So… today has turned out to be a “non” day, of recovering and staying out of the heat. I’ve been spending the time making more crochet items for the market on Saturday.
At some point, I popped onto Pinterest and a random thing showed up in my feed that caught my attention. After doing my evening rounds and checking out our linden tree, I looked it up.
It seems that a chocolate substitute can be made using the green seeds of the linden tree. Who knew?
The seeds on our tree would still be too small for this. I keep meaning to pick the flowers for tea, but somehow always miss their peak blooming time.
I looked around and found information on it at Forager Chef. This link has pretty much all the information needed to make some, including a video and a recipe.
The article says to gather the seeds in July, but they are obviously in a warmer climate than we are. Maybe at the end of July/beginning of August, the green seeds on our tree might be large enough.
Today, we’ve had rain off and on throughout, with a brief period where the sun actually came out. As I write this, we are under a severe thunderstorm alert, which is a whole lot better than the tornado alerts other areas were getting. Large swaths to the south and west of us got storm damage and at least one tornado touching down. We are very fortunate in our location. Even today, I could hear thunder, but all the storms went around us. Our weird climate bubble has protected us again!
I did get a chance to do my morning rounds, if a bit on the late side, in between rain. I was able to harvest more scapes.
At this rate, I’ll have enough to dehydrate a bunch, which will then be ground to a powder. I did that last year and it was the handiest thing ever!
Some time back, I had moved the seed tray of winter squash, melons and cucumber off the portable greenhouse frame and set it in the open on our front steps. I don’t know why I bothered, and yet…
The first image is of a Golden Hubbard seedling from the second sowing that finally germinated. The second image is a Canary Yellow melon.
Yes, I’ll transplant them somewhere, even though the chances they will produce fruit that reaches maturity is very low. Especially the Hubbard squash, which needs 95-110 days for maturity. The melon needs 80 days. We have maybe 70 days before our average first frost. Still, we have had years where we didn’t get frost until well into November. This year is supposed to have a Super El Nińo which, in our region, usually translates into heat waves and drought.
I actually poked around in the seed starting mix in the tray, and it looks like we will actually have more things popping up!
Yes, I will transplant anything that does. Chances of them reaching maturity may be low, but possible. I’d rather give them the chance. It certainly doesn’t hurt to try.
This afternoon, during that brief period we had sunshine, I got out the shake and feed fertilizer we picked up during our Costco trip. The instructions say to work the granules into the top couple of inches of soil, but that’s not really an option. Especially with the mulched beds. So I just scattered it. This stuff can also be applied in water. Between the rain we’ve been having and watering the garden in between, the plants will get something out of it. The granules are supposed to be a slow release over 3 months. Every little bit will be a help.
We shall see soon enough, I guess!
Meanwhile, I finally got around to editing the garden tour video I took on the last day of spring. I got one of my daughters to watch the video when I was done to check for any errors I missed or let me know if anything should be fixed or changed. When I messaged them to ask if one of them could come down, my older daughter was able to do it.
Apparently, it’s hilarious. She burst out laughing several times. Mostly because of the cats, but a few other things, as well. I wasn’t trying to be funny, which is probably why it actually was. It just finished uploading onto YouTube, so here it is now!
The assessor from the insurance company wasn’t going to come this morning, but we were still expecting the prescription delivery, so when I headed out this morning, I made sure to open the gate for him. While doing my rounds, I decided to check in the old garden shed to see if the raccoons were still there. They were, but the mama was on the seat of the rolling cart, and some of the stuff I’d moved from on top of their nest had been knocked back down. The mama hid in the back of the shed while I wrestled with a tomato cage and wrapped up balls of trellis netting to get them off the babies. They weren’t too happy about it, but they stayed. They are getting definitely getting bigger!
I was feeling really tired for some reason so, after breakfast, I tried lying down for a couple hours. It was a frequently interrupted attempt at a nap. Between my phone going off with notifications and cats wanting to nap on my head, I didn’t get much rest.
I did, however, get a message about our truck. The owner apologized for the delay, telling me they were having troubles with their new lifts. The truck would be ready today, though. I told him I’d have to work out transportation so we could return our borrowed vehicle, then messaged my brother. He had already asked me if we were getting power outages, which we were not. They have been getting brief outages off an on, and he was wondering. After a bit of back and forth-ing, we decided to do the vehicole switch on Monday, when they are coming out for the funeral. I passed that on to the garage, so that is now arranged.
One of the things I’d noticed while checking on trail cam files from the camera by our sign is that I was getting a LOT of images triggered by saplings. The open area between the fence and the road is slowly refilling with poplars and, now that they have their leaves, they are triggering the motion sensor when the wind hits them. I headed out there with the wagon and loppers to start cleaning things up.
Not all of the saplings are visible in the first photo. The second photo was after I was done in the area at the corner of the property, where the camera and the road intersection is. After hauling away the first load, I came back and did a smaller load, working my way towards the gate. That area had been done more recently than the corner by the intersection, so there wasn’t as much to clean up.
By the time that was done, I was already feeling way too tired, and starting to feel a lot of pain – in areas where I had the ultrasounds taken. It’ll be three weeks before my doctor gets the results. Should be interesting to see if I’ve got more cysts dancing around in there again.
It wasn’t too bad yet, though, so after I put away the stuff for this job, I got out a weed trimmer to finish clearing the edges around the house, pausing to do other things along the way, like help out the poor Mock Orange beside the dining room door.
