A visit in, and getting things done

May 9, 2026 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

This morning, I woke to find a message from my older daughter. She had been up all night, not feeling well at all. Her sister stayed up with her to be available to help out.

Not being in a position to cook for herself, she sent me some funds and a request. After talking to her about it, I added a Walmart trip to my list of places to go today.

The first order of business, was to load up the truck with garbage and recycling for the dump. My younger daughter helped me, but she had been up for more than 24 hours, so she was pretty dead on her feet! She headed to bed shortly after the truck was loaded.

Silly me, I headed out right away, forgetting that the dump is not on summer hours. They open at 10am now, not 9am. Thankfully, I remember that before I was a mile away, so I turned around and headed home. It worked out for the better, since I had time to have a real breakfast before going.

The dump was surprisingly busy today. Driving up to the pit, I found a row of four trucks, two with trailers, unloading. I rarely see more than two vehicles at once.

When I checked in with the attendant and told him I had household garbage and recycling, he said I hoped I had only glass! They have one recycling bin for glass, and the rest for general recycling. Six big bins, and they were all full. The recycling gets taken to the city for processing, and it hadn’t been done yet. After I was done unloading into the pit, I found the least over filled bin. Normally, as per instructions on signs, recycling would be removed from any bags; there’s even a separate blue bin, the size of a large trash bin, just for the bags. I didn’t do that today, and just set all the bags on top. When I saw the attendant going by, I made sure to tell him I was leaving them in the bags, so things wouldn’t get blown away. He appreciated that!

Once done, I headed home long enough to change out of my grubbies, then headed out.

On the way to the truck, I spotted this adorableness.

I’ve turned off the heat lamps in the sun room again, since it stays warmer overnight, but for the next couple of days, I’m leaving the heat lamp on in here. When things warm up again, I’ll shut it off during the day and turn it back on at night.

The cats were really appreciating the heat lamp!

It’s been a while since I’ve been to anywhere I could pick up a card, so I stopped at a small department store to get a Mother’s Day card and signed it before going to the TCU to visit my mother. I stopped at the nursing station first, to ask how she’s been.

The woman that had spoke to us before to talk about my mother wanting to see a doctor, and about her medications, was there. She told me that, after our little meeting, my mother had gone to the nursing station to watch her prepare my mom’s supper time medications – and was already telling her, they were the wrong medications.

They aren’t.

In the end, it comes down to my mother simply refusing to believe the nurses know what they are doing, and believing that they are deliberately messing up her medications, because she’s old and they want old people to die.

*sigh*

The staff tell her what the different pills are, every time they give them to her, explaining which is which and what they are for. She apparently just looks at them and nods her head, most times, and that’s about it. Yet I know she’s been writing notes on a pad she keeps in the drawer under her bedside table, of what she’s getting and when, writing down the descriptions of each pill and making little doodles of them, later on.

As we were talking, another nurse came behind the counter and settled in. Hearing us, she said, “Oh, we’re talking about [my mother].”

“Yes.”

“Ah…”

All I could do was shake my head. It’s not the first time I’ve had that response about my mother! She did clarify that this was a good “ah”. She was my mother’s nurse, this morning.

As we were talking, I brought up about my mother calling me, demanding I take her over to the clinic down the hall, so she could make an appointment with a doctor there. I had told her, I already asked them about it. They won’t do it. Which the nurses both confirmed with me. I told them, I had repeated this several times, until my mother hung up on me – and that’s the last time I have talked to her!

They wished me well on the visit. 😄

After getting updated on things, I went to my mother’s room to see if she was there. She wasn’t, so I headed to the common room. There were other people visiting with another resident in some armchairs by the door. My mother was in her favourite spot; an armchair right in a corner, between two large windows. Snoozing!

She woke right away, though, as I grabbed a chair and settled in beside her. I gave her the card, which she asked me to take out and read to her.

There wasn’t much to talk about, really. My brother had called her yesterday, as he and his wife were going to spend Mother’s Day weekend with their grandsons, in another province. The TCO recreation person had gotten permission from us to take her out for a Mother’s Day meal at a nearby restaurant, which is fully accessible. There were enough ladies to do this with, so they were splitting it between two days. I didn’t know which day my mother was going to be going, and I asked her about it. She said she didn’t go, because she hadn’t been feeling well. In the end, it worked out, because my sister visited that day.

She then asked me what I was planning for Mother’s Day and I ended up telling her about the all-terrain walker my husband got for me, which should arrive soon. Something that can handle being used around our yard as I work, and to keep hand in case I have another fall, like I did last year, where my daughter brought my husband’s walker for me to use to get back to the house. I even mentioned to her that I have my appointment at the sports injury clinic in the city on Monday. That got my mother talking about how my brother and I should really get my sister to be more involved in taking care of my mother, because I have so much to deal with, even though my sister doesn’t understand my mother’s medications like we do. I told her, it makes more sense for me to be the one, because I am the most available, and live the closest.

After a while, my mother brought up about wanting to see a “real” doctor at the clinic down the hall. There are three doctors that some in from the city, she says. Women doctors. She should see them. I tried to explain, again, that the clinic won’t do that. She is under a doctor’s supervision where she is, and there are nurses to take care of her. Nurses that play doctor, she told me. With some of them, she doesn’t believe they are nurses at all. One, because he’s male, and men can’t be nurses, in her mind. She had the same attitude about the male home care workers.

Before she could go off on another tangent, she then told me about the nurses messing up with her medications and not giving her what she’s supposed to, at the right times. She described an incident she says happened more than once that made absolutely no sense to me. Partly because she said she was supposed to have her blood pressure medication at that time, which I knew she didn’t. She got that one earlier in the day. She insisted, and then told me about how this person had given her her Tylenol, but not her other medications. When my mother brought it up, she claimed the person said she got was she was supposed to, but then took a pill out of a blister pack and gave it to her. My mother said she took it.

None of this made sense to me.

In the end, it was a short visit. My mother got her lunch while I was there. A chicken burger, with lettuce and tomato, cut in half, potato salad, canned peaches, tomato juice, milk and the hot water she requests in place of tea. She ate only half her burger, the potato salad, her peaches, had a few sips of tomato juice, but mostly drank the warm water. She offered me the other half of her burger, because she didn’t want it to go to waste. She said she doesn’t have as much appetite anymore. Overall, she seemed pretty down, tired and depressed. She did add that she looks forward to when it’s warmer, so maybe one of her children will take her out to that restaurant for dinner. Considering it was cloudy and trying to rain, I can understand that. Overcast and rainy weather always leaves me feeling drained and tired, too. The only time she showed any sort of energy was when the group of people across the room suddenly started to laugh. My mother glared at them, her eyes filled with absolute rage. That is something she complains about constantly, every time she’s been in the hospital over the years, and now that she’s in the TCU. Other people laughing. She has even berated people in restaurants for laughing. She complains about the noise and how disruptive it is, but I’ve come to realize, it’s not really the noise. She just hates other people showing happiness. Often times, she also believes that they are laughing at her, specifically. I think part of the problem is that she can’t conceive of other people being happy, because she, herself, never is. When – if – she laughs, it’s never out of happiness. It’s usually to mock people, or to try and manipulate them. I honestly can’t remember my mother ever laughing out of happiness, in all my life. I’m sure she had at some point, but I was probably too young to remember it.

My mother’s mind must be a terrible place to be in.

There was very little to talk about, so I helped her put aside the bedside table with the food tray so she could get up, and walked her to her room before heading out.

From there, I drove to the nearer city to do my Walmart run. Since it shares the parking lot, I swung by the Dollarama first, to see if there was anything to pick up. The gardening supplies are being stocked, and they have some really good stakes and plant supports and much better prices. They didn’t have much for those, this time, but I did end up getting a sprinkler hose. Something I can set up under a covered garden bed, so I can water without having to take the cover off completely. I do have a couple of soaker hoses, but they release water so slowly, it takes forever to water a bed. It’s just a cheap one, dollar store hose, so I don’t expect it to last very long, but it’ll last long enough that I can decide on whether it’s worth getting more. At some point, when the budget allows, we’ll probably get a drip irrigation system. Not until we trench a hose from the house and set up a replacement garden tap.

That done, I headed to the Walmart. I had a small list of my own, as well as stuff my daughter requested, and it didn’t take very long. I kept feeling like I was forgetting something, but had no idea what. It didn’t help that this location is still in the process of being renovated, and everything has been moved. It was also really busy, not just with customers, but with pallets, trollies, pallet jacks and more, blocking the aisles.

I remembered what I was forgetting, just now. I don’t even know where the section is, anymore. I was going to pick up water soluble fertilizer to add to the water for the earliest transplants. They’re getting big enough to need it. It’s will probably be at least 4 more weeks before any of them can be transplanted outside, unless I’m able to cover the beds with plastic.

That done, I headed home, though I did have to stop for gas along the way. Gas prices are still $1.889/L

After everything was unloaded and put away, I updated my siblings, then called the TCU. The woman I spoke to before visiting my mother answer the phone, which made things easier. I explained, as best I could, what my mother had told me. It didn’t make sense to her, either.

What I now know, however, is that the Tylenol they get comes sealed in blister packs. The medication my mother gets before bed, which is a blood thinner, not a blood pressure pill, comes in a paper packet that is torn open. My mother had said the nurse had waited and watched her take the Tylenol, but it had to have been her blood thinner – yet she’s never said anything about a pill being taken out of a paper packet.

I was assured that, when my mother is given her medications, each one is shown to her and explained. When talking to me about it later, it’s clear my mother doesn’t believe them. She’s had it explained to her, many times, that even though the pills might look a little different – or a lot different, as is the case with her eye vitamin – they still have the same medication and dose in them. My mother keeps saying, they are the wrong pills. Especially with that eye vitamin. Before, she had been getting the gel version, which is large and almost black in colour. Now, it’s a round white tablet.

I explained that this has been an issue in the past, when the pharmacy changed suppliers for one of her meds. It looked every so slightly different in size and tint. My mother decided that the pharmacist had changed her prescription and was giving her something else. My siblings and I explained it to her. The pharmacist explained it to her. The doctor explained it to her. She never accepted that. I told her about my mother having to have a lock box for her meds, and that I’d found a pill organizer with probably 50 pills in it that she’d taken out of her bubble packs, long before she got the lock box.

I don’t think the problem is that my mother isn’t able understand that the same medication can come indifferent forms. I think it’s more that she refuses to accept that as a possibility. She would rather believe people are incompetent, or deliberately messing with her medications.

*sigh*

Still, the nurse said she would look into what my mother described. She asked if I knew what the nurse looked like, or when it happened, but my mother’s sense of time has gotten very bad, and she only gave a description of things that bothered her for some reason. The hat the nurse was wearing, the fact that she had curls of hair hanging out from under it, behind her head, and that she was wearing a cross body “purse” (with how my mother described it, I don’t think it was a purse) that she never took off. It wasn’t much for her to go on. All I could be relatively sure of is that what my mother described would have happened after the nurse had her meeting with us, so within the past week. In the end, though, I can’t even be 100% sure of that. My mother made it sound like it was recent, but she’s done that about things that have happen days, weeks, even years ago. So who really knows.

