These are the temperatures, screencapped just minutes before I started this post.
That’s right. We’re at -28C/-18F with a wind chill of -32C/-26F. Actually, the wind chill was reading at -35C/-31F when I did the (short version!) morning rounds! I only saw Potato Beetle when I opened the sun room. Not a single other cat came out. He was more than content to let me put him back in the sun room and close the door!
This isn’t another Polar Vortex. This is Nature saying, “Welcome to March. Here’s a kick in the teeth for ya!”
In less than an hour from now, I’ll be leaving to bring the van in to get looked at. This isn’t an appointment. This is a drop off so he can look at it in between his appointments. Which means I have to hang out in town for who knows how many hours, until he’s had a chance to check it and gives me a call. And because of the flippin’ Schrodinger’s virus restrictions, the only place I can go to is the grocery store across the street, because there isn’t a coffee shop or restaurant or anywhere indoors where anyone can just sit anymore. Keep in mind that this municipality hasn’t had a single case. Nor has ours. Nor has the municipality my mother lives in. There was only one person who turned out to have a false positive in the entire area, back in the summer. In fact, in looking at the official government stats for all cause deaths in this province, the pandemic never hit us. 2020 is indistinguishable from any year from 2014 on.
Yesterday, I made a point of running our van and my mother’s car for a while, to warm up the engines.
The doors to where my mother’s car is parked are sagging, so they open on their own unless they are blocked with something heavy. I’ve been using one of the many tires scattered about to do that. The cats have been loving it. Even in the cold we’ve been having, the black rubber gets quite warm in the sun!
Potato Beetle really wanted attention! :-D
The van keeps making a noise, even after it’s been running a while, so I popped the hood to take a look.
The noise is coming from the serpentine belt, which is what I expected, but then I noticed something else.
I was basically out of coolant/anti-freeze. ?!?
I had some in the garage and topped it up a bit, but decided to check under the van to see if there was some sort of leak. The most efficient way to do that, for someone who can’t get down on the ground, is to use my phone to take pictures.
I didn’t find a leak, but when I uploaded the photos to my desktop so I could see better, I did find a mystery.
What the heck is that? This is under the driver’s seat. I don’t know enough about what’s under vehicles to know what that is. I’ll have to look it up.
Meanwhile, I hooked up the OBD II reader and it actually worked this time, so I did a scan.
One thing came up as an issue, code P0404. I looked it up, but what I found really didn’t tell me much. The EGR valve is what got recently replaced, so this could related to what the mechanic told me about how carbon in the lines he couldn’t reach to clean might come loose and cause some stuttering, etc. I’ll have to give him a call.
On the plus side, my mother’s car was running better, so when I headed out to do my rounds this morning, I made sure to grab the keys and get it warming up.
This morning was the first time in a long time where the temperature and the wind chill were both warmer than -30C for a change!
The cats were quite enjoying the comparatively warm conditions! Poor Nosy is still looking miserable, and he really wanted attention. When holding him, he’s actually taken to grabbing my hand and pulling it to his face, for me to scritch his neck.
It’s warmed up enough that I will be switching out the memory cards on trail cams regularly again, though I had to take the new camera inside and switch to warm batteries again. I took the opportunity to reverse it’s location with the older camera. It is now in full sun, which should help with the frozen battery problems.
Once that was done, I used my mother’s car to go to the post office/general store. It’s just a few miles away, so I felt confident it would be fine.
My mother’s car is a hatch back, and always makes rattling noises in the back. It makes a lot more rattling noises when it’s cold! :-D
While getting the mail, I picked up some more coolant/anti-freeze for the van. Once at home, I topped up the reservoir a bit more. Later today, I’ll run it again for a while.
Meanwhile…
It’s been over a week since we were able to get the mail, so we had lots waiting for us. Including…
This was from the order I placed as birthday presents for the girls. :-D The purple asparagus crowns and the black iris will be shipped later, just before it’s time to plant them, for our zone. As of now, the only seeds outstanding are from my last minute order from Baker Creek. They have been shipped, so it’s now in the hands of the US and Cdn postal systems. We’re not expecting them for quite a while. I just hope we’ll get them early enough to start the spoon tomatoes indoors!