What you’re seeing on the ground are the Virginia Creeper vines that I pulled loose from the branches. These can completely smother a bush, and I’ve found spruce trees that had been killed by them. Unfortunately, the bases of these are right in among the Mock Orange’s roots, so there’s no way to really get rid of them completely. I got as much as I could out, and set them in the fire pit to dry out so that we can later burn them.
These flowers right near the fire pit are coming into full bloom. There are so many things blooming right now!
I got done with trimming around the house and had just moved on to the fence around the tulips when the battery died. It was past 2pm by then, so I decided to put away the weed trimmer until after I got back from the post office.
I getting ready to go when the prescription delivery came. I asked the driver how the roads were; he is also a school bus driver, and his route is in our area. He said the gravel roads were quite good. Just a few places with barricades, though the one nearest us has been there since before the storms. He says he may have lost all his tomatoes, though, as his garden is in a lower lying area. It’s mostly under water right now. We’d talked before about how he was considering doing raised beds or Hügelkultur, and I’d told him that my own beds were a sort of combination of the two. When he said he was losing his tomatoes, I encouraged him to do even low raised beds, telling him about when we had that major flooding a few years back. I lost entire sections of the garden we still haven’t reclaimed, but beds that were even just 6 inches higher had survived. I think next year, he’s going to give it a try.
After getting my husband is prescriptions to him, I headed out to the post office to pick up some parcels. I got another hoop kit – another of the set with the slightly longer rods and metal connectors – and another package that turned out to be some insect netting I’d ordered. My cabbages and kohlrabi seem to be completely gone. I plan to at least get cabbage transplants and, when I do, they will have insect netting over them!
Along with the mail, I picked up another 40 pound bag of kibble for the outside cats. I’m so glad our general store now carries them. It saves me from having to drive further afield. Right now, I want to use the borrowed car as little as possible.
By the time I was loading the car up, I was in major pain. There was no way I was getting back to anything else outside, so I just took some pain killers and tried to lie down while my daughters took over, including feeding the outside cats. Most of the outside stuff is going to have to wait. We’re supposed to get more rain – possibly another thunderstorm – in about an hour. Just a short one. Tomorrow, it’s supposed to start raining from about 2 pm to 6 am the next day! After that, we should have about a week’s break from the rain. Time enough for farmers to see how many of their crops survived the flash floods.
Late last year, we were getting predictions for another drought year this summer. From the looks of it, that is not going to be an issue!
As for me, right now, I’m getting absolutely slammed with fatigue and overall body pain. I suspect much of it is a reaction to changes in barometric pressure.
It’s just past 8pm as I write this, and I am seriously considering going to bed shortly.
Again.
Before I do, I got some shipping notifications in my email.
Yes, I bought more seeds, and they are on the way.
The first is an order from West Coast Seeds. I wanted to order more of the Giganthemum poppy seeds, since the bed I planted them in got flattened and dug into by cats. I have yet to see any poppies germinating. So I have a new package, which I will sow in the fall, and make sure the bed gets protected. For the winter, it will have mulch over the seeds, and I might just lay some chicken wire over the top, too. In the spring, when the mulch is removed, I’ll make sure to set up netting over the bed to keep the critters out.
I couldn’t just buy one packet of seeds, though, so I looked around. They have different varieties of kohlrabi that were on sale, so I ordered one each of the white and purple. Then I spotted a lovely, larger looking variety of fennel that I decided to try. These will all be started indoors in the spring.
My other order was from MI Gardener. Some are re-orders, some are new and, right now, everything on their site is on sale.
I can’t remember now if I’ve tried growing Atomic Red carrots before. If I did, they were from somewhere else. I ordered the rainbow mix before, and it does look like some have survived, but they’re still very tiny. I figured I’d try this variety next year. Unless I do some succession sowing. That’s an option, still.
The tri-colour green bean mix is a re-order, and I decided to try out the Broccoli Rabe next year, which is more likely to grow here than regular broccoli, and a relatively short season variety of green cabbage.
I also ordered more of the purple savoy cabbage – two packages this time. Next year, I’ll try starting the two varieties of cabbage indoors, and will make sure the transplants have insect netting on them.
The winter squash and pumpkin are all re-orders. After re-sowing the tray that got decimated by a mouse before we moved it outdoors, I ran out of seeds for several of them, and have only a few seeds left of the others. I want to try these again next year. It’s still possible our re-sown seeds might germinate, but it’s getting to the middle of June and, unless we have a super long and mild fall (which we have had before), they won’t have enough time to reach maturity.
Hopefully, for next spring, I will be able to have a better set up for seed starts. Our basement is just too cold, and we have a mouse that eats our seedlings. At least it’s most likely to be a mouse. I can’t think of anything else it could be, even though there is zero evidence for mice. Usually, if there are any, droppings are left all over the place, and there are none.
If we can reclaim our living room – the cat free zone – from all the stuff we’ve had to shove in there, I hope to start seeds in there again.
We really need to figure out what to do with the stuff from my mother’s apartment. Our other storage areas are already full of my parents’ stuff, plus more from my mother’s apartment, and now we have stuff in our basement that I had to find ways to elevate from the damp concrete because there was no room in the storage buildings to put them in, and more stuff in our living room. All of which was have been told to keep. My mother is finally in the nursing home she wanted to be in and can’t have much stuff at all, but she is adamant what we keep everything of hers. She also expects us to be able to know exactly where everything of hers is, and be able to dig things she suddenly wants out and bring them to her.
