Going down to tend to the kittens in the morning has become a two person job. The kittens are on the top step when the door is open, so we’ve got one person at the door, trying to pick up kittens so we can use the step, while the other holds a laundry basket to carry them in, and to catch the ones that slip past.
The kittens love that laundry basket! After they get a ride down the stairs, they stay and play in and around it.
Beep Beep loves that thing, too!
Temperatures have been cooling down a bit, lately. The overnight temperatures meant actually being able to sleep at night! We’ve to thunderstorms predicted for today and tomorrow, then we’re supposed to stay in the mid-20’s (77-80F) for the remainder of the long range forecast.
It really says something that “mid 20’s” are now “cooler” temperatures. Even during last year’s drought, those where our hot days. We did break 30 every now and then, but nothing like what we’ve had this year.
It does make the morning rounds outside much more pleasant.
Except for all the mosquitoes and horseflies. The horseflies usually ignore me, but I got bit this morning.
You know why they’re called horseflies?
Because getting bit by one is like being kicked by a horse, compared to mosquitoes!
It took a couple of hours, but the pain and swelling did go down. Now I just have a weird white spot at the bite, surrounded by red, and a bit of residual swelling.
After doing my morning rounds, I headed into town for a few things. One of my stops was at the pharmacy, to see if my husband’s one missing prescription got updated. Still nothing, but they did have the remains of a prescription for 3 days worth of pills on file, so I took that. These are my husband’s main pain killers. It’s not just the increased pain that’s a problem, but it basically has him going cold turkey off of a very powerful drug, and it’s doing all sorts of crazy things to his body.
With the lack of response from the clinic, I might just drive there on Monday.
Another stop in town was at the grocery store, with our water jugs for refilling. There was a line up outside, which gave me time to notice and get pictures of these guys.
Such gorgeous moths! Just hanging out on the wall, along with all the fishflies. :-D
While I was in town, the girls got everything ready for a trip to the dump, so I could unload, reload and take off right away. We’ve been needing a dump run for a while! Normally, when I get there, I unload into the bins by the caretaker’s shed (which then get hauled to the city). This time, I decided to go into the pit. As I checked in with the caretaker and mentioned I was going into the pit this time, he told me they’ve been having problems with bears lately!
The last time I went into the pit, it actually was a pit. Now, it’s so full, there’s just enough space for vehicles to back into it, and add things to the pile. !! I really don’t like going into there, mostly because I’m paranoid about my tires. I don’t want to be driving over nails or broken glass or anything like that. :-(
After unloading the garbage, I went back to the bins to unload the recycling and electronics garbage. I was just getting ready to head out, when I saw a truck pull in, hauling something.
Something large, round and made of steel.
The driver stopped to talk to the caretaker, so I just had to snap a picture, as I was leaving!
Yup! A bear trap!
In our area, we have typically only have black bears. They tend to prefer to stay away from people, but what bear won’t take advantage of free food – and defend it? Much better for the bear, to catch it and release it well away from the dump.
Once home, I had hoped to start on some work outside. Maybe get some mowing done. It started to rain a bit on the ride home, and now I can see dark storm clouds in the distance, through the security camera.
I guess that means it’s a good time to join the kitties in the basement, and finally build that window for the old basement. :-)
The new stove is in, and it’s absolutely fabulous!!
Yes, it did also take a couple of hours to get it done, but not for why you might think.
First off, moving the counter turned out to be a lot easier than I feared. Once I moved the dining table as far into the corner as I could, I had enough space that I would not have to move any other shelves.
Once the drawers, which held most of the weight (especially the cutlery drawer!) were removed, I also found I didn’t need to empty the cupboards, either. Once I got the counter unstuck from where it has been sitting for so many years, there were no issues.
I admit, it was a lot less disgusting back there than I feared.
Also, yes. That’s a piece of toast on the floor.
Oh, dear God. I just realized.
There’s another piece of toast stuck to the back of the counter.
I have just returned from pulling the counter away from the wall and cleaning it out.
Those would predate our moving here. In fact, they probably go back to before my dad had to move to the nursing home. Which means they’ve been there for probably more than 5 years.
And yeah… it’s still actually less disgusting than I feared.
There were a couple of things I expected to find, since I was there when they fell behind the counter. I did not expect to find a new jelly bag.
I was wondering what happened to the second one from the package…
Then there was this.
This would go back to before my mom moved to the senior’s apartment she lives in now, so it’s probably been there for more than 6 years.
The counter itself turned out to be remarkably easy to move. It didn’t even catch on anything in the process.
Then it was time to shut off the breaker and move the old stove.