Meanwhile, I’m getting messages, photos and video from my brother and SIL, hanging out with their grand kids. Oh, and their son and daughter in law, too. 😁 They’re having a blast! I’m glad they could make the trip out.

All in all, even with the short but rather odd visit with my mother, it’s been a good and relatively productive day. Tomorrow is expected to be cooler again, so I will use that as my excuse to get a real, honest to goodness, day of rest. I hadn’t pushed myself hard yesterday, but I still needed to get my husband to slather on the diclofenac last night. Even between that and the painkillers I took before bed, I was awakened this morning by sharp pain in my hips. Both of them. Which, strangely, lessened as soon as I was up and moving around.

I’m really looking forward to my appointment at the sports injury clinic on Monday!

Hopefully, I won’t have to deal with it again, tomorrow morning!

We shall see.

The Re-Farmer

A draining visit, a good visit and some spring clean up done

May 2, 2026May 2, 2026 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Today, I was supposed to do a dump run, but I was just too tired and in pain. It’ll have to wait until they’re open again on Tuesday.

I had a rough pain night and didn’t get much sleep, so I was going to try lying down for a bit, then visit my mother in the afternoon. I wasn’t looking forward to that, after her last phone call, but it needed to be done. I wasn’t down for long when I got a message from my SIL. My brother was on his way to see our Mother, and would then come here to the farm.

So I decided to head out to my mother’s earlier and meet him there. When I got there, though, I found another message from my SIL, as well as from my husband. My brother had tried to call me, but he was calling the land line. He was going to the farm, first.

Which worked out. I got the messages just as I parked at the hospital and realized my mother would be getting her lunch tray, so I walked around for a bit to give her time to finish eating before I went in. I stopped at the nursing station to find out about the phone call I didn’t get on Tuesday, about arranging a family meeting with the doctor. The person at the desk wasn’t the one in the know, so she made a note for the nurse in charge to come see us while I was visiting her.

The first part of the visit was okay. My mother talked a lot about things she remembered from back in Poland. All stuff I’d heard before, but that’s okay. I took a chance and showed her pictures of the chicken coop. She asked me why I didn’t build a shed for them instead of something with so many “windows”. I told her, because we can’t do that right now, this is what we’ve got. She laughed at me for having a chicken coop but no chickens. I told her we were getting chicks at the end of the month. Just 10 for now. Only 10? So few?

…

I told her, the coop is only big enough for 10 chicks.

Then she started going on about how wonderful our vandal is, because he buys his eggs from the Hutterites, and he bought chickens for the freezer from them, too. Now, it’s entirely possible he did this once or twice, years ago, but in her mind this is something he always does. I told her, the Hutterites have a huge operation; we just need enough chickens for eggs for ourselves.

Oh, and my sister’s husband visited our vandal, who told him he doesn’t want me or my brother at his funeral. Which I figured. My mother told me, she wanted us to do what was the right “Christian” thing to do. *sigh*

Then the nurse came and things got… brutal, though in a relatively calm way, for my mother.

In a nutshell; the doctor will not see her or have any meetings about her, because he simply doesn’t have the time. She does not have any medical need for a doctor’s care. She went on about her hearing and her vision, but neither is something that requires him. My mother is undergoing the mineral oil treatment on her ears again – it will be for 5 days this time – before they try flushing it again, and my mother had all sorts of things to complain about with that. Meanwhile, my mother is adamant that they are not giving her her second eye vitamin pill of the day. She writes it all down, she counts all her pills, but they tell her different things about different pills – the nurse and I both realized that my mother was mixing a blue pill up with a green pill, thinking they were the same pill, so that’s why she was getting different answers. My mother is also now convinced that her hearing was “perfect” before she came there, and her hearing problems have something to do with not getting her pills. When I pointed out that she used to have her TV and radio incredibly loud when I’d come over to her apartment in the past, she switched to Polish and accused me of taking their side and of lying. She also wants a pill for her eyes. I had to go over how the eye vitamin is only helpful for her left eye and the dry macular degeneration. The only treatment for the wet macular degeneration in her right eye is the injections she would have to go to the city for. She has rejected that and demands another pill; going back to how she claims they have stopped giving her the second one of the day. Even her own notes show that she is getting two pills at 5pm, but now she says she only gets one.

Even after the nurse left, my mother kept insisting they were not giving her these eye vitamins, and all her health problems have now only started after she came to this TCU. Things she has been dealing with for a long time. I kept trying to explain things, but she just went back to the manipulation, saying I was taking their side, etc. etc. I finally said, it was time for me to go.

As I was getting ready to leave, my mother brother up her wheelchair. This is a folding wheelchair that had been my father’s.

She asked me if I recognized it. I saw it in the hallway and said I did. She asked me to bring it over, and began questioning me about recognizing it. The staff had clearly given it a really good cleaning; whatever they used on the heavy vinyl got it all nice and supple and looking brand new. They even oiled the squeaky food rest. However, it’s an old chair, and there are cracks in the wheels and spots of rust that I could say where there before.

My mother clearly didn’t believe me. She has decided it’s not the same chair anymore. The hospital switched it.

This is not a new thing. For as long as I can remember, she accused my father of “trading” cattle, vehicles, furniture, the TV, etc. and he was giving the “good” versions the second family she believed he had, and the “bad” versions for us. When she tried to convince me a particular cow had been traded because it looked different – it had matured and filled out, looking bigger, strong and healthier – I pointed out that if this cow had been “traded”, we now have a better cow, so how did her accusations make sense?

I had a very confusing childhood at times.

The visit done, I headed home, utterly drained. My brother was still here, so we sat in their mobile home and I filled him in. It was good to talk to him about it in person, and we had a great visit! He was dreading his visit with Mom, but I just heard from him. He ended up staying with Mom for a couple of hours and the visit went well. It seems my mother got her nasty out of her system before he got there. I’m very glad it worked out that way, because she has been incredibly cruel to him during most of his visits with her.

After filling in my brother, I headed inside and took a bit of a break before changing into my grubbies and going outside for some manual labour. That, more than anything else, really helps decompress after a visit with my mother.

My focus for today was getting the straw off the septic tank. I had just started when I began getting messages from the cat rescue.

They are trying to get ahold of special traps to borrow and bring here. Traps with motion sensors and operated by remote. We can set up the camera currently facing the isolation shelter to monitor the traps. When the motion sensor goes off, check the camera to see what critter is in it. This way, we can trigger the trap only if the specific cat we are after – Slick, for example – is in the trap. Skunks and raccoons can be ignored. 😄 That would be amazing!

My brother was getting ready to head out around then, and dropped off some lovely compost they’d made from their own kitchen scraps for me. He had time to check out the chicken coop and we talked about the septic area, and the emergency bypass set up I had set off to the side until the straw was gone. After he left, I continued and got it all clear. The surface straw was set aside in a pile, but the damp straw touching the ground, which was already starting to rot, got raked up and repurposed as mulch around the honeysuckle and white rose bushes in the old kitchen garden.

That clear, I set up all the parts and pieces for the emergency bypass against the old kitchen wall for their summer storage.

That done, I also set up a hose at the tap in the wall next to the pipe running out of the basement for the emergency bypass. The shut off valve in the basement can now be opened. I won’t set all the hoses up until things warm up more, but I can at least fill watering cans for the pre-sown beds, etc., for now.

My next garden priority is to start more seeds inside. That keeps getting pushed back, but most of what we have left to start indoors are for 3-4 weeks before last frost, so for those we still have a bit of breathing room. I have only a few things in the 4-6 week range that need to be started now.

So this has been… a day. I’m very happy I got to see my brother and that I got some work done outside. As for my visit with my mother, it is what it is.

It just left me feeling so incredibly drained! Getting the straw cleared off actually helped with that. Now I’m just physically tired, not both physically and mentally tired! 😄

The Re-Farmer

What a day

April 25, 2026 / Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

My original plan. It’s colder today, so I was going to wait until we got near our expected high of the day, do some work outside, then visit my mother.

Of course, that didn’t quite happen as planned. I never got any work done outside at all.

After my morning rounds, I had breakfast and spent some time catching up on my computer, which is working very well again right now. Which is when I found posts on FB from the rescue, talking about Frank!

The intake person still has Frank, and Frank has not warmed up to her or anyone at all. At most, she came out of her hiding place and had a nap on the floor in full view, once.

Well, yesterday, she went into labour, but it was clearly not progressing. They had to take her in for an emergency C section, and managed it only because she had hunkered down into a cat cave. They were able to slide the entire thing, with her in it, into a large dog crate. Once at the vet clinic, they apparently had to use a net to get her!

She had three kittens. Two survived, but Frank didn’t want anything to do with them. Volunteer fosters with experience bottle feeding newborn kittens have stepped in, and as far as I know, Frank is still at the clinic, recovering from surgery.

Poor Frank!

So far, her two baby boys are doing well with the fosters.

Once I saw the posts, I messaged the group chat I have with some people from the rescue and we were talking about her, when my mother phoned.

After our hellos, I told her I’d been planning to visit her later today, after I got some work done outside.

I was promptly informed that she was more important than anything else, and I needed to visit her.

No, she didn’t have any emergency, though she did bring up her ears and hearing problems. I tried asking her if they were doing the oil treatment to be able to clear her ears if it was a wax build up, as she has had happen in the past. She made some disparaging comments about the staff and I knew I wasn’t going to get a straight answer from her.

In the end, she asked me to bring her some Ginger Ale – just a small bottle – and a tube of Voltaren that she wanted me to bring to her and hide from the staff.

*sigh*

My mother had been asking for a particular cushion with a crocheted cover she wanted me to bring to her. I had found two almost identical ones and already had one of them in the truck to bring to her. After our call, I quickly changed out of my work clothes and headed out, just before lunch time. I stopped at the pharmacy to get her Voltaren, then went to the grocery store to find the small bottles of Ginger Ale. I’d considered getting her the tiny pop cans, instead, but a 6 pack of those costs almost as much as a 12 pack of full size cans! So I got her a 6 pack of Ginger Ale.

On entering the grocery store, though, I saw a sign saying their had seed potatoes in stock. I ended up getting a 5 pound bag of Yukon Gold and another of Viking Red, which I am not familiar with. I don’t know if we’ll get more potatoes later on, but we will at least have as many as we planted last year. It depend on what space I’m able to get available.

When I got to my mother’s, I stopped to talk to the nursing station first. The nurse there today actually worked at the hospital while my mother was there and remembered her, though I don’t think my mother remembers her back. I asked about my mother’s oil treatment for her ears, mentioning that my mother had specifically brought up that her right ear is worse. She dug out my mother’s file in their note book, where every shift’s nurse writes down things of note for the next shift, and for the doctor when he does his rounds once a week.

