Yes! Finally! I felt well enough to go the Costco stock up trip!
In fact, I was up quite early and feeling rested. Did the morning routine and prepped the truck. We even remembered to grab the ice packs from the freezer before we left.
We postponed leaving long enough to go to the post office, first, to pick up a couple of parcels. There turned out to be three, with one of them being fairly large, so we headed back home to drop two of them off. One of them was a new phone case for me, as my old one was getting warn out, and my daughter switched my phone to the new one on the way out. It’s the thinnest “wallet” style I can get, so it fits in my pocket without being bulky, and keeps the screen from being activated by accident.
On the way to the city, we stopped at a gas station at the one town along the route, for some drinks and a food for my daughter, who hadn’t had breakfast yet. I also picked up some extra beef jerky to keep in the console of the truck as part of our usual stock of food and drinks we try to keep in the truck. Which came in very handy when I was in the ER and finally told I could have something to eat after fasting for well over 12 hours, and would NOT be going for any sort of emergency surgery. That totaled $50.04 Then it was off to the city again.
The first stop at Costco was to fill the gas tank. Gas prices had actually gone down to $1.669/L in most places, but at Costco, regular cost $1.619/L
It still cost me $89.61 to fill the tank
*sigh*
Once inside, we were not in any hurry and went through some aisles we hadn’t bothers to for some time. We haven’t had any major break downs or sudden bills, so the budget was a bit more relaxed, allowing us to get a few things that we might not have, or would have had to wait on.
When we were done and one of the staff directed us into a line, I went to get my membership card out of my pocket.
It was gone.
Checking that I hadn’t put it in my new phone case’s card slots and wallet, I was ready to have my daughter pull aside while I went back to look. My new phone case is not as smooth as my old one. It has a slight texture to it that feels slightly “sticky” with friction. I had pulled my phone out a few times while shopping. The card must have stuck to the new phone case and been pulled out. Which means it was on the floor, somewhere. I was going to backtrack.
The guy that had directed us into the line was still nearby and heard us. He asked me my name, then said he would see what they could do and went to the customer service.
He came back and handed me my card! Someone had found it an already turned it in!
God bless whoever did that!
While shopping, I keep a running count in my head and always round prices up. If something as a price that’s discounted at the till, I still count at the full price. This way, the final tally will always be at least a bit lower than what I kept as a running tally while shopping. That can lead to some nice surprises.
This time, that nice surprise was a final bill over $100 less than I was expecting.
This is what $789.86 looks like.
There’s quite a bit hidden from view. Here is the breakdown.
We tried to do all the frozen and refrigerator stuff first, as well as the heavier jars and such. A lot of refrigerator stuff was in a box and my daughter put the whole thing on the belt so the big stuff on the flat cart could be reached with the scanning gun.
So, from the top…
There is a case of frozen perogies and another of Pizza Pops (which mostly became our supper when we got home). There’s a 3 pack of oat milk for the girls. Two packages of chicken drumsticks that were discounted at the till. Two packs of loose sausage meat in mild Italian. A wheel of brie and a 4 pack of cream cheese. Two Panini packs of sandwich meats. Five pounds of butter. A liter of whipping cream. A 2L of Kefir for a treat. A shaker of grated Parmesan. Two blocks of cooking cheese; Mozzarella and Old Cheddar. A big bottle of oyster sauce.
On the cart was a case of Monster energy drinks, a case of Coke Zero and a case of water. There were two bags of Kirkland brand cat kibble, plus two larger bags of Whiskas. The Whiskas was on sale, at least. There was also a box of XL puppy pads and a cast of wet cat food.
One of the extras we got was a two pack of “cooling” pillows for my husband and I. Another was a three piece set of nesting ceramic “baskets”, designed to look like the cardboard baskets that fruit sometimes comes in.
We also got a case of large black garbage bags and another of clear bags for recycling.
Also scanned on the cart were two 2pks of rye bread and a bag of ciabatta buns.
Back to the stuff on the belt, there’s a large jar of mayo and another of peanut butter. There’s a big container of popping corn. I also grabbed a container of iced tea mix that was on sale.
We got some of the Dawn Platinum dish detergent; it’s better for keeping the plumbing clear. There’s also a case of toothbrushes; something we had been well stocked up on and were finally starting to run out of. There’s a package of seaweed for the girls, and a double flat of eggs. I got a sack of the Kirkland brand of Basmati rice. I’d bought another brand last time, and it sucked. Definitely don’t want to run out of the Kirkland brand again. Last of all are two packs of tortilla wraps and a package of Medjool dates from Israel. The last couple of times I picked up dates, they were from other countries, and they turned out to be pretty gross. These ones cost more, but are delicious. That is a “me” snack. I’m the only one in the family that likes dates!
And there we have it. $789.86 with several items that are not bought on a monthly basis, which actually put me right on budget!
On the way out, we made one stop at a gas station just outside the city to pick up some drinks and snacks for the ride home. That was another $17.08
Total damage for the day: $946.59
Ouch.
Still, there was stuff on there that we don’t normally get. The only thing that was truly a splurge was the set of ceramic fruit baskets, and that cost under $10.
I’m also just glad we finally made it in, a week later than it normally would have been done.
$253.11, to be exact, but the total stock up shop was more. I just didn’t get a picture of the rest.
After my doctor’s appointment was done, I needed to have lunch somewhere. I decided to go to a Subway near the Walmart, which decided the order of the rest of the shopping.
I got a 12″ teriyaki chicken sub and a bottled flavoured water to drink, which came to $20.81
The next place I remembered I wanted to go was the Dollarama. I was looking for some sort of cheap garden fencing to use around the bed with the Arikara squash and bush beans. There wasn’t much left in gardening supplies, though, so the only thing I got in that section was some soft ties for my tomatoes. I remembered to grab a new spatula to replace a broken one, and I also grabbed a small memory foam bath mat, as the ones we have just don’t work out for the space. I also grabbed four of their larger storage bins (which are large for a dollar store, but small for other stores). I need to get more of these, little by little. I’ve decided I need to pack away most of what I have in my room. It is a large room that serves as my bedroom, office and craft room combined, but with the cats taking things over, and particularly with Butterscotch still refusing to leave the room, I haven’t been able to use my craft table as a craft table in ages – and no matter what barricades I set up, some of the cats still keep trying to get to the top of the wall shelf. I’ve got stuff stored up there specifically to keep it safe from cats, but a couple of them still manage to get up there, usually causing quite a mess in the process. When I came home from the shopping today, I found all sorts of things knocked out of shelves and scattered about.
Plus, I need to get rid of the carpet in this room. It’s a sort of felted carpet, and I’ve never seen anything like it, anywhere else. It is a dirt and fur magnet. I’ve talked to my brother and he remembers that the original floor under it is just painted wood – and it was painted about 70 years ago.
