gift

An awesome gift!

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But first, the cuteness…

Ghosty, using her adopted brother, Shadow, as a bed. 😁

Today was a wonderfully mild day. Our high this afternoon was supposed to be -8C/18F, but it sure felt warmer! We had more fog last night, which meant more frost on the trees, on top of the frost from yesterday morning, so it was looking pretty gorgeous, too.

I had two places I needed to get to today; a dump run, and then on to the feed store in the town north of us, to pick up 40 pound bags of kibble for the outside cats. This feed store has a section for work wear, too, ranging from socks and boots to all sorts of outerwear. This is where my younger daughter found the high quality gloves and Tough Duck bib overalls she loves so much, so I asked her if she wanted to come along. Which she did.

I did not realize she had a secret purpose to come along!

The dump run was a bit different, in that we had a bin of stuff we weren’t sure were recyclable, or if they needed to go into the pit. I’d mentioned in an earlier post about a new RM council that was so bad it was disbanded and the province had to take over until another election could be held. Along with messing up when it came to getting the roads plowed and not going with the company that had been doing such a great job for years, they also messed up with the landfill caretaker. They fired the guy that had been going the job for years. For a while, I think it was contracted out to a company, because instead of one caretaker, with occasional help brought in, we were seeing a team of four people or more doing all sorts of stuff. Then, they were gone, and the caretaker was an older woman with mobility issues. She did the best she could, but she physically could not do a lot of things, like operate the front end loader, and the state of things got really bad. Someone would be brought in to clear the area in front of the pit, but whoever it was didn’t do a particularly good job. That was when I found myself with a flat tire after a dump run, and we got into the habit of my daughter walking in front of the truck into the pit area, to clear away any broken glass, nails, or other sharp objects scattered about.

Well, things have changed again. Lately, I’ve been seeing a young guy there, and I do hope he is a permanent employee, because he is really awesome! Aside from being diligent in doing the checks when we come in, he clearly knows how to use that front end loader.

Today, as we came in, we had the usual checks. We have a card with a number on it to prove we live in the RM. Other RMs charge a fee, while ours doesn’t, so people were going to the dump in our RM to avoid having to pay at their own, and these cards were the solution to that. We also get asked what we’re bringing which, in our case, is almost always just household garbage, which goes into the pit, and recycling, which goes into various bins around the caretaker’s shed.

This time around, we had some things we weren’t sure about. Mostly electronics. The woman that had been the caretaker before had told us to toss things like power cords into the pit, but this time we had some odds and ends. So when we stopped at the caretaker, I told him we had stuff we weren’t sure of. Then I pulled up to the nearby recycling bins and I started dumping the recycling while he and my daughter went through the bin we’d brought.

Some things, I knew they had special places for, like batteries and aerosol cans, but those have been moved.

The cordless glass kettles that started leaking or got chipped, we found out, cannot be recycled and had to go into the pit. Their bases, however, went into the electronics area – and he even took some of the stuff over for us, while do took items to other areas, so save us some walking! He was so sweet about it, too.

That done, we went into the pit area. Along the way, we could hear the front end loader was running, warming up to be used to clean things up. It wasn’t even that bad, yet, but he was getting ready to do it again!

I have to remember to find somewhere to pass on how great a job he’s doing.

…

Done.

I didn’t want to take a chance of forgetting by waiting until I finished this post!

Anyhow.

That done, we continued on to the feed store. I paid for 4 bags of kibble, then moved the truck around to have it loaded, while my daughter was inside looking around. I later joined her in the outerwear section and started chatting, asking what she was looking for this time. She was looking at some coats, then brought me over to where she’d found her overalls. I joked that I want a pair, too, but I would make sure that they were a different colour, so we wouldn’t get them mixed up. Not that that would be possible, as I would want a larger size. I did try hers on when she bought them and they fit me, but I like more room for layers.

The next thing I knew, when someone came around to ask if we needed help, she asked if they had the size I wanted, in black.

!!!

The lady had to go check their inventory, as they don’t have enough space to have all the sizes on display, and it turned out they did.