My mother’s file has a lot of notes.

She found the notes from the nurse to did my mother’s ears. She got the mineral oil treatment for three days, then he flushed her ears. The notes said her right ear was clear, and only a small amount came from her left year.

Since it is now confirmed it’s not a wax build up causing the problem, we talked about the situation for a while. In the end, we would have to make an appointment with an audiologist in the city ourselves, but once we let them know when the appointment is, they would arrange the transportation, since my mother would have to use her wheelchair. A family member could accompany, of course.

While the nurse was reading the notes on my mother’s file, she spotted something of concern for me. My mother has a new room mate now. A very frail woman. It seems my mother has pushed her walker and something else of hers out into the hallway, angry that they were … in the way? It wasn’t very clear.

That got me to asking about the possibility of my mother getting one of the private rooms, if one opens up. My mother will always complain about her room mates, no matter what, and she did have one that was apparently aggressive towards her, in the other TCU, but this is about my mother’s behaviour towards her room mates, not the other way around. The nurse took notes about that. We also talked about how my mother is on the waiting list for a particular nursing home. There’s no way to know now long that would happen, though.

We also talked about my mother’s medications, as the notes say she keeps asking about them. It turns out the “extra” pills my mother is getting are just multivitamins. This has been explained to her, but she doesn’t seem to get it.

Before going to my mother’s room, I showed the 6 pack of Ginger Ale bottles I was bringing to my mother, but also told her about the Voltaren, and that my mother asked me to keep it a secret from them. I explained, it’s just for her knees, which she can apply herself. That’s it. They already do her back and hip for her. The nurse agreed that it would be fine for my mother to have some to apply to her knees, herself. I just made sure to remind my mother later that I got her the extra strength version, so to use it only once every 12 hours.

When I got to my mother’s room, there was a cleaning staff member there, offering to take my mother’s lunch tray away. There was a note my mother had written on a napkin that she asked about, and it was for the kitchen staff. She wrote that they were giving her too big of a glass of milk and she couldn’t finish it and didn’t want to waste it, so she wanted a smaller glass. The woman tried to explain to my mother that she can’t write a note like that, or tell someone like her about it. My mother needed to go to the nurse so they can write it down in the instructions for her meals. My mother wasn’t understanding why; she felt writing the note should be enough. Since I was there and heard all this, I said I would take care of it and went back to the nursing station.

After explaining the situation, the nurse got out the folder with instructions for each residence and found my mother’s. She already had instructions to have a cup of hot water to go with her milk, so she can mix them together.

I spotted the problem.

They give her a full cup of milk, and a full insulated coffee/tea cup of hot water. Both are so full, she can’t combine them.

There are now instructions to give my mother only a half glass of milk with her meals, and she will have the room to mix her milk and hot water, the way she likes it, now!

As I was walking back, I crossed paths with the cleaning lady, and she started saying how she is surprise she hasn’t run into me before. She’d worked in our little hamlets single hotel/restaurant/bar for years.

Turns out, she’s a neighbour. She’d been to this farm, years ago, probably while I was still living here! When I asked her name, I did recognize it, though I certainly didn’t recognize her. Too many years have passed.

I told her I’ve been living in other provinces for some 30 years, and we’ve only been back for 8, going on 9, years. Plus, we don’t go out much. 😄

It turns out she knows our vandal quite well and mentioned him in passing, since she sees him all the time and knows how close we used to be. Even as she talked about him and started to cringe, commenting on “how he is” now.

*sigh*

As we were talking, my mother popped her head out of the room and we both greeted her. Not long after, she popped her head out again and told me, “I thought you came to visit ME!” I told her, “I was just saying hello to my neighbour!”

We said our goodbyes and I went to my mother’s room. Her room mate was not there, so we stayed there for my entire visit. As I came in, the first thing she did was tell me to close the door. There is someone across the hall that has his TV on and she found it too loud.

For someone who is having hearing issues, it’s surprising how much it bothers her, because it really wasn’t that loud. She had her own TV and radio on in her apartment when I’ve visited her, much much louder!

The visit went… okay. It certainly has been worse.

She complained about her pills, convinced that they are deliberately messing with her medications because they want old people to just die.

She brought out a list she’s been writing, of how many pills they give her and when, and now they’re giving them to her at the wrong times and the wrong amounts. She wouldn’t let me actually see the list, though.

I told her I talked to the nurse about her ears and she told me the flushing was done by a Filipino guy who says he’s a nurse, but who knows what he really is, and how nothing was flushed out of her ears. I told her, that meant there was no wax build up and explained about needing to get her ears tested in the city. That got a derisive comment about how they are just trying to push responsibility for her onto someone else. Why can’t the doctor do it? I had to explain, she needs to go to a specialist with the training and the equipment for it. A regular doctor can’t do it. She disagreed.

Oh, and she thinks her pills are causing her hearing loss. And eating is causing her breathing problems.

She complained that I brought her a 6 pack of Ginger Ale, when she only asked for one bottle.

She complained that the noise from the TV was breaking her sanity and literally killing her.

She complained that there was a chair in the corner of the room, where she stacks some of her stuff, because it’s ugly and big and doesn’t suit the room and she has asked for a shelf, instead. The chair is not big, not ugly, and all the double occupancy rooms are furnished exactly the same. She just doesn’t want it there.

She tried to make me take a pocket book on the life of Princess Diana that someone gave her but she has trouble reading because her eyesight is going. I tried to politely decline, so she tried to tell me to give it to my daughters. They need to read, too. I told her, we all read. What do we read? All sorts of things. We just don’t have any interest in the personal life of a dead princess. She took issue with the fact that we don’t read the things she thinks we should be reading.

At one point, she actually asked me what was new. I told her, she already knew about the well pump. That was pretty much it. She told me, she didn’t want to know about that, it’s our business. I told her, then don’t ask what’s new if you don’t want to know! She then explained she meant if we watched anything new on TV. I reminded her, we don’t watch TV.

I tried to tell her about uncovering the garlic bed and how they’re already sprouting, and got a lecture about how it’s too early to uncover them because it’s still too cold. Then went on about how, after we first moved here, she had offered to hire someone to plow the old garden area for us to garden in, but I said no. I told her, right… I said no. Because that would not have been a good thing. I tried to remind her, we don’t have a herd of cows with manure we can add to the soil, like she did, and the soil is very poor now. That’s why we are doing things differently.

That got the same response as mentioning the well pump did.

When the door opened and someone assisted my mother’s room mate in, my mother immediately began to complain about the TV. I told her, maybe they are hard of hearing, too? Oh, but then everyone has to suffer. I pointed out that not all people are bothered by it, and just tune it out (which I had already done during). I reminded her that some people always have a TV on, like my in laws did, just for background noise. Oh, that must be why she (my late mother in law) died.

…

I told her flat out that this was a very terrible thing to say.

My mother was completely indifferent and unapologetic.

Needless to say, I didn’t stay too much longer.

By the time I got home, it was late in the afternoon. I finally had my lunch, then headed out to feed the outside cats. I never did get any work done in the garden. I’ll have to make up for it, tomorrow.

I did get more messages from the rescue while I was with my mother, and they are talking about trapping cats. After what happened with Frank, the intake person really wants to get the females done, so no other cat has to go through what Frank is going through. It turns out Princes Auto has an 80% off sale on traps right now, and two people have already picked some up.

When I headed outside to do the second feeding of the day, I managed to get a good picture of one of our most feral females.

We have not named her. I am open to suggestions!

I have not seen Adam or Slick today at all, but this one, and Sprout, who is just as feral, have both shown up. I strongly suspect this white and grey is not nursing, because of how often I am seeing her in the inner yard. I find it hard to believe she didn’t get pregnant, when she and others went into heat in January, which is really, really early for that. Which suggests to me she may have lost a litter. I had no way of knowing, though, and we don’t see enough of her body to be able to tell if she’s nursing.

The second picture in the slideshow above is of the two big traps we have, which I sent to the rescue chat group. We have two others that my brother gave me, but they are more appropriate to catch squirrels, not adult cats. The thing is, if we were to manage to trap a cat, we’d have to get them in somewhere immediately – and we still have to find a way to monitor the traps. The intake person agreed, yes, immediately, but I asked, immediately to where? I have not had a response yet. As far as I know, I can’t just show up with a cat in a trap at a vet clinic and request a spay or neuter. Especially since the only clinic that we’re dealing with (with special rates and arrangements with the rescue) is a 45-50 minute drive away. So where would I go with them once they are trapped?

Other folks in the chat group were talking about coming here, as a group, with traps to get as many as possible for spay or neuter and release. Which would be the best plan, since they would be able to work something out before they even arrived here. The intake person wants me to focus on females only, but there’s no way to pick and choose who gets trapped.

We shall see what actually ends up happening.

So that is where I am at now. A very different day than expected!

I do hope Frank heals up well, and they are able to find a way to get her adopted out. While we are more than willing to take her back, I’d hate for her to become an outside cat again, and it would be too much for her to join the crowd of inside cats we already have.

Ah, well.

What will be, will be.

The Re-Farmer

Feeling thankful

April 24, 2026 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Today has been pretty chilly, compared to yesterday, but it was still warm enough to get stuff done in the garden. I’ll actually put together another video on how that went. Probably not today, though.

Before I headed outside, I had a rather alarming start to the day, when I tried to log into my computer.

I got this.

Yes, that’s cat hair all over my monitor’s screen.

I have never seen this particular warning before. I also couldn’t really fuss with it, either, as I needed to have my breakfast, then head outside to get the winter sown beds uncovered. So I got my husband up and told him what was going on and he said he would look at it while I was outside.

He had to go into my bios to reset it.

It turns out part of the problem is all the photos and video I’ve got.

This is a new computer, which I got after my previous desktop died an ignominious death. When looking for another desktop, I was surprised to find that pretty much everything only had 500 Gigs of storage space. When I got my previous one, they all had at least 1T. I’ve been transferring files to an external hard drive as I am able, but it was already mostly full with data rescued from my old computer. Still, I needed to free up space on my computer; it’s slow going to transfer over USB, so I’d do things like one month’s worth of photos and video at a time.

In spite of that, after I uploaded the photos and video I took for my last gardening video, the files took up enough space that the computer just couldn’t process my log in.

As we were talking about it when I came in for lunch, my husband mentioned that he had a 2T hard drive on his old computer; we’ve kept both our old computers for salvage purposes. He wasn’t sure if my new computer had the ports for it, though. He got it out of his old computer to give it a try after I finished my lunch, and headed back outside.

It worked.

As soon as I was able to, I started transferring files. I was able to transfer all of our 2025 trail cam files at once, instead of one month at a time, in a very short time. Had I tried to transfer the 2025 fold to the external hard drive, it would have taken more than an hour. That one folder turned out to be what was taking up the most space.