So, I need to pack everything away and eventually empty my room. Since the things I’m packing are things I actually want to use, I want to pack them in clear plastic storage bins. I only got four today, but it’s a start. Around Christmas time, places like Walmart get huge inventories of storage bins, and I can wait until the go on clearance after Christmas. The most difficult thing about getting rid of the carpet will be moving my king size bed frame, and the wall shelf.
In total, what I got at Dollarama cost $41.72
My next stop was Walmart, and I got things on two separate bills for two different budgets.
The first one was personal items, which included a new pair of work shoes. My boots finally gave up the ghost and are toast, and I wanted to get steel toed shoes to replace them. This store is still under renovation, so it took me a while to find the men’s work boots, which weren’t moved to the new shoes section yet. I found two styles available in size 9s. The first ones I tried had several boxes on a mostly empty shelf, and there were two price stickers right next to each other, below them. One for $74 and change, the other for $3.
That detail turns out to be important.
Whatever the $3 item was, I figured it was completely out of stock, or moved to the new shoe section. The other pair I tried on were about $10 cheaper. After trying both, I found the more expensive pair to fit better and were more comfortable, so those are the ones I grabbed.
Along with those, I got myself another night down and some personal hygiene items, to go together with the shoe budget, then I got the rest of the stuff.
Since I had other places to go, I was not going to get anything that require refrigeration here. I got two big bags of cat kibble and a 9 pack of facial tissues. My husband requested nacho fixings, so I got round tortilla chips and a giant jar of green olives for that. I remembered to grab some peanut butter as well. Then I got a total of 9 cans of Monster for myself and my daughters.
Total cost, $76.76
Oh, my gosh.
I just realized something.
I didn’t get charged for the two bags of kibble!!!! She forgot to scan them!
I’m going to have to go back and take care of that. I just took pictures of the bar codes. They should be able to scan the photos, or manually input the code, and I can pay for them.
I do remember thinking the total was a bit low, but I had already paid for my personal items, and that threw my count off and distracted both of us.
When she opened the box to scan the bar code on the shoes, she paused, looked at me and said “Three dollars?”
I had no context for what she was saying and must have looked confused when I asked her to repeat herself. She told me, they scanned as $3.
???
I was rather shocked. I told her, I’d seen a tag on the shelf saying $3, but I assumed that was for something else.
She called the cash supervisor over. They compared the number under the bar code with what was on the screen.
They matched.
They compared the number under the bar code on the box with what was on the shoes.
They matched.
Eventually, the cashier was told, if that’s what it scans as, that’s the price!
So I got what I thought was a $75 pair of shoes for $3. My total on that receipt, which I was expecting to be about $120 in total, came out to $45.77
!!!
That cashier asked me if there were more, and I told her there were two more on the shelf. A size 9 and a size 11. Oh, she says… I need a size 11!
I hope she was able to go and take advantage of this. I’m guessing someone made a mistake at head office somewhere and input the wrong price. These weren’t marked as being on any sort of sale.
Once these items were packed into the truck, I drove across the street to the Canadian Tire. The main thing I wanted to get there were litter pellets, but I had a few other things I wanted to look for as well.
I did find the sort of garden fencing I hoped to find at the Dollarama, but wasn’t filling to pay their price for them.
I did grab some more bug spray, plus a couple of Quick Connect hose attachments, one for each end of the hose. The one at had on the metal construction grade hose burst in a heat wave not long ago, and I wanted to replace that, plus I have an extra for the other end. I also got a replacement end for the soaker hose that is the right size; I had managed to fit a larger one on, but the soaker hose has started to leak badly at the connection, so I will try again. I then went looking for a small fan to replace one we’ve got set up in the bathroom window. The ceiling fan in the bathroom stopped working some time ago, then started again, then stopped again… We can’t find a reason why it’s doing that, so we’ve set up a fan to blow the heat and moisture out the window, instead. The fan we’re using was already here when we moved in, and it’s starting to sound like it’s wearing out, so I wanted to replace it. Fans the same size, though, are now USB or battery operated. I found a nice little 7″ fan – slightly larger, but it will still fit in the window quite nicely. Last of all, I got myself a cold drink to have while heading to my next stop.
Total bill at Canadian Tire was $88.59
From there, I went to the Safeway. Not somewhere we normally go; particularly since this location is in the downtown area of this city, though the city is so small, “downtown” is nowhere near as crowded or difficult to drive around as the larger city. The main reason I went to shop there instead of just shopping at Walmart is that they give out gas coupons.
This is what $253.11 looks like – and what got me a 10¢ off per liter coupon to use.
There really wasn’t a lot to get here, since I plan to do Costco tomorrow – or Saturday, if I find I’m not up to it after getting my blook work and EKG done.
Under “grocery”, I got some ketchup, bouillon cubes in three different flavours, a jug of distilled water (I forgot to get that at Walmart, where I usually buy packages of 4), and house brand Mac & Cheese, four boxes each in two flavours. I got mozzarella and smoked cheddar cheese for my husband’s nacho request. There was a deal on little tubs of ice cream, with both a sale price and a points bonus, so I got one for each of us, in different flavours, including a lactose free one for my husband. Last of all in that category was a large watermelon and a bag of 5 avocados.
Under the “meat” category, I got slab of pork belly that was on sale, plus had a point bonus, as did the ground chuck. I also got ribs and two packages of bacon, all on sale.
Under “deli”, I got a cheese for us to experiment with – Amber Mist, which is made with aged whiskey. For my husband and I to share for supper, I got a massive Dagwood sandwich, while for the girls, I got a fresh sushi tray and, finally, some garlic hummus to go with the nacho fixings.
Lastly, under the “bakery” category, I got a large package of croissants as a treat, two packs of Texas Toast, two packages of bagels and two loaves of Irish bread.
Total at Safeway: $253.11
With the total being over $200, that got me the maximum discount available for a gas coupon at Shell, and there’s a Shell station right next to the grocery store, so that was my next stop. They have pre-pay only, which needs to be done to use the coupon anyhow. I also have my CAA card, which gave me another 3¢ off per liter, so I got $60 of gas at $1.689 instead of $1.819
I was down to a quarter tank at the time, so that still only got me to 3/4 full. I’ll do a complete fill and reset my trip counter at Costco tomorrow.
So… today’s total, including lunch and a few extra items, came to $586.76 A total that is missing the two bags of kibble which, after taxes, should have added another $70 or so.
Oh, I almost forgot. On the way home, I stopped at the general store and picked up a 40 pound bag of kibble. After taxes, that came to $50.40 That came out of a different budget, but brings the total for the day to $637.16
Ouch.
And that’s after some major unexpected savings, like the $3 shoes, along with the missed bags of kibble, too.