*sigh*
Our house is a disaster.
That’s part of why I enjoy working in the yard and garden so much. It actually feels like I’ve accomplished something out there!
Normally, I would be in the city today, doing our second stock up shop.
I’m going to wait a few more days.
Instead, here is the stock up shop I did a couple of days ago, when I came back too tired and in too much pain to do a post. That and I needed to try and get to bed early, as we had to capture some cats to go to the vet the next morning.
This was day of multiple stops, but I only got pictures of two of them, for a total of $258.88 It was also an unusual shop, as I did not get as much as I normally would have, changing up where I went a bit.
My first stop was the Canadian Tire, not pictured.
I got two bags of hardwood pellets for the litters, some screws and neoprene washers to go with them, as the cat house roof needs a bit of repair, a new headlight bulb for Damocles (our truck), some stronger zip ties I’ll need for the garden, and a clear plastic runner that I’m wanting to set on my bedroom floor, under where some litter boxes are. The headlight alone was $40.
Grand total after taxes was $105.34
Gas prices were cheaper by 20¢/L so I got $50 in gas on the way to my next stop, which was Walmart.
This is what $138.81 looks like.
This is a really small shop for a Walmart trip. I didn’t get any cat food this time, because I expected to go to Costco and stock up there in a couple of days, though I did get the XXL size pee pads.
The paper towels were on sale. The Costco price for paper towels are good, but I get so many large items there, getting their bigger package of paper towels is too much, so I get them at Walmart, instead. Then there are the XXL puppy pads, a cheap watering can because my new one that I got last year cracked over the winter. I finally found the huge bottles of shampoo and conditioner in stock. I would have gotten two conditioners, as we all use more of that than the shampoo, but it was the last one on the shelf. The “baby wipes” are actually “all purpose” wipes. I find having a package in my office/bedroom handy, and the girls were wanting one for their upstairs apartment, so I got a couple. Then there is the personal hygiene product that I’m still using, just in case. Looking forward to that ultrasound I’ve got coming up early next month!
That’s it. One of the smallest Walmart shops I’ve ever done, and certainly the smallest “stock up shop” I’ve ever done! No grocery items – I didn’t think to bring ice packs on this trip – and no cat food really makes a difference.
Normally after this, I would have gone to an international grocery store, but I kept hearing how Fresh Co has better prices, so I decided to try there.
As I parked I saw that it shared a building with a Dollarama, so I went there first. I honestly can’t remember everything I got there, and I think the receipt got tossed. I did get 4 plastic bins, which we used to for the snail roll transplants, making it more stable to move them and have them outside. I got some plant clips and 3′ long plant stakes that my daughter helped me across the bed, with the clips to hold the netting in place, to hopefully hold it up the next time the cats jump on top of the netting.
They really want to be on top of that mosquito netting. It’s so weird.
I’m sure I got something else, but I can’t remember what. Looking at my bank transactions, though, it totaled $35 even.
Then I went into the Fresh Co.
I can’t say that prices were really any better, there. There were big signs all over saying they had the best prices, or they would match competitor prices. Meanwhile, their flats of eggs were $2 more than what I can get locally. There were things I saw at Walmart that were at least a dollar more expensive. Some prices were better, but only because they were on sale.
The store itself was… I don’t know. It’s not that it was laid out badly, but it felt like it was. They had a lot of international foods, but nothing that I was interested in, compared to the international store I normally go to.
In the end, I spent only $120.07, after taxes. This is what that looks like.
That really isn’t much. Not much for a stock up trip, that’s for sure!
As you can see, pretty much everything I got was on some sort of sale. I got three boxes of frozen chicken – even packed in insulated bags, they were partially thawed by the time I got home, so they got eaten pretty much right away. There turned out to not be much in the boxes, either. Definitely not worth paying full price for, but not too bad with the sale price.
The sale price on the butter was pretty good, so I got four pounds. Definitely a good price on the coffee creamer the girls like, so I got a couple of those, even though they still had. The water flavours were also a better price, though only because they were on sale. The price on the strawberries was okay for the size of package, and they were really good looking strawberries.
The bananas were an okay price; I got them more because they were actually decently ripe. Everywhere else I’ve been seeing bananas, they are totally green. I remembered to get onions, and those were a good price.
The sale price on the teas were quite good. I spotted a honey ginger drink mix we’ve tried before and enjoyed, and the price was right on that, too. The ketchup was also a good price. The sale price on the rye bread is about the same as when the rye bread is on sale locally for that brand. Then, finally, I got a cold Monster drink for the drive home, because by then, I really needed it!
Again, not much of a shop, and certainly not much for a stock up shop.
By the time I was done, however, I was heavily using my cart as a walker. My lower back was hurting, my left hip was giving out and, oddly, my left shoulder felt like it was trying to dislocate every time I moved it.
Which certainly made packing the stuff into the truck “fun”.
Counting the Dollarama and Canadian Tire shops, the total for the day was $414.22 Plus whatever my lunch at Walmart cost, which would have been under $20.
It didn’t last long, of course, but still… not sure if the winter sown beds I removed the mulch from will survive the cold nights we’ve been having. I had to take the mulch off, to keep the seeds from being smothered, but weather is weather, and this is Canada, so yeah. We get snow pretty much any time of the year.
