groceries

Long day, good day and a new toy! Still glad it’s over. :-)

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Today was our day to do our monthly shop in the city. It went well, but my goodness, it’s draining! :-D

Of course, my day started with my morning rounds and a visit with the outside kitties. :-)

Which included an explosion of sorts!

I was right by the heated water bowl, near the entrance into the cat’s house, when an explosion of fur and fury erupted through the strips of carpet covering the entrance. It was Nicky the Nose, making a mad dash for it!

That is a big, hefty cat!

Once my rounds were done, I settled in to check the trail cam files. I saw an RCMP pick up truck going slowly past our driveway, then again in the other direction. So it looks like they at least tried to serve our vandal about the restraining order court date, and checked our place out as well. Whether or not he was home to be served, I don’t know and probably will not be notified about.

We had snow last night, so when I checked the gate this morning, I was following all sorts of tracks – cats (of course), the prints of a large canine (likely my brother’s dog visiting again. :-D ) and very, very fresh deer tracks!

There were not, however, any tire tracks in our driveway, on the outside of the gate.

As my daughter and I headed out to the city, a couple of hours later, there were tire tracks. I could see that someone had driven into our driveway. It could be just someone using our driveway to turn around, which is not that unusual, but it should be interesting to see what shows up when I check the memory cards tomorrow.

I also checked the security camera on our garage. It is set to take an image and email it to me, whenever the motion sensor is triggered. I was very interesting to see what would show up, now that it’s in a new position.

Did I mention it snowed last night?

I had almost 200 emails, and all but a few had pictures of snowflakes! :-D

I did a bit of adjusting of the camera’s position before we headed out, and from what files were waiting for me when we got home, I think I found the sweet spot for the motion sensor.

Our trip to the city went well, but also had its interesting moments.

On our way, we stopped at the next town to get gas. This municipality is under a mask mandate. They know me pretty well by now, so when I walked in without a mask, the lady behind the counter was comfortable enough to ask me why so many people coming from up north aren’t wearing masks. I said we aren’t under a mask mandate. Of course, she pointed out that when we come to places that do, we are are supposed to be wearing them. How can I be not wearing one? So I explained to her about the medical exemption, and she was all “but what does that mean?” I explained it, and how PIPA means they can’t ask someone why someone is medically exempt (though I did mention my own chronic cough, because I really don’t care who knows about it). A customer who had started to come in at the same time as me, but turned around to get his mask, heard part of the conversation and started asking, too. We talked a bit about the different kinds of exemptions, and how a medical exemption includes invisible disabilities, like PTSD or Autism. It turns out that the employees were simply told, everyone has to wear masks, but no one told them that the mandate included exemptions. Nothing! So I gave her one of my extra exemption cards, which states exactly where in the mandate medical exemptions are, mentions PIPA’s role, and includes related phone numbers. She was really happy to have it, and I think she was really ticked off that no one explained any of this to them.

Once in the city, we go to a drive through for breakfast, then Walmart, an international foods grocery store, Costco… then, hopefully, nowhere else! :-D

While at the Walmart, my daughter bought me a new toy.

I now have an angle grinder!! Oh, I am so excited. :-)

My daughter knows what her Mama likes! <3

Meanwhile…

At the international foods store, just as we were finishing up at the self checkout, I had someone come to me, reminding me to wear a mask next time. I thanked her and told her I was medically exempt, and she moved on to the next self checkout. Which is why I could hear when a security guard came to her and started telling her not to bother going to people who come in without masks because “suddenly, everyone is medically exempt.”

Oh, dear.

She did not need to be given a hard time for doing her job, and that comment was just too much! For me, it’s not a big deal, but if someone that is medically exempt for something like anxiety or trauma had heard that, it would have been extremely difficult for them.

So when we were done, my daughter went ahead with our stuff while I asked to speak to a manager.

I made sure to say I had no problems with being told about the mandate, that the staff member who approached me was doing her job; I told her I’m medically exempt, and that was it. He was nodding along as I spoke. Then I told him about the security guard going to her, and what I heard him saying to her. As soon as I repeated “suddenly, everyone’s medically exempt”, even with his mask on, I could see his face cringing! We spoke for a while, and he was very glad I’d told him about it, thanking me for doing so. I really stressed I understood what is required of them to meet the conditions of the mandate, and the staff member who approached me didn’t need to be hassled for doing her job, but also, there are a lot of reasons people can’t wear masks, so that comment by the security guard was not right. He said he would talk to the security guard about it, and agreed with me that it came down to training. He also added, it’s not their job to be the mandate police! :-D It was a very pleasant and positive conversation.