I really need to delete more trail cam files, but I enjoy keeping files with, say, herds of deer going by, or cats – some we no longer have – running around. Of course, I also keep the files that show our vandal creeping around, too.

Moving that one folder almost doubled the available space I had.

From now on, all my photos and videos will be going straight to the 2T hard drive; something I used to do regularly, with my previous computer. I was able to transfer it all in mere moments.

My desktop is doing much better now!

Meanwhile, I was able to get a decent amount of work done in the main garden area. I focused on the garlic bed first, and found lots of garlic already emerged – and a surprising number of chard and spinach seedlings! They were trying to grow through two layers of mulch (first a leaf mulch, then the straw mulch I added later), though, so they were all very leggy. I don’t know if they’ll make it. That bed is now clear and protected by netting, though, so they at least have a chance.

The next bed I worked on has the radishes and turnips in it. This one has the two rows closer to the sides of the bed, with the middle open for what will probably be pole beans later on. There was a surprising number sprouts on one side – the radishes, if I remember correctly. This bed got covered with the 6mm poly I had order a couple of months ago.

By the time that was done, it was getting late, and my daughter was treating us to pizza at a place that opens at 4pm. We all got different 18″ jumbo size pizzas, which is enough to feed us for several days!

After the order was phoned in, I headed out to the truck but just had to stop to get this picture.

These three in particular just love the isolation shelter! With the cooler temperatures, I turned the heat lamp back on, too. That’s Furriosa, curled up in the hammock under the lamp.

On the way to town, I stopped at the general store and post office. I was able to pick up a 40 pound bag of kibble, along with getting the mail.

There was a surprise parcel waiting for me!

From there, I continued on to town, first stopping at the grocery store; my daughter had sent funds for a few things from there, to go with the pizzas, as well. Last of all, I got the pizzas, then headed home.

The truck smelled amazing.

Once everything was unloaded and put away, I opened up the package. It was from a dear friend that was a neighbour before we moved out here. Along with some things for the garden, and treats as “bait” for the outside cats, I found this, well wrapped in a tiny box.

How utterly precious! The teeniest most adorable bunny, ever!

And yes, I did scrub my hands after I was done in the garden. Honest. 😄

In between the stops I made while going to and from town, I got some messages from my husband. Out of curiosity, he looked up the price for the exact same SSD, 2T hard drive he scavenged from his old computer to install into mine.

It now costs $925.

Before taxes.

Out of curiosity, my husband looked up the invoice from when he bought it a few years ago.

Less than $250 AFTER taxes.

For the EXACT same hard drive. That’s on Amazon. No idea what the local prices would be, or if anyone even carries it anymore.

In the end, there was much to be thankful for today.

Thankful that my husband could get into my computer in the first place. Thankful he had a spare 2T hard drive, and my computer is now breathing easy again.

Thankful we didn’t need to spend almost a thousand dollars for a new one!

Thankful for the work I was able to get done in the garden today.

Thankful for my daughter treating us to pizza. Gosh, it’s been ages since we’ve ordered in pizza.

Thankful that I was able to get a 40 pound bag of kibble, right at our own hamlet’s general store and didn’t have to drive to towns to the north and south of us for one.

Thankful for a wonderful and thoughtful friend who sent us a delightful care package.

All in all, life it really good!

The Re-Farmer

Well, now

April 18, 2026 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

That’s not supposed to happen.

It’s a good thing we’ve already arranged for the plumber to come back next week.

One of the things he instructed my daughter, after the new pump was installed, was to keep an eye out for leaks. Which is a bit difficult partly because there tends to be a lot of condensation on the pipes. That well water gets really, really cold!

This is definitely not condensation.

That’s how I found it this morning.

As this basement was built before weeping tile was a thing, it’s pretty normal for there to be water on the floor in the spring. Sometimes all summer. We have oscillating fans and blower fans to try and keep it down, and switch the winter window to the summer screen window for air circulation. That frequent wet is part of why the well pump, pressure tank and hot water tank are all on an elevated concrete slab.

I am starting to see water in the floor drain, from the weeping tile under the newer basement, but for now, the concrete is dry. This is all from the pump. One spot, where I can feel a drop of water under the brass fitting, seems to be the only leak. The steel screw clamps are tight.

The plumber is coming out on Monday or Tuesday. I had mentioned the leak at the pump, plus the cold water tap at the laundry sink. He will be replacing both taps for us, since the hot water tap started leaking long ago and we could only install a shut off valve to stop it. He’ll check on the leak at the well pump as well.

Otherwise, the pump is working just fine.

In other things…

I made it out to visit my mother, though I had to turn around and come back. I had some stuff she asked for ready in bags and forgot them at home. Thankfully, I remembered before I reached the highway, and messaged my daughter to meet me at the gate with them.

When I got there, my mother was sitting on her walker in the hall as her room was being cleaned, so we went to the common room. It was a pretty quiet and calm visit. My mother had complaints, of course, but nothing unreasonable, really – even the ones that turned out to be based on her not understanding something she’d been told. I stayed until she was done her lunch, then talked to the nursing station for a bit – an opportunity to clear up one of her misunderstandings – before heading out.

From there, I drove to the town we usually shop in. My husband had a list and his own budget for me this time. Some of what he wanted I wouldn’t have been able to find at the grocery store in my mother’s town. It was a fairly short list, so it didn’t take long before I was done. Then I had to get more gas before heading home. That part was painful.

Throughout all that driving, I’m happy to say the truck behaved. After what happened with the differential, there were a few times on the highway where I was second guessing things, but it seems I was just driving headlong into the wind and being buffeted. More importantly, that oil pressure gauge was having normal readings. Hopefully, the mystery readings are now at an end! The real test will come with city trips, though, and those probably won’t happen for a couple more weeks.

For now, though, I feel ready to drop. For some reason, I just couldn’t fall asleep last night, and I can only partly blame the cats or pain levels. I was mostly just… awake. It was past 6am when I messaged the girls, asking them to take care of the morning routine for me. I did finally get a few interrupted hours of sleep after that. Enough that I was safe to drive, at least. I headed outside to do the evening rounds not long ago, and felt like I was ready to fall asleep the whole time. Now, I am just crashing.

It’s not even 4:30 as I write this.

It’s a gorgeous day out, though. We’re just below freezing, but it’s bright and sunny, and things are melting. The current forecast has us going from a high of 0C/32F tomorrow, to a high of 14C/57F on Monday! We no longer have a high of 20C/68F before the end of the month, though. That’s been pushed back until May. Still, I should have a few days next week to take the mulch off the exposed pre-sown beds and get them protected from critters. The garden beds in the main garden area are still fully covered with snow.

I’m quite looking forward to getting at it!

Hopefully, with more fresh air and sunshine, I’ll be sleeping better, too.

The Re-Farmer

Here’s hoping!

April 17, 2026 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

It feels like it’s been such a long day!

But first, the…

… cute sneak thieves!

The cheeky buggers! Both raccoons and skunks are now regularly seen in the sun room. While the camera didn’t catch them last night, I know they go into the isolation shelter, too.

*sigh*

The storm system that hit yesterday hasn’t been too bad, over us. Our weird climate bubble has rescued us again. We got a bit more snow, and it was still snowing this morning, but that’s it. The town my mother is in got pouring rain during the night! So did the city. The highways group I’m on had many reports of poor driving conditions on the highways.

My younger daughter came along for our errands of the day, with our first stop being the post office to pick up a parcel. The paved roads near our little hamlet were already starting to melt, even as more snow was falling. As we got closer to town, however, the road conditions slowly got worse. I found myself doing about 80-85kph/50-53mph all the way, instead of the 100kph/62mph speed limit. It was very messy and hard to see where the lanes were, the closer we got to the lake, which is pretty typical. I’d heard of one road, just before town, being washed out and we could actually see the damage as we drove by! Still, I’ve driven through much worse.

Our first stop in town was to drop off the truck at the garage. We’d left early, knowing it would be slow going, and ended up only about 15 minutes early instead of the half hour early it normally would have been, in good driving conditions. I just had to drop off the keys, and then my daughter and I – remembering to grab canes – started walking.

First thing we did was get a breakfast, since neither of us had eaten before we left. We took our time about it. My appointment was a drop off time, not a scheduled work time, and it looked like it was just the owner in today, so I knew it would likely be quite a while. We did have other errands to do, but not until after we got the truck back.

We decided to walk over to the second hand store, just to see what we could find.

Treasures. We found treasures.

Specifically, there were a couple of hand crank meat grinders. One looking very much like the one I found in the old kitchen that I remember using when I was a kid, which has missing parts now. The second hand one we were looking at even had a spare mincing plate, though both were coarse grind plates. There was a second one, much smaller, that had two spare mincing plates, and was the same price.

After hemming and hawing, I finally decided to go ahead and get the bigger one.

Then we started looking around and I got a few more things, the most expensive costing $2. My daughter admired a couple of items that I ended up getting for her, including a matcha bowl and saucer set, and a fabulously retro pitcher. For myself, I got a serving bowl, an old Mennonite cookbook, and a couple of books with plans for making things like furniture and garden structures. My daughter got herself a DVD and a couple of novels.

One thing we both spend quite a bit of time looking over was an old China cabinet, selling at only $80. The set up we have for our dishes, serving bowls, etc. was great when we first moved out here, but we now have a lot more cats. The shelves are open in the front, and that’s become a problem. That cabinet would actually solve a lot of storage space problems we have right now. What we couldn’t figure out, however, is how we would get it home. Yes, it would fit in the box of the truck, but none of us are able bodied enough to load and unload it.

We didn’t get it.

Once we paid for our stuff, we were then stuck with carrying them around! The meat grinder alone is cast iron, and weighs about 15 pounds. It got its own bag. The rest all together weighed more. Not normally a big deal, but we were both caning it and, with my right elbow still messed up, I could only carry the grinder with my left arm.

We’d already done a fair bit of walking by then and needed to sit down, so we headed over to a donut shop for drinks and a donut each. It was a place we could hang out for a while and not be taking up needed table space.

By the time we were done there, enough time had passed – about 4 hours altogether – that I figured we could head back to the garage, even though we hadn’t been texted yet. The walk was slow going. My poor daughter was in so much pain, I could see she was fighting not to cry. 😢

When we got to the garage, the truck was still up on a hoist and almost done, so we went into the office to sit down. I made sure my daughter sat in the normal sized chair by their desk. They have other chairs, but they are much lower. Hard to get in and out of when your knees or back are shot, but I was having an easier time of it than my daughter was.

It was past 2pm by the time we got to the garage, though. The original plan once the truck was done was to do a quick stop at the grocery store, then a gas station, then drive to the town north of us to the tax preparer. I had my form to sign, but we’d then have to take my husband’s form home for him to sign, then I would drive it back. Then we were going to go back to town again, as my older daughter wanted to treat us to take out and sent funds for it. Altogether, it would have been an extra 3 1/2 hours of driving, at least, and the tax preparer’s office closed at 5.

