A better day

February 22, 2026 / Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

For the past while, I’ve been having the hardest time getting going in the morning. It’s not just dealing with pain, or lack of sleep. I have to admit, the whole situation with the truck has really gotten me down. It’s just one more thing of many that have happened in the past couple of years. Normally, most things are just water under the bridge, but every now and then, it just gets to be too much.

My daughters have been helpful. Lately, they’ve both been staying up all night, not just my older daughter as she worked on commissions. Since they are up anyhow, they’ve been taking care of the outside cats in the morning, letting me sleep in. I’ve never been a morning person, so this alone has done much to help.

The other thing is, I finally got outside to do some shoveling. My original intention has basically been to do the sidewalk to the gate, and maybe clear the cat paths. Once I got started, though, I just kept on going. The sidewalk, the cat paths, a path to the garage and in front of the doors on the storage side. My brother and nephew were going to visit my mother today, then swing by the farm to check on my brother’s truck, so I cleared it of snow, shoveled around it, cleared enough snow in front of the barn door that it could be opened, and a walking path. Since my brother had gone through a lot of this with the snow blower when we had to bring my mother’s stuff over, it was pretty easy shoveling.

Then I kept on going and did the paths to the compost pile, to the back of the garage, and a path from the house to the litter compost.

I also dug out the large cat trap my brother had given us and cleared it of snow. I set it on the landing with the door locked open, and it wasn’t long before I saw Bug going in to check it out. I set it back near the isolation shelter, so that cats can go in and out as will, and not see it as something to be afraid of.

Then I cleared the snow and ice off the catio and isolation shelter roofs. The isolation shelter took a bit more effort, as the warmth inside has melted the snow on the roof, even with the insulation sheets – those are pretty torn up by the cats! After clearing the snow, I tried opening the roof, but it was too heavy to lift from only one side. One realizing just how much ice was on there, I broke it up and got most of it off before the roof could be lifted and whatever was left could slide off.

I’m going to have to reinforce the back of the roof supports, so they all the supports can be lifted at once without any twisting around. I’ve just got some wood lath right now, which is fine in the summer, but they just popped free of the supports in places when I first tried to open it.

All that done, I did some clean up around the cat kibble trays. They have a lot of old kibble in them that the cats aren’t eating. the ones in the kibble house were getting too many bits of straw in them. The ones in the sun room were getting pieces of rigid insulation in them. There is insulation on the lower window behand the counter shelf, since that window is now a single pane. That cats have been scratching at it – the LOVE scratching that insulation!! – and there are tiny bits of insulation all over the place. Plus, even though there are litter boxes, these are outside cats, so there were messes frozen to the concrete floor that needed to be scraped loose. After emptying all the kibble trays and sweeping the floor on that side (I didn’t even try for the other side yet), I used all the scrap piece of insulation that’s been kicked around, laying it over the exposed concrete (most of it is covered already), including under the big aluminum baking sheet that they don’t like to eat from as much. I think it gets too cold. Now, there is insulation under all the kibble trays, and the heated water bowl.

The heated water bowls were in need of a good cleaning, too. Those all got emptied and scrubbed as best I could. They will get a more thorough cleaning in the spring.

With all that done, I set out fresh kibble and water early. The cats were vary happy! After putting the kibble out, I did a head count.

After doing the water, I counted again.

29 😄

I must say, getting all that done made me feel so much better. Better than therapy!

You know what else is good therapy?

Being able to pet Colby.

My daughter mentioned that she’s been able to pet him, so when he ran past me, heading out the sun room door, I tried to pet him as he went by. As soon as my hand touched his back, he stopped in his track and looked at me. He was so torn between staying for pets, and running away! Once my hand lifted for more than a moment, he was off again, but that was the most pets I’ve been able to give him, yet.

While I was working on all this, the cats were enjoying the gorgeous sunshine.

They really like that shelf shelter, with its clear wall! In the first picture, I zoomed in to get Colby, snuggling with his sister, Sprig. We still can’t get close to her.

In the next picture, you can see little Furriosa sharing that shelf with them, Collin below, and Fluffy above.

Then there was the sun room window.

That shelf was set up there just to they could use it and sun themselves.

There are 11 cats in that picture. Possibly more!

The down side is that poor Frank was being really harassed by Clarence making advances on her. I don’t think she’s even in heat anymore. I’ve even seen the boys going after Pinky today, and she is spayed!

Once inside, I sent a bunch of photos to the rescue. I’m pretty sure all the adult females are pregnant by now, but they also all would need to be trapped to get them to a vet. Even Frank, since she’s been quite the escape artist. Otherwise, she’s be spayed by now. Trapping will need to wait until things warm up, but the cats that went into heat the earliest will probably be ready to have their kittens by the middle or end of March – and we’re in the last week of February right now.

I did get to pet Frank quite a bit today, though. Still can’t pick her up – she doesn’t trust us after we tried our attempts to get her to a vet – but at least she allows pets now. She’s very nervous about them, but accepts them for a little while before running away.

After chatting with the rescue group, I decided to I wanted kluski for a very late lunch, finally using my spaetzle maker that I bought so long ago, for the first time. It worked great, but is surprisingly messy. Worth it anyhow, I think, for the more evenly sized and shaped results. It went very well with some leftover, deboned drumsticks in butter chicken sauce.

I was just starting to cook when my brother and nephew arrived. They did not stay long, as they mostly wanted to start my brother’s truck and check on it. It started fine. Then they went to check on their mobile and made sure all was well there. My brother ended up phoning me before the left. He was very appreciative of the shoveling. It turns out he had been thinking of lending us the truck, but it’s a “one wheel drive” and is temperamental in a way my brother and SIL understands, but really, no one else does. 😄 He was concerned that if I tried to drive it, I would have issues. I never even considered borrowing it! I thanked him for the thought, though.

Our truck should be done tomorrow (Monday), and my SIL has offered to pick me up and drive me to get it. I just don’t know when that will happen! I’m assuming they will want to get it done as quickly as possible to free up the bay it’s been taking up for days. If nothing else, they close at 5, so I know it’ll be before then. After that, I’ll pop across to the grocery store to pick up a few things we’ve run out of, but I’ll be doing our first stock up shop on Wednesday. Then Friday will be our Costco stock up trip.

If all goes well with the truck.

The thing is like a Sword of Damocles for us. I never know what’s going to happen next!

So I never did get to see my brother and nephew in person before they left. I messaged him later asking him to update me on how the visit went with our mother, once he was settled.

He ended up calling me before he had a chance to check his messages! He had just gotten a phone call from the TCU about my mother.

She has been moved to another room. Away from the roommate she told me has been telling her to go away, because she thinks my mother’s bed is her own bed. If there’s more to it, I hope to find out when I visit. I now know where her new room is. The nurse told my brother that Mom was in tears, thanking them for moving her. !!! Coming from my mother, that’s a big deal.

As for their visit, they were able to take Mom to a common room/family room to talk. Shortly after they got there, a woman came in with remote controls, wanting to use the TV. My mother started yelling at her to leave! My brother tried to help her with the remotes but they couldn’t get things working and she left. Only later did my brother notice that she’s switched the power off on the cable box by mistake. !! It’s unfortunate that my mother behaved the way she did. My mother has cognitive issues, but not dementia in that sense. She’s just like that and has been for pretty much as long as I can remember. The only difference now is, she doesn’t really try to hold back anymore. She’s old, so that excuses all sorts of unfortunate behaviour.

Anyhow.

My brother had quite a bit to go over with her, including the documents confirming her move out of the apartment and that they would no longer be charging her rent. After going through more things, he told me she seemed to start to realize just a little of how much my brother had to do for her in the background. Of course, she would never say anything positive to him about it, nor thank him or show appreciation.

My brother is such a saint.

Oh, and our vandal had visited her, together with his wife, just this morning.

*sigh*

At least she didn’t try to hide the visit from my brother this time.

Apparently, they’d been in town to do some shopping. I’m assuming my sister told our vandal where my mother is. Most likely, my mother made sure she did. Well, at least all visitors have to check in with the nursing station first, and the staff is aware of his abusive behaviour towards him. Plus, he was with his wife, and he behaves better when he’s with her. He told my mother he has stopped drinking (which I find highly unlikely, but whatever), and that they’ve already got his funeral pre-arranged. I don’t know if he’s still doing chemo, if the doctor has told him there’s nothing more they can do for him. My mother started going on to my brother about how she wants us all to get along. She just can’t accept that it’s all on our vandal to fix things. His hate for me and my brother runs so deep, I don’t see a reconciliation ever happening. Particularly since he’s managed to drive a wedge between us and my late brother’s children to the point where they want nothing to do with any of us anymore. We could never trust him again.

What a mess. And my mother and sister are oblivious at to how much they are making things worse by pandering to him, and how much harder it makes things for my brother, me and my family. Especially us, since we live so close to him. A relative statement, to be sure, but close enough that we can sometimes hear things from his place.

Ah, well. It is what it is. We just have to work with the hand we’re dealt with.

Well, that got off on in another direction!

In the end, the visit with my mother went rather well, all things considered, and now we have the good news that she is in another room. She will likely have another room mate, though, so we’ll see how that works out!

As for me, getting outside in the sunshine, doing the shoveling and getting so much done has made the whole day better. I’m feeling better than I have for a while now.

I will have to make sure to pain killer up before bed tonight, though, if I want to get any sleep!

I might even get to bed before 2 am for a change.

😄😄

The Re-Farmer

Being watched, and an update

February 22, 2026 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I just had to share this bit of cuteness, first.

Fluffer peeking through the bathroom window while enjoying any warmth coming through the screen.