This little furball is on the roof of the isolation shelter, right above where the heat lamp is. I do have sheets of rigid insulation under the roof for the winter, but the cats have torn holes in it. This cat is pretty much on top of one of them, so it’s a warm spot.
I headed into the city on my own today, as my younger daughter who sometimes comes with me was still not feeling very well today. Today’s shopping was a triple shopping stop, though I did stop at a gas station on the way out to get a drink and a sandwich for breakfast, then at a Domo in the city to put in $30 in gas (fuel is from a separate budget line).
The price of gas. Oh, my goodness.
The gas station just outside of town I stopped at to get breakfast (their sandwiches are made fresh by a local bakery, and the single restaurant in our little hamlet, and are very good), the price of gas was $1.689/L
As I drove into the city, the first gas station I passed was $1.449/L ! As I continued on, I saw a Shell station at $1.889, but two other stations were at $1.449. After I was finished at Canadian Tire, I stopped at a Domo along the way and put in $30 before continuing my shopping. As I was leaving the city, that first gas station I saw had changed its price to $1.889!!! A 44¢ per litre jump happened while I was shopping!
I’m afraid to find out what the local prices will be. I took a different route home, so I never saw, one way or the other.
My first stop of the day was Canadian Tire, since there are no food items to get while there. This time, I actually got a picture, since I got a few extras.
This is what $92.02 looks like.
Yeah. Not much.
The main thing on the list was the litter pellets. I also found the small wood screws I needed, then picked up some flat right angle corner plates to further secure the extra roosts I made for the chicken coop. The angle brackets I used to assemble them are not very strong, and I don’t want to risk the weight of roosting chickens to break them loose.
I found some clear repair tape, and a hose repair kit I needed, plus another bag of seed starter mix; I haven’t been able to start the 4-6 weeks before frost seeds, yet, and will soon need to start the 3-4 week seeds.
I ended up getting a package of LED bulbs. We just used our last spare, and these were 53% off. On the way to the checkout, I spotted some nitrile garden gloves on sale. After making sure the size large would actually fit my hand, I picked up a pair. Most of the garden gloves I have now are wearing out.
Just that, for almost $100. *sigh*
From there, my next stop was the Walmart.
This is what $413.84 looks like.
That cart isn’t even full. It’s a lot of non-food items, though.
Going through the receipt from the top, there’s a package of paper towels that was marked down in price. Then there are four bags of dry kibble. Two for the inside cats, two for the outside cats. Feed store kibble is cheaper per kg, but this way they get variety, which is better for the cats.
The price of strawberries was very good, so I got 4 clamshells. There’s a couple of loaves of rye bread – I’ll get more bread at Costco – and a bag of 5 avocados for a very good price. I got some heat and eats – fish sticks and chicken nuggets – for those days when none of us is up to cooking. Those have gone down in prices. There’s a 2L of 3% milk and a 2L of oat milk, plus a large block of Old Cheddar cheese. For my husband, I got some pretzels, plus I got a small bag of popcorn. Normally we get the big container of popcorn at Costco, but we couldn’t find any, last time.
I found the brand of soy sauce my husband likes and picked up a bottle. I’m glad I did, because the international grocery store didn’t seem to have any again. For my husband, I got four boxes of Crystal Lite, in two different flavours.
Next is a large bottle of hair conditioner. Yes, just conditioner. We use twice as much of that as we do shampoo. Then there is the Lactaid, except I got the wrong kind. I thought I was getting chewable, which my husband asked for, but when I went for the extra strength, they turned out to not be chewable. There is a box of antihistamines for me, some *ahem* personal hygiene products for the girls and I.
The budget for this part of the shop was supposed to be under $400, but the taxes put it over.
Ouch.
After this, I had one last stop to make. I did consider going to the Dollarama next door, afterwards, but I was just too tired and just did the International grocery store.
By this time, it was coming up on 1pm, so I got lunch, first. Some Chinese food and a drink, that came out to $17.70 after taxes.
As for the rest of the shopping, this is what $188.24 looks like.
There’s … not much there at all.
You know what we didn’t get?
Beef. We did not get beef. I was looking at a “value pack” with a whole two grilling steaks in it that cost $56.65. The price per kg was $79.34. Those two steaks weighed only 0.714kg
I don’t expect the prices to be any better at Costco.
There is some instant milk tea for the pantry. Last time, we couldn’t find any, and now it’s a new brand to try. That and the instant Matcha Latte I got for the girls were on sale. I got a large bunch of banana, some Pink Lady apples, and a tiny Camembert cheese round that has a $1 off sticker on it.
The two Chef Samplers are sushi and nigiri platters I got for the girls – there was no way any of us would be up to cooking by the time I got home. For my husband, I got a Lumber Jack sandwich, and a Teriyaki Bento box for myself.
I had planned to pick up ground cinnamon at Costco, but when I saw the price here, I picked up a bag. Why pay more for a shaker container when we can just reuse the old one?
The frying chicken was a very good price. I got two whole chickens for about half the usual price.
The 10 pound bag of Russet potatoes was a good price, so I grabbed on. The sushi right for the girls was the most expensive thing on the list, but that will last time a long time (my husband and I prefer the Costco Basmati). I got two different types of smoked bacon, unsliced, that was on sale. There are two types of tea that I got on sale; tea is getting insanely expensive, but these are house brand teas, so they’re a bit less expensive even when not on sale.
Last on the list, I got two different types of fish fillets for the girls.