What the flash in the photo picks up, that I couldn’t see when I went to move the power cord, is that grease had dripped behind the stove, onto the cord.
That was really gross to handle. I couldn’t even put on the disposable gloves we would normally use. It’s so hot and sticky, I wouldn’t be able to pull them on. So I used paper towel to handle things.
Things were so sticky back there, it took more effort than it should have, to unplug the old stove.
*shudder*
Once the stove was clear, I peeled off the self-adhesive shelf liner that was used as a backsplash.
Then I was done. It may not have been a lot of actual physical labor to most things around – I easily did it by myself – but by this point, I was absolutely dripping with sweat.
The girls then took over and did the hard part.
Cleaning.
Those two are absolute saints.
That floor is just … wow. The difference between the part worn out from decades of feet, and the part under the counter, could not be more dramatic!
Clean up done, the girls got to use the time needed for everything to dry, to cool down and stop sweating. Then they put up the self-adhesive backsplash.
Then we finally unpacked the new stove from it’s box. After measuring the other counter, we found we did not need to adjust the legs – at least not before we put it in place. The daughter that was trapped in the kitchen used a level on the floor, and it definitely sloped downwards, away from the wall.
The height of the stove, without adjusting the legs, was exactly the same as the height of the counter, but a sloping floor would have to be accounted for. First, we had to plug it in and get it in place.
Here, you can see how the 4 pieces of self-adhesive tiles were placed for the backsplash. We will get a couple more and fill in the gaps, later.
Then one of my daughters was an angel and sprawled on the floor while her sister and I tipped the stove flat against the wall.
Which made it perfectly level!
I guess it’s good to know our walls are straight, if not our floors… :-D
That made it a lot easier for my daughter to adjust the leveling legs.
No more food sloshing to one side of the pot or pan when we cook, now!
Once everything was in place, back went the counter.
The new stove is the same width as the old one, but deeper, so it sticks out further than the other one did.
It also has a much larger oven, so we’re very good with this!
It’s going to take some getting used to having the controls in front.
Once the breaker was turned back on, the girls figured out how to set the time, using the 24 hour clock setting. Then they tested out the cooktop.
We are just entranced. I don’t think we’ve ever had anything so nice and new before. It heats up so quickly, it’s mind blowing! The larger front cook surfaces have two sides to their controllers. Use one side, it heats the full circle. Us the other, and it heats a smaller circle.
It also has no element in the oven, and the self-cleaning function is a safer, less power consuming, technological upgrade. We’ve had self cleaning ovens before, and never used them. This one, I actually will!
Best of all – no more sparks!
I am so glad this is finally done, and so thrilled with the stove itself.
Next thing on the list: replacing the taps and faucet in the kitchen sink. :-)
I’m really, really hoping someone installed shut off valves under the sink at some point. I’d really prefer not to have to shut off water to the entire house, just to work on the kitchen sink! :-D Not that I’ll have anything to do with replacing that. A much more able-bodied daughter is going to have to crawl under the sink. :-D I actually went back to pictures I took from the last time we had to go under there, when the drain on one of the sinks broke apart. None of them show enough that I can actually say for sure, and we can’t remember. We don’t really use the cupboards under the counter the sink is in. Only one drawer and one cupboard at the end is actually positioned in a usable space.
Well, we’ll find out soon enough.
Until then, we’re just going to try not to melt away.
I am happy to say that, thanks to my awesome, awesome daughter (and an amazing sale at Ikea), we have a new stove!
Still in it’s box, but we’ve got it! :-D
Before heading out this morning, I measured the old stove. We’re not too concerned about the dimensions, as the counters along that wall can be moved, if necessary. The main issue is actually the space between one counter along the wall, and the island counter the sink is part of.
I also emptied the drawer under the oven – something I have been avoiding since we moved here – and took it out to see what was there.
Besides a couple of toy mice, and the missing tube of After Bite.
And Cheddar. I had to sweep Cheddar out of the space! LOL
I missed a couple of things.
Also, that’s a tiny walrus that used to be among the many critters I had decorating the dash of our previous van. I don’t know how the cats got it under there!
Once we got the measurements, my younger daughter and I headed into the city, with Ikea being our first stop. We’d checked online the night before, and according to their listed inventory, we had two options, and the one we preferred had only 2 left in stock.
By the time we got there, found the displays and talked to a salesperson to check, there was only one left!
My daughter snagged it.
Now, on its own, the stove would have fit in our van, no problem. In its box, however, it was too tall, so it had to be loaded in on a side. Which is fine. The installation instructions that were available online included doing things like laying it down to remove the packaging on the bottom, and to adjust the leveling legs, so we knew that would be okay.