In other things…

I called up my mother this evening. It ended up being a very challenging conversation. When I asked how she was doing, she switched to Polish and starting talking about the “Indianka” (Indian person) and her bed. At first I thought she was complaining about one of the staff somehow mistreating my mother while changing her bedding. She kept using Polish words I was unfamiliar with. I did figure out that the person she was talking about was in the room with her – and it was strange that staff would be fussing with her bed past 7:30pm.

After asking questions about just what the problem was, I eventually figured out that she was talking about her room mate. It seems this woman has been telling my mother to go away, and that my mother’s bed is her bed. There seems to be more as well, but my mother was having difficulty explaining to me. Once I figured it out, I said that this is something we need to talk to the nursing staff about. My mother said she’s already talked to them and they say there’s nothing they can do.

This is obviously an issue of someone with dementia. My mother has increased cognitive decline, but nothing like this. She said she told the nursing staff the people like her room mate should share a room with other people like her, while people like my mother should be sharing a room with someone more like her – this is in reference to levels of dementia. The problem with that is, there might not actually be someone there at her cognitive level. At least not another woman that she could share a room with.

Earlier in the conversation, while she was still speaking in English, my mother asked me if I knew about someone that had passed away recently. This person was part of a family that are “neighbours” out here, but I only know two of them – one of them was my elementary school teacher until 3rd grade, in the one classroom school our little hamlet used to have. Grades K-3 were all in that one classroom. It turned out that the person who passed was their mother. After getting a bit of a lecture about how I don’t know what’s going on, I pointed out to my mother that I’ve been stuck at home because the truck is in the shop; if I’m going to hear anything, it’ll only be if someone I know posts it on Facebook.

The truck reminded her to ask me when I’d be visiting her next. I explained to her the current timeline, and that it should be done on Monday. So am I visiting her on Monday? I said no, that’s when the truck is supposed to be done. I still don’t know how I’m going to get it. If anything, I’d be visiting on Tuesday.

When the conversation shifted to Polish and I managed to figure out she was trying to explain to me about her room mate, who was in the room with her while she was talking to me, she started talking about getting into the nursing home. It turns out the neighbour who passed away was in the nursing home she wants to go to. Which means a bed is now open.

…

We have explained to her that priority goes to people who are in the worst shape, but this was not the time to bring it up again.

As she continued to speak in Polish, she starting saying that my brother and I should go to the nursing home and explain my mother’s situation to them, and tell them she will pay them lots of money, every month, if they would just let her in.

So… she wants to bribe the nursing home staff.

I tried to explain to her again, that the nursing home staff have no control over it. It’s up to the government. The health department makes those decisions, not the nursing home.

I don’t know if she can’t understand this, or won’t. She is convinced that if we just ask and offer them money (she would be paying “rent” anyhow, so I don’t know what she’s thinking on that), they will let her live there.

I told her my brother had already contacted them and they confirmed this, but she kept on as if I never said a thing.

In other things, she mentioned my sister had visited. I told her I knew, and that she’s brought my mother the pickle juice she was craving. My mother was so happy about that. I think she just drinks a spoonful every now and then, but I honestly am not sure! I asked her how the food was, and she told me it wasn’t as good as at the hospital. Not bad, but not good, either. 😞

She went back to talking in Polish and saying she wanted to be out of there. Then began lamenting about how, in her old age, she now has no home of her own, no bed of her own. I told her, it won’t be any different in a nursing home, other than she’d have a room to herself. Oh, but at least she would be among her own people! She would be around Christians.

…

She still thinks the nursing home is run by the same people who ran it when she applied for a job there, 50 or so years ago.

Then she started telling me how she is afraid to sleep at night because of her room mate, and she doesn’t know what she might do. I don’t know what to make of that. One the one hand, if her room mate’s dementia is far gone enough, that could be a real risk. On the other, at one point of trying to figure out what the problem was, and my mother not being able to answer me (I still thought she was talking about a staff member at this point), I asked outright, is it because she is Indian? My mother answered, yes. So she might be fearing this woman because of her race. Or, more likely, it’s a combination of both.

Either way, my mother is not in a good situation, and there’s really nothing we can do about it. She’s in the system, and the system decides. My mother, however, insists that if we just talk to the right people, explaining her situation, and are bold about it, that system will be ignored and she would get to jump the que to get to the nursing home she wants to be in.

I’m really not impressed with this transitional care unit. I don’t have concerns with the staff or the measures they have to take. It really has more to do with the fact that they’ve got so many people in various states of cognitive decline, waiting to get into someplace else, in such a tight space and sharing rooms. This building is a converted hospital, but the TCU is only a small part of it. Too small.

I completely understand my mother’s feeling about wanting to get out, that’s for sure. Hopefully, she will get into a nursing home – even if it’s not the one she wants to be in, right away – soon.

Thankfully, my brother and SIL are back and they will be able to visit with her tomorrow. She will be very happy to see them. I suggested they might see about finding a private space they can wheel her to for the visit. There must be a common room or family room available. Somewhere that she can speak freely with them. I’ve already updated them on what my mother told me. Hopefully, they will be able to get more information from her, and will be able to talk to someone about it.

I honestly don’t know what we can do to make things better for her. She simply isn’t far gone enough for the system go consider her a priority when beds open up.

Plus, the system sucks at the best of times.

So very frustrating.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: onion, eggplant and pepper seedlings, plus an update

February 16, 2026 / Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

I got a little bit of garden therapy in, while checking on my seed starts.

I also remembered to get a picture of how the onions are doing in the seed snail experiment.

I’m actually debating whether it’s time to “pot up” the onions. That would involve unrolling the snails, adding more soil (at this stage, I would be using potting soil rather than seed starting mix), then rolling them back up into thicker snails. I made sure to have plenty of excess foam packing material being used here to accommodate extra thickness. I think I might wait a bit longer, though.

You might have noticed the tips of the onions look dry and shriveled. I think that’s from getting too close to the shop light before I raised it higher. Currently, they have the shop light on for part of the day, but for 12 hours on a timer, they are getting full spectrum light from the larger new lamp I picked up.

In the next couple of pictures, you can see new seedlings from the pre-germinated seed starts. Well… almost see! The row at the bottom of the picture is the Caspar Eggplant, and three seedlings have broken ground. In the middle is the Sweet Chocolate Pepper, and five seedlings have appeared, a couple just barely visible through the vermiculate. The top row is the California Wonder pepper. It took some searching, but I did see the curved stems of seedlings just barely visible through the vermiculite.

In the last picture, you can see the largest of the Sweet Chocolate peppers.

I turn the shop light on for part of the day for these, too, but they also have full spectrum lights on for 12 hours. I’ve got two lights fixtures with four light strips each, and I’ve got them set up so that five light strips are over the full tray, then three strips are over the celery and luffa in the other tray. The strips with the herbs I recently sowed are off to one end of the tray, closer to the heater that I have set up to blow warm air over both trays.

I have the full spectrum light strips quite close to the surfaces of the trays. As the seedlings get larger, I can raise each strip individually, as needed. Right now, for example, the container with the celery is lower than the Red Solo Cups the luffa are in (still just the one seedling in those), so it has its own light strip that’s lower than the two that are over the taller Red Solo Cups.

I’ve made a point of spending time in the basement to have the heater on. Usually, that’s my time to do my steps (I have a step counter on my phone), but I also go over my notes. I have lists of things based on how many weeks before last frost they should be started. What I have so far has been started early, based on a June 2 last frost date, though the newly revised average has our last frost date in a range of dates at the end of May, potentially adding as much as a week to our growing season.

Looking at the calendar, I made sure to write down when the next batches of seeds should be started, though I can get away with some, like the herbs and the marigolds, to be started early. Some of them are things that could be grown in pots indoors, and are more flexible. I am mightily resisting starting tomatoes! Those are next on the list but, if I were to go by calendar dates, they shouldn’t be started until the middle of March. Being short season varieties, I could theoretically wait even longer.

I don’ wanna wait that loooonnnggg!!! <insert childish whining> 😂🤣😂

Still, spending some time with the plants and thinking these things through, even for as little time as it was, was enough to make me feel better than I have been for much of today.

In other things, I phoned my mother today. In the TCU, she can’t have a phone in her room. I call the nursing station and they transfer me to a cordless phone that they take to the person being called. They tried transferring me four times before it finally worked!

My mother was very, very happy for the call, and said she had been thinking of calling me. I reminded her that, where she is now, it’s a long distance call.

She really wants a phone and was asking if we could get her a phone, like other people have. Meaning, a cell phone.

Now, there’s no way my mother can handle a Smartphone. She could barely handle the new phone my brother got for her at her apartment, to replace her old set, and it was actually simpler than the one she had before. Still more bells and whistles than desired, and things were in slightly different locations, and that was enough to give her a hard time. My brother tried so hard to find the simplest phone set – a corded phone with an answering machine, plus two cordless phones for her dining table and bedroom – that he could, but everything has bells and whistles these days.

I do know there are cell phones made for seniors out there, so I plan to do some research later today and see what’s available here in Canada.

I explained to her that she would have to buy a phone and have a monthly phone bill. Her response was, she has money that’s just sitting in the bank, not doing anything, so she doesn’t mind using it. She currently has no idea what’s going on with her banking right now, as my brother is taking care of it for her. None of us have tried to explain to her that the hospital back dated their billing for her stay there, which was charged daily. Plus, her rent for February was taken out, but as my brother explained my mother’s situation and why he wasn’t able to give them a month’s notice, it will be refunded. Until then, she’s being double billed for the month, which she would not be able to understand and would freak out over if we tried to explain it to her. My brother is the best person to be taking care of all this for her, and I assured he, even though he’s still out of the country, he’s on top of all this and taking care of things for her.