We were both already in too much pain, so I called them up instead and said we weren’t going to make it today. I was assured that was all right. We’ve got until April 30 to sign the forms!

I’ll do it on Monday.

It wasn’t too much longer before the truck was done and it was backed out of the garage. My daughter took our stuff to the truck while I settled the bill – just pennies over $388, in the end. Hopefully, that will solve the problem and we won’t be back again for some time!

I know where my tax return is going.

*sigh*

As we were talking about it, he told me that, if I don’t come back for anything until after June, they won’t be there anymore. They are moving locations! They are going from about 2,400 sq ft to about 35,000 sq ft, in an industrial park – and he bought the building, so no more renting! That is so awesome! They opened a second location last year, and are doing well enough to expand locally, too. I congratulated him, of course. I’m so happy that they are doing so well. There are a surprising number of garages in this town, so for him to have enough business that he can expand like this tells a lot.

That done, I went to the truck – then had to get my daughter to go behind me to guide me as I backed out, as there were a couple of vehicles making for a tight space. While we were doing that, the owner came out to get one of them, to drive it into one of the bays. He was chuckling a bit when he saw what we were doing, but it did give me a chance to quickly talk to him. The check engine light was still on. I figured it should turn off on its own in short order, now that the new sensor is installed, which he confirmed for me.

Once parked at the grocery store, my daughter stayed in the truck, as she was in too much pain for more walking. We only needed a few things, but I went through the whole store to see if there was anything I was forgetting. Of course, there was, so I’m glad I did.

From there, it was to the gas station. I put $50 in the tank, which gave me a quarter tank at $1.799 *sigh*

Next, we headed to the Dairy Queen for take out – and the check engine light was of by then. My daughter came in with me, so she could choose for her sister and herself. For treats like this, we order a combo meal each, plus an extra burger each, so it took a little while longer for it to be done! I even remembered to bring in a hard sided grocery bag to make it easier to carry the hot food. My daughter ended up with the tray of drinks on her lap for the drive home.

Unfortunately, while the road was in better condition by then, and almost completely clear of ice and snow, it’s a rough ride. The road needs resurfacing. She didn’t get splashed too badly, though! It got smoother once we were on the gravel road again.

Once at home and unloaded, it was late enough that I went straight to feeding the outside cats, making it safer for my daughter to drive out of the yard and park the truck in the garage.

During the drive home, I’m happy to say that oil pressure gauge was right were is was supposed to be, the whole way. Here’s hoping that new sensor will keep working properly! It’ll take a bit more driving before we know for sure.

Tomorrow, I should go visit my mother, at the very least.

Now that we’ve got this last bit of work done on the truck, we have quite a few things to catch up on, little by little. Plus, I’ve got my eye appointment next week, which my daughter will have to drive me home from, and FINALLY, my third attempt at a doctor’s appointment in the beginning of May. If all goes well, I won’t have to cancel any of that!

Here’s hoping!!!

The Re-Farmer

Six… with help

April 9, 2026April 9, 2026 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

The goal for this morning was to get at least 7, hopefully 8, cats into carriers to be taken to the rescue in the city.

Of course, things didn’t work out as planned.

My daughter and I prepped the carriers and started with the morning feeding, so they were all around the house. Frank was the one we weren’t sure we’d be able to get, given her past escapes, so she was the first one we tried for.

My daughter got her into a carrier way faster than expected!

Frank was NOT happy, once that door was closed!

Sir Robin and Grommet went into the largest carrier together. They were pretty easy to get.

We knew Domino and Blot would be fairly easy, so we tried to focus on Bug, Furriosa and Sweetie.

They were in the isolation shelter, and did not want to get got. Domino and Blot ended up in their own carriers; we’d planned to put Bug and Blot together.

When it became clear they were getting way to stressed, we paused for a while. After making sure the occupied carriers were set near the warmth of the heat lamps, I went to check the oil level on the truck. It was fine. Then I opened the gate and realized I would need to clear the end of the driveway again. The plow went by last night but it didn’t leave a plow ridge. It went by fast enough that the snow was sent flying about half way to the gate!

Still deep enough that it needed to be clear.

By the time that was done, we tried again to get the cats. In the end, my daughter was able to snag Sweetie, but that was the limit. Bug and Furriosa would no longer allow us anywhere near them! I actually got Bug into a carrier twice, but she managed to squeeze through the door before I could close it. That little one is FAST!!

It was a lot earlier than we’d talked about, so I grabbed some breakfast and got on the group chat with the rescue. I let them know the status of things, and that we would not be able to get Bug and Furriosa this time – but that we did get Frank – and we worked out some details.

When it came time to leave, I got the truck out of the garage and my daughter started bringing carriers over.

Frank’s nose is looking bloody in that first photo! I think she was trying to shove her face through the door. She was very angry!

Frank’s carrier rode in the front of the cab, while the other four carriers fit in the back. Sweetie and Frank were both pretty upset. The others seemed quite calm. All of them quieted down during the ride in.

I didn’t make it, though.

I am so tired of this truck.

The route I took would take me through the town my mother is in again. Though the road was plowed, parts of it were pretty icy and it was slow going at times.

I kept an eye on that oil pressure gauge. As I drew near my mother’s town, I knew I wouldn’t make it to the city. Not because the truck was breaking down, but because the gauge just kept dropping and dropping. By the time I got to town, it was reaching the line between “normal” and “low”. At the rate it was dropping, I would have had alarms sounding and warnings flashing well before I reached the city. I’ve had to drive with those going off before, for only short distances, and they are pretty extreme. There’s no way I could keep driving with them going off, but it would also freak out the cats!

As soon as I could, I pulled into the parking lot at a gas station and messaged the rescue group. After explaining the problem, there were some back and forthing, and they worked out who could come and meet me.

They are so incredibly awesome!

Then it was just a matter of waiting.

When they reached me, they had a surprise for me. They had to empty the back of their vehicle to make room for the carriers.

Everything but the teal bag in the middle was donations for the kitties! When I got home and unpacked it all, I found 11 smaller bags of kibble, plus the bigger bag you can see on the left of the photo, four more cases of wet cat food like was donated to use last time, a box with cat treats in it, an unopened case of cat milk and… strangely, but still much appreciated… a partial box of large garbage bags. After the cats were picked up, I was going to go to the feed store, just a short drive away, to pick up three 40 pound bags of kibble. I only needed to pick up one more, instead!

With 6 cats gone, we won’t need as much kibble for the outside cats, too.

This was so, so awesome of them! It’s such a huge help.

We talked for a while, as they were asking about the truck problems, while moving the carriers. It’s so very frustrating, because the truck checked out just fine. When I mentioned that the sensor had already been replaced twice, but they weren’t GM brand, they both reacted in a very knowing way. Apparently, they were both quite familiar with this sort of brand v off brand issue!

Once the cats were safely tucked away and they left, I got a bit of gas ($1.799/L right now), then went to the feed store and got the one bag of kibble. Then, since I was in town and it’s becoming an issue, I went to visit my mother. The hospital the TCU is in was just a few blocks away, too.

After her phone call last night, I was not sure how the visit would go. When I got to her room, though, I had to wait a while, as a new resident was being brought in to the second bed. Once things were clear, I went to my mother, who was napping, and gently woke her up. She was very surprised to see me – and seemed very appreciative, too.

We ended up going to the common room to talk while her new neighbour was settled in. My mother made some eye rolling gestures about her getting a new room mate.

There was another resident in the room when we got there and he joined our conversation for a bit before leaving. After he left, my mother told me about her previous room mate.

It turns out she’d had a fall, and her nose was all bloody. She got herself up but didn’t use the call bell. My mother said she didn’t do anything, because she didn’t want to get involved. ??? In the morning, when the staff found her room mate (who is also 94 years old) was injured, there was a lot of fussing and commotion. The doctor even came over and tended to her.

Then he left.

My mother started to complain that he didn’t talk to her or check on her at all. I said, of course not. He had an injured patient he was tending to! Oh, but he should have talked to her after. I said he would have had to go back to his schedule as soon as possible.

Oh, you’re taking their side…

Uhm… No. I’m just explaining.

My mother says she’s been asking to see the doctor over and over, because of her breathing. I tried to explain that when the doctor comes by to do his rounds, that’s all he’s doing. If she wants to see him for something specific, she would need to make an appointment.

As we were talking, the subject of her hearing loss also came up, because she was struggling to hear me. In the end, I told her I would go to the nursing station and ask about making an appointment with the doctor, and to see what is available for getting her hearing tested.

In the end, they can’t make an “appointment” with the doctor at the TCU. He does his rounds on Tuesdays, and this place is not the only one he has to check on. They basically have a meeting and go over all the files. It turned out that last week was the first time my mother had specifically told them that she was having troubles breathing at night, so that was the first time it was discussed. The decision was made to change one of her medications from a morning dose to an afternoon dose.

The other issue, however, is simply my mother’s weight. She has her hospital bed set to recline, but she squishes herself down low on the bed, so her upper body isn’t as elevated as it should be. I brought up that what would probably help her a lot would be breast reduction surgery, but there’s no way that’ll be done on a 94 year old. The nurse I was talking to agreed.

As for an appointment with the doctor, we might be able to make one for her at the clinic, which is in the same building, but with her file being reviewed weekly, it didn’t seem like something to do.

I could tell there was definitely some exasperation about my mother from the staff that they were trying not to show. I suspect my mother has not been particularly kind to them.

When I asked about hearing tests, they didn’t think there was anyone in the area that did them. It would likely be something that would be done in the city. The nurse did have a suggestion to try first. It could simply be that my mother’s ears are plugged with wax. They could apply oil for a few days then try to clean her ears.

Returning to my mother, I explained about the doctor, and she basically just rolled her eyes. She does not accept that the doctor is responsible for all the other people in TCU with her, plus he has is own clinic patients. She just wants him to be there to see her, when she wants him to be there. She is pretty open about not caring about anyone else (like her injured former room mate!).

Next, I explained to her about them not knowing if there’s anyone that does hearing tests out here, and it would likely be a city thing. Then I mentioned the suggestion for using oil in her ears to start unblocking them. My mother got quite excited about that. She said, she’d had that done before and it helped her so much, so she thinks it will probably help again.

May it be that simple!

We talked a while longer, and then I headed home. As with the drive in, by the time I reached home, that oil pressure needle just kept on slowly dropping the whole way. It seems that the length of time to drive to town – either our usual town or my mother’s town – is about the limit of how far we can drive and be sure not to set off any warnings and alarms.

*sigh*

With the very generous donation we were given, I backed up to the house to unload. The truck handled the deeper snow I hadn’t cleared away quite well – the new differential is doing its job! Though it was early, I did have to feed the outside cats, just to get them away from the truck so I could park it.