After that was loaded up and we went for breakfast… er… lunch… we headed to a hardware store. The new stove has the controls in the front, not the back, so my daughter wanted to pick up a self-adhesive backsplash. While we were there, I also found a new taps and faucet set for our kitchen sink. What was merely a drip when we first moved here is almost a constant stream. My daughters had opened it up, but could not see why it was dripping. The faucet is one that tends to get in the way when we want to wash our bigger pots, so I made sure to get one with a faucet of a different design.
That done, we made a quick stop at the pet store so I could get some more plants for our fish tank, then hit the grocery store, to get the last items we didn’t get after our big Costco trip, yesterday.
After several hours of running around the city, we could finally start home, with only a stop at the gas station, so I could fill a jerry can for our lawn mowers.
Once at home and all the groceries were in, we had to get that stove inside. My daughter and I managed to wrestle it out of the van and up the 2 steps in front of the main door, but then we had a problem.
The box was just narrow enough to fit through the doorway. Perfect, right?
Well. Except for the arm bar.
My other daughter put me on cat duty with the spray bottle, then the two of them tipped it on its side again, the wrestled it through. It was a really tight fit, but the hardest part was squeezing it through the door, while also lifting it over the bottom of the door frame, at the same time.
So here it is!
So excited!
We are not, however, installing it today.
It is about 3 inches too wide to fit into the kitchen. We are going to have to move the counter out and into the dining room.
Which will require moving the dining table into a corner, move shelves we have under the dining room window, pull the counter out (which will give me a chance to finally clean back there, and reclaim some stuff that has fallen behind it), take out the old stove, clean under that, put in the new stove, put the counter back again, then haul the old stove to the pile of stuff that we’ll most likely have to hire someone to haul to the dump for us.
This is going to be a huge job.
Until then, we can use the old stove to make supper! :-)
Oh, and the new faucet and taps will be installed tomorrow, too!
It’s going to be a huge job, but I am so looking forward to not having to use the old busted up stuff anymore!!!
I didn’t get a single kitten picture today, to share with you! I never had the chance.
I did visit the kittens, of course. One of the first things I do in the morning is head down there with fresh water for them. When I opened the basement door, Beep Beep was sitting in the window ledge above the stairs, waiting for her moment. As soon as the door opened, she launcher herself into the air and through the door!
In my hapless effort to block her, the door got left open a split second too long.
As Beep Beep raced into the dining room, five cats exploded into the basement.
The kittens, meanwhile, had come running to the stairs, as they usually do.
Fenrir has been the most dedicated at trying to get into the basement, but she does not like the kittens. As soon as she saw them, she bolted back up the stairs, then crouched in the entry, staring at the door, like a hairy gargoyle.
Keith was quite taken aback by the horde of kittens.
Keith is also a bundle of nerves and anxiety.
Next thing I know, Keith is hissing and spitting at a kitten, in total fear. The kitten – Nicco – was busily making himself look big, hissing, spitting and advancing on Keith.
Who ran away and hid under a table.
Two Face was running around, trying to snag a kitten to groom. Every now and then, one would come too close, and she would grab it, do a barrel roll as she wrestled it to the ground, before aggressively mothering it. It would take a few moments before a disheveled kitten would squirm it’s way out, and she would do it again to another one.
Cheddar doesn’t seem to know what to think of them. He kept going from kitten to kitten, sniffing and staring. Once again, it was Nicco who made himself look big, staring him down. Until Cheddar casually reached out with a paw and smacked Nicco vaguely around his head.
David, meanwhile, is totally chill with the kittens. He kept going around, sniffing and grooming and snuzzling, kitten after kitten.
Beep Beep, meanwhile, came down, then went back up, then came down and beep beep beeped at me with her distinctive meow that gave her her name.
Then her daughter, Two Face, started beeping, too.
She has a much higher voice than her mother.
I tried to cuddle Beep Beep, and she was reveling in the attention, but would soon run off upstairs again.
Eventually, I had to grab a broom to try and persuade Keith to come out from under the table. Then I tried to sweep the cats towards the stairs. I was finally able to grab them, one at a time, and toss them into the entry way, closing the door each time, so none would come back down.
Beep Beep ended up upstairs again, and I found myself alone with 5 kittens attacking my feet and trying to climb my legs.
I finally got their water changed, then took advantage of the situation and gave them a little packet of wet cat food. That distracted them enough that I could escape and find Beep Beep. As I suspected, she was looking around the food bowls upstairs. She was looking for wet cat food.