Then I told her that I had going to mass yesterday, where prayers were said for her health, which she was very happy to hear about. I then told her I had been on the way to visit her when something went wrong with the truck, and I had to get a tow truck. She immediately said, I need a new vehicle. *sigh* As if we don’t know that! So I told her about my BIL driving me home in his truck, and that he was planning on selling it in the summer. If we can come up with $5000 by then, we will buy it from him. It took a while before I realized she didn’t know who I was talking about at first, so I said my BIL’s name again. Oh! You mean… and then she said his Polish name (his family are also from Poland). 😄 So she was pretty keen on the idea of our getting a truck from him.

We talked about a bunch of other stuff for a while. She’s not liking where she is right now, and I can’t blame her one bit. Not only is she now in a smaller room that’s being shared with someone else, it’s very close to the nursing station, which is right next to the entry doors. Lots of traffic, lots of noise. I explained to her that everyone else there is waiting to go somewhere else, like she is. Her response was, I don’t care about anyone else. I just care about me. *sigh* I said it meant that she would be seeing a lot of changes in who is there with her. She is doing a lot better, as far as care needed, than many others and that’s part of the problem; people with higher needs are going to get beds in nursing homes faster than her, typically. I reminded her that, when it came to nursing home spaces, we’re basically waiting for people to die, as that’s pretty much the only way beds get freed up. She thought that we could talk to people about getting her into a nursing home faster, because where she is is not good for her health. I told her, where she is now is the first step, but in the end, it’s the ultimately the provincial government that decides. So she said we should tell them to build an addition to the nursing home she wants to live in.

…

*sigh*

I didn’t even try to explain. Our province certainly needs more beds for long term care and assisted living, but it’ll be a cold day in hell before that happens.

Our conversation went all over, and she gave me messages to pass on to my siblings. I mentioned again that it’s long distance for me to call her now, but not for my sister. She was all surprised by that (not sure why; my sister lives only 15 minutes away, at most) and started saying my sister should phone her more often! She’s not understanding that it’s harder to do that through the nursing station where she is than how it was before. Then she wanted to know when I would be visiting her next. I reminded her, the truck was at the garage and we have no idea how long it will be, before we have transportation again.

Oh, so you want me to give you money for the truck now?

?????

I said no, I was just letting you know that it might be a while before I can visit and why. That’s all!

I can give you a check…

????!!!

I told her again, I wasn’t wanting anything like that. I was just letting her know why I might not be able to visit anytime soon, but we just don’t know right now.

But the money is just sitting there, not doing anything… I can write a check.

???!!!

Finally I deflected and said, we can talk about it the next time I visit. She happily agreed with that and we dropped it.

I wasn’t going to ask, but I’m not sure if she was offering to pay for the repairs, or to give us funds to buy the truck from my BIL! I fully expect her to forget about it long before I’m able to visit her again, and I will certainly not bring it up again! The offer was totally out of the blue and not at all what I meant by telling her about the truck. That’s the sort of thing our vandal was constantly doing to her and my late father for many years, which might be why she thought that, by telling her about the truck, I was actually asking her for money. I do appreciate the offer, but I will not ask or bring it up again.

Over all, for all that my mother is not liking where she is, she did sound happy. Even when, at one point, she started rather playfully referring to herself as an “orphan” for being there. She told me to make sure to pass that on to my sister, so she will call and visit more often. 😁

I really hope my mother isn’t there for very long. Still, it’s the first step to getting her where she wants to be, at least.

Meanwhile, I’ve got my homework assignment, and will start seeing if there is some sort of phone out there that will work for her and where she is. That won’t be easy!

The Re-Farmer

I’m home now

February 15, 2026 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Well, it’s done. The truck has been towed to the garage.

My BIL, sweetheart that he is, skipped the lunch my sister, who was going to work later, was making so he could come out and find me before the tow truck reached me.

Thankfully, I was able to pull over next to a very large and open company driveway, making me both easy to find, and easy to get to, while on the side of a busy highway.

The tow truck actually arrived later than expected. He had a call ahead of me that only needed a winch, but ended up pulling two people out of the ditch before getting to me.

My BIL, meanwhile, had already arrived and we were sitting in the company driveway, talking, when the tow truck arrived. The tow truck was not only from our regular garage, but the driver was the owner/our mechanic’s brother! That gave me the opportunity to describe exactly what happened, knowing our mechanic would actually get the information.

The truck had been running so well. Since I’d gone to church in town first, which is right on the highway that goes to the city my mother is in, I took that route through all the little towns along the lake again. I had the radio on when I started hearing/feeling like something was rubbing on a tire. This continued for maybe a couple of minutes before it felt like something dropped. Suddenly, the tire was shuddering, like something was caught up in it.

Of course, I pulled over right away, got out and checked.

I could see nothing. I even popped the hood and tried to look from above. Nothing.

I got back in the truck and started to move, but the shuddering was immediate. I stopped after less than 5 feet, I’m sure.

From there I contacted my family and even sent a quick message to my brother (he’s out of the country still) before contacting CAA. I phoned directly rather than using the app, because I’ve never quite managed to get the app set up and working, and I don’t know what’s wrong. The last time I tried, I was at home and ended up using my desktop, instead. Not an option this time!

So I phoned and started going through the automated system, which uses voice responses to questions. That worked fine as long as it was yes/no questions, or when I said I needed a tow, but then it asked what was wrong. I didn’t know what was wrong, so I said, I don’t know, something is wrong with my tire.

It decided I had a flat tire and asked if that was correct. I said no. It tried again and I tried to answer a different way. It still thought I had a flat tire. Finally, I pressed 0, hoping that it would get me to a human. It recognized that I wanted to talk to a person but then said the automated system would likely be faster and started over again in asking what was wrong with my vehicle.

*sigh*

After a while it gave up and sent me to a real human being.

… and put me on hold.

Thankfully, I was the “next caller” and didn’t have to wait too long.

It was a bit confusing in trying to say where I was. Thankfully, I was next to a company driveway that had all sorts of signs and their physical address number right next to me. What I wasn’t sure of was whether the highway had a different name while in town. I also wasn’t sure if I’d crossed the border from one town to the next, as these two towns are butted right up against each other. Still, we got it figured out.

The tow was arranged to take the truck to our regular garage, and I soon had a call from the towing company. I had to laugh when I saw the name of our garage on the call display. I had seen new signs at the garage showing that they did towing now, but I didn’t realize they did CAA calls, too. On confirming the company driveway I was next to, the drive knew exactly where I was.

After that, I just had to wait. When my BIL arrived, he pulled into the company driveway, and I didn’t even recognize his truck – he’s gone through at least two since I last saw what truck they had. I think the last one I saw was an F250. This one’s an F150.

He has a very nice truck – very new looking truck, even though it’s a 2008.

Since I was on the side of the highway, we sat in his truck to talk. I told him about what happened, and he was aware that we’ve had other issues, too. He started telling me about his truck and work he had done on it – including getting a new engine, because apparently it was easier and cheaper than the fix needed. So the engine has 30,000 km less on it than the rest of the truck does. I’m amazed he found a 2008 truck with only 30K on it! It’s got 170K on it now, which is about 100K less than our truck had when we bought it.

Oh, and he was planning to sell it in the summer.

!!!

I asked what he was looking to sell it for, and he said about $5000

…

We might actually be able to come up with that before the summer.

When the tow truck showed up, I went out to talk to the driver and explained what happened, as far as I could tell. He said it was good that I didn’t try to keep driving it, just in case. I told him, there was no way I was going to keep driving with what it was doing!

He also told me it was a good thing I had CAA. The tow would have cost $200, without it!

Today is Sunday, so the garage is closed, but tomorrow is a holiday. That means Tuesday will be the earliest anyone can look at it. I mentioned I was just there on Thursday! They didn’t see anything wrong while working on the differential. I’m at a complete loss. My BIL thinks it might be the transmission. If it’s something big like that, it might not be worth fixing. *sigh*

After that, the tow truck driver didn’t need anything more from me, so my BIL and I headed out. The tow truck was blocking my BIL’s truck, but that nice big commercial driveway had plenty of room for my BIL to move around and back out.

It was a very lovely ride, I must say. As we were talking, he told me about some other things he was planning to sell before selling the truck. I told him, if we can come up with the money, I’ll buy it!

We just need to keep this truck running for a few more months. Assuming whatever broke isn’t too expensive to repair in the first place.

After I got home, I mentioned to my brother that our BIL was planning to sell his truck in the summer, and my brother suggested that if we can buy that, we could possibly sell this truck on consignment. We still have lmoast 3 years to pay it off, but might be able to get a decent return on it to take care of that. At least partially.

I don’t think I’ll be getting that large greenhouse with my tax return, after all. 😄 That’s okay. I should still be able to something. Just not a hard sided one.

…

Had a break from writing this to talk to my daughters. My younger daughter was asking me about the chicken coop we got and I mentioned that’s one of the reasons I wanted to get a greenhouse or polytunnel – something to overwinter the chickens in, coop and all. We were looking at some of the designs I was finding on Amazon – risky to purchase from there, and a lot of them have very mixed reviews. They are far more affordable, though. Especially the polytunnels. It’s cheaper to buy a full kit than the materials we’d need to build one, if we could even find some of the materials needed in the first place. On seeing the prices, my daughter thought they were something that, between us, we could manage to afford.

In the end, though, a lot depends on what happens with the truck. I pray whatever broke on it will be a relatively cheap fix!

The Re-Farmer

Looong, day – but lots got done!

February 12, 2026February 12, 2026 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

One thing I like about this time of year. We were gone for more than 9 hours, and it was still light out when we got home and unloaded the truck!