That’s it. That’s all of it.
The grand total for all this is $694.10 Add in my lunch and the gas, and we’re at $721.80
This isn’t even much of a stock up.
After what we got today, we’re working out the list of what we will be getting at Costco. I’m already dreading what it’s going to cost, but my older daughter has already told me she’ll be sending funds for some things. That will certainly help. Along with the usual budget times for May, we need to cover things like the annual WordPress subscription, and the bi-annual emptying of the septic tank. Which cost about the same. 😄
Well, that’s one stock up shop done, at least. Such as it is.
We got to enjoy our basket contents as our traditional Easter brunch, and it was quite lovely.
Not everyone is in a joyful mood, though. I found this in my pending comments today.
No, I am not “approving” it.
Bogna 11h ago
Your pictures say “view on Instagram” so there is nothing to view. This blog is crap
For those who have been following my image heavy blog for a while, you already know this, but for those newer to this blog, I have a bit of an issue.
I have an old WordPress plan that is no longer available. It gives me my domain name and 15G of storage space. I am currently at 98.9% full.
I could upgrade my account to a business plan, which would give me 50G of storage space and a whole lot of bells and whistles I don’t want or need, costing more than twice what I’m paying per year now. Or I could buy – well, rent would be the more accurate term – 50G of storage space and be paying even more than the cost of a business plan, on top off how much my current grandfathered plan costs per year. None of which is in budget.
I’ve looked at a lot of places where I could store image files with the intention of embedding them here, but none of them have worked out for one reason or another. The only one that has worked out consistently is to post things to Instagram, then embed them into my posts, the same way I can embed videos. The problem with that is, sometimes the images/video don’t load and people have to click on the space to go to Instagram to view them. From what I understand, though, if you don’t have an Instagram account, you can’t actually see them. I could be wrong on that. Of course, if someone has blocked me on Instagram or something like that, they won’t be able to see it. Nor would I be able to see anything of theirs.
The thing is, this is a function of Instagram. Something I have no control over. This is something that happens on the viewer’s end. Everything is working just fine at my end, and I have no way of knowing when or if it will work for any particular viewer at any given time. Most people know how these things work well enough to get it.
My angry visitor here doesn’t seem to understand that and has declared my blog “crap”, simply because they apparently can’t click to view on Instagram. I have no idea why they can’t view the images on my blog through whatever device or OS they are using. Apparently, they aren’t capable of clicking or tapping on the “view on Instagram” link that shows, instead.
So they chose to diss my blog, instead.
They have only succeeded in giving me a good laugh.
Happy Easter, Bogna! I hope you have a better rest of your day.
As I was getting my coat to go feed the outside cats, I spotted movement in the distance. I had to zoom in quite a bit to get these shots, so they’re not the best.
Two white tail deer, beyond the outer yard, at the far side of the barn. Soon after, I saw one of them making its way through the outer yard to the driveway, heading for the gate. The deer are very, very active this time of year, and the population looks to be quite high this spring! I haven’t seen so many since we stopped feeding them outside the living room window.
After I did the outside cats’ food and water, I tried for a head count. I think I counted 24 in total. Possibly 25?
Adam was on the cat house roof, where she prefers to eat, and she enthusiastically allowed me to pet her. I was able to feel around her belly. She does not feel pregnant, and I don’t feel any active nips. Given how early I saw she’d gone into heat and the boys going after her, it’s entirely possible she’s had a litter and lost it. I am seeing the other feral females – Slick, Sprout and the white and grey we haven’t named – show up just long enough to eat, and then they disappear.
I managed to get a picture of this beauty, though.
I’m glad we were able to catch her and get her spayed, because she very rarely allows me to touch her. Once I do, she stops and enjoys the pets, but otherwise, she just runs away.
Once the outside stuff was done, I headed out. My first stop was to the post office, then I planned to go to the feed store in my mother’s town, then visit her.
I had asked the owner of the general store if their feed supplier also carried cat food. She looked up their list and they did. That was a while ago, so when I came in to get the mail, I looked through their feed section and saw they had three 18kg (39.68lbs) bags of cat kibble! They were only $45, too. With the other brands we’ve been getting, they are in the $50-$55 range.
We’ve never had this brand before, so I got only one, to try it out. If the cats like it, it would make things much easier to pick them up in our own little hamlet than having to drive to the towns with feed stores. The only thing is that I would have to change how I budget it. Right now, I put the budgeted amount onto a credit card, so that when I buy them I get my cashback or Canadian Tire dollars. The general store doesn’t take credit cards, though. Just cash and debit. So if I’m going to be buying the big bags there more often, I have to make sure NOT to transfer the funds to a credit card.
So after I picked up our mail, I got the one bag of kibble – then picked up a couple of sausages for the Easter baskets. Something else that was on my list for the shopping I planned to do after visiting my mother.
Since I got the test bag of kibble, I skipped the feed store and went straight to my mother’s.
She was in her favourite armchair in the common room when I got there. She was pleasantly surprised to see me, which was nice for a change.
It was a pretty quiet visit. There wasn’t a lot new going on. My mother immediately started complaining, of course, but not as … energetically, shall we say, as usual. Her health isn’t good. She needs sleep. She needs a private room. (I don’t disagree!) Her room mate is terrible. (I’m sure her room mate thinks the same of my mother!) The regular doctor never comes to see her. The other doctors are from the city come in just for a day. I reminded her that she would need to make an appointment for the doctor to actually see her as a patient; otherwise, he’s just doing his rounds before going to his regular patient appointments at the clinic. To which she complained that it’s just about moneymoneymoney. Apparently, doctors shouldn’t get paid? I’m not quite sure what she’s getting at when she says that, but she says it quite often.