Costco went smoothly, except for a couple of things. One being a customer. We had our flat cart pretty heavily loaded, making it hard to steer, when there was a bit of a bottle neck around a woman who stopped her cart to look at some produce. Behind her was an older woman with a walker. I pulled back a bit, smiled and indicated that she could go around first. No, she told me. She didn’t want to go near me, because I wasn’t wearing a mask. :-/ So I just went ahead and pushed my flat cart forward – which meant I had to walk past her, anyhow! She ended up moving around the other side. As I passed, I told her I was at more risk from her than the other way around, but I don’t know that she heard me. Ah, well.

We were nearly done when I had a staff member approach me, asking about a mask. I told her I was medically exempt and she asked if I had a card or a letter from a doctor. I said it wasn’t a requirement, but she said they had a policy that people without masks had to have a card from a doctor. Now, I know doctors have been told not to write exemption letters, but she kept saying “card”. So I dug out one of my exemption cards and asked if that was what she meant. She said yes, and told me to keep it handy; there was a health inspector in the building, and she didn’t want me to get fined!

I never saw the health inspector but, as we were leaving, I made a point of telling the woman checking our receipt as we left, how much I appreciated them not giving me grief about the mandate, and how awesome they were at this location. I know people who have tried going to other locations and have gotten a lot of hassle, and this place never has. I wanted to make sure to say thank you and make a positive comment about it.

As smoothly as things went overall, these trips are really draining at the best of times. We were both pretty exhausted by the time we got home!

As we unloaded, I took the cat kibble for the outside cats to the sun room and refilled the bin. On cutting open a bag, I had Creamsicle actually sticking his head in and starting to eat! It was like he was starving! LOL After emptying the one bag into the bin, both he and Potato Beetle climbed right in to eat. I scooped some to top up the containers in the kibble house, but they didn’t leave the bin, even as I emptied another big into it. :-D I finally had to drag them out and over to the kibble house, just so I could close the bin and put it away.

Junk Pile was hanging out, too, and she has been willing to come closer to us, even if we still can’t touch her.

Which is why I could see, she’s starting to look very round. !!!

I really hope I’m wrong, but she might be pregnant again! This is a very bad time of year for it. :-( We’ll know soon enough, I guess.

Anyhow.

We are now well stocked for the month, and I am so glad to be done with it.

The Re-Farmer

Forgot about that…

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Yesterday, while working on the squash beds, I was thinking ahead to working on the beet and carrot beds today.

Braveheart (front) and Nostrildamus (rear) both allow me to pet them, and even skritch their ears now – but only after I’ve provided them with kibble in the morning!

Forgetting completely that today was our day to do our monthly shop.

Which turned out to be a good thing, since it also turned out to be a day of intermittent rain, so I wouldn’t have been able to get much done outside!

Rosencrantz (eating by herself) eagerly let me pet her this morning, but her babies and grand-baby won’t let me near them!

So my younger daughter and I made the trip into the city with our itinerary. It’s taken almost three years, but we’ve got the routine for ordinary stocking up down to a pretty efficient routine that also ensures the least amount of time for frozen and refrigerated items to be in the van. Ice packs and insulated bags are good only so far! We didn’t have any unusual things to get this time, so it was just breakfast (drive through, then eating in the parking lot) and the three regular stores we go to.

I was a bit concerned this time around, since the city’s “casedemic” resulted in mandatory masking, with fines, beginning rather arbitrarily two days ago. My views on the usefulness of masks aside, I really can’t wear one. (My daughter wears a home made cloth mask.) I’d heard some people had been given a hard time already. With medical exemptions, we should be able to just say we can’t wear one and that’s it. I’d heard that some people had letters from doctors demanded of them, which is ridiculous. For starters, as far as I know, doctors have been instructed not to give those out. Plus, it’s against PIPA to ask that information. Not all employees are told this, though, and some are are… shall we say… far more aggressive about it then they should be.

Thankfully, I had no reason to be concerned for the places we went to.