As always, my morning routine included getting food and warm water out for the outside cats. I am extra happy about how that went today!

I got to pet this gorgeous guy!

Normally, he runs away, even if I come closer while he is easing, but today I managed to skritch his shoulders and neck. Not only did he not run away, but he even leaned into my hand!

Once he was away from the food bowls, though, that was it. I couldn’t get near him anymore.

You may notice his fur is decorated in the above picture. He has hoar frost raining down on him from the rose bush above him. We had thick fog roll in last night, and it was still very much there this morning.

The trees were absolutely stunning.

The first item on the outings list today was to drop the truck off at the garage to get that differential leak fixed. My daughter and I headed out early, which was good, because we had to take it pretty slow in places. The closer we got to town – and the lake beyond it – the thicker the fog got. Still, we arrived over half an hour early for the drop off time. Which was okay, since I only needed to leave the key. While doing that, I let him know that, after moving the truck, I did see signs of fluid under it – it was definitely a very small leak, but still needs fixing! I also let him know that the check engine light had turned off on its own, and that the oil pressure gauge is where it should be, thanks to the last fix done.

From there, my daughter and I walked to the hospital. My sister had visited my mother in the transitional care unit (TCU), which is very close to where she lives, yesterday and let me know that some clothing items that had gone into the laundry were forgotten. While I asked about that, I also asked about the photo of our vandal. They had to contact someone that could pull my mother’s file to find out. While waiting for that, the person that checked housekeeping came back and there was no sign of anything that was my mother’s. Housekeeping may not have been done with it. We went to where we could meet the guy about the files. Sure enough, the photos were still in the file, in the large envelope my brother brought them in.

After explaining about the photos, and mentioning that we were going to be seeing my mother today, he gave me the envelope to take with us and deliver to the nursing station at the TCU. Then we went back to the nursing station about the clothing items. They would look into it some more, and got my contact information to call me later.

Since I had the photos, my daughter and I first walked back to the garage so we could leave it in the truck. It was still parked outside, so I put it in the basket of my mother’s walker, which was in the back of the truck cab. The wheelchair had to go into the box.

That dropped off, my daughter and I headed out to find somewhere we could have breakfast, and take our time about it.

Using the button to cross the highway wasn’t going to be an option! It’s only for an audible notification that the walk light was on, though.

There aren’t a lot of restaurants open that early in the day in this town, so our options were limited. The place we went to was at the other end of town (okay, that’s just 6 blocks or so. 😄). We were both quite famished by then! We both ended up ordering the largest breakfast platters they had. I’m glad we did, because that ended up having to last us until supper!

We took our time about it, but we were still waiting on a 2 hour job, so it wasn’t that long before we headed out.

[Edit: I forgot to mention. While we were having breakfast, the hospital called me about my mother’s missing clothing. They couldn’t find them, nor did they expect to find them. Most of the laundry goes to the city for washing. My mother’s items were not labelled with her name. The folks sorting through in the city wouldn’t know where they would have to go, and they would probably not even made it back to town!]

Since we were so close to the lake, we popped over to see how it looked.

Very white.

The fog was still pretty heavy. What you can just barely see in the photo is an ice fishing village, and an ice road leading to it.

From there, we stopped at a general store that my daughter wanted to go to. They are the only place that carries a particular brand of imported wool yarn. She’s bought some before and used them to knit herself a pair of socks. They turned out to be the best pair of socks she’s ever had, and actually keep her feet dry. She got herself enough yarn to knit herself two more pairs!

When we were done there, we crossed the street to check out the dollar store. There wasn’t anything we actually needed there, but I like to keep an eye out for some things.

We never finished going through the store before I got a text from the garage. The truck was done! Somewhat faster than I expected, but they must have been able to get it in almost right after we dropped off the envelope from the hospital. So we quickly picked up a couple of energy drinks for the road and made the walk back.

Unfortunately, by this time, my daughter and I were both limping pretty badly! My daughter hurt her leg getting her old computer chair down the stairs not long ago, and had been caning it for the past few days. She was feeling better today, but after the walking we’d already done, to and from the hospital, then across town, she was actually having a harder time than I was with my left hip giving out. What a sight we must have been!

Once we got to the garage and saw the truck parked in the lot, my daughter went straight to it to sit down while I went in to take care of the bill. $280 and change. *sigh* Still, better to get the leak fixed than push our luck with it!

From there, we were going to the nearer city, to see my mother. Normally, I would have popped over to another highway, rather than go straight from town, so as to avoid driving through several small lakeside towns. In the end, I decided the extra miles weren’t worth it, and we headed straight out.

I’m glad we did.

We made our way through the row of towns and had just reached an area of open highway when my daughter started feeling sick. Eating does that do her. Just, general eating. She’s never been able to pin down exactly what is making her ill. It did mean we had to find a gas station urgently! If we had been on the other highway, there would have been nothing available. On this route, there actually is a single gas station along the way. Thankfully, we made it.

We didn’t need to get any gas, but I did want to “pay” for our use of the bathroom, so I went looking for some snacks. The convenience store with this particular gas station is more like a smallish grocery store, and very well stocked! They even had a large display of baked goods from a bakery in the town north of us that is really well known. People from the city go out of their way to get their bread. I ended up getting a couple of Whoopie Pies for us (not that my daughter would be up to eating anything again for some time!). I had mine while waiting for my daughter to join me in the truck again. I’ve had Whoopie Pies before, and they’re usually rather dry and fairly hard. The cake portions were so incredibly soft and fresh, I had a hard time unwrapping it without crushing or tearing it! It was absolutely awesome.

From there, we continued on to visit my mother. I knew the TCU was in the “old hospital”, and I’ve driven past it many times.

I was wrong.

When we got to the area, the first problem was finding a way to get in. There were a number of buildings but, as we read the signage, going from one area to another, we couldn’t find anything. We did find that one of the buildings is a mental health hospital. My mother actually spent some time there, years before I was born. She still speaks highly of how pleasant her stay was, and how well they took care of her.

In the end, I found a plowed out space I could pull over and tried looking up the address for this unit. I found their web page – but there was no address! My brother did send me a phone number, though – not the same one that was on the web page! – so I tried that.

It took a bit to try and describe where we were to the person who answered before she could give us directions.

We had driven right past the place. I had no idea that that complex was the old hospital, not where I had always thought it was at!

Then we had to try and find the right door to go in.

I drove around in circled and back tracked before we finally decided to park near the entrance to what turned out to be an urgent care clinic. Only then did we pass the sign for the TCU.

It had been blocked by a truck. An 18 wheeler, unloading a semi size trailer box. Completely blocking the lane to where the TCU entrance was.

We got the wheelchair and walker out (with my daughter making sure to grab a cane for herself, too), but when we got to the urgent care clinic, I left my daughter with them to ask someone inside. She was able to give me directions on how to get to the unit through the building, rather than having to go outside and find away around the truck blocking the lane. So I got my daughter, the wheelchair and walker, and we made our way through what turned out to be “authorized personnel only” areas before finally reaching the elevator she told us to look for. It was one of those elevators with doors on each side, and we were going through the staff door to use it!

Finally, we got to the second floor and found signs leading us to the TCU.

The doors, however, are locked. Visitors are to push a button for someone to come and let us in.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the door, we could hear the voice of an elderly man yelling for someone to let him out. Before a staff member opened a different door next to the entry doors, we could hear him pushing and bashing at the door, trying to get out! When the staff member came (there were more people waiting with us to get in by then), and I told her who we were coming to see, she let us in through the staff door! As we made our way around, another staff member opened up a mobile barrier for us to go through. As we came around, we saw the guy we had heard through the door. He was still at the main doors, pushing a walker, and looking very furious about not being able to get out.

There’s a reason these places have lock codes to get in and out!

Once at the nursing station, I brought out the envelope with the photos. I explained to them that my mother doesn’t know that we’re giving these photos, because that would cause issues. Notes were taken as I explained about our vandal’s past abusive behavior towards my mother. They asked if there was a protection order, and I explained that the courts required my mother do that herself, and there’s no way she can physically do that, but her cognitive decline isn’t so far that my brother can do it on her behalf, as her PoA. They completely understood that frustration! I did mention that I’d had to get one against him myself. Then I had to explain why my sister’s picture was in there. They recognized her as having visited yesterday. I explained that, in general, she’s fine, but our vandal has been able to manipulate her into doing things in the past, that she is not understanding my mother’s cognitive issues and resulting self sabotage, and just goes along with things when she shouldn’t. My mother has been able to manipulate her as well.

I so hate having to include my sister as someone that needs to be kept an eye on while visiting my mother!

The likelihood of our vandal showing up is low, but they do have cancer care in the new hospital near by and, from the signs, they have cancer care in this building, too, so it’s possible he might be coming out for treatment and go visit my mother. We’re just assuming my sister is going to tell him where my mother is, and there’s no point in asking her not to tell him that. Not after she went ahead and did it anyhow, before, because my mother convinced her to. She simply doesn’t understand – or doesn’t want to believe – how potentially harmful to my mother that was.

*sigh*

That done, we found out which room my mother was in and headed over with the wheelchair and walker, while they printed out labels to put on them to show that these belonged to my mother.

It’s definitely a step down from where my mother was, in the hospital!

She went from a large, single person room, so a smaller room she shares with someone else. My mother’s bed is by the door, though, so we didn’t have to disturb the other person. She was quite happy to see us – and her own walker and wheelchair! The wheelchair she refused to even sit in, when I brought it over to her place, months ago. 😄

All in all, we had a good visit with her. She’s not really liking the TCU. Lots of noise, she says. Her room mate apparently was walking around all night, then sleeps through the day. Hopefully, my mother won’t be there for long, but every other person in this unit is waiting to be moved somewhere more permanent!