So I snagged her and managed to get her downstairs, where the treat was waiting for her.
By the time it was done, the whole thing left me feeling like I’d been spun in circles! :-D
So…
No pictures of kittens this time.
*sadness*
Today did turn out to be a nicely productive day. I made a trip into town to check out a place I’d seen ads for, saying they did lawnmower maintenance. If I could find a place I could take the mowers to, instead of having to go three quarters of the way to the city, to the place my brother bought our riding mower, that would be great. I never expected having trouble finding a small engine shop locally! There are probably quite a few, but no one that advertises. This place is connected to one of the hardware stores, and carries a lot of the big stuff, and even has a chipper that can be rented. For the amount of wood we need to get chipped, we’re going to go ahead and hire the company that did our trees for us, instead. This place also carries the garden soil, manure and peat that the hardware store itself just doesn’t have the room for.
Walking into the place is like heaven. Everywhere I turned, there were riding mowers, push mowers, weed wackers, all sorts of tools and…
Was that a chain saw display in the back?
Why yes! Yes it was!
I had had zero luck in finding a new chain for the electric chainsaw that we had checked out, last year. We never got to use it, nor the gas powered one, at all last year.
The first thing I asked about, was the lawn mower maintenance. When I told him I wanted to get some work done on our riding mower, his first question was, is it still working? I explained that yes, it’s running fine, but I just want to get some basic maintenance done and the blades sharpened. He told me that I could just drop it off – no appointment needed – but they are really busy with lawnmower maintenance right now. He said that, since it’s still running (not in need of any repairs), to just keep on using it and give them about 2 weeks before I drop it off.
I’ll just leave it for next month.
I then asked him about chain saw chains. He said he would need to see the chain saw to know if they carried the right chain, but they do have sharpening services, too. So I will bring it over one of these days for him to take a look at, and he’ll be able to determine if I just need to get it sharpened, or if I need a new chain.
I then bought a bale of peat and some bag of soil mix. He came out with me to help load it into the van, which was kind of funny, since the lift gate is still broken, and I keep a pole in the back to prop it open. I joked about it being something else I need to get fixed, as he deftly maneuvered around the pole to load the bags into the van.
That done, I decided a stop at the garage would be a good idea.
I asked about my mom’s car. He told me he was going into the city tomorrow, and going to a wreckers. Among the things he’s looking for is the part for my mother’s car. He’d hoped to head out this afternoon, but had too many cars to work on, already. I then asked him if he serviced AC systems. Our air conditioning was working last year, if not particularly well, but this year, nothing. The cost was very reasonable, so we went to book that on his calendar. Then I remembered to ask about the lift gate. Since we’re going to be hauling a lawn mower in the back of the van, using the nice new ramps my brother bought for us, it would be good to not have a pole in the way. ;-) These aren’t very expensive and don’t take long to install, so that’s going to get done, too.
I also remembered to ask him about the driver’s side door hinge. When we bought the van, the original door would drop when opened, and we would have to lift it to close it. Eventually, the latch on the door snapped. It was actually cheaper to replace the door, and the garage we went to at the time tried to find a second hand one for us, but never did. We spent most of the first year we owned the van with a Bungee cord keeping the door shut. Including the drive across provinces, during the move.
My brother had been able to find a door, but because the driver’s side door has the only key lock, he had to take both of them apart and cobble the two together. The original hinge pins broke in the process, but he’d snagged the ones from the vehicle he had salvaged the door from, so that worked out. The door does, however, still drop ever so slightly, and we don’t want to go through all that again. If we can get it fixed now, before it becomes a problem, that would be good.
The problem is, he would have to take it apart and see, in order to give me an estimate. But there are only two possibilities. One, we need new bushings. Two, they would need to take it apart, precision drill a new opening, and weld things back together.
If it’s one, that’s not a problem.
If it’s two, he basically says it would take so long, it might not be worth it, because it would be really expensive, just in shop equipment fees, never mind the time.
So the bushing kit, which is not very expensive, has been ordered, and he will check it and see. I’ll be dropping the van off on Monday morning, and just hanging out in town until it’s done.
It was a rather short trip into town, but it felt like I’d accomplished quite a bit in the process!
Once at home, we were getting into the hottest part of the day, so we stuck to inside stuff until things started to cool down in the evening. I didn’t even bother unloading the van until then. That wagon we got last month is awesome. I was able to haul the bale of peat and bags of soil, all at once, over to the old garden area. Then I started mowing the old garden area with the push mower.
I am so glad my brother was able to get that thing running for us. There is no way we could do this area with the riding mower. It would break in no time!