My daughter bought me these (not an affiliate link), though the price at the store was better than the price on the website. What an awesome surprise! Hers are tan, and she had to take 7″ off the legs for them to fit, and she’s thrilled with them.

Once we got home, I tried them on and she adjusted the shoulder straps to where I need them. Then she turned them inside out and got me to put them on again, so she could fold the bottoms and measure how much to remove. As I write this, she’s in the process of removing 6 1/2″ from the legs and hemming them, by hand. After that is done, I’ll try them on again and we’ll see if we need to add elastic anywhere, but I suspect it won’t be necessary. They’re oversize, but not in any inconvenient places.

These are going to be so very handy!

She also got herself a vest. No modifications needed!

My daughter tells me that she has decided to use her very modest disability income to get us all high quality, weather appropriate clothing, starting with me, since I’m the one that’s doing most of the outside work.

She is so sweet!

Aside from that, it’s been pretty uneventful. When it was time to do the outside cat feeding, I decided to clear the clumps of snow I’d knocked off the truck’s mud flaps. Then, since I had the shovel out anyway, I decided to clear the light snow out of the cats paths. It was so warm out, I had my jacket wide open, so I wouldn’t overheat while shoveling.

Before I knew it, an hour had gone by, and I’d cleared fresh snow from the entire turnaround area for the truck, plus the paths to the compost pile and litter compost, then started a new path towards the main garden area. Then I had to stop after only about 15 feet, because it was getting too dark. I haven’t been able to get to the sign cam in over a month. We’ve got some very mild weather expected over the next week, so I figured this would be a good time to dig out a path!

Oh, my goodness. I just checked the weather app on my desktop again. The last I looked, we were expecting things to warm up to a high of 0C/32F on Monday, but now it’s saying to expect a high of 2C/36F TOMORROW!!! Monday is now expected to hit 1C/34F, with highs just below freezing, in between.

This would be a good time to find an excuse to get the fire pit going!

[edit: I just had to add this. I looked at the weather forecast for tomorrow again, a few hours after writing this. It now says tomorrow is expected to reach a high of -6C/21F instead of 2C/36F. Good grief. How are we supposed to trust any of these forecasts when they constantly change, and by so much!]

Not tomorrow, though. Tomorrow, I need to go into town to pick up another prescription refill for my husband. It’s his “controlled substance” painkillers, so we weren’t allowed to get it refilled when I was there yesterday. While I’m in town, I’ll swing by the hospital to visit my mother, too.

After that, I think I’ll get the fire pit uncovered and prepped. We might just enjoy a fire, but I’m thinking we may as well break out the Dutch oven and cook supper, too.

We shall see what we come up with!

The Re-Farmer

Going to the post office should not be weird

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Okay, I’m back from getting our parcels at the post office. I meant to actually stay in the store and see if there was anything I wanted to pick up but, instead, I was rushing home.

I’d left the gate open, you see, and was no longer sure that was a good idea.

Our main driveway is just 300 feet or so from an intersection at a main gravel road. Both roads – the main one, and the one past our driveway – have a surprising amount of traffic. Having been looking at trail cam and security files since 2018, thanks to our vandal, I’ve gotten to recognize regular vehicles that go by, even if I don’t know who is driving them.

So as I pulled through our gate, I didn’t think anything of the little black car that I saw go past the intersection. It looked like one of several non-descript little black cars I see going by regularly.

With the inside handle of my truck door broken off, and a post office trip being so short, I decided not to close the gate behind me and just head out.

Then I got to the stop sign at the intersection.

About 200 yards down the main road was the little black car, pulled over on the wrong side of the road – the side closer to our place, and the main garden area.

The passenger side door was open and there was a man standing there, facing my way. Just standing, staring in my direction.

Because of the distance, I can’t say with 100% certainty that it was our vandal, but I would say I have about 95% certainty. Partly because, who else would it be? We don’t have any other stalkers. Plus, from the stance, and general body shape that I could see, it did look very much like him. He has a very… distinctive… frame.