My younger daughter and I headed out at about 10am for the city. We made a stop at a gas station in the town along the highway for some drinks and some sort of snack. It was too early for their hot food, so we just got a couple of small pastries to tide us over. I was thrilled, however, to discover they now carry Beaver Buzz energy drinks! I haven’t seen these in years! I made sure to tell the staff how happy I was to see them. I got a couple of cans of Citrus – one for the road and one for home. We’ll have to go back specifically to stock up on more, in all the flavours. My daughter paid for this stuff, though, so it’s not part of today’s spending for me.
We went to the new Costco this time (I’m happy to say, Damocles behaved the whole way. No break downs), with our first stop at their gas station. I remembered to grab our 20L jerry can to fill with Premium for the lawn mowers. Premium at Costco was $1.699/L When the can was filled, we filled the truck with regular at $1.449/L Regular gas at the stations we saw along the way were $1.649 and $1.639 The can cost $35.02 for a tiny bit over 20L, and filling the truck cost $73.20, so we spent $108.22 before we even walked in the doors.
Before we started shopping, we had brunch so we wouldn’t be shopping while hungry. I got the Montreal Smoked Meat sandwich and my daughter had the chicken strips and fries. Those, plus drinks, were another $20.12
Then it was time to grab a flat cart do the shopping. This is what $789.74 looks like.
Some of this, my older daughter sent funds for, and my younger daughter will be covering a couple of impromptu purchases later.
That’s still a pretty empty flat cart.
At least we got more meat this time.
This is what we managed to get today.
We try to make a point of putting the refrigerator and freezer stuff on the belt first, but the staff scanned a lot of stuff right on the cart that normally wouldn’t be, so that was nice.
Starting from the top, we have two panini packs for sandwiches, mild Italian loose sausage meat, tilapia filets for the girls, pork belly, pork blade and pork loin. There’s a three pack of oat milk for the girls and two nigiri platters that my older daughter covered, then a case of frozen perogies and frozen Pizza Pops.
On the cart, they scanned a shaker of slow release fertilizer that my daughter said she would cover for me, a case of Coke Zero for my husband and I, a large jar of mayo, a shaker of Parmesan cheese, a 6 pack of canned chicken and a case of Monster energy drinks for my daughters and I, which my older daughter helped cover the cost of as well.
Then there’s a large jar of peanut butter, a large container of peppercorns, some AAA batteries, and a case of XL puppy pads. There’s a container of ice tea mix that was on sale. I also picked up some higher quality olive oil, as we will be making chive blossom oil again soon. The chive blossoms are getting into their peak right now.
The cat bed is an unplanned purchase that my younger daughter will also be covering. It’s a combination of a tunnel that runs in a circle around a bed in the centre, and the outside wall is a scratch pad. I have it set up on the cat bed side of my bed right now. A few cats have explored it already. Hopefully, none of the bigger cats will try getting into the bed from the outside, rather than from the openings, because it will definitely get crushed! 😄
There are two ll.6kg bags of kibble, one for the inside cats and one for the outside cats. We did not get more wet cat food because of the generous donations we got.
Next on the list are two 2 packs of rye bread, a case of ramen noodles, two 2 packs of tortilla wraps and a bag of flour.
Back to what went onto the belt, there’s a 2 pack of lemon juice, a block of Old Cheddar cheese and another of Mozzarella. We got a container of popcorn, a 9 pack of variety noodles, and two rotisserie chickens.
What we didn’t get were things like eggs, butter and the cream cheese I was looking for but never found. We can get those elsewhere. We still have another stock up shop to do when the main disability pay comes in on the last business day of the month, but my daughter has her blacksmithing workshop tomorrow, and that’s just a short drive to a Walmart, so we might pick up a few things earlier.
By the time we were done, my lower back was giving out and I was really needing to use that cart as a walker. We were both more than happy to be heading home. I did remember to stop at the post office on the way, though, to pick up this.
I have it pre-charging as I write this. I’ll need to figure out how to get it set up and how to use the remote. The last thing I want is for it to go off while I’m working in the garden. It has the hardware to install it against a building or post, but I’ll be using the ground stake. I’ll set it up beside the pea trellis to test it out, since that’s where deer have already been going in and munching.
So… there we have it. $789.74 If I take off the cat supplies and batteries, $584.17 of that was human food and drinks, before any taxes or enviro fees.
The stock up shop, plus gas and lunch, totaled $918.08
Okay, I did not have the stomach to do a Costco trip today so, instead, I went to the nearest Walmart. This was a bit of a test run on the truck, as I haven’t driven this far since I took the yard cats to the vet and started getting weird readings on my battery gauge.
Since I expected to have frozen and refrigerator items, I picked up gas, first. Costco gas prices are the one thing that had me second guessing going in, as they tend to be dramatically cheaper. While in town to visit my mother, I passed three gas stations. One was at $1.799, one at $1.719 and one at $1699/L for regular. In this small city, at the time I dropped the cats off at the vet, their prices were $1.559/L So I made a small side trip to a gas station nearest the Walmart that I knew of.
Their sign said $1.559/L, however they also had a rather alarming looking mannequin holding a sign saying 5¢ off/L, which means I was able to get gas at $1.509/L
Scary that this is now considered a “low” gas price.
From there, it was straight to the Walmart and a stock up shop. Not a full shop, since I wasn’t doing any flat cart shopping, but I will be in the area again early next week, to get my ultrasound at the hospital a short distance away.
This is what $334.16 in total looks like.
I ended up with two receipts, though, because I tucked my bread at the end so they weren’t on the belt, as I wanted the softested things run in last, only to forget them there. The cashier noticed them, though, and the customer behind me was a sweetheart and let them get rung in ahead of him.
The bread alone totaled $12.30 At Costco, I would have gotten wraps as well, but I completely forgot to look for any.
Here’s the rest of it.
From the top, there is a 10 pound bag of potatoes for less than a 5 pound bag costs locally. Some oat milk and coffee creamer for the girls. There’s couple of blocks of cheese; Old cheddar and mozzarella. I got an 8lb bag of Basmati rice; not the usual brand we get at Costco, so I hope my husband likes it.
I got two 18s of eggs instead of a flat of 30. Some frozen tater tots for my husband. I spotted dark roast coffee on sale and got that for my daughters. Peanut butter. Mayonnaise. A case of 24 chicken Mr. Noodles.
The Chunky soup has dropped in price quite a bit. Locally, those are in the $5 rants, so I picked up 6 cans, along with a couple of cans of baby clams to add to them. These are an uncommon treat for us, these days.
I also got packs of beef, vegetable and chicken bouillon cubes.
There’s toilet paper, tissues, a case of wet cat food and two bags of kibble. I got their last bag of 8kg Whiskas. They were sold out! I grabbed another brand in a 7kg bag as well. Hopefully, they were have more in stock by the time I’m back next week.
I got a couple of packages of popcorn and a bag of pearl couscous (a rare treat), and the only meat product; a package of breakfast sausages. I’ve been finding better meat prices locally.