Hopefully, she won’t be here for very long, but there’s just no way to know when a bed will open up at the nursing home she wants to be in.
I remembered to ask if our vandal had shown up again, after his big act with his wife pushing him in with a borrowed wheelchair, then storming out when she refused to pay for his funeral. She said no, he hasn’t. I was not surprised. I told her, I knew there was a reason he was visiting so often. He wanted something from her. Now we know what it was. She started going on about how he’s wealthy, he has his farm. I told her, that’s not cash in the bank. He would have to sell it. Her response was, what else is he going to do with it? His wife isn’t going to farm it, and they have no kids. I told her, he doesn’t have to. He’s got so many vehicles and equipment scattered all over his property. Stuff he can’t use anymore. He could sell just a couple of things and more than cover the cost of his own funeral. That reminded her of the thousands of dollars she’d given him for the huge garage he had built to store his equipment in. All I know is, his vehicles and equipment are still all scattered all over his yard, fully visible from the road as I drive by, except for the Bobcat he stole from my mother, so who knows what all he’s got stored in there. My mother got the point, though; there is no reason for him to be going to her for money to pay for his own funeral. Which could be years from now, for all I know, based on how he appears the few times I’ve seen him since his diagnosis.
Overall, it was a good and relaxed visit. I stayed until her lunch tray was brought over – a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup and crackers, a pickled blend of legumes I recognize from Costco that is quite good, and canned fruit for desert. Her insulated tea cup was just hot water – at her request – to mix in with the glass of milk. One of her favourite things to drink. I stayed long enough to help her get set up and everything was in reach before saying my goodbyes.
From there, it was off to our regular local grocery store – and extra drive, but the difference in prices between that town and my mother’s made it worth it.
Once there, I got the last few things for the Easter baskets, including an extra flat of eggs. I’d asked my daughters to hard boil some eggs for me to start pickling after I got home. They ended up doing a flat and a half – roughly 45 eggs. The extras and the uglies would be used for egg salad. I got a paska for my mother, though it’s huge for a one person basket. Since she no longer has her own kitchen or utensils, my plan is to have everything for her basket all cut up and ready to eat without needing anything else. Plus, she could share the contents, if she finds it too much. We aren’t fans of paska ourselves, so I got a lovely fresh flax seed loaf for our own basket.
The shopping done, my only planned outing over the next while is to visit my mother and bring her the basket on either Saturday or Sunday.
I’m thinking Saturday.
There’s a reason for that.
The truck.
The truck has been running well. The stock up shopping trips have been fine. I have, of course, still been constantly checking the gauges. With the troubles we’ve been having for the past couple of years, I just can’t help myself.
Which is why I noticed something had changed.
The oil pressure gauge.
When we had the leaking seal replaced again, on warranty, and the oil sensor replaced, I got an oil change done at the same time. According to the mileage, we have a couple thousand kilometers before it needs to be changed again – which is about a month’s worth of driving, in the summer. Two months, in the winter.
After all that, the pressure gauge was right back where it was supposed to be and staying within a typical range.
As we were coming home from the Costco trip, though, it started to read on the low side of normal. Technically still okay, but at one point, it was pretty much on the line for low pressure.
It was reading normal again when I started out today, but when I got to the grocery store from my mother’s, the gauge had dropped down to the line again.
While I was on my way home, I kept checking it, and sure enough, it kept slowly dropping. As I was pulling into our driveway, it was touching the line again.
*sigh*
One thing I can say, though; the warranty differential is working fine. The 2 wheel and 4 wheel drive setting has been on auto, and it has had no problem kicking into 4 wheel drive as needed. Today got so warm, the hard packed snow under the tire tracks in our driveway started to soften and the truck starting to sink as I was driving, but I was able to get through with no problem! No getting stuck in our own driveway again!
We’ve been parking the truck in the yard for the past while, since my brother’s truck was half in our garage (as far as it could go without hitting the top of the door frame). My brother had phoned this morning and he suggested I just back it up into the lane towards the barn and leave it there, so we could park our own truck in the garage. So after the shopping was unloaded and I did an early feeding of the outside cats (they like the new kibble!), I moved his truck out.
His truck was having issues with sinking through the formerly hard packed snow, but it got through fine as well.
Driving our own truck into the garage, the oil gauge didn’t have a chance to drop like it did while driving, but it also never got to where it normally is.
The boxes for our chicken coop are still stored at the far end of the garage, so we can’t pull all the way in. Not a problem, since it means I had space to get out the step stool and check the oil levels.
It was low.
I had one last bottle of oil left, 3/4 full, and used that. The level seemed okay after that, but I’m never confident in what I’m seeing on the dip stick. The colour of the oil and the colour of the dip stick is pretty much the same, and the metal is always shiny, even after wiping it clean.
*sigh*
I made a point of checking, and there is no sign of an oil leak, but then I’ve never seen evidence of an oil leak even when it turned out to be leaking really badly, because of where the leak was. The only times I thought I did, it turned out to be from the differential, not engine oil.