I turned towards the highway and kept checking my rear view mirror. The guy stood there, still staring my way, for quite some time before another glance showed me the passenger side door was closed. By then, there was too much snow kicking up to see whether the car kept going in the same direction, or if it turned around. After a while, I pulled over and messaged the family to keep an eye out.

When I got back, I was checking the snow to see if there were any other tracks besides my own in our driveway. Thankfully, nothing.

But it does tell me that even a quick trip into town means we have to keep the gate closed behind us. I’ve already found that leaving the gate open for deliveries has had our vandal driving past, stopping, backing up, then sitting on the road, rubbernecking down our driveway.

Very frustrating.

I did get our parcels, however, and that was much more cheerful.

First up, my new acquisition for our resource library.

I’ve only just started to look through it but, as you can see by the next two pictures in the slideshow above, this is going to be a very useful book!

The next package was full of wonderful items from a dear and thoughtful friend and former neighbour from before our move.

With a Ghosty photo bomb.

I was so excited to see a 1kg/2.2lb bag of lysine! I’ve got pumpkin seeds to grind into powder, so I’ll be mixing the two together in a jar to add to the kibble as a supplement for the outside cats. For the inside cats, we can add it to their cat soup.

The freeze dried chicken is quite a treat. Something that might help us lure some more feral kittens into discovering that getting pets and attention from humans is a good thing!

There’s a box of ground staples of much better quality than the dollar store version of those. I’ve learned, you just can’t have too many ground staples! There’s a package of irrigation stakes; they’re threaded at the top for a water bottle to slowly water plants. Those will come in handy in areas too closely planted to do my usual 4L water jug version. I love the tiny terracotta pots, but that little bunny pot is just too cute for words! There’s some cotton cordage that will be handy in the garden, too.

The LED lantern is really nice. Something I’ve been eyeballing for a while, but couldn’t justify getting with whatever budget I had at the time. This would be great for the emergency kit in the truck, as it also has flashing red lights and a flashlight at the top. It’s not going into the truck now, though, as the batteries would just freeze.

That travel blanket, however, is another story, and will definitely be added to our truck’s emergency kit.

Under everything are four insulated shopping bags, with the suggestion of putting straw in them as something the cats could use as beds. I would never have thought of that! Worth a try, I’d say.

What a fantastic gift! I appreciate that some of these were passed on from other former neighbours. I will be reminded of them as I use the items.

Of course, going through all these left me with an empty box.

Which did not stay empty for long.

Hello, Tin Whistle.

So that was my haul from the post office today, which did a lot to make me feel better after the weirdness I saw as I was heading out.

Moving out here was supposed to get us away from stuff like this.

Ah, well. It’s still better than what we had to deal with while living in the city.

The Re-Farmer

A kind gift – just in time!

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While at the post office this morning, we had a surprise box waiting for pick up, from a dear friend.

Since I dropped everything off at home before making my way to the city, I didn’t open it until after I got back. It was some very useful gifts for the kitties! Another self heating mat, which I was thinking of getting another one of already (the one we have now was a gift from the same awesome friend). A giant bucket of treats and…

… a 16’x16′ heavy duty tarp. Something to wrap around the catio or something, for extra insulation.

As my daughter was unloading the truck of Costco shopping, she let me know that there was a new hole in the greenhouse roof, which you can see in the next image of the slide show above. Midnight had jumped onto the roof. The plastic cover on this portable greenhouse has been slowly tearing, more and more, right from the day we put it up. The door is not completely gone, and the remaining front panels on either side are all torn up. The roof had a few taped up tears in it, but it just couldn’t handle the weight of a full grown Midnight!

Over the next few days, it’ll be too cold to try and get the tarp over it. It’s heavy duty, but I still don’t want to risk it cracking in the cold. When we have a couple of warmer days again, I’ll get a daughter to help me put it over the frame and secure it. The cats will still have a nice shelter to go into. They just won’t have that greenhouse heat.

I’m looking at ordering some 6mm poly to use in the garden. If we can figure out how to shape it, I’d like to make a new cover for this greenhouse. The frame is just fine. The plastic cover that came with it, sucked. It started tearing while we were putting it on, right at the start!