The staff there seem really nice, though, and were already telling me how sweet they found my mother to be. Nice to know she’s on good behaviour! She’ll have her moments, of course, but in a unit like this, that’s something they deal with – and worse – pretty regularly.

I did remind my mother that we are now the ones living the furthest from her, and we don’t go to this city very often, comparatively speaking, so we won’t be visiting as often. She mentioned that my sister lives nearby. I don’t know if that means she’ll visit more often, but we’ll see. Still, if the staff need anything from us, my brother is the first they would call, as PoA, I would be the second, as the one that’s been my mother’s advocate at her medical appointments for the past 7 years. If they can’t reach either of us, then they would call my sister. She asked about when my brother might visit, but he’s out of the country right now. He still manages to keep on top of everything, though!

[Edit: Something else I forgot to mention. I started to tell my mother about her missing clothing, and the hospital not being able to find them. She told me that someone actually delivered them to her, yesterday! It had to have happened after my sister was no longer there. When I was at the hospital this morning, they knew nothing about this!]

After our visit with her was done, we headed out – this time being able to go out the proper entrance and seeing where we can drive in to the right parking lot! The truck that was blocking the lane was gone, too, so that helped.

From there, we stopped at the Canadian Tire, then the Walmart, to do the shopping we would normally have done at the end of January, in the larger city. That will get its own separate post.

While we were at the Walmart, I started getting notifications from the garage security camera, and got to watch as Fed Ex delivered our chicken coop kit!

The shopping was really rough on both my daughter and I, as far as our pain levels went. The store is being renovated, and things we needed were moved to completely different areas we had to hunt for. When it came time to pay, we normally would have gone to the self check out, but they are now a 20 item limit, and we had well over 20 items. There were only two cash desks open.

Of course, we found ourselves at the one where a customer had some sort of issue, and the line just stopped while they waited for someone to come fix it. I ended up having to go over to the McDonalds across from the checkout, just so I could sit down!

The shopping done, we loaded the truck in bright sunshine and melting snow before heading home. We took the same route as before, because we wanted to stop to get gas at the same station we’d stopped at on the way out.

Driving right into a wall of fog!!!

It was heavy fog for most of the drive out, but by the time we reached town and our turn off to home, it was sunny again. Looking at the weather right now, we are still under a heavy fog advisory, with near zero visibility.

Once at home, we backed up to the house to unload the truck. Before moving it to the garage, though, I went to move the chicken coop boxes to the far end of the garage, well away from the door. We won’t be able to park the truck all the way in with them there, but it’s staying warm enough that that’s okay.

All the parts and pieces fit into two large boxes. You can see the design on the packages. The coop has nesting boxes, three at each end, with external doors that drop down for access. Above those doors are smaller doors that can be opened for ventilation, with more doors for ventilation in the front as well. The ramp to the nesting boxes is in the middle, and it has a full size door to access the interior.

I see on potential problem with the coop, though.

It has roosts under the nesting boxes, on either side of the ramp and door (not visible in the diagram). This means no clean up, since they’ll be pooping onto the ground below.

There are no roosts on the second level inside. Which means roosting chickens would be completely exposed to outside temperatures and wind, even though they are sheltered from above.

This is definitely not a coop made for Canadian weather!

One of the things we’re looking to build in the main garden area, though, is some sort of polytunnel type greenhouse. We could fit the entire coup inside for the winter, if necessary.

Until then, we might need to find ways to cover the wire mesh in the chicken run for the night or something like that. We’ll figure that out over the summer. We wouldn’t even be getting chicks until May.

After the boxes were moved, I went to park the truck, but there were cats, all over, under it. I went put kibble out, just to distract them away, but several kept going back under the truck. They were going on the tired, up into the undercarriage, and as soon as I got one out, another would replace it! I’ve never had so many cats so determined to get under the truck like that before!

The truck is still parked in the yard. Hopefully, when I do the morning feeding, they’ll be distracted enough that I can move it!

All in all, it made for quite a long day. Aside from my hips giving me grief, though, I’m feeling a lot better than I expected to. My poor daughter is toast, though. I won’t be surprised as all if she’s back to caning it all day, tomorrow. I’m thankful she was able to come along and help, though.

Next up, the stock up shopping post that should have been done two weeks ago!

The Re-Farmer

A quiet day

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

We were actually able to make today a day of rest! What a novel concept.

I will, of course, start with the cuteness.

That self warming cat shelter is just crushed. 😄 When it’s time to clean out the catio, I’ll have to find a way to add supports inside it. Even under a shelf, that cats still jump on it.

One of the things I’ve been doing in the last few days, as things have been warming up, is removing the snow from the roof of the catio and the isolation shelter. They did their job as insulating in the winter, but now I actually want more light to get inside them.

The isolation shelter is a bit easier. There was a fair bit of ice under the snow that needed to be broken loose; heat from inside was enough to melt the snow, which then froze in sheets. Once that was clear, I just needed to lift the roof and allow the last bits of snow and ice fall off, and anything melted to drain.

The catio, however, is different. Not only does the roof not lift off, but the top under the roof is just wire mesh. There are no supports other than the frame itself. That meant things started to sag in the middle, where I found a sheet of ice almost 2 inches thick in places! I could also only work at clearing it from the front of the catio, since the other three sides are deep with snow. I did have to access the end facing the house to do some repairs. I think, when my brother used the snow blower to clear enough space in front of the storage house to back up his truck, snow was hitting the end of the catio and tore the plastic. Some snow had even gotten inside and onto the cat shelf at that end. I have clear repair tape (looks a lot like packing tape, but is much stronger, with better adhesive) and had to stand in snow above my knees to get at it!

Now that the tears are fixed and the roof is as clear as I could get it, the inside of the catio is brighter, and quite warm. I spotted Fancypants and Larence in there this morning. This afternoon, there was a fluffy kitten in there. It seems to really like the catio and hangs out where quite a bit, but is feral enough to be quite alarmed when I go to add food and water. I didn’t need to add water this afternoon, though. It was warm enough in there that the water I added this morning was still liquid!

Aside for the usual outside stuff, I’ve kept things quiet today. I’ve started working on a crochet project, using some new self-striping yarn I picked up last month. I’m a little ticked, though. I re-wrapped them from skeins into center pull balls. About 3/4 through the first one, I found a knot, with a dark colour tied off to a light colour. Then I found three more knots, within a few feet! So much for graduated colour changes. The other skein didn’t have any knots in it, so I started my project with that one. I’m planning to make a hooded cowl.

I did do something else that was more frustrating than it should have been. I’ve been trying to buy a chicken coop kit. There’s nothing local available that is affordable. My first attempts failed because the designs I found don’t ship to our location. Then I found ones that did and tried to use the “Affirm” payment plan to order one that can hold up to 10 chickens. (The best I could find locally could only house 4 chickens at most, and cost twice as much.) The problem with that is, they couldn’t verify our address. They couldn’t even verify the address for the store the post office is in! Which makes no sense.

After several attempts, I finally just ordered it without the payment plan. A larger chunk on my credit card than I wanted all at once. Well, I know where my tax return will be going… *sigh* Remarkably, it will actually ship to our post office box, and could potentially arrive before the end of the week! If so, I might be able to pick it up on the way home from taking the truck to the garage on Thursday.

Assembly required, of course, and we’ll have to figure out where to store the boxes until spring. This is something that can be placed fairly close to the house, for better shelter from the elements, and will hopefully last us until we can finally build the mobile chicken coop I’ve been wanting to build for years. Until then, little by little, we can pick up the supplies needed to feed and water them, etc., and order chicks in the spring. Or buy adult chickens. The homesteader I used to buy eggs from has been selling off her birds in batches – she went way overboard in chickens! – and she might still have some available in the spring. I’ve already been thinking ahead for growing food for the chickens in the garden, too, so we’re not using only purchased chicken feed. (Which we can buy at the store the post office is in.)

Hopefully, it will be a better growing year this year than last!

It’ll be nice to finally have our own eggs. Plus, I want to make mobile runs for them that will fit over our garden beds, so they can clean up the weeds and seeds and fertilize them, at the end of the season. Chickens are good for the garden!

In other things, I got a strange call from my mother last night. She started out by lamenting about how it’s been soooooo long since I visited her (I had visited her two days before) and no one was calling her, etc. I told her, I was just there! Oh, well, when will you visit next? I told her, the only day I know for sure I’ll be in town is Thursday, when I’m dropping the truck off at the garage for some more work. Oh, but that’s so far away (meaning in time, not distance)!

*sigh*

Then she started on the reason for her call.

She apparently asked the nursing staff and they said that yes, she can do this. She wants to start getting her prescriptions herself, instead of through the hospital.

She is still convinced they are giving her the wrong medications. On purpose.

I told her that I would have to call her doctor to get her prescriptions sent to a pharmacy where she is. I had to explain to her again, they still won’t be the same. They have different suppliers than her pharmacy in the town she lived in had. It would be the same medications, but they would look a bit different. Probably exactly the same as the ones she’s getting in the hospital.

Then it got to the main point.

Her vision is getting “dimmer”. She thinks it’s because they are not giving her the vitamin she was getting in her bubble packs.

After a few more questions to figure out what happening, I had to walk her through her wet and dry macular degeneration again. The vitamins she was taking were for her dry macular degeneration – where she was seeing straight lines as wavy. The “dimming” that she is seeing is from her wet macular degeneration, and that is what she was going to the special clinic in the city to get injections into her eyeball for. A trip she can no longer handle, without proper transportation assistance. There is no where else she can go for that treatment, because no one else does it.