Last night, I used a satellite image of the property to create a line diagram of the inner yard, marking off where the house, storage house, fence lines and trees areas are. After printing it out, I drew in where we have existing beds and a few other details. The girls and I have been going over it, trying to figure out what to plant, where, and sketching it in. There is going to be a fair amount of inter-planting – especially with the Daikon radishes, which will be used to help break up the soil. I was amused to discover this type of radish is known as “pile driver” radishes. :-D Among the things we need to consider are the permanent locations. The asparagus, for example, can be expected to produce for 20 years, and the strawberry spinach is self sowing. Once we have a better idea of what we’ll be doing, we’ll make a bigger version of the line diagram to consult as time goes buy. We fully expect to change things up when it comes time to actually plant/transplant, but at least we’ll have a general overview.
Another thing we got today was the catalog I ordered from T&T Seeds. This is the seed catalog from my childhood. :-D I’m glad I got the physical catalog, because I find it much easier on the eyes than their website. :-/ There are quite a few things they carry that few others carry. One of them that caught our attention is the Forage Radish. From their website:
Help loosen your soil! Forage Radish or Bio Drilling. White radishes are quickly becoming a popular cover crop, as growers planting them are seeing benefits beyond commonly used cover crops, such as rye and clover. Forage radishes can improve the soil and environment. With taproots that can grow several feet deep, forage radishes bore holes into the ground, loosening the soil, hence giving them the nickname “tillage radishes.” The deep roots penetrate many layers of compacted soil, with the thin lower part of the taproot reaching 6 feet or more during the fall. After the cover crop dies in the winter and roots decompose, open root channels can be used by subsequent crop roots to grow through compacted soil layers.
Which is exactly what we need. They also carry sugar beets, which can also be used to break up soil like ours, though that’s not a selling feature. Plus, if we wanted to, we could actually try making our own sugar. Or just use them to feed the deer. At some point, we will be getting animals, so it could be one of the feed crops we can grow. Just one of the possibilities we will keep in mind, over the years.
In going over our map and figuring out where to plant, it really is hitting home how much we’ll need to actually buy a whole lot of soil. We will also have to find a way to efficiently water plots that will be well away from the house. Our current 300 ft of hose will not be enough! Things like drip irrigation, soaker hoses, or even lengths of PVC pipes with holed drilled into them that we can attach a hose to, are things we’re considering. For some things, just burying plastic containers of varying sizes, with judiciously placed holes drilled into them, next to plants that need deep watering are an option. They just need to be filled with water, which will slowly drain into the soil near the plants. We have already been keeping all kinds of containers that can be used that way, ranging in size from small water bottles to 5 gallon water jugs so, for us, that will probably be the easiest option.
At one point, I was amused by the realization that, while we are planning our garden for this year, we are also already planning our garden for next year… and the years after! We’re having a blast with it, too. :-)
I have one last photo to share with you before I finish this post. It’s completely off topic, but I can’t resist! One of my constant battles with the cats is that, as soon as I get up from the computer (which is frequent), my (very worn out) chair gets instantly occupied by a cat. Usually Cheddar.
Last night, I had this group waiting for me. Beep Beep and her babies, Saffron and Turmeric. :-D
Those faces! They’re like owls. :-D
It’s a lot more challenging to remove three cats, since any one I’ removed jumps back the instant I’ve turned my back while removing the next one!
I couldn’t resist one last post for today! I must be crazy, considering how hard it has been to upload anything, with our internet constantly flicking out, but I’m waiting for bread to rise, anyhow, so I’ve got time. :-D
I just had to get some photos of Fenrir, sitting on the light fixture over the seed starts! Thankfully, only the featherweight cats have been sitting on it, to warm their butts and cold little toe beans. :-D
I was able to head out and start up the vehicles and let them run for a while. That gave me time to get a meter reading on the power pole, as well as spend time with the yard cats. Potato Beetle showed up! I haven’t seen him in almost a week, so I was very glad to see him. He seems to have a runny nose, but no leaking eyes, like Nostrildamus and Junk Pile.
Butterscotch came over for pets, too. I was able to see her back leg a little bit. The wound has healed enough that I can’t see it at all. The shaved patch on her leg is just as nekkid as ever, unfortunately.
When I went back to check on the vehicles, the van was certainly sounding better. It didn’t want to start at all, but at least it didn’t stall. When I leaned over the steering wheel to check the gauges, however, it complained rather loudly! It sounds like the power steering fluid has frozen again. We’ve had that problem with this van before.
My mother’s car was sounding better, overall. When the time comes for us to head out, we’ll be using her car for now!
Tomorrow, we’re supposed to get as warm as -20C, so they should be fine, but I plan to run the engines again. Even just having the doors open to let the sun in helps warm them up a bit, since the winds are coming from the North. Hopefully, they will be running fine by the time we need to actually use them again.
Insulating the garage is rising higher on our to-do list! :-D
What a face! Those eyes!