Also, that drill attachment sharpener I got for the mower blade has made a huge difference! When I sharpened it yesterday, I found it so bashed up, it was hard to tell which side of the blade was beveled, and which was flat!
I’m also so happy we found that bag attachment for this mower. It isn’t very big, and I had to stop to empty it often, which makes for much slower going. However, I am getting so many grass clippings, I decided to keep mowing into areas I would normally use the riding mower for, just so I could get more!
And since I had all these wonderful grass clippings, I decided to use them to mulch around where we planted the sunflowers.
The areas mulched are two wagon loads of clippings. I stopped after finishing this end of the old garden area, and then had to stop. After two hours, I was pretty knackered!
Also, I really need to remember to keep a water bottle with me when I’m doing this!
Meanwhile, after the girls finished what they were working on inside, they came out to remove the logs that were used to frame the area we chose to mulch last year, and where I am planting the squash this year. They have served their purpose, and now they are starting to be in the way as we go around with wheelbarrows or wagon, hoses and soil mixes.
We will not be able to continue this tomorrow, though. Tomorrow is our day to do the monthly shop in the city.
I am really hoping it goes better than last month. Last time was pretty brutal. :-( Even on a good trip, though, we’re pretty wiped out by the time we get home, unload and put everything away.
As for me, I am done like dinner! Time for a shower and, hopefully, early to bed!
Well, today ended up a bit going off plan, but we still got a couple of things off the to-do list for outside.
The main one being, the broken flexible hose for the sump pump has been replaced!
This is what the connection looked like, before I started.
After talking to my brother, I was confident there wouldn’t be any weird surprises when I took off the flexible hose.
The first order of business was to make sure the pump wouldn’t go off while I was working on it. The reservoir was pretty full, so I lifted the float to trigger the pump and let it drain before unplugging the pump.
My brother had suggested I might want to push the pipe from the inside, through the opening to maybe add a bit of length on the outside. The pipe is so snug in there, though, that it wouldn’t budge. Which told me I wouldn’t need to have one of my daughters in the basement to brace it while I was attaching things on the outside, at least!
Once I took the flexible hose off, I could see that the batting or whatever that is, and the rest of the hose, was wrapped in a thick later of electric tape.
I started taking that off and found…
… something that looked… almost like fabric? Canvas??
It turned out to be hockey tape. Several layers of it.
I got all the old tape and the batting-looking-stuff off and discovered…
… the end of the pipe had a big ole crack.
I guess that’s why it was taped so thoroughly, and why a larger hose was added over it.
I wonder. If the previous hose had indeed been wrecked by someone running over it with a lawn mower, it’s possible the hose was yanked hard enough to crack the pipe at this end, too.
I cut off the cracked part, which didn’t leave a whole lot of pipe sticking out the wall. I did try and push more through from the basement, but didn’t seem to accomplish anything.
The next thing to do was clean up the inside of the pipe, then use the connector piece the guy at the hardware store picked out for me, in case I needed to attach the two hose kits to each other.
Pushing the connector into the pipe did finally start moving the pipe through the opening – making it shorter, of course, but not enough that I couldn’t get it done. I brought out a hair drier to soften the plastic of the pipe, which made pushing the connector the rest of the way in much easier.
That didn’t quite work with the flexible hose part. I could get it through the flat part easily enough, but once the end started to go into the flexible rings, it just wouldn’t go any further.
So I tightened the clamps as it was. It really should be closer together, but I know the important parts of the connector are through to the flexible rings of the hose and, together with the clamp, that should be enough. We’ll just have to keep an eye on it, to see if it leaks. If it does, I should just need to tighten the clamps a bit more. I put a container under the connections, so if it does leak, I’ll be able to see water in the container.
Next, I ran the hose down the side of the house.
There is adequate space along the house to tuck it under, so it won’t be in the way at all. It’s also being held in place by a shelf, garbage can and rain barrel along it’s length. The brick was just a little extra to hold it in place, closer to the pipe.
The hose reaches several feet into the old kitchen garden. I would have preferred an extra foot or two, but this should be fine. If we find it needs to be further from the sun room’s foundation, we can always get another connector and attach the hose from the spare kit onto it.
Once it was all done, the sump pump was plugged back in, but so far it hasn’t had to go off, yet. I’ll be sure to check on it, later today.
While I was working on this, the girls dragged the table saw out of the old shed we’d found the door in and brought it by the house. They plugged it in and turned it on and YES!!! It works!
It is currently sitting in the sun room. We won’t be able to work on the replacement door for the sun room today, as I’d planned. It likely won’t be worked on tomorrow, either.