The first stop was Walmart, which is where we get some of our cat food. They have more flavours than Costco does, and we like to give the cats some variety. The last time we went there, there was someone at the entry that tried to offer me a mask, but was okay when I politely said I couldn’t wear one. This time, there was no one at that station at all. The sanitation station was still there, so I used some on my hands, but there wasn’t anyone at that station, either. Almost everyone in the store had masks, though I did see a few without. I might have gotten some startled looks from other customers, but with only half their faces visible, I’m not sure. :-/

The next store was a local international grocery store franchise that carries a few things we can’t find anywhere else. It’s also where we get our fresh produce in smaller-than-Costco quantities. This place has always been awesome. Aside from some signage, nothing had changed. I wasn’t really paying attention, but I think I only saw a couple of staff without masks, and that’s it.

The last stop was Costco. The last time we were there, there was someone at a booth offering masks. Again, there had been no issue with me saying I couldn’t wear one. Just a rather startled response. I think. Hard to tell behind the mask. In spite of all the booths, counters and cash registers being shielded, all the staff had to wear masks, though I did see a few face shields, instead.

Today, the woman in the booth with the masks, who had both mask and gloves on this time, immediately started using some kitchen tongs to pick up a surgical mask to offer me. I just told her “I can’t wear one, thanks”, and that was it. I think I saw maybe one or two other people without masks. I saw no staff wearing face shields this time.

In each place we went, things went smoothly. The only hitch was at Costco. The section where the toilet paper, facial tissues and paper towels usually are, was empty. Not a single product! Just a couple of pallets! I’d heard that people were starting to panic buy toilet paper again, but really? I wish I’d thought of it earlier and picked some up while we were at one of the other two stores. They had plenty of inventory. We have enough to last us a little longer, though. We’ll see if we have to make a second trip into the city later in the month. That partly depends on when we can get a plumber in to switch out the well pump, and how much that ends up costing.

Still, we managed to get pretty much everything we needed, and it was all nice and quick. No one gave me a hard time, which was greatly appreciated.

As we started heading out of the city, though, I did have to pull over and get my daughter to drive. My mystery pain in my side decided it was a good day to kick in. While shopping, I can use the cart as a walker, but it was getting difficult to sit up straight while driving.

The drive home saw us going through several downpours along with way, with wind gusts trying to push the van off the road. !! It sure felt good to get home – and to be restocked for at least most of the month, again.

Oh, I did have one splurge while at Walmart. I found and picked up a package of fermentation lids. I’ve never seen any other store with fermentation lids! These have a cap to fit a wide mouth jar, with a build in airlock and, instead of a fermentation weight, it has a spring to push things down.

Too bad we didn’t have these when we were pickling our squash! :-)

I’m thinking maybe we should pick up another cabbage and try making small batch sauerkraut again. :-)

Meanwhile, it looks like it will continue to be wet, chilly and unpleasant outside.

I think it’s time for a nice big pot of tea!

The Re-Farmer

Heat Wave

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Today was our day to go into the city to do our big shopping trip.

We didn’t finish.

We currently have more weather warnings. This time for heat!

I took the above screenshot shortly before 4:30pm. We might actually go a bit higher before it starts cooling down. 30C/86F is hot enough, but check out the humidex expected for Monday! 40C = 104F

We’ve been getting enough rain lately that our municipality has removed the burn ban, completely. No restrictions at all right now! We have lots that needs to be burned, but with the heat, who wants to be around fire right now? :-D

And we don’t have air conditioning in the van anymore, nor even working fans in the console.

It did make the trip into the city … interesting!

We managed to get to the Walmart and the Costco to stock up. After gassing up at the Costco, we were going to go to a couple more places. Then road construction and detours had us doing a route march through residential areas (why are they designed to be such mazes???) before we could back track, go back through the construction, and finally take a road that would get us to the street we needed, albeit at a different spot than I was originally after. By that time, I was done. We just went home.

Part of the reason I was okay with doing that is because my daughter asked for an extra trip into the city, which we’ll be doing tomorrow. She’s buying us a new stove! Since we’ll be in the city again anyhow, we can also pick up the rest of the stuff we need for the month.

Considering she is using her savings and had to quit her job, I am extremely grateful that she is willing to do this for us. The stove we have has only three working elements right now – we stopped using the 4th when we saw sparks every time we turned it on – and even those don’t heat up well, among other issues.