For my husband, I grabbed a can of Gatorade mix, which seems to have gone over well when I got one last time. Then I got a total of 10 cans of Monster energy drinks for my daughters and I. At Costco, we get the big case, which has three flavours. I got 10 different flavours today. Their price per can is a lot cheaper than most places.
And that’s it. That’s what I got for stocking up today.
Whether this was better than driving all the way to a Costco, I’m not entirely sure. It’s definitely worth having a shorter drive to make sure the truck is behaving, at least!
With Damocles living up to its name while I took the cats to the vet yesterday, and the heat wave hitting us, I was going to skip another trip to the city.
I did, however, need to go into town. My husband’s prescriptions were delivered yesterday, minus one – his primary pain killer, that he can’t order in advance, because it’s a “controlled substance”. He was down to one pill. They did have it ready while I was still in the city, but there was no way I’d be picking it up with cats in the truck and, by the time I got home, the pharmacy was going to close before I could get to town.
Same with my trees that arrived in the mail.
So early this morning, before things got insanely hot, though it was getting there real fast, I headed into town. Since I was there anyhow, I decided to stop at a local grocery store. If nothing else, I wanted to get more eggs.
I ended up taking advantage of sales and got more.
This is what $212.32 looks like.
The big difference here is, I got actual meat. Including beef!
From the top, there’s a 4 pack of Monster drinks that were on sale, that I got for the girls. The Sour Patch kids candy were also on sale, and for my husband. The giant potato chip bags were a rare treat, for all four of us, along with two containers of dip.
I got three types of cheese that were on sale, as were the 18 count packs of eggs, making it cheaper to get two of those than to get the flat of eggs I’d planned to get. Plus, they fit better in our hard sided grocery bags.
The sale on butter was really good, but I only got two, since I already got four, when I was in the city.
There’s a giant bag of frozen tater tots as something my husband can cook himself. The baby spinach was not on sale, but our own spinach is struggling to grow in this heat.
The sale on the sirloin tip roast was good, but I was seriously tempted by the brisket, that was a dollar cheaper per pound. The whole thing cost just over $125. At Costco, the same thing would have cost more than $250. In the end, I knew I wouldn’t be able to process it before it would need to go into the freezer.
The whole chicken was also on sale, so I got two. The sausage ring was not on sale, but the regular price of this locally made product is already quite good. The jumbo pack of wieners were not on sale, but are an okay price for the amount in the package. The croissants on sale are another treat. The hot dog buns were not on sale. It blows me away that a 12 pack of buns now costs more than a 12 pack of wieners, and I got the jumbo pack, which is by weight and more than 24 wieners. The hot dog fixings are for those days when it’s just too hot to spend a lot of time at the stove!
Finally, I got some plain loaves of bread. House brand, so a better price, plus bonus points for buying 2 loaves at a time.
In the end, I did more of a food stock up trip locally, than I did while in the city! The main part is being able to get meat at a decent price. When it comes to beef in particular, Costco is now priced completely out of our budget. Still, there are enough things we need, where the price difference it worth the trip to the city. Cat food, in particular.
Speaking of which, I just realized the time. It’s time to feed the outside cats for the evening!
On the way home from this shopping trip, I stopped to pick up the trees in the mail, and also got a 40 pound bag of kibble for the outside cats, at $45. After taxes, just pennies over $50.
*sigh*
It’s still 30C/86F out there. “Feels like” 33C/91F
Today was my day to go into the city for our second stock up shop for May.
It was a very rough start to the day.
I had a hard time sleeping, so when I was awake – again – at about 6am, I asked my older daughter to take care of the morning routine, so I could get a couple more hours of sleep before I needed to drive. I even managed to fall asleep for some of that time.
I was getting up and starting to get ready when the phone rang.
It was my mother.
She almost immediately launched into asking me about the call I had been expecting on Tuesday about the doctor. I told her, they didn’t call, but I was in the city yesterday and would be doing our Costco shop today, so I wasn’t able to follow up on it yet. She started ranting about the doctor neglecting me like he was neglecting her but I reminded her it wasn’t the doctor that was supposed to call me, but the administrator.
She eventually got around to telling me that when she woke up this morning, her hearing was gone completely. Obviously, she could hear me as we spoke on the phone, but I still had to ask questions to find out what happened, as she went on about how they’d need to do the oil treatment again and so on. When I asked her, several times, if she’d told the nurses about it, I found out that no, she had not. How was she able to hear now? She’d dug her fingers into her ears until she could hear again…
!!!!
I had to explain to her that she needed to tell the nurses what was going on, not just anybody, but specifically the nurses, but she kept ranting. It was nursing pretending to be doctors. She wanted the doctor to do the ear flush. She wanted to talk to the doctor about her pills (they repeatedly explain her pills to her, but she is convinced they are lying and deliberately messing with her meds so she will die, because “they” do that to old people…) and so on.
When she started going on about how she was a patient in the hospital so they should be doing… whatever it is she wants them to be doing at any given moment, I had to remind her, this place isn’t a regular hospital anymore. She is a resident in a transitional care unit, not a patient. Things are done differently in her situation, and the doctor isn’t there just for her, but has a lot of other people he is responsible for.
At some point, I tried to tell her again that I was going to Costco today, so she wouldn’t try to demand I visit her or do whatever it was she was winding up for. At which point she started railing at me… “All you think about is food, food, food! And see how you look!”
Yes, my mother decided this was the time to attack me for buying groceries, because I’m fat. I didn’t even try to point out that it’s not just food we buy at Costco, but seriously. According to her, we should all… stop buying food? Stop eating? Because she has problems with her hearing and wants me to do something about it?
She got so bad, I finally just said, that’s enough, and hung up on her.
Now, my mother knows I do stock up shops to the city only twice a month, at the end of the month. She doesn’t understand why I stock up for the month like this, instead of just going to the local grocery stores every week, like she used to. I’ve even explained to her that we save hundreds of dollars a month by doing this, which is the only reason we can afford to still buy things locally throughout the month. That’s why I make these trips. Somehow, she always manages to “need” me to drop everything and devote every moment to her, at the end of the month. Month after month. Just like she knows that, with the snow gone, there is lots to do outside, but she doesn’t think I have anything to do, because we don’t have cows. I should devote every moment to her.
Aside from her making it very, very hard to want to spend time around her when she gets nasty like this, I can’t help but think how she never really did this for her own mother until my grandmother literally moved in here with my parents until she passed away. Nor did she do anything for my father after she moved off the farm, leaving him to the abusive treatment of our vandal. Abuse she now denies, even though our vandal’s behaviour towards her is one of the main reasons she moved off the farm. She often tells me, she depends so much on us to take care of her, which is something she wasn’t willing to do herself when the need arose.