Now, excuse me while I set up the new self warming mat in the sun room, and give the cats a few treats!

M, you are awesome! Thank you so much!

The Re-Farmer

October garden tour, and a surprise

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Last month I did a garden tour video on Sept. 10, which is our average first frost date. At the time, forecasts still had us looking at frost free nights well into October.

We got light frost over the next two nights after I recorded the video.

So when we got a harder frost exactly a month later, I figured it would be good to do another garden tour video. I managed to get it put together last night, started uploading it to YouTube, then went to bed. I got up a few times (drinking a liter of tea before bed was probably not a good idea) and checked on the progress, removed a kitten from the keyboard and repaired her editing of the description box, before finally falling asleep for the rest of the night.

When I checked my computer in the morning, I found it had been restarted.

Thankfully, whatever caused it to restart happened after the video finished uploading, so I didn’t have to start all over again. I just had to finish going through the settings and hit publish.

Here it is! I hope you enjoy it. 😊

In other things, once I was done my morning rounds, I grabbed our water jugs and headed into town to refill them and get a few groceries. The post office and the store it’s in closes at noon today, so I made sure to stop for the mail on the way out. I knew my husband had a package waiting, but I had one, too – and a lovely surprise it was!

My absolutely awesome friend sent me a new thermometer! I just love those nice, big, easy to read numbers! The hygrometer is going to be handy, too. Especially when it comes time to start seeds indoors again.

The reading on here is straight out of the box, after being in the car for a while, so it doesn’t reflect the ambient temperature and humidity of the house in the photo.

While in town, I popped over to the garage briefly, since it’s just across the street from the grocery store. I wanted to let our mechanic know how much we now have available as a down payment. Probably still not enough for that truck, but there were a few SUVs I looked at along the way. One, I didn’t bother checking out as it was too small for our needs, but there were two others that caught my attention. One turned out to be sold already, and the other was a new acquisition that he hadn’t even gone over yet, so he had no price for it, yet. From what I could see, though, it’s probably outside of our budget, anyhow. Ah, well.

Getting a vehicle in October seems very unlikely but, in November, we’ll be able to contribute more towards a down payment, so that might finally get us to monthly payments in budget. My daughter does plan to contribute towards the monthly payments but, with her income being mostly commissions, I’m not going to count it in my numbers.

It’s a cooler day today, and it’s been trying to rain all morning, so I will be focusing on indoor stuff today. The next few days are supposed to be warmer, sunnier – and drier! – so I hope to catch up on things outside, then.

Today looks like a good day to make a pot of tea, pop on some videos and catch up on my crochet!

The Re-Farmer

An early gift

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Father’s Day and my younger daughter’s birthday are just days apart. They have mutual interests in some things, so this year, they got a joint gift.

My husband has been trying to do leatherworking as something to keep his mind occupied and his creativity fed. So far, everything has been by hand. He did get a stitching pony, but it broke. Some of the leather he’s working with is pretty thick, so he was interested in getting a sewing machine that can handle heavy leather.

My daughter, meanwhile, has been interested in learning traditional skills. Blacksmithing is one of them, but making shoes is another.

So they got a manual cobbler sewing machine (not an affiliate link). Manual because, not only is it quieter, but it allows for more control.

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08PFN17Y4

This image is from the website.

It didn’t really come with assembly instructions, but I did fine one – just one – video of a similar model being unboxed and assembled. It must have been enough, because in the morning, I found it assembled.

It hasn’t been tested out yet, but it did some with thread and needles. He also has lots of other tools and supplies. The only thing they don’t have is a lot of leather.

Leather is shockingly expensive.

But, they have enough to start, and learn how to use the machine!

The Re-Farmer

This and that

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I can’t say today was a very productive day in the usual sense, but I’ll talk more about that later.

I was able to get a picture of Decimous this evening.

I had to zoom in, because he still won’t let us come near him. His fur is so matted! I can see some bald looking spots, which would explain the tufts of white and black fur I’ve been seeing around the yard.