There isn’t much in the monthly shop we need to get, though. The freezer and pantry are stocked up again. We also have lots of cat food and litter – we’d run out of both, completely, as of this morning! The only things left are the items we don’t want to get in bulk quantities, like fresh fruits and vegetables, or ingredients we can only find in various ethnic sections of a grocery franchise we regularly visit now.

With the current heat wave, getting work done outside is going to be difficult. Unless I start getting up at 5am, while it’s still cooler (well; not so much over the next few days). I might just have to start going that. Which means, no more staying up until 2am!

It would mean kicking cats off my bed, too. :-D

Oh, to have the life of our cats! <3

The Re-Farmer

Kitten Therapy

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Since I neglected to get any kitten pictures to share yesterday, I’m making up for it today!

Here are some furry smiles for you to enjoy. :-)

In the end, I needed to be rescued by my daughter, who was able to de-kitten me, so I could leave!

Kitten therapy was exactly what I needed. :-)

We got our monthly shop in the city done. After last month, I was quite dreading it. We didn’t know what restrictions were still in place, or how things would be, and I certainly didn’t want to put up with snarly customers again, so we ended up skipping Costco entirely.

It does mean we couldn’t get some of the stuff we normally do, nor as much of some things. We did, however, manage to get pretty much everything on my list. Except printer ink. There wasn’t any of the type I needed, in stock. :-/ At this point, I think I’m just going to order it online. I need it to make posters of the kittens to try and adopt them.

Only one of my daughters came along, since as far as I know, Costco is still allowing only 2 people per membership, and when we left that was still part of the plan. We were well on the way to the city when I suggested to skip it and try going to Superstore, instead.

After hitting a drive through, then having breakfast sitting in the van in a parking lot, we started at the Walmart. We don’t buy anything that needs to be kept cold or frozen there, so our purchases and stay in the van without concern.

Much to our surprise and appreciation, there was no line up outside at all. There was a very short one when we left, but that was it.

We got most of the cat supplies there; we’d have had to use two carts, if we’d got all that we needed. This time, we also picked up a case of the type of cat food Beep Beep and the kittens like so much.

We had no issues finding paper products, and if we’d needed any, we could have picked up all the disinfectant cleaners we wanted. :-D I was even able to pick up some much needed work clothes.

Then I got real wild and crazy, and picked up a new garden hose, and long handled, ratchet pruning sheers. I’m so excited to use the sheers! They are going to go a long way in saving my back!

It’s the little things that make me happy. :-D

Next on the agenda was Superstore. We don’t normally stock up there, and I was rather surprised by how expensive some things have become. Particularly beef. I’ve been spoiled by Costco prices, that’s for sure.

It was very confusing when we checked out, though. After scanning everything, the cashier indicated towards the other belt, telling me to “take that”. There was a bunch of stuff, most of it packaging material, but there was also something in a long, blue fabric case. She told me I could take it, but she had to scan it first. It was free.

The whole thing was so out of context, it took me a while to figure out what she was telling me. It turned out we’d spent enough money to earn a freebie. I couldn’t even tell what it was! My daughter ended up handing the tag end over to the cashier, and could see on the label that it was a folding camp chair.

I’ve never spent that much money at a Superstore before, and had completely forgotten they had giveaways for larger purchases. :-D It turned out to be a rather nice chair, too. It will certainly be put to good use!

Once we finished at the Superstore, we went to an international grocery we really like, for the last few things, then got some Dim Sum for the drive home. That has become a much-looked-forward-to treat, if we can swing it!

While we were pretty exhausted by the end of everything, it was a much better trip than last time. Things are slowly getting back to normal. Some people are still wearing masks. Some were even wearing them properly. Not very many, but some. ;-)

The check out lines at the Walmart and Superstore are still organized with the 2 meter circles on the floors, in one long line, with a staff member telling people which tills were open. I rather hope this stays, because that is working out to be very efficient. I’ve seen some stores that, years ago, had checkouts redesigned specifically to work with one line up for all cash desk. No staff needed to run back and forth to see which tills would open next. It does make things go much more quickly! The smaller grocery store doesn’t really have a layout that would allow for it, but things still went smoothly there, too.

Normally, we would have gone to this particular Walmart, then driven a fair distant to the Costco, then back to the same area the Walmart we like is in, to go to the international grocery store. While there are other branches of these stores closer to the Costco, we find they’re not as good, to the point it’s worth the extra driving. I have to admit, though, it made for a less stressful and tiring day, with all the places we needed to go being all along one major thoroughfare. It probably took about 45 minutes of driving time out of the equation, too.