Fenrir looks ready to bite my head off for disturbing her. :-D
For those who are new to following this blog, Fenrir is the first cat we brought in from outside. She showed up as a kitten, about the same age as the kittens our own yard cats had at the time. We suspect she was dumped. There is no way she came from any of the local cat populations. Even the little yard cats, like Beep Beep, are far hardier than she is. We called her The Outsider (a game reference) for the longest time.
Our own yard cats and their kittens absorbed her into the creche. We were never able to socialize all of the kittens from those two litters, and were barely able to get Fenrir to let us come near her. That winter, we turned the sun room into a cat shelter. It turned out to be a brutally cold winter and, unlike the local yard cats, she did not develop a thick undercoat. Nor did she put on any winter weight. We finally brought her inside, because we knew she would not survive the winter, otherwise. Eventually, she settled in, learned to get along with our two cats that had moved here with us, and is now quite settled. She can still be an ornery cat at times, but she’s a real sweetheart.
She is still incredibly thin under all that fur, so I can’t fault her for using the light fixture on the aquarium to stay warm!
I was able to head out and get both vehicles running for a while. It’s a good thing I trust my brother so much, or I would never have left the engines running for any length of time, from the noises I was hearing. The van stalled right away, but did eventually start.
Since I was leaving them to run – with the garage doors wide open – for some time, I took the opportunity to finally switch the memory cards on the trail cams. I had to take the new camera inside and switch the batteries to warm ones to get it working again. The batteries from when I last did this were fine, once they reached room temperature, so I’ll be switching the same two sets of batteries back and forth, as needed.
When I first came outside, my brother’s dog was here. He really wanted to play with the cats! Nostrildamus would have nothing to do with him. When I was heading out to the trail cams, he was in the driveway, trying to get Junk Pile to play with him.
Junk Pile hissed and scratched at him, and he was the one to back away, but he didn’t go far. She stood her ground, but I think it was more because she was so cold and didn’t want to move!
I haven’t been able to get a good look at her for some time, so I was dismayed to see that one of her eyes is leaking and stuck mostly shut. There is enough fluid that it was leaking down the side of her nose. She has the same plaintive meow as her boy, Nostrildamus!
After I shut down the vehicles (both sounded much better by then; the van was still making more noise that usual, but the engine was warmed up, while my mother’s car sounded almost normal, but the engine warmed up only half as much in the same time frame) and closed up the garage doors, I tried to see if Junk Pile would let me come close.
She did not, but in getting away from me, I managed to steer her towards the garage, when she squeezed under the door. There, she would no longer be sitting in the snow, or bothered by a big dog!
We have to build new doors for the side of the garage my mother’s car is in. When we do, I’m hoping to put windows near the bottom, to provide sun spots and passive solar heat for the cats. :-)
When checking the files from the trail cams, I found that the new camera had stopped recording after about a day and a half, but the old camera kept recording the whole time. The next time I have a chance, I will switch the cameras, and have the new one on the post in full sunlight. I think that might be enough to keep it going. The old camera used to be where the new one is now, before our very first camera finally died, so I already know it has no issues in the shaded location.
All sorts of things are having a rough time in this cold, both mechanical and biological!
I have the best brother in the world! And the best sister-in-law!
We were looking over our options on how to get some of the supplies we needed. I even put feelers out to see if there was someone local who could give me a ride or something. No responses.
The grocery store in town had begun offering delivery service when the shut downs started. Was that still happening? And would they deliver here? I looked it up and discovered they do deliveries 3 days a week, including Fridays – today. Unfortunately, orders have to be called in before 11am, and it was past that when I found that the service was still available, so I didn’t bother to call to see if they’d deliver as far away as us.
After failing there, I headed outside and started up my mother’s car, hoping to be able to use it to make at least a short trip to the general store/post office. Even before I started it, when the key was turned part way and the console fan turned on, it immediately started making horrible noises! The car did start, with all sorts of nasty, frozen belt and fan noises, and the engine revved itself way too high.
I shut it off.
In my head, I know I probably should have just let it run for a while and warm up, but every time I thought of doing that, I’d remember an engine block cracked from the cold, and dying on the side of a highway, all those years ago. At these temperatures, it’s just too dangerous to risk a breakdown and not even know if I’d have cell phone reception to call for help.
After trying a few other options that didn’t pan out (made more challenging with our continued internet connectivity problems), I finally sent an email to my older brother and his wife. Long story short, I emailed them a shopping list and, after my brother got home from the office, they went back into the city to pick the stuff up, then drove to our place to drop it off, tonight!