Judgement has us concerned. My daughter saw him a couple days ago and he was limping again, but when we saw him last night, he was fine. This morning, he was limping again! As friendly as he is, he does not like to be handled or picked up, so we’ve been having a very hard time getting a look at his paw. It took three of us before we could finally catch a quick glimpse of the problem. There’s something wrong with one of his toes, at the claw. There is no blood or even visible swelling, but it’s messed up somehow and obviously hurting him.

Getting him to a vet would be a challenge. He now tends to disappear for a day or two, so we don’t know when we’d be able to catch him. We can’t isolate him in the sun room – even if we weren’t using it as a greenhouse, it gets too hot in there now – and with the ladies refusing to leave my room, we no longer have a place in the house we could isolate him in. Which means we can’t make an appointment, since we have no idea if we’d be able to keep one.

I ended up sending an email to the vet, explaining the situation, and asking if we could bring him in on a “walk in” sort of basis. Basically, if we can get him in the carrier, we’d take him in right away, phoning ahead to let them know, and hope that he doesn’t injure himself more, trying to get out of the carrier. I have not yet had an answer. We’ll see how that pans out.

As for today, I went into town to take part in a Freedom Rally, in response to the many things our Prime Dictator and his cohorts have been doing. It actually started in the city and people came in a parade of vehicles to the beach in town, where activities and speeches commences. There was a good turn out, and even people who just happened to be at the beach, enjoying the weekend, showed an interest.

Town and the beach were quite busy for this first day of our long weekend. The lake is ice free now – at least at our end of it – but no one was going into the water, that’s for sure! At home, we were at 27C/81F at the time, with town reading at 25C/77F. The weather station, however, is just outside of town, not near the lake. I’d say we were closer to 22 or 23C/72 or 73F so close to the ice cold water.

Knowing it was busy, I headed into town early to have “breakfast” before the lunch crowd started. I was going to go to a particular fish and chips place – one of the few restaurants on that strip that stays open all year – but they were closed. During the winter, they’d had a break in, and the door is still boarded up. It looks like they are closed permanently! Such a shame, if the are. I don’t particularly like fish, but they have a fish and chips dinner I actually crave at times.

There was another place nearby that is now open for the summer, so I went there. While waiting for my food, I went into the bathroom, where I found this sign.

I love it! So much detail on the plugged toilet and the plunger, but the dude is just a stick man – yet even the stick man has such lively little details on the face. Adding the (me) after “sad employee” is perfect.

It does make me wonder about the need for such a sign, though. Nothing that would surprise me, though. I’ve worked housekeeping at a resort hotel. I’ve seen how nasty people can be!

I also had time to check out a shop I haven’t been to in years. I was looking for something specific, and I found one! Just one…

This isn’t it. I bought this frog the last time I was in that shop. My younger daughter admires it, so when I found one, I got it for her. It is identical to this one.

She was very happy to receive it! I’d considered saving it as a birthday gift, but her birthday is still a month away, so I just gave it to her now. 😊

After spending too much time outdoors in the sun, even with the cooling effect of the lake nearby, once I got home I stayed in the relatively cool indoors for awhile. When I headed out to do my evening rounds, I did quite a bit of watering. I took the floating row cover off the spinach bed. It was getting torn up, and tore up even more as I took it off! The spinach is still quite small. With the heat we’ve been having, they could really use some shade. I am seeing more carrot sprouts, which is good. I still don’t know that the bed will end up full of carrots, but if what I’m can see so far survives, we’ll have a pretty full bed.

I’m seeing a very few more purple asparagus showing up. This is their third year, but last year’s flooding right around them easily set them back. In fact, I think we may have lost two crowns. The strawberries, however, are doing well, and a couple are even starting to bloom!

The peas are coming up quite nicely. It looks like almost all of them have germinated. Still no sign of poppies, though. The peppers and thyme that were transplanted last night are still alive. 😄 The bed with the Montana Morado corn is doing okay, but something has gotten in and spread some of the thick grass clipping mulch around the edges, so I had to put that back.