We might try Costco again, next month, though. We shall see.

For now, we are pretty much stocked up for the month again, and I am glad to have the trip over and done with!

The Re-Farmer

People actually enjoy this?

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Today the girls and I headed into the city for our monthly shop.

I know that there are people out there who actually enjoy shopping. I don’t get it. I really don’t!

Okay, so today turned out to be a more complex shop than usual, but still… Ugh. It’s just so draining!

So here is a picture of a fungus. Because it cheers me up!

With all the rain we’ve been having lately, mushrooms are showing up everywhere!
Continue reading →

Warming, and comparisons

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The temperature outside is not the only thing was was warming up today. This is what I saw when I looked out our bathroom window this morning.

20190103.curledup.cat

Pretty sure that’s Big Jim in the empty water bowl. :-D

Also, they are absolutely shredding the piece of Styrofoam I’ve got partially holding up their cat cave roof! :-D

We’ve taken advantage of the warming temperatures with a quick trip into the city last night, and a trip to finally do our bigger shopping today. We’re skipping our usual monthly Costco shop this month, because of how things worked out for the holidays, but it was still worth driving into the city to get at least a modestly large shopping trip in.

Among the things we picked up today was 5 large bags of kibble for the outside cats. Going to the city to buy those alone saved us about $50-$75, if we’d bought it locally. The price range is because the stores are often out of stock of the lower priced varieties. The savings in cat food alone more than makes up for the cost of gas to drive to the city.

I had to buy a memory card. A 16 Gig card in the city cost me just under $16. A comparable card locally? Almost $25.

So it was worth the drive in, even as messy as it was out there. We were above freezing today, and everything was melting like crazy on the roads. It’s going to cool down again, starting tomorrow, so I’m glad to get the hours of driving out of the way, before everything freezes up again. Temperatures are expected to drop again, starting tomorrow, though not the deep freeze we recently had.

It should be interesting to see how the deep freeze will affect our electricity bill. Our billing cycle is mid-month, so there is a calendar overlap. Our first bill, just over a year ago, was over $300, going up almost $100 each cycle over the next few months, topping out at just under $600. During this time, the hot water tank had finally died and we were heating water every day for washing. Comparing the costs of our energy usage a year later, the bill only went up about $25 in the same time period. It should be interesting to compare the time period after we got the new hot water tank, and were no longer boiling water for hours, every day!

The Re-Farmer

Oh, what a day! :-D

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How the day was going to go was a bit up in the air, to be decided after we picked up our van.  It ended up being a much longer day, but we got the bulk of our monthly shop in, after all.

In order to get the van home, my younger daughter and husband had to come along.  Now, my mother’s car isn’t a compact car, by any means, but my husband tops 6 ft.  Even with the seat back as far as it could go, he had to fold himself in.  He was basically wearing the car!!  Continue reading →

All Choked Up

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Just a bit of catch up from yesterday, since I shut down the computer when we heard a thunderstorm coming in.  It ended up passing us by, but even so, it got pretty loud out there!

When doing my evening walk around the yard, I decided to head around the main garden area to check out the choke cherries.

There is one chokecherry tree on the south side of the garden, that my mother planted among the raspberries.  It has very few berries on it; I don’t think it’s getting anywhere near enough sun in that location.  The few it has are starting to turn a darker red.

This first photo is from one of the trees hidden among the lilacs along the north fence line.

20180727.chokecherry1

This next photo is from a tree about 50 feet away.

20180727.chokecherry2

These black ones are basically ripe.

Quite the difference between the two trees!

I’m not sure if we will be doing anything with them.  My mom was suggesting making jam, but I am really not up to that.  Especially for such a small amount of berries.  I wouldn’t mind trying to make wine with them, but we don’t have the set up for that right now.  They’re not the sort of thing you eat straight, though you certainly can.  They’re more pit than berry. :-D

Anyhow.

Yesterday was our day to go into the city for the Costco shopping.  It was a relatively small shop, though.  My husband gets his disability payments at the end of the month, and gets both CPP Disability (from the government), which is a fairly small payment that comes in a few business days before the end of the month, and then his private insurance payment, which comes in on the last business day of the month.  So we’ve been doing our monthly shop with the first one comes in, the paying the bills with the second one.