She still wanted to get her meds switched away from the hospital providing them (which would be covered by our province’s pharmacare insurance, either way). She is simply convinced they’re giving her the wrong medications, and nothing will dissuade her.

In the end, we talked about how she’s there temporarily, so maybe we should deal with that after she’s in a permanent location.

After our call, I called the hospital back to talk to someone at the nursing station. I told her about my mother saying her vision is getting worse, but that this would require a trip to the city for testing/treatment, etc.

What we could do is make an appointment, and the hospital would arrange a HandiVan to transport her to it. Even then, we know it would be very hard on my mother to make that trip. She suggested we try getting her an appointment at the one local eye clinic in town. It would be much easier for them to arrange transportation, and the eye doctors there could give us more information on what our next steps could be.

I also explained about my mother wanting to get her own prescriptions and what I explained to her, which was confirmed, and that she agreed to wait until she was placed somewhere more permanently. Any news on that?

Nope. Nothing. In fact, they’ve got others in the hospital that have been waiting for months to get into a personal care home.

*sigh*

Frustrating, to be sure, but my mother doesn’t understand how fortunate she is to be in the hospital right now, rather than back in her apartment. Especially with how unreliable home care has been. She has exactly what she was wanting: to be living where there is someone available, particularly at night, should she need help with things. Unfortunately, now that she’s there, she expects them to “fix” her somehow.

*sigh*

Not much we can do to help her with that.

The Re-Farmer

It’s working! … plus another $180

February 5, 2026 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

These issues with the truck have totally wrecked our grocery budget. Mostly with cat supplies.

Speaking of cats, here’s some cuteness for you!

I got a call from the medical devices people this morning, about picking up the commode from my mother’s. After giving directions to find us, I mentioned that I needed to go into town, so they suggested I leave the commode outside. I warned them that they might have to remove some cats!

The cats were very, very curious!

So that has finally been returned.

Meanwhile, I headed into town to drop off the truck early. After leaving the keys, I had lunch at the nearby Chinese restaurant, then walked over to the hospital to visit my mother. Talking to the owner of the garage before leaving, he told me they would just replace the oil sensor and do the oil change this time. Fixing the leak on the differential is a 2 hour job, and they didn’t have time for that today. The part, at least, is cheap. It just takes a long time to replace it.

When I came got to my mother’s, she was in the wheelchair with her back to the door. I could immediately see she had something in her ears.

Cotton balls.

Because of all the noise.

*sigh*

She says the noise seems to be coming from all over. At one point, she asked me about “the thing with holes” in the wall next to where the call button cord goes into the wall. She said she asked the nurses, but they didn’t know what it was. Meanwhile, I was saying, “you mean the speaker?”

So she thought the speaker was piping in noise from other parts of the hospital, into her room. I explained to her that when she pushes the call button, they hear it at the nursing station, and they can talk to her through it from there, that’s it. It’s not connected to anywhere else.

Clearly, they don’t actually use it, if the nurses didn’t know it was a speaker!

She was also asking about magnets. Are there magnets in there? I said yes. Oh, so that’s what’s magnifying the noise!

I had to explain that magnets have nothing to do with magnifying things.

Then she asked if I knew when she would be out of there, and talked about how her “service” was so much poorer. I told her (again, but she doesn’t remember) that she is not a patient anymore. She is a long term care resident. She would be getting the same level of care now, as she would be getting in a nursing home. She was actually surprised to hear this. I think it just finally clicked.

She then started telling me about how she was feeling so poorly and had called for help. They hooked her up to “all the wires” (an EKG), but that was it. No one has said anything to her. I asked her if this happened yesterday, but she couldn’t remember. Finally, she just said yes, yesterday. I told her that someone would need to look at the results, but if there is nothing wrong, they won’t have anything to tell her.

By the time I left, I completely forgot to stop at the nursing station to ask.

It was a pretty quiet visit, overall. My mother was having one of her good days, as far as her mood and attitude goes. Of course, she complained that my brother never calls or visits, but she always does that. I told her, he has been very busy taking care of her affairs. At the very least, he’s going to have to stop by to pick up the keys my sister dropped off.

After a while, it was time to head out again. It was getting so warm (we hit 4C/39F today!), I wanted to enjoy it as much as possible, too.

On the way back to the garage, I pass a couple of gas stations. Prices went up 5¢/L since I walked past them earlier!

The truck was still in one of the bays when I came in, but I knew it wouldn’t be much longer, so I just went into the office to wait. The owner was working on our truck himself, though he was frequently interrupted by phone calls and messages! They are a very busy garage. People know a good thing when it’s there!

It was maybe 5 or 10 minutes later when he backed the truck out, then we had a chance to talk.

He had done some research, trying to figure out why our sensor, which was replaced maybe a year ago, was having issues again. Based on what he found, he told me he removed a screen from inside the sensor. It’s there to prevent blockages. However, in our make and model, it actually causes blockages. With our winter conditions, moisture eventually gets into the system. The sensor is located off to the side, instead of next to the air filter, so it ends up with ice on the screen, causing a blockage, and faulty readings.

In the end, it cost me $230.86 in total, for the sensor, the oil change and a new oil filter. The sensor cost only a dollar less than the oil change!

He did not charge me for labour.

Meanwhile, I am now booked for next week, this time with an early morning drop off. He’s got a 2 hour slot to get that differential leak fixed. That’s going to cost another $300 or so, after taxes. Only $50 of that is for the part itself.

*sigh*

I had been thinking of doing the Walmart run after getting the truck back, but I just didn’t have the energy left for it. Instead, I went across the street to the grocery store again. I had a couple of requests from my husband, and asked the family if where was anything else we needed. Of course, when I did saw some good sales, I took advantage of it.

I didn’t take a picture of the cart again, but here is the receipt for $179.20

Once again, the most painful price was the dry kibble. This time, I got a bag for the outside cats, since I haven’t been able to get to a feed store to get any 40 pound bags. We aren’t out, but getting low, and I didn’t want to take a chance of running out completely, in case I don’t make it to the feed store soon enough.

The canned cat food was on sale, so I got enough to last us for a few more days of cat soup.

My husband requested nacho fixings, without the cheese. 😄 The chips were on sale, so I got four bags for him – but forgot to get olives. Oops. I did grab some more of the sour candies for him, though. I also got a giant bag of potato chips for the girls.

There was a good sale on BBQ sauces, so I got a couple of bottles. Flats of 30 eggs were also on sale, so I got one of those instead of the 18’s I got last time, which were no longer on sale. The girls requested some oat milk.

They had bagged avocados on sale, so I got two of them. We really enjoy avocados, but they have gotten so insanely expensive. There are 5 to a bag, which worked out to 60¢ each. These days, they are usually more than $2.50 each.

They also had hoagies on sale, so I got a couple of packages, along with another locally produced sausage ring. As a treat, I also picked up some smoked Gouda.

Last of all, I could a couple of loaves of rye bread that was also on sale, plus a package of “imperfect” chocolate pieces as a treat for myself.

All of that, except for the bag of dry kibble and the flat of eggs, easily fit into only two hard sided bags. Twenty nine items in total.

I could have had $30 taken off with my loyalty points, but I’m saving that for another time.

As I was loading things into the back of the truck, it started to rain! I’m glad I didn’t try for a Walmart trip. The roads would have been icing over by the time I was driving home.

After we unloaded the truck, I emptied the bag of kibble into the bin for the outside cats, then fed them before trying to move the truck out of the yard. They went absolutely nuts over the kibble! I think they were getting pretty tired of the feed store kibble.

We almost got an extra indoor cat again. While bringing things to the door for my daughter to grab, I stopped to tell her something and left the door open for a split second too long. Sir Robin made a run for it! We got him out quickly, but that cat wants to be an indoor cat, so badly!

Once all unloaded and the cats fed and watered, I could safely move the truck out of the yard. The cats were far more interested in the new food than going under the truck!

At this point, I will need to decide what sort of trip to the city I’ll be making at all. We still need to do a proper stock up trip of bulk items. So at least a Costco trip.

I don’t know if I’ll be doing that tomorrow, or on the weekend. It depend on whether my husband is physically up to getting to the lab tomorrow morning, for his blood work. Tomorrow is Friday. If I go on Saturday, it will be after we do a much needed dump run. We can’t even get rid of my mother’s mattress and box spring yet; there’s no room for those, plus our regular garbage and recycling, in the back of the truck. Plus, the mattress and box spring are longer than the truck box, so they’ll need to be strapped down with the tail gate open. That will need to be done on another day.

The main thing is, I no longer have to worry about the truck starting to scream at me because of a faulty oil sensor!

Ah, well. Little by little, it’ll get done!

The Re-Farmer

Staying cozy

February 4, 2026 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

The temperatures are warming up, and it feels so good!

It’s been a cozy day today, and I got to stay home for it.

Our high of the day was -5C/23F, but it’s almost 8:30pm as I start this, and the temperatures are supposed to keep warming up all night. It’s already -4C/25F, and we’re supposed to reach a high of 1C/34F tomorrow.

Then we’re supposed to drop to -18C/0F as our high, the day after! Which isn’t too bad, but that’s quite the drop!

One of the things staying home allowed me to do was go through and unpack a few more boxes of my mother’s stuff. Most of it will be stored in the root cellar for now. We’ll need to figure out what to do with it, though! We already store our Christmas trees and decorations in there, but they don’t take up much of the shelf space that I would be using to store garden produce. We’ll have the summer to figure that out and make space again, at least, but some items, I just don’t know what to do with. They’re not things I want to shove into a box to be disappeared into the many other boxes of stuff from my parents we’ve got all over the place, for a variety of reasons, but we just don’t have the space for them. We could literally furnish and supply another house or two at this point!