Oh, I don’t think I’ve mentioned it here, yet. My husband got a call from the cardiac clinic in the city a couple of weeks ago. When they cancelled all appointments, they were looking to June for rescheduling. It seems they were no where near as busy with the Wuhan virus as they expected, and could start re-booking earlier. The appointment is early tomorrow afternoon, but he and I will be leaving in the late morning.
I have to figure out what to do after I drop him off, though, as I will not be allowed to go in with him, as normal. Which is frustrating, but whatever. Unfortunately, it’s not like I can find a coffee shop or something and hang out for more than an hour. My FIL actually lives nearby but, like where my mother lives, the building is locked down to visitors, since so many people living there are very high risk, including my FIL.
If I can find someplace free to park, maybe I’ll get some Pokemon Go in or something. :-/
Meanwhile, I have had to take it a bit easier today than I intended. It’s been a slightly worse pain day, and I don’t want to overdo it when I have what will likely be a long day, tomorrow.
For now, I think I’ll painkiller up and find something more sedentary to work on. :-/ Normally, I’d work on some crochet, but the pain is mostly in my arms and finger joints today, so that might not be possible.
The pen we threw together to try and catch the visiting goat was finally dismantled. Which never did work. :-D
The “door” end was already trying to make its escape. :-D
The straw I hoped the goat would use for bedding went onto the little garden near the old kitchen; another area we’re trying to build up the soil with layers of organic matter.
The chicken wire belongs to the goat’s owner, so that’s all rolled up and, along with the containers he brought to try and lure the goat with food, it is set aside and ready to be returned.
After what happened when I walked the goat over to his place, I don’t particularly want to see him, or even go to his place, so I might just drop them off at the end of his driveway when we have the chance. :-/
The frames are just set aside for now. I plan to take them apart and will likely use them to make trellises for the squash. Before I do, I will have to snag one of the girls to help me get that table saw out of the shed so we can test it out. If it works, I’ll be able to cut straight ends to the pieces, and even *gasp* have matching lengths to work with. :-D
If it doesn’t work, I’ll see what I can manage with the circular saw.
For now, though, it’s done. We no longer have a pen in the middle of our south yard! :-D
Before heading into town, I paused to say hello to the mamas. Butterscotch was content to stay in her cave and just stick her head out every now and then to accept scritches, purring away. The opening is not that big, and it’s dark in that old radio, so I tried the technological method.
Sticking my phone in the opening and taking a picture.
Butterscotch was not too keen on that whole “flash” thing! :-D
I did, however, manage to get a picture of the kitties!
Unless there are others hidden somewhere, it looks like she’s had 4 kittens again; three orange tabbies and one grey and white tabby.
They. Are. So. Cute!!!
Judging from how active Beep Beep is, she might not be due for another week or two. :-D But who knows? We might have more kittens sooner than that.
I’m glad we have the mamas inside. Today has been an odd day, weather wise. When I did my rounds, it was rather pleasant. After dropping my daughter off at work, it was a combination of rain and snow. By the time I got to the dump, it was snowing, then when I got home, it was raining one moment, snowing the next. Well. More snow than rain.
This turned out to be not very pleasant for my daughter at work. They’ve had to close down the staff lunch room, because it’s too small to maintain physical distancing. For most of the staff, that didn’t matter. They live close enough that they could just go home for lunch. My daughter picked up lunch at a nearby grocery store, then ate outside. Which meant she was sitting on a concrete sidewalk in the cold for almost an hour, because there is no indoor public place anyone can sit and eat anymore. :-( Thankfully, she’s one of those people with a built in furnace and isn’t as bothered by the cold.
Also, it’s a good thing we still have my husband’s disability income to live on during the current lock down, because she’s down to just one shift a week. Her employer is actually adding a bonus to people’s wages to make up for some of the loss of hours, but of course, it isn’t much. Who knows how long any of this can be sustained.
I headed into town very early, because as far as I knew, the hardware store closed at 4. As I was approaching the doors, I saw a staff member putting away the outside displays already, so I made sure to look for the hours. I found the sign saying they closed at 3. It was 2:55! I commented to the guy, apologetically, about how they were about to close and was about to leave. He stopped me and asked me to go ahead in, assuring me I they wouldn’t lock the doors on me! :-D Thankfully, I knew exactly where I needed to go to find the sandpaper I was looking for. Normally, I would have looked around for anything else I might need, but not today.