It’s very hard not to feel bitter. I can’t even blame it on cognitive decline or aging. She’s been like this for as long as I can remember. She’s just more open about it now.
After that, I took the time to message the my brother and SIL in our group chat about our mother (my sister is no longer on Messenger, but I didn’t have time to text her about it), let my family know what happened, then booted up and headed out. My husband had a prescription delivery for today, so I made sure to leave the gate open, and my younger daughter made sure to keep a handset with her for when the driver called before getting here.
My only stop on the way to the city was at a gas station for a drink and something breakfast like.
I should have filled the tank when I had the chance, yesterday. Prices are $1.889/L all over now.
It was too early for their fried chicken, but they did have fried perogies ready. I grabbed some of those so I wouldn’t be having my energy drink on an empty stomach. Plus, they were something I could easily eat while driving. I was still thinking of eating at Costco, since the new location I was going to has the awesome corned beef sandwiches again, but I never did get to that.
When I arrived at the Costco, about an hour + after leaving home, my first stop was to get gas. I was at just under half a tank by the time I reached the city.
Costco price for regular gas was $1.749 It cost me $96.10 to fill my tank.
This after our federal overlords promised to bring the fuel prices down by temporarily not charging one of the many taxes they have on fuel. Instead, prices are much higher now.
The tank full, it was time to get a flat cart and start shopping. Thankfully, it wasn’t too insanely busy.
This is what $738.95 looks like.
There’s a few things buried from view, of course.
This is what I got today.
For the non-food stuff, there are 3 bags of kibble for the outside cats, a case of wet cat food for the inside cats, a case of XL puppy pads and toilet paper.
For drinks, we got a flat of energy drinks, which my daughter paid for, a flat of Coke Zero for my husband and I, and oat milk for my daughters. There is also a large box of Earl Grey tea.
In dairy, I got a block of mozzarella cheese, a wheel of brie and a 1L of whipping cream – the whipping cream is a treat we rarely get these days. Then there’s 5 pounds of butter, and a large shaker of Parmesan cheese my daughters requested.
In bread, we got two 2 packs of rye bread, two packs of tortilla wraps and a big bag of ciabatta buns. The buns are a treat. I don’t recall if we’ve ever bought them before. At least not since we’ve moved to this province.
Not sure what’s going on with the receipt, though. It says I got one 2 pack of sliced French bread instead of two 2 packs of rye bread. So I got undercharged? The rye bread packs were more expensive.
Not going to complain. Last time, I got overcharged for something. It’s an odd mistake to make, though, since I had no French bread for them to scan. That makes it a error in their pricing system. Very strange.
For protein, I got two panini packs for sandwiches, a pork loin that will be broken down into different cuts, two packs of drumsticks that were $5 off at the counter, two packs of loose Mild Italian sausage meat (cheaper per kg than links), and a hot rotisserie chicken. The chicken was for my husband and I to have for our supper. My daughter sent funds and requested some sushi, so the sushi and the nigiri platters are for her and her sister. Oh, and the double flat of eggs, plus a 6 pack of canned chicken. I also got peanut butter, which I guess fits under the protein category, too.
We also got a 9 pack of variety pasta, a bag of Basmati rice, I finally found the popcorn kernels, two large jars of mayo, a large jar of sliced pickles, a 3 pack of baking powder and the only frozen item, a box of perogies. There’s a giant bag of nacho chips for my husband.
According to the rest of the receipt, I had 45 items and a total of $16 in discounts.
Together with the gas, I spent a total of $835.05 at Costco.
This is starting to really hurt.
Not just the budget. My whole body is hurting, and that pain in my lower abdomen is kicking in again. I’ve got my doctor’s appointment in a few days. We’ll see where that gets me. Probably on a waiting list for an MRI or ultrasound or something. Maybe some Xrays for my knee that still hurts from when I tripped and fell in the sun room, before Christmas, along with my right elbow and my left rotator cuff that feels like it’s about to pop out all the time. After I get those joints looked at, I’ll see about booking myself at the sports injury clinic again for another injection into my hip. That’s starting to hurt when I’m in bed, no matter what position I try.
I’m just falling apart all over the place.
Scary thing is, I’m still the most able bodied person in the household.
!!
Seriously considering going to bed, and it’s not even 7pm yet.
My younger daughter and I headed to the city after I got a couple more photos and videos of specific cats for the rescue, and after topping up the tires. I’m glad we took the time to check them. They were all low, even taking into account winter temperatures.
We made a stop along with way at a gas station in the town my mother is back in. We meant to get gas and lunch at Costco, but we wanted to get some drinks and snacks to tide us over for the drive in. My daughter paid for it, so that didn’t come out of budget. Gas was $1.729/L for Regular there at the time.
When we got gas at Costco, it was $1.499 for regular (Premium was $1.729). As we were leaving the city, we passed a gas station that was at $1.719 – but when we drove through my mother’s town again, the gas prices had dropped to $1.649! Nice to see the drop. It’s almost unheard of for rural towns to drop before prices in the city drop.
Once at the Costco, the first thing we did was fill the tank and reset the trip counter. At $1.499/L, it cost us just pennies under $80 to fill.
Before we did any shopping, my daughter and I went in to have lunch. There was no way we’d have the energy to stop for food after the shopping, so we made sure to eat first. My daughter got a couple of slices of pizza – not realizing how big they were! – while I had their Montreal Smoked Meat sandwich; something the other locations no longer have available. It’s been years since I’ve had one, and it was absolutely delicious! Those, plus a couple of drinks, cost $16.97 – and over half of the before tax total was just the cost of my sandwich!
It was worth it.
Since we were planning to go to the new Costco this time, my older daughter sent me some funds with a few requests, so this “over budget” total of $862.72 was not actually over budget.
It was, however, still very expensive for what we got.
We didn’t have to buy a lot of cat supplies this time, and I was able to get a fair bit of meat, but still…
This is what we got.
For cat supplies, we only needed to get for the indoor cats, so there is just one 11.6kg bag of kibble, a case of canned cat food and a case of XL puppy pads. In other non-food items, there is a package of toilet paper and a 4 pack of toothpaste.
From the pharmacy area, we got some B100, Adult Gummie multivitamins, plus some extra strength acetaminophen.
In beverages, we got a case of Monster (which my daughter paid for), a case of Oat Milk, Iced Tea mix (only because it was on sale) and some English Breakfast tea in a new Peter Rabbit design tin. Can’t have too much tea, and my younger daughter likes the tins.
In baking supplies, we got a bag of flour and a 2 pack of baking powder.
I just realized I got charged twice for the baking powder 2 pack. Crud. It’s not like we’re going to go back to the city to get it fixed!
In dairy, we got 4 pounds of butter – the price has finally dropped below $5 each here! – a block of mozzarella, a block of Old Cheddar, a shaker of Parmesan cheese, a wheel of brie and a 2 pack of goat cheese.