I dug our last garden hose out of the shed and set up the old rain barrel near the new raspberry plants. They got a deep watering while I set up, and then I used a watering can to do the sea buckthorn and the highbush cranberry, while filling the barrel. I didn’t water the silver buffalo berry as there are just too many of them, and I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes!

So things are looking good. I was quite sore after reworking the bed the corn was planted in last night, so I made sure to take it easy today. I didn’t want to overdo it and render myself useless for several days. There is still much work to get done, before it’s time to put in our transplants and do more direct sowing!

The Re-Farmer

Mid month video tour, just a few eggs, and I have the best friends!

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The video I was working on yesterday finally exported into the format I needed without any visual corruption, and I was finally able to start uploading it to YouTube.

It’s only 26 minutes long, but the uploaded told me it would take 2 hours to upload. !!! So I went for a nap for 2 hours.

When I got up and checked, it was at under 50% upload, and said it would take another two hours.

Yikes!!!

So I went into town early to run some errands before meeting with the egg lady. I got just a few eggs. 😉

I’m looking to boil a whole bunch and pickle them for snacks or quick breakfasts.

One of my other stops was to the post office. See that white box over there? Guess what was in it?

Popcorn!

😂😂😂

That all went for the birds when I was done.

Cheddar helped me check out the rest of the contents! I love the vintage jars. Especially the milk jar with a handle on it. I’ve never seen one like that before!

I will definitely have to look up that brand of stock cubes. The store these came from had a brand that used to carry all kinds of interesting flavoured stock cubes. Garlic and Basil, and mushroom, like these ones, but also Fines Herbs, fish, seafood, and pork, along with the usual beef, chicken and vegetable. After we moved and we started running out of the ones we brought with us, I found the company’s website, only to discover they carry just the basics now. None of the interesting ones, anymore. This brand is from Italy. I hope they are available online, from a Canadian supplier. Otherwise, shipping costs would be through the roof! Those Polish candies… what a treat! I’ve loved those since I was a child, but they are not easy to find. After moving out here, I found some and was quite thrilled to buy them, only to discover they were… another brand? I don’t know. They looked the same, but they didn’t taste the same, and were rubbery to chew on. Like they were a knock off brand or something.

Yes, I allowed myself to have one, even though I’m cutting sugar. I’m not going to be too extreme about things!

We’re really looking forward to cracking open the sun dried olives. Even before we moved, the ones we used to get – sundried and packed with salt in jars – seemed to have disappeared. Finding them packed in oil is not that difficult, but there’s just something different about the dry packed ones.

And finally, the seeds! I can’t find a country on the packaging, but that could just be my crappy vision. It looks like they’re from Italy, too. I know forget-me-nots can grow here; my mother used to grow them. My younger daughter was quite excited to see those. I’m the food grower. She’s the one that wants to grow flowers! Of course, we’ll have to try the lettuce, too. At some point, after we’re done with the seed starts and transplants, we’ll be setting up a pot to grow some salad greens indoors. Just a few plants in different varieties. Planting them in the garden was just too much for our needs. Plus, even when we didn’t have groundhogs trying to eat them, we still had to protect them from the kittens wanting to roll all over the beds!

Thank you so much, M, for sending us these! What a treat! You’re awesome. 🧡💛🧡💛

Oh! And here’s that video I was finally able to upload!

The Re-Farmer

Mutants!

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I just got back from meeting someone who, unlike us, has lots of squash this year and was willing to share…

… her mutants!

She didn’t even plant them. They came up on their own!

Two of them are a type of zucchini, in their winter squash stage. The other stripy ones are squash and pumpkins that cross pollinated. Yes, I know pumpkins are a type of squash, but they get their own category. 😁 I was told that 2 of them that have the darkest green are ready to eat now.

I was also gifted a big bag of spinach and beet greens! Our beets are doing so poorly this year, the greens were unusable, and our fall spinach are still trying to come up.

It should be interesting to see how these taste!

Now… how would one prepare a mutant squash? She said to just use them like pumpkins. So…

… pie?