I saw both Bug and Furriosa.

They both now run away as soon as I seem to be going in their direction.

They both look very, very unhappy with me!

I’ve since been in contact with the rescue. They’d like me to try and catch them over the next couple of days, still, and would meet me for pick up. We have only the two soft sided carriers right now, but they will work on returning the 5 hard sided ones soon. As much as I’d love to catch them, I don’t see them trusting us enough to do it that quickly!

As for the cats they picked up…

Much to my shock, I was told Sir Robin was all hissy and growling. He was the last one I expected that from! Frank is very angry. That’s not a surprise. Sweetie is very scared and angry, too. Blot was described as a micro kitty! She got a bath, as did Domino. They and Grommet are all rather angry, too, but more scared angry than angry, angry, if that makes sense.

They will all stay together with the rescue’s intake person for the first while, as they get bathed, vaccinated, treated for ear mites and worms (the rescue workers do these on their own), and eventually vetted and the ladies will be spayed. The boys are already neutered. Some will then go to fosters, while others will stay with the intake person a while longer, as more fosters are searched for. They are working on finding someone to take Frank in particular. We’ve already agreed that she can come back here after she’s spayed, if no foster is found, but of course we would prefer it if she got adopted.

As for me, tomorrow I’m going to have to take a chance and go to the town to the north of us, to drop off our tax stuff. That town is just a bit further away, but not enough that that pressure gauge will start setting off alarms.

I messaged the garage while waiting for the rescue folks to reach me, but I’ll be phoning them tomorrow morning as well.

If this doesn’t get resolved soon, I’m going to have to cancel an eye test I’ve got coming up. The town it’s in is about 2/3s of the way to the city, putting it well into the “alarms are going to go off” zone.

I am so tired of this truck – and yet, I really like this truck! It’s the exact vehicle we need.

What we really need is a second vehicle.

I have so many errands I need to drive to, and I at least know I can get to town, but not being able to go as far as the city is a problem.

One of the previous times we had issues with the sensor, the oil pressure gauge stayed at zero, with no alarms going off. It was just dead. I’m at the point where that is actually preferable to what’s happening now!

*sigh*

It’ll work out in the end.

I’ll just hold on to that thought.

The Re-Farmer

Digging out – and I love technology!

April 8, 2026 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Well, Old Man Winter just doesn’t want to let go!

Not the blizzard – at least not where we live – that we sometimes get this time of year, but we got a solid dump of snow, overnight. All the school buses were canceled for today, and the highway conditions group I’m on had lots of people warning about how bad the driving conditions where. Some highways in the south of our province were closed, and we are still under a “moderate” ongoing snowfall warning.

It was still snowing when I did the morning cat feeding outside.

I wasn’t going to try to do any shoveling at the time, though, and waited until late morning to start. By then, the snow had stopped falling in our area.

I started off at the concrete steps at the main entry, using our new snow shovel.

The first thing I discovered is that this was no light and fluffy snow, like last time. It was dense, heavy and sticky, coming together in even heavier clumps.

As for the new snow shovel, what a horrible design! Not the ergonomic handle part. That was good. The blade is more of a scoop shape that is too heavy, unbalancing the whole thing.

I thought that the metal on the blade edge would make it easier to clear the concrete, but not at all. The design caused the shovel to basically float up to the top of the snow, instead of digging down. I tried using it as a push shovel, but the snow was so sticky, that didn’t work very well. Then, it was very awkward to toss the snow up and over the hills we’ve accumulated over the winter.

I switched back to the old shovel with the crack in the blade. It did a much better job! I got more cleared in a single pass than I was able to do in three passes with the new one, and they are of equal width.

With the snow so dense and heavy, I ended up working in stages. I got the sidewalk clear from the house to the fence, as well as cat shelter access paths, then headed back inside for a break and an energy drink. I was going to need that!

When I headed back out, I made a path to the garage, then started clearing away the drift that had formed in front of the door, that was too deep for the truck to get through.

I was working on that when the garage suddenly started to talk to me!

Or, more accurately, my brother’s security camera. He had been logged into the app and got motion detection alerts. When he saw me shoveling, he started talking to me through the camera.

From overseas!

I love technology!!

There’s a 6 hour time zone difference, so they were at their hotel for the night. He was wondering about little Spewie, since I was manually clearing the snow. I told him, the auger won’t turn and I have to take it apart to find out why, but with how sticky this snow was, I couldn’t use it anyway. It would just get all jammed up!

We talked for a little while longer, then I got back to work.

The biggest issue with the driveway was snow drifted on the south side. I was able to work a path to the gate on the north side, where the drifting wasn’t as deep, then cleared enough drifted snow on the north side of the gate, so I could at least swing open one side. Once I could get through, I made my way to the road. The plow had not gone by (hopefully, it will go through tonight), so I wanted to clear the end a bit extra, so when it did go by, it wouldn’t leave much of a plow ridge.

I got the end of the driveway completely clear, on either side of the gate. It took quite a while to clear the south side inside the gate before I could finally open the second half. The two sides of the gate can swing in both directions, but with the snow piled up on the outside, they can only be opened inwards right now.

I cleared enough to dig out a path to the trail cam, and then stopped for a sustenance break. When I headed out later, it was past 3pm, so I fed the outside cats, first.

I also remembered to dig out a camp chair and set it up at the garage door.

When we set up the flower garden and a small people gate in the barb wire fence, I want to make sure we set up a bench, too. We really need somewhere to sit down out there!

For now, a camp chair would do. I made sure to take frequent rest breaks, even if for only half a minute. It was during one of those breaks when it started to drizzle!

For the rest of the driveway, I focused on getting that south side cleared. I was less concerned about the middle, between the tire tracks, as it was not that deep. We’re supposed to warm up quite a bit over the next few days, so it’ll be melting soon, anyhow.

Along with the drifts on the south of the driveway, I needed to clear our turn around area. The middle was shallow enough that I could just focus on the drifts. We now have room for me to back the truck out of the garage to leave, as well as taking a wide turn to drive back into the garage when coming home.

By the time I was done, it was past 6pm, and I’d started at about 11:30-12.

Yes, I did make sure to take painkillers!

I am still going to pay for this, tomorrow, but at least we can now get out and deliver cats to someone from the rescue in the city, tomorrow! In spite of the pain, I actually feel really good. The fact that I enjoy shoveling snow so much makes a big difference!

I was finally inside and resting before going for a shower (while my daughters set up the bath chair and made sure I was fed and hydrated!) when the phone rang.

It was my mother.

After saying hello, I asked how she was doing. Her answer?

I’m lonely.

Which, in my mother’s way of speaking, meant, she wants me to drop everything and go visit her.

I told her that we had been snowed in, and I just finished digging us out.

Why was I doing that?

You know we had a storm, right?

Oh, yes, I saw some snow…

Well, we were snowed in. I had to get the driveway clear.

She then began to lecture me, telling me I shouldn’t be doing that. I have two daughters. They can do it.

I didn’t even try to tell her that both of them were quite unwell today, though for very different reasons. I told her, it doesn’t matter who does the job; it just needs to be done.

Then she complained that my sister hadn’t phoned her, and no one visits…

I said, my sister is probably snowed in, too, though at least they have a tractor.

Then she suddenly told me, I need to get in contact with my cousin. She is also my godmother, after all, and I should remind her of that. We need to communicate more.

I asked my mother, what was it she wanted.

My cousin is somehow involved with the nursing home my mother wants to be in. A volunteer or something like that. She told me, I should talk to my cousin and see if I can get her to get my mother into the nursing home, because she knows things…

I didn’t even try to bring up that my cousin is very close to our vandal, and that he has basically poisoned her against me, even to the point of her saying I shouldn’t come to her mother’s funeral, because our vandal was a pallbearer. Our restraining order was still active at the time, so if I were there, he would have had to leave.

Not something to get into just then. Instead, I told my mother that my cousin can’t do anything. There is a system. A government run system. As individuals, we can’t do anything more than we’ve already done. It’s up to the government.

She accused me of passing the responsibility on to others. I told her, that’s exactly what she does.

She then started lecturing me on how she depends on us, it’s our responsibility to get her where she wants to be, etc. She is utterly convinced that we can somehow by pass the entire system and get her into where she wants to be, just because… she wants it.

Her ranting got so bad, had to cut her off. I told her, I was too tired to handle any of this just then, told her I would talk to her another time, and wished her a good night.

Then I hung up.

My older daughter came over right after, asking if I was okay. Because my mother can’t hear me on the phone very well, I had to basically shout while talking to her, so everyone in the house could hear my side of the conversation.

I was just tired.

I’m doing somewhat better now. Pain killered up again, showered and fed, and my daughter slathered my back and arms with Tei Fu lotion. I did my legs as well, and made sure to take my magnesium complex with my evening meds/supplements, because a day like today typically results in my getting massive Charlie Horses during the night.

As a side note, it does seem that my side effect theory might be right, after all. It’s been a while since I stopped taking the anti-inflammatories and, at one point, things seemed to get worse again with my reversal of menopause. Particularly if I did any extensive physical labour. Yet I’ve had two days of higher than normal activity, from all the walking we did yesterday, and now all the shoveling today, and I’ve had no increase in symptoms. In fact, the symptoms have almost completely gone away. My doctor’s appointment is next month, so I’ve got a few more weeks to see if anything changes, in either direction.

For now, I’m hoping to get to bed early and actually fall asleep. I’m going to have a long day tomorrow.

The Re-Farmer

What a long day – and the mystery continues

April 7, 2026 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Today I had an appointment to take the truck in to the garage, yet again. Before we headed out, of course, we had our morning routine to take care of, including the outside cats. I just have to share this adorable image.

Colby has his face turned up like that because he’s directly under the heat lamp. He’s warming his face!

I shared this photo with the rescue. Blot and Colby would be just weeks apart in age, yet the size difference is amazing. Blot is not thriving and has not really grown at all in months. I wanted to make sure the rescue was aware of this.

As it stands now, we might be bringing in 8 cats on Thursday! We were going to bring in 6 originally, but then they wanted me to bring in Sweetie, a female. As we were messaging, Frank came up, and how Frank is probably pregnant. We tried to get her spayed twice before, after fasting overnight in the isolation shelter. Both times, she escaped while we were trying to get her into a carrier. This time, they are going in for vetting and fostering, not straight for a spay. No overnight in the isolation shelter. We might be able to get her into a carrier, if we can give her food or treats inside. I’ve seen her go in and out of them, where they are stored in the sun room.

We’ll have to dig out the soft sided carriers to be able to fit everyone in the truck. One of them is slightly damaged from a cat almost tearing its way out, so we’d have to make sure only the mildest of cats would go into them. That makes for 7 carriers in total. We’ll try to get Frank first. After that, we’ll get the others – and see if we will still need to double up a couple of cats or not.

