from last night.
That is one round belly.
I saw Caramel walking by this morning, too, and she’s looking pretty round.
More kittens at the end of August/beginning of September?
Crap.
Junk Pile has had a strange year. She had a litter of kittens extremely early and lost them. For a short while, she would follow me as I trudged through the snow to do my rounds and allow me to pick her up and carry her. She was clearly upset about losing her babies. After a few days of that, though, she went back to making strange. She will sometimes allow me to pet her when she’s on the cat house roof, eating, but that’s about it.
I’m sure she had another litter, but not being able to tell her and not-Junk Pile (now Two Toes Tony) apart, it was hard to tell. Once we saw not-Junk Pile/TTT with scratching wounds behind her ears, we could tell them apart, so I could see that it was TTT had a litter of six, though by the time we found her with the broken leg, it seems she was down to three. I would sometimes see that Junk Pile had active nips, but I never saw her with kittens. If her kittens are here at the house now, I don’t know which are hers, and the creche mothers – mostly Adam and Beep Bop – will nurse any and all kittens by the house that want to. Beep Bop is often seen nursing Caramel’s three – so I guess it’s no surprise that Caramel is pregnant again, too, even though her kittens are not old enough to be weaned.
*sigh*
Now, on to the main change of the day.
I’m not going to my mother’s.
I was indisposed when the phone started ringing, and it wasn’t even 7:30 in the morning yet. We get only two types of calls before 8am. Scammers, or my mother! 😄 I found a message from my mother, sounding very conciliatory, saying I didn’t need to come over. I could go to my appointment. She would be all right. (As if I needed her permission to go to my appointment??)
So I called her back. She told me she would take the shuttle bus for her errands. I could go to my appointment. She’d be fine. It’s only $6. She absolutely insisted I did not need to come over.
Which is fine, but between yesterday’s call and her attitude this morning, my suspicions are almost confirmed. She didn’t want me to come at all, because she had plans for my sister. She can talk my sister into taking her places that I can’t – or won’t! – take her. Considering the things she’s been saying about my brother lately, I have a very good idea of what that would have been, and there is no way I would have had the time to drive her around for that. Also, even if I did, there are things she can talk my sister into doing that she can’t talk me into. I sometimes worry about my sister’s cognitive abilities, to be honest, because she got talked into helping my mother stab my brother in the back, and she still seems to have no understanding of the harm she’s done, among other odd things.
Well, whatever. My day just went back to my original plans.
Sort of.
A nap is now part of those plans.
I didn’t get much sleep last night. With TTT not using the litter, and peeing on my pillows, I think I found something suitable to block her preferred area. My husband got a wedge for his knees, years ago, but with his hospital bed, he no longer needs it. I brought it down from it’s storage spot and have it on my bed. I considered she might just decide to pee next to it or something, but she really seemed to be wanting to use my pillows, so I hoped it would work.
After being awakened many times by either the kittens running wild, or Snarly Marlee growling and snarling at them – even when they were nowhere near her! – I am pretty sleepy right now! I was, however, awakened yet again, shortly before my alarm was supposed to go off . A distinctive rustling sound.
Sure enough, TTT was under my desk. She’d dug around the puppy pads and took a dump, right next to the litter box.
At least it was on a puppy pad.
There was no puddle, however. I couldn’t find a puddle anywhere, which had me concered that she’d found some hidden corner to use that we can’t get at.
Then I sat in it.
I keep a towel on the seat of my desk chair. It’s fake leather and the surface has been peeling off, with more than a little assistance from cats. I have the towel so that I don’t have little pieces of fake leather stuck to my butt when I get up.
TTT had jumped onto my chair and peed on the towel.
With a litter box RIGHT THERE and easier to get to.
*sigh*
I’ll be sure to talk to someone at the clinic today about it, but to be honest, I suspect we won’t solve that problem until the kittens get adopted out. Too many kittens using all of the litter boxes.
I’d really like to adopt out TTT, too. She’s new to this indoor life thing, but I’m sure she would be better in a household with far fewer cats in it!
The Re-Farmer 