The Re-Farmer

A sweet gift

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My younger daughter has been slowly working on cleaning up the spring moisture mess in the basement for the last while, but also just being down there to stay in the cool.

Today, I found out she has been having fun with my wood carving tools, which I have not been able to use myself for quite some time. Her first experimentation was to finish off a fork I’d started some time ago, but stopped because the wood really sucked to work with. This is her second project, and her first made from scratch.

She make a shawl pin for me! Something to use to keep my reading jacket closed, instead of the hair pins I’ve been using.

I absolutely adore the teeny little frog she carved into the top!

What a fantastic job she did, and I absolutely love it!!

The Re-Farmer

Early arrival; cast iron Dutch oven

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After all the running around yesterday, I wasn’t expecting to do more of it today!

However, my husband got a notification that a package of his was at the post office. At the same time, he got a call that his Purolator package was at their drop off in the town my mother’s in, because apparently they don’t drop off in the town closer to us.

He knew what the one at the post office was supposed to be, but had no idea what was being shipped by Purolator. We thought it might be the cast iron Dutch oven he ordered for me as an early Mother’s Day gift, but when I double checked, I confirmed it was coming by mail – and was supposed to arrive tomorrow. His expected package was going to be much, much smaller and lighter, too!

When the post office reopened for the afternoon, I headed there first. There turned out to be another package waiting for one of my daughters, plus a large, heavy box!

Not as heavy as I was expecting a cast iron pot to be, though. Plus, it came with a lid lifter that should have made for a longer box.

After loading the boxes up, I then drove to the town to pick up the Purolator package. The drop off was at an auto mechanic’s shop I’d never been to before. After telling the lady at the desk why I was there and showing my ID, she left to get the package.

When is when the most gorgeous, long haired calico came out to follow her until the door closed.

A friendly calico that came over and let me pet it!

I’m a sucker for cats.

The parcel turned out to be a large, flat envelop that weight basically nothing.

It turned out to be the package my husband was expecting at the post office.

So what was in the big box?

Well, it turned out to be my new Dutch oven after all!

So the skinny, virtually weightless package was sent by Purolator, while the big heavy item went by post!

The cats wouldn’t move to let me take pictures. :-D

Of course, everything was immediately covered in cat hair.

While the whole thing turned out to be lighter than I was expecting, my other surprise was how short the lid lifter is. Somehow, even with the photos, I thought it would be much longer. It’ll still make move the lid around much easier, than trying to manage with something else.

You can see the base of the carry bag, which is quite solid, plus it has the extra support from the straps that make the handles, wrapped all the way around.

I do like that lid design.

Do does Cheddar!

Well, one thing about the lid lifter being shorter than expected, is that it fits on the carrier, along with the pot itself.

The set also came with a thank you card, as well as care instructions in several languages.

The other side of the thank you card included the QR code to download the free recipe e-book for the Dutch oven.

Unfortunately, all I got was a message on my phone saying that it couldn’t open that type of link.

So I went to the website to see if I could find it there. While looking around, I did find a link to download a free recipe book, however it was for tortilla recipes. This place makes quite a lot of products, including quite a few for Mexican cooking. It took some searching before I found the Dutch oven we got. I did find their recipes section, and was eventually able to find their recipes for Dutch oven cooking. They also sell enamelled Dutch ovens, too, so the recipes were for both, but at least I found some.

I ended up using their contact form, told them what the issue I was having was, and asked if they could just email the e-book to me. We’ll see how that works out. Of course, it’s easy enough to find recipes for this type of Dutch oven. I recently took advantage of a sale on whole chickens, and I think that would be a great thing to try first. We have time to decide, though. It’s way too windy and muddy to get the fire pit going, for the next few days, at least. Plenty of time to prepare!

Since I was in town anyway, I swung by the grocery store and got a few things for a cookout, including the ingredients for S’mores. We tried making those for the first time, during one of the rare times it was safe to light a fire, a couple of summers ago, and they were quite fun.

This Dutch oven is pre-seasoned, and ready to use immediately. I’ll likely give it at least a hot water rinse, though, before it’s used.