Still, there are more boxes that need to be dealt with, and some things will need to be organized and re-packed to go into storage elsewhere. It has to be done before things start to melt, and the basements start getting wet.

My mother keeps suggesting we have a garage sale, but who would bother to drive this far out for a garage sale? We had a hard enough time when we tried having garage sales while living in the city. I’ve considered selling things online (which I’ve talked to her about), but that would be totally on our household; my siblings have no interest in that sort of things at all. There actually is quite a bit of vintage and collectable stuff in there. Lots more, however, we’d probably have a hard time giving them away for free.

Ah, but don’t throw anything out, my mother insists! Especially not her papers!

🫤🫤

The papers are the worst of it. There is SO much, and I don’t think she even knows what all is in there!

When I was packing up the embroidery and crocheted items, I found an object wrapped in a plastic grocery bag, hidden in the drawer. That turned out to be a cattle ear tagger. Today, I unpacked what looked like the foot pedal for a sewing machine.

My mother didn’t have a sewing machine.

I sent a picture to my brother, in case he recognized what it was part of. Maybe they saw something while they were packing other boxes.

If I remember, I can ask her tomorrow. After I drop the truck off at the garage, I’ll walk over to the hospital to visit my mother. My sister was able to visit her today.

My mother is already starting to ask me to bring her things from her stuff – this from the person who complains when we bring her things she actually needs, because she doesn’t want too many things in her hospital room! The most recent one was to bring her fan, so she can “have air”. That would need to be cleared with the hospital, but I reminded her, we don’t know how long she will be there. The hospital needs that bed, so they would be motivated to get her into a personal care home as quickly as possible.

Which would be so much better for her. A personal care home would have activities available and she really misses that, and really needs something to occupy her mind, and can also not be stuck in one room all the time.

Until she’s settled somewhere permanent, we need to keep some of her stuff set aside and available until we know what she can have with her, besides things like clothing and pictures.

All in good time, I guess.

Meanwhile, I’m really hoping things go well with the truck. Depending on how quickly they get it done, I might make that Walmart trip we never made it to after picking it up. Or the next day, though I also need to get my husband to the lab for some blood work. He needs to fast for it, so we have to get him in pretty much as soon as the lab opens.

Then there’s all the other trips I haven’t been able to make because of either the truck acting up, or because we were dealing with getting my mother’s apartment empty.

*sigh*

I’m really hoping we can manage getting a replacement vehicle. I hate to give up the truck. It really is the ideal vehicle for us, but it’s had so many problems, mostly sensor related!

Little by little, it’ll get done.

The Re-Farmer

Brutal… but it’s done!

January 31, 2026 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

It was white knuckle time at the end, but we did it.

My mother’s apartment is now completely empty.

At our end, things started after my brother got here and started working on their truck. Which he had to dig his way to. After clearing the barn door enough to open it to access their shovels, etc. He was able to plug in the block heater and left it to warm up before getting their snow blower out.

When I saw he was here, I went out and checked on the truck. It started fine and, at first, that oil pressure gauge was actually in the normal range, which was encouraging. After backing it out a bit, I found a single drop of fresh oil under the truck and that was it. Oil levels were fine. Yay!

Then I caught up with my brother and we worked things out. He would continue with the snow blowing and getting their truck ready, and I would go to my mother’s apartment, where my SIL was already at work packing.

There were a few little delays as he remembered to load up a cart to help carry things to the truck, and so on. In that time, I noticed…

The needle on the oil pressure gauge was dropping again.

*sigh*

It dropped to the same level it was at when I drove the truck home yesterday, then didn’t move. Not that I could focus on it much during the drive in. While today’s temperature was a lot warmer, the wind was insane. It wasn’t even snowing yet, but there was so much blowing snow on the highway that I was hitting white outs, even without snow kicked up by oncoming traffic. Once I was parked, I took a picture of the oil pressure gauge and texted it to our mechanic, as described how things had gone. Then I headed inside.

My SIL had been very busy. We were all shocked by how much was left. My sister didn’t take everything she was supposed to. I think she misunderstood and thought she was to take the things she wanted to keep, plus the stuff my mother specifically wanted her to take, not help empty the place.

There were boxes packed and ready, though, so I immediately started loading up the truck. It wasn’t long before I had as much as I could fit, so I headed back home, messaging my daughters before I left, so they would be prepared to assembly line things into the basement.

I also got a response from the garage. He found what was going on very strange. He said it could be two things: a problem with the engine, or the sensor – and the engine checked out fine when he was working on it yesterday. Which means, it is the sensor. Yet another common issue with our make and model of truck.

Definitely not going with GM again in the future.

I asked him if the sensor was still on warranty – it was replaced maybe a year ago – but whether it is or not, I asked how soon I could bring it in to be fixed. He will check on Monday and get back to me.

So, basically the truck is fine. Which is good, because I did a lot of driving today!

When I got home, I found my brother had gotten the snow blowing done, including clearing a path to the storage house that they could back their truck up to, when it was time to do the furniture.

The boxes, however, were going into the house. I unloaded the truck to the door, one daughter grabbed whatever I had, then passed it to her sister at the basement stairs. This was rather awkward because of how the doors are, and the need to make sure they got closed before any cats made a run for it.

Sir Robin did manage to get into the house once!

My poor brother, meanwhile, was having plenty of trouble. Aside from the huge job of snow blowing vehicle-with paths to their trailer and the warehouse they are beside, just in case we needed to put stuff in there – the truck was having issues. In spite of having a solar powered trickle charger all this time, the battery was dead. He had to boost it (thankfully, he has a booster pack) and had gotten it started by the time I unloaded, then went to talk to him before heading back. He was trying to drive it out, but there wasn’t enough turning radius cleared in the snow for a truck the length of his. He ended up having to dig it out manually.

After connecting with him, I headed back to my SIL. This time, loading the truck was more awkward. I needed to get the commode in, as the medical device department of home care will be picking it up from our place some time next week. It was too tall to fit under the box cover, but I managed to get it into the back of the cab, by setting it on one end. There were more boxes to put into the box, but most of what I had to get in was odd shaped stuff, including a large framed picture that my sister had left behind. I was able to get some smaller pieces of furniture in, at least.

The truck was packed about as much as I could when my brother arrived. Neither of them had eaten since breakfast, and it was well past lunch time, so we took a break for food. My brother, out of habit, shut his engine off when he meant to leave it running, and it wouldn’t start again! Thankfully, he brought his booster pack along, just in case, so he was able to get it going again. He did leave it running the entire time we were at the restaurant, and we even sat at a table where he could keep an eye on it, through the window!

We had an excellent lunch.

Since my truck was already loaded, once we were done, I headed home to unload while they went back to the apartment to start loading some furniture. This time, I was going to stay at home until they got there. The winds were still insane, though at least this time, it was at my back, so the drive was at least a bit smoother! It was still pretty hard to see the road at times – yet I still had vehicles passing me!

It wasn’t too much longer before they arrived with the first load of furniture. By this time, it was getting quite dark, and they were unloading into the storage house, which has no power. I brought out a camping lantern we now have – thanks, M! It sure came in handy! – and my brother found a place to hang it in one room, while a second large flashlight we have was used to light up the room we had to go through at the door.

My brother pretty much picked up and carried all the different pieces of furniture in, himself! He’s amazing!

Once that was done, we headed back to the apartment one last time. I was following them, but was soon left behind. The weather had gotten worse, and it was white knuckle driving quite a few times! It was bad enough that, when I got there, I brought up the idea of renting a motel room and spending the night, once everything was packed. They were going to do that drive, though. If I’d been on my own, I would have stayed in town overnight, but I was willing to do the drive, at the same time as them.

With the cap on their truck, they could fit everything left except for the mattress and box spring, both of which will be taken to the dump. That went into my truck. Unfortunately, I have a shorter box on my truck. A whole 2 inches shorter than the mattress and box spring! I do keep rachet straps in the truck now, though, so I was able to strap them down and leave the tailgate open.

After that was loaded, we went back in for one last check in everything, while my SIL took pictures and video of the empty apartment. Then, we locked it up one last time and headed out!

The road conditions were even worse. The only saving grace was that we had the wind at our backs, so the snow kicked up by oncoming traffic wasn’t quite as bad. They followed me this time, and managed to stay in view the whole way, even when we had people passing both of us at the same time! I just don’t get it. The road was barely visible, and a few times I found I had wandered into the other lane, because the road had disappeared under the swirling snow, and people were passing in this? Good grief.

Once back here, I parked the truck in the garage, since it wasn’t going to be unload this time. We got my brother’s truck unloaded – this time, he carried an entire loveseat, up the stairs and into the storage house! I was able to help with that one a tiny bit, at least.

That storage house is so jammed with stuff. We haven’t gone in there all year, and have made no effort to trying and clear it out. So much in there just needs to go to the dump! Now, we have almost all my mother’s furniture squeezed into there.

*sigh*

The boxes the girls and I got into the basement are going to have to be gone though soon. We’ll unpack what will stay in the house, but the rest will need to be repacked and taken into the storage house, somewhere, before spring, when the basements start getting wet.

After the furniture was unloaded, my brother and SIL had to transfer a few things out of it to their car or their trailer, before the truck could finally be parked back in its spot by the barn and they could finally head home. I’m still waiting in anticipation for a message telling me they arrived home safe and sound! I’m really hoping the winds have started to die down. It had started to snow lightly before it got dark, and will continue to snow, off and on, throughout the night.

Meanwhile, I’m just glad we finally got it done. It was brutal – especially with the weather! – but it’s done.