For bread, we got a 2 pack of rye and two 2 packs of tortilla wraps.
For protein, we got two hot rotisserie chickens, two panini packs for sandwiches, a pork blade roast, frozen salmon for the girls, Gouda and Cranberry sausages, plus mild Italian loose sausage meat, and a double flat of eggs.
In the odds and sots, there’s a 2 pack of butter chicken sauce, mayonnaise, peanut butter, coconut oil, a 9 pack of variety pasta, a case of Ramen noodles, a case of instant oatmeal, soy sauce (we weren’t able to find the brand my husband likes at the international grocery store, during our last shop) and a case of frozen perogies. My husband requested sour candies, so we got two bags of those.
Last of all was some instant eats, because no one was going to be up to doing much cooking by the time we got home! My older daughter had requested a sushi platter, so my younger daughter picked two; one for each of them. For my husband and I, I chose a Steak & Ale, with potatoes dinner. It’s in the oven as I write this!
What we didn’t find were the garlic coil sausages I was after for our Easter basket and general eating. Nor could we find popcorn. According to the receipt, we got 51 items, though with the double charge on the baking powder, it was actually 50 items. We got a total of $16.50 off with at-checkout discounts.
Total damage for the day, with gas, groceries and lunch, was basically $960.
Thank God this is just once a month!
We still need to get to a feed store for 40 pound bags of kibble for the outside cats. I’m thinking to do that tomorrow, after visiting my mother.
While I was writing this, I got messages from someone in the rescue group. They will be taking 6 cats in total from us soon! Fosters already lined up. She was just checking to see if Grommet would be okay being fostered with other cats, like Furriosa. Grommet is really chill, and would probably help Furriosa handle the transition better. Furriosa is the least chill of but bunch. I’m incredibly grateful that they are focusing on getting the tiny females, first. They need the most help. Plus, Sir Robin and Grommet! They would be such perfect indoor cats. We’re looking at having them brought in for vetting and fostering after April 7, if all goes to plan! After that, they’re looking to grab some of the friendliest neutered males.
This means that they have had quite a few cats adopted, which is really awesome. It’s been such a struggle to find people willing to adopt rescues.
Anyhow.
That’s where we are at now – both city stock up shops for April are now done.
I am so, so glad it’s over with. I could happily curl up in a corner and go to sleep.
After taking pain killers.
Oh! That reminds me. I have come up with a possible reason for why this 15+ year post menopausal body suddenly wasn’t anymore. It might be a very rare side effect of the anti-inflammatories I’ve been taking. I am now stopping completely (I was already taking only the minimum dose), and already seem to be seeing a difference, though it is likely way too early to say for sure. Since I wasn’t able to get an appointment with the doctor until May, that gives me time to confirm the theory as right or wrong.
The grand total was actually higher, but I don’t have photos of everything. 😄
Today, my younger daughter and I headed into the city to do the more tiring of our stock up shops.
I’m happy to say that Damocles ran well, with no issues, though road conditions certainly didn’t help matters much! I still expect the truck to break down at any moment. 🫤
At least the roads were better than yesterday. Today turned out to be a relatively warm (hovering on either side of 0C/32F, depending on where we were at the time) and very sunny. Which meant that the last of the ice built up in the wheel wells finally came off! With a little help from my daughter bashing at some of it with her cane. 😄
Our first stop for shopping was Canadian Tire. It’s attached to a mall and my daughter treated us to breakfast (well… more like lunch, by then) in the food court, first. So nothing there came out of my own budget.
At the Canadian Tire, we got three bags of the litter pellets we needed, plus a bag of seed starting mix, a two pack of nail brushes for the bathroom and the kitchen, plus a couple of packs of marigold seeds. I was specifically looking for the French variety, which is the one that is good for repelling damaging insects. It took some digging, but my daughter finally found some French Double Dwarf marigold seeds. I’ll start some of those when we do our next round of seeds in a couple of weeks, possibly more in May, and I still plan to direct sow some, so we should have them blooming through most of the summer.
Total damage at Canadian Tire was $48.41
As we were leaving, we stopped by a gas station and put in $40 in gas – I’ll fill the tank when I do the Costco run and reset our trip mileage counter. When we drove though the town my mother is in (again), gas was $1.729/L. In the city, it was $1.529/L!!! What a difference! Usually, it’s just a few pennies cheaper in the city, if at all.
Our next stop was Walmart. This is what $301.84 looks like.
*sigh*
This is what we got for our money.
There is a case of facial tissues, four bags of dry kibble, a flat of 24 Coke Zero, a couple of packs of wet wipes, spray cleaner, compostable compost bags, incontinence pads, and a total of 9 energy drinks for my daughters and I.
For actual food, strawberries were an excellent price, so we got two packs. We also got three packs of frozen heat and eats; chicken nuggets, popcorn chicken and fish sticks, for those days when we’re all too broken to cook. I also got four more pounds of butter, as they were still at a better than Costco price.
And that’s it. That’s all I got.
My daughter picked up something for herself, but also paid for an item I’d picked up as an unplanned extra. We found ergonomic snow shovels on clearance and grabbed one. It was marked down to only $17. It wouldn’t fit in the cart, so my daughter carried it around the whole time we did the shopping, then snuck off with it to pay for it herself as a gift for me. 😄😂
Most of this was the kibble, but still… ouch. And I didn’t even pick up more XXL puppy pads or wet cat food for the beasts this time, either! We got a total of 29 items on this purchase, and that includes the 9 individual cans of Monster.
*sigh*
By this time, we were already both exhausted and hurting, but we still had one more stop to make. The international grocery store. We haven’t been there in ages, and I was thinking ahead to our Easter baskets, for ourselves and for my mother.
This is what $279.11 looks like – and that was after discounts totaling $114.56!
Yeah, that looks pretty empty, doesn’t it?
This is what we got.
For fruit, we got a bag of Mandarin oranges, red grapes and bananas that weren’t solid green, like the ones at Walmart were. We also got a package of small cremini mushrooms.
The biggest purchase – and the biggest savings – was the ahi tuna loin. It was a “buy one, get one free” deal. This is something we get for the girls only when there are huge sales like this, and this is the only place I know of that has these.
We also got some locally made, unsliced bacon, two regular smoked and two applewood smoked, on an “Any 4 for $20” sale. There is a calabrese sausage that I got specifically for my husband, for snacking on.
We got a couple of cheeses for the Easter baskets; a little Boursin Fig and Balsamic Vinegar for ours, and a roasted garlic Havarti for my mother’s. We also got stuffed olives – one with feta, the other with garlic – for the baskets, though I don’t think my mother likes olives, so maybe just for ours.
My daughter found some sauces she remembered they were out of (I don’t use these in my own cooking). A particular fish sauce, a Siracha, and some oyster sauce. The seaweed is mostly for them, too, though I sometimes like to grab a package to snack on, all by itself.