My appointment for the truck was at 1pm, but my daughter and I left around 11:30am. My daughter was on deer watching duty and saw quite a few I never did, since I was focusing on the road. She even saw a herd of at least 5 deer in the trees along our first mile of gravel road, loafed in the snow!

While driving along, I was keeping an eye on that oil gauge and, sure enough, the needle kept dropping. We found ourselves behind slow moving traffic that we couldn’t pass, so the drive took a bit longer than usual. By the time we parked at the garage, the needle was just touching the mark on the low end of normal. It doesn’t need to drop much further into the low pressure zone before the onboard computer starts dinging and telling me to turn off the engine.

I did remember to grab the replacement third brake light that we ordered a while back. I brought that in and talked to the mechanic for a while, explaining exactly what I was seeing, and that I’d added 3/4 of a liter of oil the day before yesterday, which was the last time the truck was driven. I also explained about the light. It’s easy to replace the light, but it requires climbing into the box of the truck to reach it. Something none of us are able bodied enough to do anymore.

That done, my daughter and I headed out – with both of us remembering to grab canes from the truck before we left. I’m very glad we did.

Our first stop was for lunch at a Subway right next to the pharmacy. Then we went to the pharmacy for my daughter to pick up her prescription refills. From there we made our way to the far end of town (about 3 more blocks) to a particular store my daughter wanted to go to.

Being as early as we were, we took our time with things. It was getting around 1:30 when we left the store, so we started making our way back. We stopped at one more store along the way. Unfortunately, by this time, my daughter was really starting to struggle. She’s got even worse back and joint pain than I do right now, and we kept having to slow down.

When we got to the garage, the truck was still in the parking lot. My daughter waited beside it while I popped in. There was just one mechanic at the time, and he’d just got in from lunch (a very late lunch!), apologizing that they hadn’t gotten to the truck yet, as they’ve been so swamped.

So we had to find somewhere to wait. There is a hotel right next to the garage and I normally would have gone to the Chinese restaurant inside, but today is Tuesday. They close on Tuesdays. My daughter was in so much pain, though, we went into the hotel anyhow, and into the bar. It was mostly empty, with just a few people at the counter or playing on the VLTs, so we found a table and sat down. I’ve never been to this part of the hotel though, for a brief period, long ago, my husband worked there as a bouncer. It gets very, very lively at night!

After a while of sitting and not being sure what the procedure was, I finally went to the counter and asked what pop they had. They just had Pepsi, 7Up and Ginger Ale – on the fountain, as mix. My daughter had asked for a root beer or water, depending on what they had, so I got myself a Pepsi and a water for her. It cost me a whole $2. 😁

Then we just sat and relaxed, nursing our drinks.

Eventually, I headed outside and went around the building enough to look at the garage parking lot. Our truck had still not been moved, so I rejoined my daughter. Our drinks were done, so I asked my daughter if she wanted something different, then went to the counter for a refill for myself, and a ginger ale for my daughter. While chatting, I mentioned we were waiting for our truck in the garage next door, as a way to explain why we weren’t getting booze. 😄 As the glasses were being filled, I confirmed the cost, only to be told that refills were free. I mentioned my daughter had a water before, and wanted to pay for the ginger ale – but she let me have it for free!

That was very sweet of her!

As we got closer to 4pm – the garage closes at 5 – I went out again to check the garage parking lot. The truck was still there, but one of the bay doors was open, so I went in to ask if they could say how much longer it would be. The owner was back by then, so he was the one I was talking to this time.

Which is when he told me he’d meant to call me several times, but kept getting pulled away by other things – then told me I forgot to leave the key with them.

🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Thankfully, it wasn’t much of a delay because of the keys, so I quickly left them on the desk then headed back to rejoin my daughter.

The next time I went out to check, the truck was gone and the bay doors were closed, so we finished up our drinks then headed to the garage. Walking past the truck in one of the bays, I could see the shiny new third brake light had been installed. They had just finished with the truck, so the owner was able to join me in the office and talk to me about it while the mechanic backed the truck out of the shop.

There’s nothing wrong with the truck.

There is no leak. The oil levels were fine. I told him about adding more oil just the day before yesterday, and it had been down – otherwise, it would have been over filled when they checked it. We went over what I was seeing on the pressure gauge again, and he is completely perplexed. They could find nothing wrong. He told me, however, that I am not the only one with this mystery. Another customer, with a completely different make and model truck, has the exact same issue.

The only thing he can think of is that it’s the oil sensor. It’s been replaced twice – the second time on warranty – but it is not a GM brand sensor. It was the same situation with the other customer, except that truck is a Dodge. They were going to try replacing the sensor with the name brand part instead, and he thought that might make a difference if we did similar with our truck, too. There’s really nothing else that it might be. He’s going to look up the sensor and see what he can find for me.

We did talk a bit about bringing my mother’s car in to be checked over in preparation for selling it. He wanted to know if I was still wanting to do that, and I said yes, but right now, we can’t get it out of the garage because the doors are blocked with snow. So that will wait for a bit. Then we talked about refinancing to replace the truck. I told him, if there was any way we could keep the truck and make a down payment instead, I’d prefer that. We do need two vehicles, and the truck is the perfect vehicle for us here. The problem is, we’ve only had the truck for 2 years. We still owe quite a lot on it, so refinancing might not be easy. Something that needs to be looked into, though the financing company did offer my husband a pre-approved loan a couple of months back!

In the end, all I had to pay for was half an hour of labour, because all they did was install the light I brought, and try to do some diagnostics.

By this time, a weather system we’d been keeping an eye on for much of the day had reached us, and snow was starting to come down pretty hard. My daughter and I popped across the street to the grocery store, next. I had a list of my own, plus my husband gave me his card and a list, and my daughter had a shopping list from her sister. The snow was coming down harder when we were done, but we still had a pair of stops to make. My daughter’s second list from her sister was for the liquor store, while I went to the hardware store across the street. I wanted to get a couple of litres of oil to keep in the truck, since I finished off the last of my stash. I meant to buy some from the garage, but they it only in bulk.

When we were both done and heading home, we drove out of the worst of the snow fairly quickly, and had a nice break from it, though the roads were pretty slick in places.

Meanwhile, my daughter passed on messages she was getting from her sister.

My mother had called.

No one could get to the phone in time, but she didn’t leave a message.

She called again.

Then again.

By the fourth time, my older daughter was waiting at the phone to pick up right away. She could hear noises, including button pushing noises. She was shouting “hello”, but there was nothing. Then my mother hung up.

This time, my daughter kept a handset with her, so she was ready to answer the 5th call. She had to shout hello again before my mother finally answered, asking for me. She told my mother I wasn’t home and would call her back. Then my mother asked who was on the phone, so my daughter said her name.

Who??

Your granddaughter!

My daughter explained again that I was out, and that I would call her as soon as I got home. My mother told her, “I’m waiting!”

???

Then my daughter messaged her sister a detailed transcript of what happened, which was read to me during the drive home. 😄

As near as I can figure, for at least one of the attempted phone calls, my mother didn’t bring the phone to her ear again; she tends to stare at the screen after making the call, instead. What we couldn’t figure out is what was going on that was so important that she’d call 5 times!

So as soon as everything was unloaded and put away, including the truck (I had to feed the cats so I could safely move it out of the yard!), I called my mother.

She had her phone on her and was able to answer rather quickly.

I told her, I was finally home and asked her what was going on.

Oh, nothing.

She mentioned figuring out her phone, and that she just wanted to keep communication going.

She just wanted to talk.

…

Before I’d called, I went through the CID list. The first three calls my mother made were barely a minute apart. The last two, where my daughter had actually answered, though my mother never heard her the first time, were just a couple of minutes apart.

She has never done anything like this before. Usually, if she does make several calls while I’m away, it’s because something had happened. She would sometimes leave angry messages on the machine, about how she knows we’re there, pick up the phone. Even then, the calls were never one right after the other like she did, today.

On the plus side, she’s obviously getting used to her phone and, more importantly, she’s remembering to keep it with her.

Of course, she was wondering when I’ll be visiting next! I mentioned we’ve got rain and snow happening tonight and tomorrow, plus I’ve got a lot of things to catch up on now that we’ve got the truck back. I didn’t tell her I’d taken the truck to the garage again today, as that would have just caused issues. I mentioned possibly Thursday, though it would be while coming back from the city. I did not tell her I was going to be delivering cats! She told me, whenever you can, and just sort of brushed it off. Which is REALLY unusual for her!

Then she cut the call short because there was nothing to talk about.

That had to be one of the strangest calls I’ve had with my mother. So very unlike her! Still, she seemed in a much better mood than she has been of late, so I’ll take it.

Meanwhile…

I’m hoping to finally head in to the tax preparer tomorrow and drop off our files. Normally, we would have done it as soon as my husband’s second T4A came in, but we didn’t have the transportation. Tomorrow is supposed to be steady snow, possibly mixed with rain, for most of the day. At least it’s supposed to clear up when it’s time to take the cats in to the rescue!

While we were bringing stuff into the house, Sir Robin managed to slip through the door three times! I caught him before he could get far, but that boy SO wants to be indoors!

Soon, he will be!

Just a little bit longer.

I am so glad the rescue has been able to find fosters for so many cats!

The only problem is, how will the truck behave? Knowing there is nothing wrong – no leaks, etc. – doesn’t help if that pressure gauge drops far enough to set off alarms and warning lights.

Hopefully, changing out that sensor one more time will stop it from happening.

Not sure when that will happen, though. He’s got to do some searching for one, first, much like he had to do to find a differential for our truck’s year.

The mystery is so incredibly frustrating and perplexing.

The Re-Farmer

Finally got some stuff in and… you’ve got to be kidding me.

April 2, 2026 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Okay. Where do I start with today!

Well, first up, how about some cuteness?

As I was getting my coat to go feed the outside cats, I spotted movement in the distance. I had to zoom in quite a bit to get these shots, so they’re not the best.

Two white tail deer, beyond the outer yard, at the far side of the barn. Soon after, I saw one of them making its way through the outer yard to the driveway, heading for the gate. The deer are very, very active this time of year, and the population looks to be quite high this spring! I haven’t seen so many since we stopped feeding them outside the living room window.

After I did the outside cats’ food and water, I tried for a head count. I think I counted 24 in total. Possibly 25?

Adam was on the cat house roof, where she prefers to eat, and she enthusiastically allowed me to pet her. I was able to feel around her belly. She does not feel pregnant, and I don’t feel any active nips. Given how early I saw she’d gone into heat and the boys going after her, it’s entirely possible she’s had a litter and lost it. I am seeing the other feral females – Slick, Sprout and the white and grey we haven’t named – show up just long enough to eat, and then they disappear.

I managed to get a picture of this beauty, though.

Fluffy is so adorably fluffy!!