They are so awesome!
Then, because my brother wasn’t done being awesome, he checked on my mothers car.
Of course, when he started it, it wasn’t making the noises or revving like mad for him, like it did for me! We popped the hood and he checked things out. It still ran rough, but he assured me everything was okay. He told me to leave it running for about half an hour, and it should be fine. Then they left, unable to stay for longer. By the time I went out again to shut the car off, it seemed to be running smoothly again.
So I guess I should make it a habit of starting both vehicles and just letting them run for a while, as I do my morning rounds. At least for the next few days.
*sigh*
While my brother and I were fussing with the car, the girls put away the groceries, so I didn’t see what they got until later. They did get everything on the list I sent them, but more of it! So we – and the cats – are going to be just fine for the next while. Plus, because they were able to go into the city to get it all, their getting more than I asked for, still cost less than if I’d made the trip into town. When I sent an e-transfer to pay them back, I made sure to add extra to cover the cost of gas, and we still have an ample budget left to buy locally, when we are finally able to emerge from our frozen cave and do things like refill our water jugs.
I am just to grateful that they were able to do this for us, and willing to do it so late in the day (waiting until tomorrow would have been just fine!), making the long drive and even taking the time to check on my mom’s car.
My brother and his wife are the best!!!
The Re-Farmer
ps: as an aside, as I write this, we’ve dropped to -37C (-35F), with a wind chill of -45C (-49F). All the forecasts telling us when things are supposed to start warming up seem to keep getting pushed further ahead, as this polar vortex stubbornly hangs around!
With my concerns about the drive, my older daughter was willing to take time off from working on commissions to go with me. Her sister is my back up driver, who would be able to take my mother’s car to come get me, if it ever came to that, so she had to stay home.
I had gone ahead to start the van and give it time to warm up. The first time I started it, it immediately stalled. It started again, and I could hear the fan and belts screaming from being so frozen, and the idle was way too high.
It’s just cold. It’s entirely possible that, if I just left it running for a few minutes, the engine would have warmed itself up and been just fine.
Memories of a rental car’s engine block cracking from the cold, many years ago, were enough to convince me not to push our luck.
My daughter barely had time to get out of the house by the time I was closing up the garage again.
At least we have a garage! It may be completely insulated, but at least the vehicles are getting hit by the winds and snow; just the temperatures. Even when we were living in the city, we just had an outdoor parking spot, and our old home has been hit with the same bitter cold we have.
Which means it will be at least a week before we can do any sort of major shopping. I should be able to take my mother’s car (which has a battery warmer and trickle charger, as well as a block heater, and that part of the garage does actually have a bit of insulation) to the post office/general store. We can at least get some basic groceries, cat food and (I think) litter, if we need to.
For now, my younger daughter and I have been doing some bread baking, and I whipped up some mayonnaise. Making mayonnaise is easy, but it takes a lot of oil. Thankfully, the last time I picked up a few groceries, I did get a large jug of basic cooking oil, so we’ve got plenty.
All this, because our van started acting up and needed repairs at a time when we should have been using it to stock up! Frustrating, but our habit of stocking up in general means that we will manage okay, even if we do run out of a few things. It’ll be inconvenient, but we’ll be okay.
This morning, I was off to the garage to get the EGR valve replaced. I dropped it off for 10 and had thought it might take an hour or so. He told me it would take two hours, which is a lot of time to fill, when there is nowhere to go to just sit. I ended up walking across town towards the lake – with high winds and blowing snow, I wasn’t going to go right to the beach! – and back again. Then I very, very slowly did some grocery shopping. We have yet to do our big monthly shop in the city, but with having to buy locally so often, it’s messed our budget up quite a bit. :-( Ah, well.
By the time I was in line to pay, I’d only managed to kill 1 hour. Thankfully, the line was slow, but I still ended up done very early. I was able to leave the cart by the exit and walking over to the garage to see how things where, stayed there a while (they let me wait in the office, alone, even though they’re not really supposed to do that anymore. I didn’t stay long, though, went back to claim my cart of groceries, then waited in one of the corners the grocery store has with picnic tables.
It was only somewhat sheltered from the wind. :-/
I went back and forth a couple of times before finally moving the cart to a different corner around the entry, where it was slightly more sheltered from the wind. I knew the garage was close to done with the van, so I walked into the parking lot every now and then to see if it was outside yet.
Two hours passed, and still no van!