Not this month.

Because his CPAP died, we made sure to order that as soon as the money came in.  It ended up costing about CDN$650, which is an incredibly good price.  His insurance will reimburse a portion of that, but that won’t happen until next week, at the earliest.

Hopefully, the CPAP will come in quickly.  Although the sleep apnea does not seem as severe as it was years ago, the affects are being felt.  It’s not even the lack of oxygen, but the lack of REM sleep that can really cause problems.  When he was first diagnosed, the specialist estimated my husband hadn’t had any REM sleep for at least a year.  It almost killed him.  So we don’t want to take any chances!

The CPAP was ordered on Friday and my husband got a shipping notice before the end of the day.  However, the company can only guarantee shipping up until it gets to Canada.  After that, it’s up to Canada Post.  So the shipping estimate is 2-3 business weeks.  !!!

I don’t expect it to take that long.  Packages tend to get shipped faster than envelopes.

With that done, we basically did a half month shop, rather than a full month shop.

Now, I want to make one thing very clear.

I hate shopping.

Okay.  Maybe “hate” is too strong of a word.  Still, I really, really, really dislike shopping.  I don’t like being around so many people, in crowded aisles, etc.  Basically, everything about shopping, I dislike.

https://blog.brightlifedirect.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/spoon-theory.jpgWhich means a trip to Costco uses up all sort of spoons, until I’ve got nothing left but knives!

Which is why I like to have at least one of the girls with me.  They make sure I don’t just turn around and leave half way through shopping.  It’s much more pleasant with their company!

So we (both girls came along this time) did the Costco shopping, gassed up the van, and I even remembered to bring the jerry can to get premium gas for the riding mower (regular gas at Costco was $1.169, compared to $1.239 elsewhere, and premium was $1.269, so it was worth doing it there!).

Before the move, our usual routine was to do the Costco shopping for the big stuff, then go to a local grocery franchise for the non-bulk stuff.  In the years we were away, that franchise expanded into the city here, but there are very few of them.  The girls wanted to pick up something we knew was carried by this company.  We did consider checking out a couple of the other grocery chains, but really don’t like them, so I looked up the nearest store of the one we do like.  It turned out there was a location a convenient drive from the area we were in, so we decided to check it out.

Well now.

Did I mention I hate shopping?

When we got to the place, the first thing we saw were the extra signs.  It was an “international” store, with online shopping.  Of course, that had us joking about whether they delivered to where we live, out in the sticks.  It also had a “kitchen” area.

Hmm.

Then we walked in.

Wow.

I must have looked like a country yokel that had come into the big city for the first time!

We couldn’t believe this place!

It was huge and open.  The aisles were wide, and accessible (knowing so many wheelchair and walker users, it’s now automatic for me to assess aisle space and judge how well someone in a wheelchair would be able to navigate).  The “kitchen” area had a wide variety of local and international foods, hot and fresh, with a lovely, well lit and welcoming seating area.  They had several food “bars”, with the usual things like chicken wings, olives and Chinese food – and a perogie bar!  There was a cheese island.  Half the store was dedicated to international foods – three aisles were of just Filipino food.

Before the move, there were a couple of local grocery stores that had stuff we couldn’t find anywhere else.  One was an Italian store that specialized in European imports.  The other was a Chinese grocery store that included hot food take out/dine in areas (with some of the best bao I’ve ever tasted).

This store was like those two, plus the regular grocery store, merged into one.

It was heaven.  A total joy to shop there!

We had to deliberately stop ourselves from going through all the international aisles, so we wouldn’t completely blow our budget!

We need to come back.  With money.  All three of us agreed that this store alone was worth the drive to the city to shop in.

Did I mention I hate shopping?

Not here!

I can’t wait to go back.  And this time, we’ll plan on having lunch there, too!

The Re-Farmer

Morning Cats, and shopping day

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I want to start by sharing some photos of the cats this morning.   Because it’s a great way to start the day!

Like waking up to this…

20180530.morning.stretch

Actually, I woke up to see her sitting there, staring at me. :-D  The cats really appreciate the extra thickness of the window sill, thanks to the log walls in the original part of the house.  They’d love to get up onto the other window, too, which is much, much bigger, but it’s the one that didn’t get replaced.  Which means it still has sheets of plexiglass covering them on the inside, so there’s nowhere they can sit at.  Which drives them bonkers, when the outside cats are in the trees outside the window, looking in. :-D

Speaking of outside cats…

20180530.three.cats

With all the rain we’ve been having, I moved the food bowls under the little roof over the basement window.  They actually seem to prefer when the kibble gets a bit wet; likely softer on their teeth.  “A bit wet” is not what’s been happening, lately.  Which is a good thing!