I’m glad we were able to catch her and get her spayed, because she very rarely allows me to touch her. Once I do, she stops and enjoys the pets, but otherwise, she just runs away.

Once the outside stuff was done, I headed out. My first stop was to the post office, then I planned to go to the feed store in my mother’s town, then visit her.

I had asked the owner of the general store if their feed supplier also carried cat food. She looked up their list and they did. That was a while ago, so when I came in to get the mail, I looked through their feed section and saw they had three 18kg (39.68lbs) bags of cat kibble! They were only $45, too. With the other brands we’ve been getting, they are in the $50-$55 range.

We’ve never had this brand before, so I got only one, to try it out. If the cats like it, it would make things much easier to pick them up in our own little hamlet than having to drive to the towns with feed stores. The only thing is that I would have to change how I budget it. Right now, I put the budgeted amount onto a credit card, so that when I buy them I get my cashback or Canadian Tire dollars. The general store doesn’t take credit cards, though. Just cash and debit. So if I’m going to be buying the big bags there more often, I have to make sure NOT to transfer the funds to a credit card.

So after I picked up our mail, I got the one bag of kibble – then picked up a couple of sausages for the Easter baskets. Something else that was on my list for the shopping I planned to do after visiting my mother.

Since I got the test bag of kibble, I skipped the feed store and went straight to my mother’s.

She was in her favourite armchair in the common room when I got there. She was pleasantly surprised to see me, which was nice for a change.

It was a pretty quiet visit. There wasn’t a lot new going on. My mother immediately started complaining, of course, but not as … energetically, shall we say, as usual. Her health isn’t good. She needs sleep. She needs a private room. (I don’t disagree!) Her room mate is terrible. (I’m sure her room mate thinks the same of my mother!) The regular doctor never comes to see her. The other doctors are from the city come in just for a day. I reminded her that she would need to make an appointment for the doctor to actually see her as a patient; otherwise, he’s just doing his rounds before going to his regular patient appointments at the clinic. To which she complained that it’s just about moneymoneymoney. Apparently, doctors shouldn’t get paid? I’m not quite sure what she’s getting at when she says that, but she says it quite often.

Hopefully, she won’t be here for very long, but there’s just no way to know when a bed will open up at the nursing home she wants to be in.

I remembered to ask if our vandal had shown up again, after his big act with his wife pushing him in with a borrowed wheelchair, then storming out when she refused to pay for his funeral. She said no, he hasn’t. I was not surprised. I told her, I knew there was a reason he was visiting so often. He wanted something from her. Now we know what it was. She started going on about how he’s wealthy, he has his farm. I told her, that’s not cash in the bank. He would have to sell it. Her response was, what else is he going to do with it? His wife isn’t going to farm it, and they have no kids. I told her, he doesn’t have to. He’s got so many vehicles and equipment scattered all over his property. Stuff he can’t use anymore. He could sell just a couple of things and more than cover the cost of his own funeral. That reminded her of the thousands of dollars she’d given him for the huge garage he had built to store his equipment in. All I know is, his vehicles and equipment are still all scattered all over his yard, fully visible from the road as I drive by, except for the Bobcat he stole from my mother, so who knows what all he’s got stored in there. My mother got the point, though; there is no reason for him to be going to her for money to pay for his own funeral. Which could be years from now, for all I know, based on how he appears the few times I’ve seen him since his diagnosis.

Overall, it was a good and relaxed visit. I stayed until her lunch tray was brought over – a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup and crackers, a pickled blend of legumes I recognize from Costco that is quite good, and canned fruit for desert. Her insulated tea cup was just hot water – at her request – to mix in with the glass of milk. One of her favourite things to drink. I stayed long enough to help her get set up and everything was in reach before saying my goodbyes.

From there, it was off to our regular local grocery store – and extra drive, but the difference in prices between that town and my mother’s made it worth it.

Once there, I got the last few things for the Easter baskets, including an extra flat of eggs. I’d asked my daughters to hard boil some eggs for me to start pickling after I got home. They ended up doing a flat and a half – roughly 45 eggs. The extras and the uglies would be used for egg salad. I got a paska for my mother, though it’s huge for a one person basket. Since she no longer has her own kitchen or utensils, my plan is to have everything for her basket all cut up and ready to eat without needing anything else. Plus, she could share the contents, if she finds it too much. We aren’t fans of paska ourselves, so I got a lovely fresh flax seed loaf for our own basket.

The shopping done, my only planned outing over the next while is to visit my mother and bring her the basket on either Saturday or Sunday.

I’m thinking Saturday.

There’s a reason for that.

The truck.

The truck has been running well. The stock up shopping trips have been fine. I have, of course, still been constantly checking the gauges. With the troubles we’ve been having for the past couple of years, I just can’t help myself.

Which is why I noticed something had changed.

The oil pressure gauge.

When we had the leaking seal replaced again, on warranty, and the oil sensor replaced, I got an oil change done at the same time. According to the mileage, we have a couple thousand kilometers before it needs to be changed again – which is about a month’s worth of driving, in the summer. Two months, in the winter.

After all that, the pressure gauge was right back where it was supposed to be and staying within a typical range.

As we were coming home from the Costco trip, though, it started to read on the low side of normal. Technically still okay, but at one point, it was pretty much on the line for low pressure.

It was reading normal again when I started out today, but when I got to the grocery store from my mother’s, the gauge had dropped down to the line again.

While I was on my way home, I kept checking it, and sure enough, it kept slowly dropping. As I was pulling into our driveway, it was touching the line again.

*sigh*

One thing I can say, though; the warranty differential is working fine. The 2 wheel and 4 wheel drive setting has been on auto, and it has had no problem kicking into 4 wheel drive as needed. Today got so warm, the hard packed snow under the tire tracks in our driveway started to soften and the truck starting to sink as I was driving, but I was able to get through with no problem! No getting stuck in our own driveway again!

We’ve been parking the truck in the yard for the past while, since my brother’s truck was half in our garage (as far as it could go without hitting the top of the door frame). My brother had phoned this morning and he suggested I just back it up into the lane towards the barn and leave it there, so we could park our own truck in the garage. So after the shopping was unloaded and I did an early feeding of the outside cats (they like the new kibble!), I moved his truck out.

His truck was having issues with sinking through the formerly hard packed snow, but it got through fine as well.

Driving our own truck into the garage, the oil gauge didn’t have a chance to drop like it did while driving, but it also never got to where it normally is.

The boxes for our chicken coop are still stored at the far end of the garage, so we can’t pull all the way in. Not a problem, since it means I had space to get out the step stool and check the oil levels.

It was low.

I had one last bottle of oil left, 3/4 full, and used that. The level seemed okay after that, but I’m never confident in what I’m seeing on the dip stick. The colour of the oil and the colour of the dip stick is pretty much the same, and the metal is always shiny, even after wiping it clean.

*sigh*

I made a point of checking, and there is no sign of an oil leak, but then I’ve never seen evidence of an oil leak even when it turned out to be leaking really badly, because of where the leak was. The only times I thought I did, it turned out to be from the differential, not engine oil.

Once I was settled inside, I called the garage. The owner answered. I made sure to first let him know that the warranty differential replacement has been doing fine, then explained about the oil pressure and being low on oil again. I mentioned, I’ve got a lot of driving to do in the next while!

He asked me if I could come in on Tuesday afternoon, so they can check it out. They are closed tomorrow and on Easter Monday, of course, so I was very happy that he could book me in so quickly.

For now, it should be fine for me to drive to my mother’s. I’ll do it on Saturday, when things are open, so I can pick up some extra oil to keep in the truck, now that I’ve just used the last of my stash.

This is getting so insane. I’ve either got another leak somewhere, or the truck is simply burning a lot of oil. Which I would expect to see evidence of in my exhaust, and I haven’t.

I just don’t get it.

I am so tired of vehicle troubles!

I can’t even say it’s been this particular truck, since the last two vehicles we’ve owned have also had weird problems. As my daughter told me during our Costco shop, and I was commenting about my own paranoia about the truck; with all the stuff that’s been going on, I have reason to be!!

Hopefully, it’s something minor that they can find and fix easily and quickly.

Hopefully.

On a completely different note, once I had my appointment made, I got to check out what I got in the mail.

My new soil thermometer has arrived.

The padded envelope had been opened, and the box it was in was crushed. That would have been customs. At least the thermometer itself was not damaged!

Once things thaw out, I want to use it in various beds to see how different the soil temperature is in, say, the high raised bed compared to the low raised beds. It might help explain why I had issues with my beans, melons, tomatoes and squash last summer.

That all settled, the last goal of the day was to make three different types of brine to pickle eggs in, and start peeling the eggs that were hard boiled last night. I made beet, soy and turmeric brines, using the simplest recipes I could find online, so I had three little pots going at once. Then my younger daughter and I started peeling eggs.

It was a disaster.

The shells just did not want to separate from the eggs!

Now, it we were just making egg salad, I wouldn’t have cared, but I was after the most perfect eggs to brine and use in our Easter baskets, and we just weren’t getting any at all. After about a dozen eggs, I called a stop to trying.

Thankfully, I got a extra flat of eggs at the grocery store today.

The ugly eggs didn’t go to waste, though; they got eaten pretty much immediately. 😄

Meanwhile, I started on another batch to hard boil, using tips I’ve tried in the past, all combined.

It worked.

First, fill the pot with water and generous amount of baking soda, then bring it to a boil. The eggs were brought out of the fridge to warm up. Room temperature would have been ideal, but I at least didn’t want to have cold shells cracking on contact with boiling water.

Once the water was boiling, I used a wire basket type scoop – I don’t know the name of it – to lower the eggs into the boiling water in batched. I got 24 eggs into the pot. One did crack, but nothing leaked out of it.

I set the timer for 10 minutes, but it took a while for the water to go from a simmer to a full boil again, so it was really more like 7 minutes at a boil. When the time went off, I shut off the heat, but didn’t take them out right away, just in case. Then I transferred them to a bowl of cold water and left them there for another 10 minutes.

Every single egg peeled perfectly.

All 24 eggs.

Perfect. Including the one that cracked!

I was hoping to just have 6 eggs per jar or brine, but I was able to do 8 in each!

Gotta make sure to pass on the method to the girls. My younger daughter was pretty upset that the first batch wouldn’t peel and felt she had done something wrong. It’s not a problem, though. We’ll just have lots of eggs ready for snacking!

Tomorrow, we need to dig out a couple of baskets from storage, and I need to figure out how to do my mother’s basket, if I’m going to have everything pre-cut up for her. Normally, the baskets would get blessed on Saturday, then enjoyed on Easter morning, but I have not been able to find any times for basket blessing. I know it’s being done; just not which church or what time. For quite a few years now, we’ve just blessed them ourselves. I’ll take the chance to visit my mother on Saturday with her basket and get a bit of a visit in.

Then not go anywhere again until it’s time to take the truck in to the garage to get checked!

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

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