After walking out to the parking lot to check again, I came back to a cashier coming outside to talk to me. She could see me through the window and was worried about me being in the cold! She told me I could take my cart inside the vestibule. There isn’t a lot of space there, with how traffic is blocked and redirected now, but she told me it was okay. So I got to be indoors for the last 25 minutes or so! The only downside was that I had to wear my Mingle Mask, which would fog up while I was inside, then when I stepped out to see if the van was outside, the condensation would freeze! LOL
Of course, I could have just waited for the garage to call me on my cell phone, but the last time they did that, I never heard my phone ringing in my pocket. I happened to have it in my hand this time, though. :-D
It turns out the van was not very co-operative for them! I can’t say I’m surprised to hear that. ;-) As I was paying, he made sure to tell me to not buy gas at the co-op from now one. I told him I’d already stopped! He also warned me that, while he cleaned the lines out as far as he could, I might still feel some stutters or hiccups as bits of carbon breaks loose. He recommended that, when the opportunity arises, such as when leaving a stop sign, to floor it. That is something I normally avoid! LOL It’ll help clear the carbon out faster, though. So I’ll do it. Just not today! It was just too icy out there.
Once the van was paid for, I drove to the grocery store. The staff in the vestibule, there to sanitize the carts, recognized me as I drove up. By the time I stopped at the doors, she had the cart out and helped me load it into the van!
We had issues with this place when we first moved out here, but since then, they have really improved, and these days have been going above and beyond. It is much appreciated!
Once at home, I pulled into the yard to unload. The girls very carefully opened the main door and propped it up, so it was all ready and waiting to be finished while the girls put away the groceries.
Drilling the pilot holes was a pain. I’d hoped not to need to, with the lilac wood I used already having soft spots in the middle; I could easily push a nail through the middles. I was only able to get one of the original screws in, though. Even with using the Dremel and a carving tip to enlarge the pilot holes, the last 2 screws would go only so far before I found myself stripping the heads instead of going further. The lilac is a surprisingly hard wood.
In the end, I replaced the original screws.
So now I have two Robbies and and Phillips. :-D I really should have replaced the third one, but the new screws are slightly shorter, so I left the longer screw in place. The new screws were still pretty hard to get all the way in, but the square tips handle the strain a lot better than star tips.
Then came the litmus test: removing the supports under the door and seeing if the hinge would hold!
It held. :-)
The door now opens and closes smoothly! I was going to say “again”, but honestly, it’s been a problem since before we moved here. Which makes me wonder, how many years was the door just getting noisier and noisier, and being more and more of a problem to open and close, and no one thought to look at the hinges? There are other problems with the door that we identified since moving here – which is why the goal is to replace the doors and frame completely – and I even remember checking the hinges in the frame myself, but somehow, no one thought to squeeze their heads in to see the hinges on the door side.
The centre hinge has not been done, and with the weather forecasts right now, it’s going to wait until things warm up again. If we even bother to do it at all. Not being able to open the door any wider makes getting into the space a real pain!
There are other things that are a much higher priority!
As I write this, we are at -5C/23F, and are expected to get a bit warmer. After the deep freeze we just had, this is feeling downright tropical!
I meant to post this picture yesterday, but I just didn’t have the brain space to do a blog post, so I’m sharing it today!
Their matched, angry looking expressions make me giggle. :-D
There were lots of kitties out while I was doing their food and water this morning.
The Potato Beetle brought luggage.
This was attached to his tail! A whole lot of stuff, stuck to a couple of burrs, stuck to his tail. The blue is from the tarp covering the kibble house. It looks like there’s some jute cord in there, too, and I have no idea where that would be from. I haven’t used any outside, yet. You don’t get a real sense of perspective on the size in the photo. It was like he had a small birds nest stuck to him!
Nostrildamus was quite eager for attention this morning.
He was trying to climb onto me while I was taking is picture. I am so happy with this shot!
Butterscotch was out and about, too, and followed me around. She let me carry her back to the house, and I took advantage of the cat house roof. I put her down on it, then kept petting her, and was finally able to get a really good look at her wounded leg. The gash is completely closed and barely visible. If there were not a suture in the middle of it, I probably would not have been able to spot it, as she moved around.
The whole area is still nekkid. The fur is not really growing back at all, yet. Which means she’s cold, all on the inside of her thigh. Which is better than a gaping wound, of course, but I can tell she’s uncomfortable when she sits in the snow.
Meanwhile…
I took the van in to the garage yesterday. When I got there, I went over again with him about what the van was doing (he sees so many vehicles, I’m not going to assume he remembers everything I told him before! LOL), and he asked a few questions.