With our not being able to get our city stock up shopping, though, I’m going to have to go into town tomorrow (Sunday) and do a smaller shop. Which means we’ll have to take that mattress and box spring out of the truck, so I can close the tailgate. The dump won’t be open again until Tuesday, so that’s the earliest we can get rid of them. Unless the garage is able to get us in to get that sensor fixed/replaced. I’ll find that out on Monday.

I am so tired of winter.

According to the long range forecast, we’ve got another week of relatively milder temperatures, but then we’re supposedt to start to get highs above freezing more often than not, for the rest of February!

I can’t believe it’s already the last day of January. Where has the month gone???

I am so tired.

The Re-Farmer

So frustrated! An update

January 30, 2026January 30, 2026 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Okay, first things first.

Before heading to the garage, I backed the truck up to check the oil levels. They were fine, but there was fresh oil drops in the dirt floor under where it was parked for the night. During the drive in, it was the same as yesterday. The pressure gauge started off in the normal range, then slowly dropped during the drive in.

I dropped the truck off at the garage, then walked over to the hospital to visit with my mother. She was doing better today, thankfully. She was able to move around without the screaming and yelling in pain.

The irony of this is that she complained about the noise the other patients and staff were making. Hospitals should be quiet, because sick people need quiet.

I talked to her about making sure to accept painkillers regularly, BEFORE the pain gets bad. She can ask for more and, if it’s an issue, they might schedule her for painkillers more often or something.

I think she would prefer to yell and scream, to be honest. I don’t want to make light of her pain. Lord knows, I can empathize with it a great deal. It’s more about her behaviour over it, and refusal to actually do what she should be doing for it, while expecting some doctor (not a black one) to fix what can’t be fixed.

I got there just as her lunch tray was about to be delivered. My mother was in her favourite corner chair, with the bedside table already in front of her, ready and waiting. As the woman dropped off the tray, she asked conversationally, your daughter is visiting? My mother, however, was just staring up at her, and didn’t seem to hear. I acknowledged that I was her daughter, but said I didn’t think my mother heard her. She went on to put a tea bag in the hot water for my mother, then asked if she needed help with the sugar packet. My mother was still just staring at her. Glaring, really.

The woman looked to be Vietnamese, which would be why my mother was staring and not answering.

I told her I would help if my mother needed it, and made sure to thank her as she left.

Once she was gone, my mother started behaving normally.

*sigh*

The lunch looked delicious. She had a slice of mushroom and pepperoni pizza, Caesar salad, vegetable soup with a packet of crackers and a bowl of canned fruit salad for desert, along with her tea. My mom said it was the first time she got pizza. It smelled awesome, and my mother polished it all off. The quality of the food is one thing my mother does not quite complain about, though she did say something about how they never give her bread (pizza crust doesn’t count). To my mother, bread should be part of every meal! 😁 She is happy with the food, though.

We had a pretty good talk. No really weird stuff. I got some messages from my sister, who was still at my mother’s place, it turned out. Then I got a message from my brother saying that my sister should keep the keys she has and lock up the apartment, rather than leaving them there, so I passed that message on.

That turned out to be a really good thing.

One of the things I’d left in case my sister wanted them was a set of dishes she had bought for my mother, but she said I could take them, as she won’t use them. We have so many dishes of our own, but they can join the other items we now have stored in a shelf in the root cellar, until we can figure out what to do with them.

I told my mother I planned to go to her apartment after I got the truck back, and she asked, to finish taking everything? I just had to laugh. I told her, you have no idea how much you have! I certainly can’t move her furniture by myself.

Some of the conversation was typically odd with my mother. She was wondering why I was back to visit, two days in a row, and I explained about the truck, and how our mechanic was going to get it done in between other appointments. Somehow, that got around to her talking about how garages take advantage of women (because, apparently, only women take their vehicles to a garage, and men all fix their vehicles themselves. She truly believes men are born knowing how to fix cares. She literally has said that to me!), and how it’s all moneymoneymoney.

I told her, people do need to be paid for their work! She seems to think everyone should be doing things for free – except her, of course. She wants to be paid back $10 for the extra keys she had copied, before turning them over to public housing when her rental agreement is done.

When I told her I wasn’t going to be charged for the work being done today, because it’s under warranty, she changed the subject.

I refilled the thermos travel cup I’d brought for her, and she said she was very happy to have that hot water. She isn’t even doing her half water, half milk thing. She just prefers to drink warm water, and adds it to the water from the pitcher they leave with her. As I was setting up the cup, plus a few other things for her, like refilling her crackers bowl, she started saying how I couldn’t understand the troubles she’s having, with her mobility. When I’m 90, I’ll understand!

I told her, I do understand. I have many of the same problems. She said this as I was reaching to set her bowl of crackers back on the window sill within her reach, and could barely do it because my elbow was giving out. I ended up telling her about falling and hurting myself, twice, last year, and how I still can’t put weight on my right knee, because that’s the one that landed on concrete. She asked what happened, and I told her about coming in from shoveling and my glasses frosting over while I hung the snow shovel up in the sun room, so I couldn’t see and tripped over something.

Her immediate response?

Why was I the one shoveling snow?

…

So… It’s my fault I got hurt, because the girls should have been shoveling snow, not me.

Got it.

I told her, I LIKE shoveling snow, but the girls do it, too, if I can’t. I just happened to be the one doing it that day.

The other odd thing was something I later called the nursing station back to warn them about.

My mother needed to go to the washroom, and was able to get herself there on her own, using the walker – I offered to help her with the hospital’s wheelchair, and she said no. Then she asked me to get a second garbage can set up with a bag. I was setting it under the bathroom sink, when I found out what she wanted to for.

To pee in.

There’s a commode, but it’s being stored in the washroom right now. She said, they want her to get up and walk around to use the toilet (I explained about the necessity of movement to help with her OA, which got a glare), but she didn’t want to use the commode. It had been beside her bed, but she claimed they forget about it and didn’t change it after it gets used. So instead, if she needs to go during the night, she planned to use the garbage can.

Well… at least it isn’t an ice cream pail, like she had been doing at home, until we got a commode for her!

I told her, don’t do that! Her response was, do you want me to pee on the floor?

*sigh*

Even with the odd stuff, it was a good and fairly quiet visit. When someone came for her food tray – a white person, so my mother was willing to talk to her – my mother started complaining about the noise. The nurse was good at deflecting!

My mother was soon ready to lie down for a nap – rejecting my offer to help her get into bed – and I headed out. After the wonderful smells of my mother’s lunch, I was really hungry! My husband had messaged me that he needed more needles at the pharmacy, so I headed in that direction and ended up stopping at the Dairy Queen for lunch this time. I had a store to stop in as well, but that was directly across the street from the pharmacy, which was handy. Once done at the pharmacy, I headed back to the garage, figuring they might be done by then.

When I got to the parking lot, I saw the truck in the lot, with the engine running. They had just finished it, and was running it to check on things. Outdoors, rather than the closed garage!

When the mechanic was free, he told me it was looking good. The leak was fixed with the highest quality seal available – he still doesn’t understand why it started leaking again. I got instructions to keep an eye on the gauge, check for fresh leaks under the truck, and check the oil levels. The oil level right now is fine, and everything seems to be running smoothly.

When I got in the truck, though, the needle on the gauge was even lower than before.

It obviously wasn’t something he felt was a concern, but I don’t like it!

My next stop was my mother’s apartment, but I needed to get gas, first. So I drove to a gas station that was on my usual route towards home. I figured, if I shut the engine off for a while, the gauge might reset itself.

It didn’t.

On the plus side, it wasn’t dropping, either. It was really steady. The only time the needle almost reached that first line above zero was when I decided to test things and gunned it to 110kph. As soon as I returned to the speed limit, down it dropped to the same level and stayed there.

With the route I was taking, I could drive to the highway closer to us, then decide if I’d be turning towards my mother’s apartment, or heading home.

Thanks to knowing my mother’s apartment would be safely locked up, I headed home.

As soon as I was stopped, I got the picture to send to our mechanic. I then went into the garage to brush aside the oil stains in the dirt floor, so we could tell if there were any new drips, before parking. Once inside, I sent the picture to our mechanic, describing what I was seeing (and what was different), though I don’t expect to hear from him necessarily today. He was so swamped, even with two other mechanics in today.

I also updated my siblings.

Now, I’ve driven with that oil gauge at zero for quite some time. When we were having MAF issues, the oil sensor also got replaced. So this is still a new sensor. It shouldn’t be misreading. Yet, he could find no other problem that might cause the sensor to be reading low oil pressure. For all I know, the sensor is reading “normal”, but the needle is simply stuck at the wrong spot.

My brother will be out here tomorrow to dig out his own truck, so I will follow them with my truck to my mother’s place, and help bring things here. The truck should be fine. My brain knows that – but I am so bloody paranoid about it, I don’t want to make the drive on my own in case something happens along the way. We depend on it so much!

This is where I remember my mother was promising to buy us a car back in the summer, but apparently my sister talked her out of it. Granted, my mother thought she had enough money to buy a new car, with zero understanding of how expensive new cars are right now. With my mother’s habit of promising things, then backing out at the last minute, none of us expected her to actually do it. Still, it does… frustrate.

Hopefully, all will work out with the truck tomorrow. I’ll be a lot more comfortable driving it with my brother nearby.

The thing is, with all this stuff going on, we still need to go our stock up shopping trips to the city, a trip to the dump, a trip to the feed store, etc. Thankfully, we have enough kibble to last another week, for both indoor and outdoor cats, but we’re almost out of wet cat food for the indoor cats. Even without having to get my mother’s apartment emptied, this is the time of the month when we do most of our driving.

This truck is certainly not the first vehicle we’ve own that’s been like this, but for having it for only 2 years, there has been a lot!

I am so tired of weird vehicle issues.

The Re-Farmer

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