As I was paying for it, more people were coming into the store, and no one was telling them the store was about to close. Normally, this would be one of those times you’d read about in Not Always Right, and the rude customers forcing staff to stay long before their shifts have ended because they came in after closing. I did not get that impression today. I got the sense they would love to have stayed open longer, and wanted all the customers they can get right now! Even a large, national franchise like this one can only take so much loss. :-(
The grocery store nearby, however, had no such time restrictions. Happily, I was able to find a large box of cat litter (the last one, hidden way in the back of the shelf) and a large bag of cat food. If we’re careful (and keep the kibble bin in the house, instead of the sun room for the skunks to get into), we should be okay for the rest of the month.
So we are well stocked and, aside from a trip to the vet with another cat on Monday, and my daughter’s 1 shift a week, we can be homebodies for the rest of the month. If the weather co-operates, I hope that means I can start cleaning up all the fallen branches in the yard, now that the snow is almost all gone, and get some black plastic over some of the areas we are planning to garden in this year, to help the soil warm up faster. :-)
There is certainly no shortage of things that need to be done. :-)
The girls did a wonderful job in the basement, while I was baking bread! They got the big stuff moved back to the now-bleached and dry corner, the wire mesh over the counter to the unfinished bar, and a lot more cleaning, sweeping, scrubbing and vacuuming of cobwebs. :-D
Here are the before and after shots.
The wire mesh is up, and the more fragile items, and things potentially harmful to cats, are starting to be put into here. Eventually, a door of some sort will be rigged up, so the cat’s won’t be able to get in.
The pieces of Styrofoam at that long shelf were taken out of the windows. They were put in for the winter, before we moved here. They are cut to fit so snugly – and so much stuff was in the way – that we hadn’t been able to get them out before. Now, when the insulation around the outside of the house it moved away until next winter, there will be natural light in the basement.
Also, my daughters are hilarious.
Too funny!
Also, I guess I don’t have to ask what they found while cleaning.
I don’t want to know what the “mystery meat” or “soup” was. :-D
The table, shelves and cabinet are now all cleaned up and usable again.
They also started to haul stuff outside, including all the garbage bags.
A trip to the dump soon is definitely in order!!
Since I was down there anyhow, I checked out an old radio/record player that’s against another wall.
Except the record player part is gutted.
What about the radio? I was curious, so I stuck my phone around the back and took a blind shot.
Huh. Amazing. It hasn’t been completely gutted!
I have no idea what this is supposed to look like, but I’m sure there are parts and pieces missing.
For now, we have no plans to move this thing anywhere. I admit, for me, it’s more because I don’t want to deal with all the stuff shoved behind it.
My daughter and I got a whole bunch of progress done in the basement. Unfortunately, we’re at that stage were, in order to work on new areas, we have to shove things into areas we’d already done a lot of clearing. Which means that, other than the area we worked on, the rest of the basement now looks like something exploded! :-D
The unfinished bar area is now dry, but we sprayed areas with an anti-mold agent, just to be on the safe side. So nothing has been put into there yet. I was also able to stop at the hardware store after dropping my other daughter off at work, and was able to get a roll of 1/4 inch wire mesh that we will use to block off the counter opening of the bar area. That will be put in before we do anything else in there.
Meanwhile, we emptied the back wall and opposite corner.
This is what it looked like, not long ago.
Right now, the entire middle area is almost completely blocked off with stuff we’ve set aside, including the long shelf against the wall.
We also moved the old, gutted phonograph and ancient radio, which are quite water damaged.
They are in such terrible shape!
The phonograph cabinet is at least still fairly solid, We might be able to just remove the veneer that’s peeling off and be able to restore it. The old radio… I have no idea. I’m pretty sure it’s gutted, too.
This damage would have happened shortly before we moved here, when my older brother discovered flooding in the basement from a rain barrel at the corner that was left to overflow for months of rain. The corner had even started to mold, and he’d had to move things away from the walls so he could scrub and bleach the area.
While emptying that shelf against the wall, tucked away in a corner at the very bottom, I found this.
I had hoped this was the missing filter my brother had installed the last time there were problems with the septic system. It hadn’t worked, so he took it off and set it aside, but it disappeared. It turns out to not be the one my brother had bought, but very similar. So… we’re still missing a filter that likely grew legs and walked away, along with so many other things over the years. :-(
Another thing we found was a “hidden in plain sight” sort of thing. These were sitting on top of the old phonograph.
Nothing special about these – until we flipped them over.
I’m guessing my sister drew these plans. I think she still freelances plans and blueprints for people, but these days, she uses a computer. :-D I think these might be the original plans for the shelves that now divide the living and dining rooms! The end result wasn’t quite so fancy (I love the addition of a little rotary dial telephone), but I can see how what we have now could have developed from these plans.