Once I was settled inside, I called the garage. The owner answered. I made sure to first let him know that the warranty differential replacement has been doing fine, then explained about the oil pressure and being low on oil again. I mentioned, I’ve got a lot of driving to do in the next while!
He asked me if I could come in on Tuesday afternoon, so they can check it out. They are closed tomorrow and on Easter Monday, of course, so I was very happy that he could book me in so quickly.
For now, it should be fine for me to drive to my mother’s. I’ll do it on Saturday, when things are open, so I can pick up some extra oil to keep in the truck, now that I’ve just used the last of my stash.
This is getting so insane. I’ve either got another leak somewhere, or the truck is simply burning a lot of oil. Which I would expect to see evidence of in my exhaust, and I haven’t.
I just don’t get it.
I am so tired of vehicle troubles!
I can’t even say it’s been this particular truck, since the last two vehicles we’ve owned have also had weird problems. As my daughter told me during our Costco shop, and I was commenting about my own paranoia about the truck; with all the stuff that’s been going on, I have reason to be!!
Hopefully, it’s something minor that they can find and fix easily and quickly.
Hopefully.
On a completely different note, once I had my appointment made, I got to check out what I got in the mail.
The padded envelope had been opened, and the box it was in was crushed. That would have been customs. At least the thermometer itself was not damaged!
Once things thaw out, I want to use it in various beds to see how different the soil temperature is in, say, the high raised bed compared to the low raised beds. It might help explain why I had issues with my beans, melons, tomatoes and squash last summer.
That all settled, the last goal of the day was to make three different types of brine to pickle eggs in, and start peeling the eggs that were hard boiled last night. I made beet, soy and turmeric brines, using the simplest recipes I could find online, so I had three little pots going at once. Then my younger daughter and I started peeling eggs.
It was a disaster.
The shells just did not want to separate from the eggs!
Now, it we were just making egg salad, I wouldn’t have cared, but I was after the most perfect eggs to brine and use in our Easter baskets, and we just weren’t getting any at all. After about a dozen eggs, I called a stop to trying.
Thankfully, I got a extra flat of eggs at the grocery store today.
The ugly eggs didn’t go to waste, though; they got eaten pretty much immediately. 😄
Meanwhile, I started on another batch to hard boil, using tips I’ve tried in the past, all combined.
It worked.
First, fill the pot with water and generous amount of baking soda, then bring it to a boil. The eggs were brought out of the fridge to warm up. Room temperature would have been ideal, but I at least didn’t want to have cold shells cracking on contact with boiling water.
Once the water was boiling, I used a wire basket type scoop – I don’t know the name of it – to lower the eggs into the boiling water in batched. I got 24 eggs into the pot. One did crack, but nothing leaked out of it.
I set the timer for 10 minutes, but it took a while for the water to go from a simmer to a full boil again, so it was really more like 7 minutes at a boil. When the time went off, I shut off the heat, but didn’t take them out right away, just in case. Then I transferred them to a bowl of cold water and left them there for another 10 minutes.
Every single egg peeled perfectly.
All 24 eggs.
Perfect. Including the one that cracked!
I was hoping to just have 6 eggs per jar or brine, but I was able to do 8 in each!
Gotta make sure to pass on the method to the girls. My younger daughter was pretty upset that the first batch wouldn’t peel and felt she had done something wrong. It’s not a problem, though. We’ll just have lots of eggs ready for snacking!
Tomorrow, we need to dig out a couple of baskets from storage, and I need to figure out how to do my mother’s basket, if I’m going to have everything pre-cut up for her. Normally, the baskets would get blessed on Saturday, then enjoyed on Easter morning, but I have not been able to find any times for basket blessing. I know it’s being done; just not which church or what time. For quite a few years now, we’ve just blessed them ourselves. I’ll take the chance to visit my mother on Saturday with her basket and get a bit of a visit in.
Then not go anywhere again until it’s time to take the truck in to the garage to get checked!
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.
After all the digging yesterday, today we got to enjoy the fruit of my labour with a cookout.
March is a birthday month, but we never celebrate birthdays on the day, but the weekend before or after (unless the birthday happens to fall on a weekend, of course), plus like to do nice things for the birthday person spread out over a couple of weeks.
The other thing we normally used to do was take the birthday person out to the restaurant of their choice. Which isn’t really an option anymore. So instead, we would do the take out of their choice.
Now, in theory, we could have done that this time. My brother got his truck prepped and it’s available for us to drive, should we need it. He is also convinced something is going to go wrong with our own truck! It is a much older truck – I don’t know the year, but I think it’s either late 70’s or early ’80’s. With my luck, I’m afraid that if I drive it, it’ll break down, too! 😄
My older daughter that has a birthday this month, however, insisted we not spend any money on her for her birthday. When I told her, I budgeted for it, she said to put it towards the truck.
*sigh*
So, instead, I decided to do special meals. Today, it was a cookout.
The cooking was done outside, but the eating inside, because dang, it’s still cold out there!
My younger daughter headed out early to get the fire pit going and build up coals for cooking, while I brought out the stuff to cook. This was our first time using our square Dutch oven that I got on clearance at Canadian Tire, months ago.
I had eight baking potatoes, wrapped in foil with olive oil and course salt. They all fit quite nicely in the Dutch oven, as you can see in the second picture.
I got the pictures after she’d had it in the middle of the fire pit for more than an hour (we forgot to check the time), then moved it off to one side to start cooling it down a bit.