When I had come to the front door I saw, for the first time, a sign about masking. Most other places have them plastered all over, but he had just the one on the door. So I paused to put on my Mingle Mask before going in. There was no one else inside and, while he had his back to me when I came into the office, I could see he wasn’t wearing a mask, so I asked “can I take this thing off?” He said yes as he turned around, then saw the Mingle Mask. He had this “wtf is that?” look on his face, so I told him, I can’t wear a mask, but I can breathe with this.
As we were talking and I gave him the keys, I mentioned I was going to go to the grocery store across the street, but might have to come back. There’s no place else to go to wait. He told me to take my time at the grocery store, because he’s not allowed to have people wait in his office anymore. Which is ridiculous, considering how much space he’s got in there.
I did take my time with the groceries, but still ended up sitting outside and waiting. Thankfully, the grocery store has a picnic table in a sheltered corner, where the staff takes their smoke breaks. While I was there, a woman came by for a smoke and we chatted for a bit. After a while, I walked into the parking lot to check, and saw that my van was outside the garage door. I asked if it might be okay to bring the cart over there to unload it, but she saw I had two of the big water jug refills and said it would be really hard to get the cart through the snow. Instead, she helped me bring it into the vestibule, moving a divider for me, so I got get it nearer the exit doors. There was a staff member in charge of cleaning the carts, and she ended up keeping an eye on my groceries for me, while I went back to the garage. She even offered to help me load the water jugs when I came back with the van! They were so sweet. :-)
As for the van…
The mechanic was outside when I came over – it turned out he had just tried phoning me, but I never heard my cell phone ring! As I came up, the first thing he asked me was, where do I buy my fuel?
We always but our fuel at either Costco (usually once a month, though we haven’t been to Costco for quite a while) or at a co-op. As members, we get a check at the end of the fiscal year, with the amount based on how much gas or groceries we buy, though I haven’t tried to shop at the local co-op grocery store since the restrictions went nuts.
As soon as I told him it was at the co-op, he just shook his head.
My EGR (exhaust gas re-circulation) valve needs to be replaced.
I had no idea what that was, so he explained it to me. It’s no wonder I didn’t know what it was. It’s been so long since I’ve tinkered with engines, they didn’t even have these, yet. I was aware of the EGR valve’s function in newer vehicles, but not as part with a name to it.
Gosh, I suddenly feel old.
He told me the co-op gas stations have the worst quality fuel available. This is something I’ve heard others saying, too, but I didn’t seem to be having any problems, so…
Yeah.
It turns out he sees this a lot, and every time he does, it’s people who buy their gas at the co-ops. The crappy fuel leaves behind a lot of carbon, and these valves end up completely clogged. He said they can sometimes be cleaned, but usually need replacing. I figure, by the time he sees the vehicles, they’re long past the stage where the valve can be just cleaned out!
This is in line with my brother’s thoughts when I described what the van was doing, though he hadn’t specifically mentioned the EGR valve. It might even be why our van sometimes doesn’t want to start at all – something it did with the mechanic one time, as he tried to drive the van into the garage when I had the winter tires put on. That was a problem we’ve had every now and then, since we got the van. Whoever owned it before us did not maintain it well, and we spent an awful lot of money getting it fixed up after we bought it. Considering we got it at a price low enough, I could use my debit card to pay for it, I suppose we can’t really complain!
So while it’s only been a little over 3 years that we’ve been buying this gas, if there were already a build up in the valve before, it would have gotten a lot worse, a lot faster.
As I think about it, I realize that if we weren’t in the habit of doing a monthly shop, with the van being so heavily loaded, we probably would not have noticed it was becoming a problem, and likely would have kept going for months, if not years, before catching it.
The part is being ordered, and I am bringing the van back on Thursday morning. It’s going to cost $425, plus taxes.
*sigh*
I won’t be getting my new chainsaw this month! :-D
While we were in his office, booking the next appointment, he saw someone coming in and quickly put a mask on, so I quickly put my Mingle Mask on, too, so as not to get him in trouble. We were both muttering under our breath about not being able to breath without a mask, never mind with one. I think he he’s medically exempt, too, but is being forced to wear one when customers are around. This town has an awful lot of Covid Karens that would eagerly phone the snitch lines, or the police, on anyone they deem non-complaint. At least he’s alone in the shop, most of the time, and can take it off to breathe.
(Which reminds me; my doctor is going to refer me to a respiratory specialist. The puffer he got me to try has made no difference, and this is now something for the specialists. Hopefully, I will get someone better than the last respiratory specialist I saw, when we lived in the city. His conclusion had been, I’m fat, so that must be why I’m coughing, and he would react with open surprise when test after test came back showing me normal and healthy. :-/ Then he just gave up and sent me back to my regular doctor.)