Once the corner was emptied, swept and cobwebs vacuumed away, my daughter worked on scrubbing and bleaching, while I worked on emptying a pair of shelves in the middle of the basement. Our boxes and bins of Christmas decorations have been temporarily moved to the root cellar, just to make space. The pile of stuff that needs to be hauled out, either to the barn, junk pile or dump, has grown quite a lot.
Once I emptied the shelves (including taking out 2 cases of paint cans that have never been opened, but are so old, the boxes are disintegrating), I worked on a tool chest that’s basically just a big box with a front panel that swings down, clearing off the stuff accumulated at the top. I’m not going to try and go through it’s contents, but I did check out the cabinet it was resting on.
Where I found it full of various liquids, gels, greases and… mystery liquid. I’ve been putting all the small containers in a small bin I found, only to find it was nowhere near large enough.
Some of these have been barely used. I would guess they were things my late brother had made use of, which would mean they have been sitting in that cabinet for 10 years for, at the very least, 10 years.
It’s a shame to have to throw out the braided rug that’s visible in the back. I remember helping my mother make rugs like this, using strips of cloth made from old clothes and other fabric items that were to worn out for their intended use. Unfortunately, the two braided rugs I have now found in the basements had been down there so long, they got moist, and look like they started to mold.
Here is what the basement corner looks like now, before and after washing.
It’s really kind of hard to see the difference between washed and unwashed walls, but it’s there! You can still see where the mold my brother scrubbed away has stained the corner. :-(
While cleaning up, we found another outlet, on the outside of the bar counter. An outlet that we could plug in the big blower fan! So that is now set up facing the corner to help dry it.
I have to remind myself that the rest of the basement looks far worse than it really is! Once these areas are dry and we can start moving things back into their more permanent places, it will get cleaned up and organized rather quickly. The hard part is going to be hauling out all the stuff that needs to be gotten ride of, one way or another.
This morning, I had the boys keeping me company as I did my rounds.
They do love that post! :-D It’s one of their favorite things to climb and scratch when they follow me.
Later, I hear meowing from another direction and eventually spotted Butterscotch making her way through the trees.
With some difficulty.
She is still pregnant.
Poor thing! When I came to pick her up, she would not let me near her. I wanted to carry her over the deep snow, but I think she doesn’t want to be picked up right now.
I don’t know how much time we’ve got to clear out the basement. I don’t know about the girls, but I’m hurting quite a bit today and will probably not be able to get to it again. At least nothing too physical. I suppose I could take a break for our 32nd anniversary. ;-)
Not a complete break, though. I whipped up a couple of mats that we will use to create cozy nests that I hope Butterscotch and Beep Beep will be content with to have their babies on.
They already pass the Susan test. Susan, of the still nekkid shaved belly. I can’t believe how long it’s taking for her fur to grow back after getting spayed!
In other areas, we got some good news. Not long ago, a nurse at the long term care facility my almost 100 yr old aunt is in tested positive for the Wuhan virus. The nurse went into isolation, as did 9 residents that had already been displaying signs of respiratory illness. This, in itself, is not unusual for the facility, but they took precautions and tested them, just in case.
Well, today it was announced that the nurse’s test was a false positive. There is no Wuhan virus in the facility at all. With this news, I believe our area is back to zero cases.
After I got the news, I phoned my mom to let her know. She had already heard the news on the radio, so that was good. As we got to chatting, I mentioned the work we’ve been doing in the basement, and that I’d taken 11 batteries to the barn. She flipped out a bit, thinking I was planning to throw them away. I told her no, I was planning to take them to a scrap yard, to sell them by weight. I think she still thought I was talking about the dump and went on about there being people who would buy them. Eventually, she told me that she used to phone someone who would come to the farm and buy old batteries from her. Which is good to know, but it does make me wonder just how many of these there would have been if she hadn’t done that! I don’t think she realizes, however, that if I take them to a scrap yard myself, I’ll get a better price. I also had a hard time explaining to her that I couldn’t get rid of the batteries now, anyhow, because of the lockdown. Just as she expected to be able to go to a restaurant for lunch after her doctor’s appointment, she seemed to think I’d be able to get a scrap dealer to come over and buy old batteries off of me. I’m a bit surprised by that, considering her own building is, literally, locked down and all regular social events are cancelled, and she can’t even go to church. For me, it’s easier to forget, since we are already pretty isolated and not much has changed at home.
Speaking of which, time to pain killer up and get back at it!
The Re-Farmer 