When I came out this morning, Squishum (not in the picture) was all talkative, squeaking away as if wanting attention, but still won’t let me come near.  Nasty Crime Boy, Beep Beep and Butterscotch were content to ignore me to come to the food.

The Hand, on the other hand…

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…would not go to the food while I was around!  I took this through the screen door of the sun room, after bringing back the container I use to take food to the bowls.  She would only peak her head around the corner of the shelf outside, watching to see what I would do.  I was able to move my phone enough to get more than just her head, but she was not comfortable with me being there and slunk away to the clothes line platform to wait for me to leave.

I don’t want to prevent her from eating, so I left.

I so want to touch that cat! :-D

Instead, I got to touch the Butterscotch!

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I even got a decent picture of her!  She makes it very difficult. :-D

I wandered around the East side of the house and did a bit of weeding to free up some irises that are coming up.  Looking into the spruce grove, I just had to get another picture.

Remember this?

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That photo was taken on May 15.  The leaves are barely coming out at this point.

This is what it looks like, today.

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That broken piece of tree in the first picture is still there, in the left side of the photo.  Completely hidden from where I was standing, and barely visible even at other angles.

That horseradish is coming up nicely, too.

In time, that underbrush will be cleared mostly away, and the dead tree will be cut down.  Likely not this year, though.  I think we will focus on cleaning up the maple grove, first.  At least as much as we can, until we have a working chain saw.

My goal is to have both the maple and spruce groves open under the trees, park-like and mow-able.  I would like us to, at the very least, be able to walk through the trees without having to skirt dead branches, dead trees and other detritus.  Including my husband, with his walker.  Maybe set up a picnic table or something in the shade, so we can enjoy the spaces more.

Little by little, we will get there.

Late this morning, my older daughter and I made the trip into the city for our monthly bulk shopping trip.  Our usual routine is to stop at the town we drive though on the way, to fill the tank.  The gas station we stop at is a co-op we have a membership with, which will translate into a check at the end of the year, so we make it a habit. When we got there, however, I got the nasty surprise of seeing the gas prices had gone up 10¢ per liter.  !!!  Our tank was lower than I normally let it go (we drove over 1800km since I filled it and reset the trip counter at the end of last month), so I kind of had to put something in.  I ended up putting in $30, which didn’t even bring it to half a tank.  While paying for it, I asked when the big jump happened.  Turned out to be a mere 2 hours before we got there!

When we finished our Costco shopping, I filled the tank there.  The price was 14¢ per litre less!  Plus, since it’s Costco, that will also be included in the check we’ll get at the end of the year.  Even at the lower price, and having already put in $30 of gas and bringing it to just below the half way mark, it still cost over $60 to fill the tank.  That’s almost half our gas budget for the month, right there.  Thankfully, our van does have good mileage.

The increases in gas prices are really going to be a problem.  The politicians can talk about how we should be using alternative transportation all they want.  Even in the city, that’s not always feasible.  For anyone living in the country, what choice do we have?  It’s not like there’s a bus we can hop on, and we certainly can’t bike to the city to do our monthly grocery shopping.  Or even to the next town.  Plus, most people have multiple vehicles, because they are work tools, not just transportation.  Heaven help those who make the commute to the city!  When we last lived out here, my husband had a 70 minute commute, one way.  That’s highway driving, for the most part, so it wasn’t affected by traffic until the last 10 minutes or so. I know others who have longer commutes.  Back then, it was a big deal when gas prices went higher than 60¢ a litre.  Now we’re looking at $1.309 (there are about 4L in a gallon, for those of you in the US.  That works out to about $5.24 per gallon), and other areas are even higher.

That’s going to make life more difficult for a lot of people. :-(

We got the monthly shopping done, at least.  $600 later. :-/  My splurge of the month was new wiper blades for the van, to replace the ones being held together with electric tape.  :-D  Tomorrow, we go to the regular grocery store to get the things we don’t need to buy in bulk.

It feels good to have well stocked cupboards, fridge and freezer again!

The Re-Farmer