Meanwhile, the van should be okay to drive, though I will be avoiding heavy loads until after the valve is replaced. He assured me that, while it might keep stalling on me, I would be able to restart it and keep on going. Once it’s replaced, that sluggishness I was noticing should go away, as well. It seems quite a few little things I was noticing, including the fuel economy dropping and the idle starting to sound rougher, were probably all warning signs of this problem.
Now I’m wondering about my mother’s car. She always bought fuel at the co-op, too, and I’ve noticed it has terrible mileage.
After booking the appointment and loading up the groceries, I filled the gas tank on the way home.
At a different gas station!
Dang it. One of our favourite places to stop on the way to the city was the co-op gas station in my mother’s town. There are such wonderful people working there, plus they’ve got an excellent convenience store. But getting a few bucks a year back isn’t anywhere near enough to make up for having to pay over $400 to fix the damage it causes. :-/
We’ll probably still stop there, just to go into the store for snacks, home baked by one of the gas jockeys. <3
So that’s where we are at, with the van situation. It’s going to be an expensive fix, but knowing what’s wrong is actually a huge relief.
I must admit, though; I’m getting really, really tired of vehicle problems. It’s a lot more stressful, when living in such relative isolation, because we depend on having a vehicle so very much. That’s one of the more major downsides of living out here. :-(
I never got around to making a new post yesterday, so I’ll start with what I intended to write, yesterday!
While doing my morning rounds, I noticed the step ladder we’d left leaning against the storage building was no longer there. So I trudged my way through the snow, dug it out of where it fell and was half covered by snow, and set it aside in a better spot.
The space under this building is one of the places the cats like to go for shelter, with a well worn path in the grass from there to the yard.
The one in the snow is also well worn and…
… kind of drunk looking! :-D
There are deer tracks all over.
It looks like they found something to dig for under the snow!
This morning, while doing my rounds, I had a whole crowd of kitties following me. I thought it was 6 at first, then a 7th one popped out of the snow at me! :-D
There are three up them, watching me from under the garage door. :-D
There was some odd stuff going on yesterday.
For starters, my breathing issues have lessened… for now. I haven’t had those “gasping for breath” moments I had while driving to and from the city. It’s not gone; while I’m sitting at the computer, for example, my breath does feel slightly restricted, but I’m not suddenly gasping for air like I was earlier. Which is good, but leaves me wondering what the heck is causing it. When the clinic reopens after their lunch break (they don’t book appointments and stop answering the phone for 1 hour, every day), I’ll call about making an appointment for myself and one of my daughters.
I talked to my brother about what our van has been doing. His thoughts lean more towards something restricting air flow, rather than it being the powertrain control module, which is what my thoughts were leaning towards. He’s had critters make nests in his air filter that caused his vehicle to stall. That it’s happening when the van is loaded down makes him thing something might be blocking the exhaust.
I looked around the van yesterday, and plugged in my OBDII reader.
It wouldn’t connect to the ECU.
It hooks up to my phone app with Bluetooth, and that was working fine. I could also look at the “live” readings, with its animated gauges, so I could tell that data was being transferred. I simply could not do a scan for any error codes. It couldn’t talk to the onboard computer.
*sigh*
So I will have to call the garage, probably next week, about bringing it in for a quick look see.
Until then, we will use my mother’s car. Tomorrow I’ll be using it to take my mother out for her errands.
Which leads me to my final odd thing.
My mother got a strange call, yesterday, from a former neighbour. She and her husband used to own one of the quarter sections adjacent to one of ours. Our vandal has been using her as an example of what my mother should be doing with the farm, rather than willing it to my brother (now that she’s transferred ownership already and the farm is no longer part of the will at all, he still seems to think she should give it “back” to him, and that she’s actually given it to me… ???).
Apparently, this woman recently drove past our driveway on the way to visit her sons, saw a camera, and called my mother to ask why there were cameras.
Well, first of all, that’s none of her business. Who cares if there are cameras on someone else’s property? Second, there is no way she saw either camera while casually driving by. They’re close to the gate, but not that close! Someone would have to stop and be actually looking well past the gate to find them. The new one’s camo colours aren’t as good as the basic grey of the old one, but it’s still not that easy to spot unless you know where to look.
My mother knew immediately that our vandal had talked to her and told her to call about it.
The cameras where not the only thing that came up. Apparently, everyone is laughing at us, for taking our vandal to court.