I spotted a few other things not normally on our list that I grabbed, as they are things we typically get only when they are on sale, or they are not often in stock, so we grab when we can. One of those was some dark coffee for the girls; it’s almost never under $20 anymore, so I grabbed one, even though the girls still had a “spare” at home. Squeeze bottle pizza sauce was on sale, so I grabbed one, to make mini pizzas on the naan bread I recently picked up. I got some Twinings tea because my loyalty card offers had $6.50 off of a $7.49 package, and extra tea is always good. I also grabbed some Himalayan Pink Salt that wasn’t in a grinder. We have a grinder, so we just need a refill, but finding just the coarse rock salt on its own has been surprisingly difficult. I was about ready to order in on Amazon, so I was very happy to see it in stock.
Last of all, we got food for everyone for supper. For my husband, we got a huge Lumberjack sandwich, which will feed him for a couple of days. 😄 I got their last Bento box; chicken teriyaki. My daughter chose a Poke bowl and a Chef Sampler from the sushi bar for herself and her sister. Then, for the road home, I got an energy drink for myself and my daughter got an Arizona Green Tea – plus I grabbed an extra Peaches and Cream Monster for my daughter for later, because it’s her favourite and we hardly ever see that flavour.
One of the loyalty card offers I had available was a “spend $10, get $10 off” deal. That was after the $114.56 in discounts I got with sales, for 28 items in total. I could have used loyalty points to get other discounts, but I want to save them up again. I can usually get at least a free turkey at the end of the year with them. Not too bad, considering we don’t make it into the city to shop there all that often.
Okay, I just got a phone call from my brother and had to share this.
He just left from visiting our mother. She had told him our vandal and his wife had visited today – with his wife pushing him in, in a wheelchair. They were there for the money he thought she would give him to pay for his funeral. She told him, no. He’s rich, he has land, etc. He should pay for his own funeral. Why is he coming to her?
When it became clear he wasn’t getting any money, he got up out of the wheelchair and walked away, with his wife and my mother both calling after him to come back.
My mother said she wanted to talk to his wife, but she just left, too. I assume she took the wheelchair with her.
As far as I know, they don’t have a wheelchair. His house isn’t wheelchair accessible, anyhow. Most likely, they borrowed one of the “public” wheelchairs available in the hospital the TCU is located in.
[I got a confirmation while I was going over this post, looking for typos. Yes, it was a hospital wheelchair.]
When my brother told me our vandal got up and walked away, I could only laugh. What a scammer!!
Good on my mother for actually standing up to him. I’d been trying to tell her, how he acts when he’s around her isn’t at all like how my brother and I have been seeing him, and that he’s probably putting on an act. Yes, he’s sick, but anytime we see him, he looks quite robust for someone who constantly says he’s dying. Now, he just proved me right. He fakes it when around my mother.
And his wife is part of the role play.
*sigh*
Okay, back to the topic at hand!
Adding all our stops together, including gas, this was a $669.36 day. Slightly over budget for this stock up trip (the gas comes out of a different line in the budget), but with how late we did our last stock up trip, plus what I got locally just a little while ago, hopefully we won’t need to use as much of our Costco budget.
We’ll just have to see what the prices are when we get there, next week.
The first thing I noticed when I started it this morning was that the clock’s time was wrong. I’d reset it yesterday. Which means, we lost power to the console during the night, and it came back.
As my daughter and I were starting the drive, we were talking about what’s been going on with the truck, and how weird it was for the tire warning message and light to not be there anymore.
Then, just shy of the highway, less than 2 miles from home, both the light and the message came on.
*sigh*
We had left earlier than usual to meet someone from the rescue to get our top loading cat carrier back, but also to stop in the town my mother is in (again). We picked up a couple of energy drinks and sandwiches for breakfast, then went to the feed store to pick up the lysine. They were still closed, though, so we kept on going to where we were arranged to meet up. We had plenty of time to eat our sandwiches and just sit and talk.
Once we had the carrier again (they even cleaned it!), it was off to the city and Costco.
I could not believe how full the parking lot was, for a Wednesday morning! It was really busy in the store, but the bigger surprise was as we left. There was a huge line to the customer service desk, running all the way to the main doors outside. I don’t usually see that kind of line except after Christmas.
Still, we got what we needed to get here; anything left on our list will be done on our next Walmart run.
There is is. $760.67, before taxes. After the cart was re-loaded, we had to stop and my daughter reorganized things. Because of the crowds and line to the Customer Service desk, we had to do it outside. As our stuff was being scanned, a guy showed up to load the cart and he basically just threw everything onto the flat cart with no attempt to be secure or even logical about it. My daughter and I are both very keen on packing and stacking things well, so it was hard to watch! 😄
This picture was taken before my daughter was done reorganizing so no, those eggs did not stay balanced on top of the pierogi at the end of the cart!! 😄
This is what we got today.
We did get cat supplies, though with the generous donation, we should only need maybe one more 40 pound bag of kibble before the end of the month for the outside cats. We didn’t need any for the inside cats, so the two 9kg and two 11.6kg bags are all for the outside cats. I think the price on the 11.6 kg bags went up. Either that, or they were on sale that last time I remember getting them.
We also got a case of canned cat food and a case of XL puppy pads. We now have enough canned cat foot that we won’t need to pick up more for the rest of the month. Usually, I get a couple smaller cases at Walmart to have enough for the month.
For non-food items, we got our toilet paper, AAA batteries, and some more Head and Shoulders that gets used as an anti-fungal body wash.
For beverages, we got a case of Coke Zero and a case of Monster. The Monster variety pack had replaced one of the flavours from before, and it’s to one I like but haven’t been seeing in stores much at all lately, so I’m happy. It was also on sale, so that was bonus. There is also a 3 pack of oat milk for the girls.
In dairy, we got a 4 pack of cream cheese, a carton of whipping cream, a block of Old Cheddar cheese, plus 5 pounds of butter.
For meat and other protein, there is a double flat of 60 eggs, a panini pack of sandwich meats, some pickerel fillets for the girls, two big packs of drumsticks that were $5 off at checkout, a pork blade, a pork loin, and a variety pack of dry sausages that was on sale. I also got two garlic coils, as the price was almost half what they are, locally. Oh, and some canned chicken. The price on that seems to be staying under $20 for six cans of late.
There is also a bag of carrots – organic, but they were on sale, and we didn’t see any non-organic ones anywhere, a 20 pound bag of Russet potatoes, frozen perogies, a case of ramen noodles, a bag of basmati rice, a case of tomato soup, large jars of mayo, peanut butter, and pickles. There is a two pack of butter chicken sauce, a shaker of powdered garlic (which, oddly, had more product for a lower price than the granulated garlic I usually get), and a large bag of granulated sugar.