The nice things about this Dutch oven. The square shape made fitting the potatoes in much better than with a round shape, which made for more even cooking. As with the other Dutch oven, the lid can double as a separate cooking surface. It’s smaller, and lighter, perfect for if we want to cook smaller portions, and easier to carry when full.
The down sides with this design. It has no legs, so it rests directly in the coals. The lid isn’t recessed, so any coals set on top are not as secure. It’s handles are built in; larger areas on opposite corners, rather than a wire carrying handle that swings up and down, or can even be used to hang it over the fire. There is also no handle on the lid. Which means we can’t use a tool to lift the lid off, nor use a carrying handle to lift the entire thing in and out of the fire pit. Instead, we had to wait for things to cool down enough to handle in some way. My daughter was able to push the lid off to the side so I could remove the potatoes and take them into the house to stay warm in the oven. Eventually, my daughter was able to get the lid out so finish cooling off on the side, but it took quite a bit longer before the rest was cool enough to remove with oven mitts. Even then, it had to rest on top of some logs (so as not to come in directly contact with the snow) until it was cool enough to handle and bring inside.
Then my daughter reset the fire and built up more coals to cook the hot dog wieners. We have a moveable grill surface (you can see the shadow of it in the first picture above) and a cooking tray designed to go on a BBQ grill, for things that would otherwise fall through the grill. It fits a dozen wieners at once.
Wieners that had started to freeze by then!
With the temperatures, once those were on, we had to cover them with foil. I had a metal dish to bring them into the house with, later; with the wind, I ended up setting it on top to keep the foil from blowing off!
When it was time to turn them, though, I realized I forgot something important.
I forgot to oil the cooking surface. The wieners were stilling to it!
As soon as they were cooked through enough, my daughter transferred them into the (now warm) metal dish. They were pretty torn up, but she did the best she cook! I wrapped the dish in foil and went in to keep them warm with the potatoes. Originally, we were going to toast the hot dog buns, too, but quickly gave up on that idea. We would toast them in the oven, so I took the bag of buns in, too.
They were starting to freeze as well!
In the end, though, it all worked out well. The potatoes turned out to be perfectly cooked! I was more concerned about them. The last time we did foil wrapped potatoes in the fire pit, they were set directly into the hot ashes. They cooked way faster than expected, and were pretty burned in places. Cooking them in the Dutch oven protected them and let them cook more evenly. Definitely something worth doing again!
That was for today. Later on, we’ll be baking a cake, and I’ve got fish fillets thawing out for another special dinner – one only my daughters can eat, but that’s just fine! My husband and I don’t tolerate fish – or most seafood in general – well. The girls, on the other hand, love pretty much all seafood.
As for me, it’s back to spending time with the family! It’s been a good day.
Today, finally, we did the stock up shop that normally gets done at the end of the month!
Between issues with the truck and trying to get my mother’s apartment emptied before the end of January, what would have been our first stock up shopping trip to the city, didn’t happen.
This trip is normally a stop at Canadian Tire, a Walmart and then either the international grocery store we like so much, or a Superstore.
Well, we’ve done our Costco shop, and have done local shops, so today we only needed to go to Canadian Tire and Walmart. Both of which we could do in the smaller city where my mother is now in a Transitional Care Unit, until they can find space for her in a personal care home on a permanent basis.
I didn’t take a picture, but our first stop was at Canadian Tire, where we got three 40 pound bags of litter pellets. I was also looking for more seed starting mix, but they only had Miracle Gro, which has become increasingly filled with chunks of wood and twigs. So I skipped that, but I did pick up a new growing tray kit. They had 72 cell trays with hexagonal cells and a greenhouse dome lid for only about $9. I just got the one, as I have other things I can use. I’ll eventually need to get more drain trays separately, though. More and more of my older ones are starting to crack.
My Canadian Tire purchase was only three bags of pellets and the one tray kit, which totaled $35.24
Then, it was the Walmart.
This is what $288.51 looks like.
Most of my list was non-grocery items. My husband requested a few things, and my older daughter requested some heat and eats. None of us are doing well enough to stand in a kitchen, cooking a full meal, right now.
So this is what I ended up getting.
I couldn’t get the receipt to lie flat, but I think it’s still readable.
In the heat and eats, my daughter chose dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets, just for fun. Not something we normally get, at all, ever! I grabbed a package of corn dogs at the last minute (they became supper!), plus we got a couple of bags of frozen tater tots.
For other food items, we got a couple more loaves of rye bread, sandwich pickles, 3% milk, a case of Kraft Dinner that was on sale, a bottle of Kefir (a rare treat), Birthday Cake flavoured coffee creamer, a box of Sleepytime tea and a bag of oranges.
My husband requested Fresca, sour candies and water flavours.
There are some feminine hygiene products, hair oil, shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, paper towels, two cases of canned cat food, and the Jiffy seed starting mix I was looking for. Also, a package of baby wipes to keep in the truck for hand washing.
For the drive home, we got a couple of drinks and a snack to try. Samosa chips; rosemary vinaigrette flavoured. They were quite tasty!
And that’s it; 33 items in total came to almost $300.
Our Walmart shop actually cost more than getting the truck repaired. That doesn’t even include the Canadian Tire stuff, nor the gas we got on the way home (I only put in $20, but used my points to get 10¢ off per liter, so I got more for my money).
*sigh*
Thankfully, though, this should be our last big shop for the month. Which is already almost half over.
The Re-Farmer 