Of course, this person had no idea what was really going on. So my mother told her about the vandalism, and how he somehow feels entitled to the farm and everything on it. This person did help my parents a lot, and we were very close in the past. My parents were also very generous to him, even as his behaviour became more erratic and abusive. They owed him nothing, and considering all the things he’s helped himself to before we moved out here, he owes my mother more!
At the end of the conversation, this former neighbour said she would call our vandal and talk to him.
Well, wouldn’t you know it, my mother got a phone call from him soon after. He had the audacity to start by saying how much he loved her. She called him on the BS, and when he started ranting again, she hung up on him.
*sigh*
And things had been so quiet, here. Unfortunately, what we’ve learned is that the quieter he is, the more likely he’s coming up with nefarious plans in the background. Like filing a suit against me.
One thing these calls my mother got has confirmed for me: our vandal is busily slandering us to whoever will listen, making himself out to be the victim instead of the aggressor. Since most of the people here have known him for decades, and we’ve been here for only a few years, they probably have no reason to doubt him.
Ah, well. We just have to work with the hand we’ve been dealt.
And now that our internet is back, I’ll see if I can post this before it cuts out again!!
Let’s start with some adorable kitties, having breakfast!
They’re just a great way to start the day! :-D
As for the rest of the day, things were just… tiring.
I got a phone call early in the day. Well, any phone call at all is unusual for us. ;-D
It was my older brother, letting me know he got a phone call from our vandal. My brother was at his work office, so he didn’t answer, but once he heard the message, he wanted to let me know about it, right away.
Amazingly, after making some nasty digs about not being allowed in the property anymore, he had the nerve to request written permission to come on the property.
There are some 2x4s in the barn, and he’s building a shed, so he wants them.
Unbelievable!
My brother was able to send me the file and I got it transcribed before I had to head out. So that was helpful, though ultimately, I never made use of it.
My first stop was at the garage to get the broken shield on my mother’s car fixed.
The tip of it was broken off. The shield had been held in place with a plastic clip that was still holding the tip in place. Since the length was changed, he ended up having to drill and screw into a new hole.
The whole thing, including the time to drive the car in, use the lift, fix it, then drive it out again, took 5 minutes.
I offered to pay, but he wouldn’t bill me anything for it.
What an awesome guy!
Since it took so little time, I was able to drive to the nearer small city and go to the court office to apply for a restraining order and involuntary mental health assessment for our vandal.
The municipality the court is in is under a mask mandate, so I had to go through the usual questioning about my not wearing one, but there were no issues when I said I was medically exempt. I explained why I was there and got the two forms explained to me, but I had to leave the space to fill them out, since the area around the counter was small, and they could only serve one person at a time. I ended up standing at a garbage/recycling station to have a flat surface to work on. Which was fine by me.
I wasn’t able to pass on any of the printouts I brought, but I was glad to have them, since as I filled out the forms, I could use them to get exact dates and remember key details. Not that there was room for much.
After passing the completed forms back, answering a few questions, swearing on the Bible (which was in a clear plastic bag, and got sprayed with sanitizer first) and getting my signatures witnessed, it was back out the door to sit and wait.
Surprisingly, it was the mental health order that was dealt with faster.
Someone came out to talk to me and, in a nutshell, she could not grant the mental health order. She did, however, tell me exactly why and what I needed, then gave me a new form to take home, so I could reapply. The biggest question was whether or not he’d been told to get help, and refused it, very recently – as in, within the last 24 hours or so. I’ve certainly told him to get help before, but I haven’t had direct contact with him in ages for a reason! All in all, she was very helpful. I think, even with how little I could fit into the form, she could tell that this was a real issue.
Then I had to wait about the restraining order. When I got called in for that, I was given the sheet that would go to the police to go over; after some details were corrected, I signed it.
I now have a court date in November.
He will be served by the police some time soon. Which means we will have to double down on keeping an eye on things, because this is likely to trigger him.
The whole time I was there was very stressful. I’ve actually had to go through some of this before we moved, but it’s very different when the person is not someone you used to be close to. My body was so tense, I had to go to the bathroom three times, just because of how much my abdomen was cramping up. My hands were shaking so bad, I could hardly write, and I felt like throwing up, all from being so physically tense. And yet, I was actually pretty calm about the whole thing, mentally. There is still that physiological response to stress, and I just had to push my way through it.
I am glad to have at least been able to get the process started. I have steps to take, and can try again with the mental health order once I get those ducks in a row.
The next while is going to require being on high alert. I thought I knew this person very well, but now, I have no idea how he will react once he’s served with the court date.
It has to stop. The process, however, is so very slow.
The Re-Farmer 