For bread products, I got a 2 pack of rye bread and we got two packs of tortilla wraps. Finally, as a treat, my daughter selected from toffee and chocolate chip cookies.
Note that we did NOT get any beef. We haven’t been able to afford beef at Costco for a while, now. Lately, I’ve been picking up the odd package on sale, locally. The last couple of times I was in town because of the truck, I got some stew meat and some ground beef with sale prices much better than Costco these days.
Once the truck was loaded up, we filled the gas tank. Costco gas was at $1.239/L instead of $1.359/L everywhere else! It cost $51.69 to fill the tank.
On the way home, we stopped at the feed store and picked up the lysine. It came in adorable little 1kg buckets from a different brand this time. The price went up, so the two of them cost $67.20 after taxes. The containers I got before had been $20 each. Still better than buying it elsewhere.
When I saw the buckets, I commented on them, and that I would probably be keeping them to reuse. The woman behind the counter completely agreed with me – you can’t have too many buckets!
She also asked me if I was still wanting to get chicks.
I said yes, absolutely.
She asked if I was after a specific breed or anything like that, and I said I just want laying hens. She named several breeds, and I was fine with any of them. Then she asked about the date I’d want them, snowing the hatchery’s schedule on their white board.
There was no way we’d be ready for them in April! I told her, we need to be able to assemble the chicken coop first, which means, no snow on the ground. (Yes, I know; they’ll be in a brooder for weeks, first, but I still want to have the coop assembled and ready, before we get them.) So she put me down for the latest date they had, which is May 27. She has two other people who are interested in getting a smaller number of chicks than the 24 chick minimum the hatchery sells them for. I told her that, with our coop, we can have a maximum of 10 chickens, so we can go under, but not more than 10. So she will talk to the other two people and see what can be worked out to split an order of chicks between us, as well as splitting the shipping costs. With three people, we’ll be paying $15 each for shipping instead of $45.
Hopefully, we’ll be able to work something out with the other two people and get it all arranged and ordered. I’m flexible on the delivery date, too, as long as it’s not in April! She said, all three of us have said we are flexible on things, so this should work out quite well.
My daughter had been waiting in the truck all this time, so once we were back on the road, I updated her about the chicks discussion.
I think she is actually starting to look forward to having chickens! My daughters had been very reticent about it. Especially her sister. They have online friends who keep chickens, and my older daughter had commented about chickens getting sick, and we wouldn’t be able to take them to a vet.
Well, no, but we would be getting what we need to treat them ourselves! The feed stores carry medications and supplements for chickens, as well as feed. There’s lots of info out there on treating chickens.
Then we got to talking about where to set up the coop.
Ideally, I’d like to have it where we can easily see it, which would be in the south yards. Most of it isn’t level, and some significant portions of it floods in the spring, so that likely won’t work. I mentioned I was thinking of having it sheltered in the maple grove, or even where we currently have a pile of maple logs from the trees cleared away from the roof. The ground under that log pile is quite level, and I can see it out my bedroom window. Inside the maple grove would be more sheltered and there are fairly level spots there.
My daughter suggested we set it up against the retaining wall blocks at the end of the old kitchen garden. I had considered that area, but it would have to be at the northernmost end, as the south end is next to an area that gets deeply flooded in the spring. It’s not as sheltered from the wind, but it does get more light than if it were in the maple grove.
The other thing to consider is being able to secure the coop from being blown over in high winds. We’ve previously talked about getting panels that we can set around the mesh sides on windy days. The roosts are under the floors of the nesting boxes, rather than inside. There are three nesting boxes, with access from outside, at each end of the coop. When we assemble it, I want to find a way to attach a couple of roosts in the space in front of the nesting boxes, so they can roost for the night indoors, and not be exposed to the wind.
Ultimately, though, where we set up the coop will be temporary. I still plan to have some sort of polytunnel or greenhouse of some sort over garden beds in the main garden area. The coop and chickens would spend the winter inside that. So while we will need to secure it to make sure it doesn’t get blown over in high winds, we still need to keep it mobile.
I quite enjoyed talking it out with my daughter!
Anyhow.
Once at home, I had to drive up to the house to unload. I had some concerns on whether or not I’d cleared away enough snow before my body gave out. Especially the area I pull into behind the garage, so I can back up to the house. Sure enough, while in 2 wheel drive, I got stuck. I switched to 4 wheel drive and was able to back up. It was hard to tell, but I think that shuddering had started up again, while I was reversing in 4 wheel drive. The distance was so short, though, I really couldn’t say for sure. I just made sure to switch back to 2 wheel drive as soon as I was stopped, so I wouldn’t forget later.
Then it was the assembly line to unload the truck into the house. Last of all, my daughter and I took the kibble bags into the old kitchen. The whole time, we were constantly needing to make sure Sir Robin didn’t get into the house! He so wants to be inside!
Once the last of it was done, I left my older daughter to put things away while I grabbed some hot water and did the outside cats early. My younger daughter took over doing the kibble while I topped up the water bowls. Once all the cats were distracted, I was able to drive the truck out of the yard. I only had to scoot two of them away, first!
So there was have it. Finally. Our Costco stock up trip is done!
We will still need to do the Walmart and Canadian Tire trips, but that’s not as urgent, and there isn’t a lot we need to get there.
What I do need to do is visit my mother! I am planning to do that tomorrow afternoon, so I’ll be calling her tonight to let her know. My sister should have been able to visit her today. Maybe. During the drive home, we hit some pretty crazy blowing snow conditions, but it did clear up before we got home. As I write this, we are at our predicted high of -13C/7F, but the wind chill is -28C/-18F
Oh, my! Not only are we warming up over the next few days but, as I write this, we’ve got a high of 6C/43F forecasted for Sunday! 6C!!!! Wouldn’t THAT be nice!!
So, tomorrow (Thursday), I visit my mother. The day after, I have my doctor’s appointment. Saturday, I want to make a trip to the dump. Just a regular garbage and recycling run, though; my mother’s old mattress and box spring, and the broken office chairs, will have to wait for another day. Monday, my daughter has a doctor’s appointment. After that we don’t have anything scheduled until my dentist appointment near the end of the month, but March is also a birthday month for my older daughter. For her special birthday dinner, she usually chooses Pizza Hut pizzas. So at least one more trip there (no one delivers where we live. 😄)
Well, our mechanic has said, we need to drive the truck often. Mechanically, it’s running fine, with the possible exception of the shuddering in 4 wheel drive that comes and goes. I can just keep it in 2 wheel drive until absolutely necessary. They’ve checked and re-checked, and they can’t find anything wrong that could be causing it. The weird electrical thing has only affected the console and radio. The dashboard display has not been affected.
It’s still hell on my nerves, though.
The main thing is, we have transportation again, AND we finally got our first stock up shopping trip done – a week later than usual!
The Re-Farmer 