A much more effective shop, plus updates

January 24, 2025 / Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Yesterday, while in a much larger town, I did a bit of grocery stopping. Just a few things to tide us over until we do our first big stock up shop in the city next week. The grocery store I went to has a really good inventory, and I would have loved to get more, but everything was too expensive.

What I forgot to do was bring our water jugs for refilling, so I needed to do that today. Being a much warmer day, I called my mother to see if she needed any errands done, or if she were up to going to the bank.

Thanks go her Meals on Wheels three times a week, her groceries stretch quite a lot further, so all she needed was milk. The only other thing she wanted were some croissants to go with her tea. She discovered croissants only recently and just loves them, and sometimes the grocery store in her town has some excellent prices on them.

So I decided I would get my water refills at her local grocery store, then maybe pick up the sandwich meats they have that are prices better than I’ve seen anywhere else, including the city, on top of my mother’s two items. She was getting her Meals on Wheels today, so I was going to pick up my own lunch of fried chicken at the gas station before going to her place.

Once at the grocery store, I had time to spare before I knew the gas station’s fried chicken would be ready, so I took my time and looked around.

What a difference from yesterday! This grocery store not only had better regular prices, but there were sale prices that were just awesome. Where, yesterday, I didn’t get the extras I would have wanted to, today I got extras I never expected to pick up!

I didn’t get a chance to get a photo before everything was packed up, so here’s just a picture of the reciept.

From the top, the first item is a jar of sliced pickles for sandwiches. The Dawn Ultra is for our basement, to clean the septic pump’s filter basket.

The “bakery reduced” is three bags of croissants for my mother, that cost only $1.75 each. This is even better than Superstore in the city, where they have clamshells of croissants available for $5, which is a great price, but far fewer croissants for the price compared to the tree bags I got. The 2L of milk was hers, too.

The boneless pork was one of the amazing sale prices; you can see on the receipt that the sale price discounted over $17 – more than half price for a very good sized roast! It was the thing with the fresh chicken legs and thighs. I ended up getting two packages of those. If I’d had the budget for it, I would have gotten more!

I got around 500 grams each of the sliced deli meats; the maple ham was a touch under, while the two chicken breasts were a touch over. That is their regular price, which is about $2/100g lower than most places.

The instant pudding was a spur of the moment thing. Four boxes for $5 is a really excellent price, as you can see by the amount discounted. While I just got a flat of 30 eggs yesterday, when I saw that the 18’s of house brand eggs were priced lower than a dozen, I just had to grab one. We can never have too many eggs! The rye breads are regular price; the same brand and price that we get at Walmart.

The water refills were the one thing that is more expensive, both the new caps and the water itself.

So of all this, $9.44 was for my mother. Which means that, of the $106.60 total, after taxes, we paid only $97.16 for our own stuff.

Which was a heck of a lot more than what we paid almost $130 for, yesterday! Particularly since I ended up getting so much meat on this trip!

After I finished the shopping, making sure to bag my mother’s stuff separately, I had time to spare before I would go to the gas station to pick up some fried chicken and wedges for lunch, so I went to a small department store to see what they had. I remembered there were a couple of things my mother wanted from there. One was a candle, for when she says her prayers. The other were slipper socks of some kind. Her feet get cold at night, so she wanted something she could sleep with. I actually found both, though I’m not sure if the slipper socks will work for her. They are supposed to be one size fits all, but my mother has massive bunions, and that might be a problem. We shall see.

I still had extra time, so I parked at the gas station and messaged with my brother for a bit. When I did my morning rounds, I checked the ejector, as he asked, but the pump hadn’t gone off during the night, so there was just fresh snow in front of it. I did feel the heat tape and it was warm, so that’s still working. Before I left home, I made sure to top up the filter on the septic pump and asked my family to keep an ear out for it, as it would probably go off while someone was taking a shower.

After updating my brother on things, I went inside, only to find all the chafing dishes were completely empty. Not even the potato wedges or deep fried perogies and pizza pops that get cooked first were there.

It turns out their frier was on the fritz. The food was being cooked, but it would be a while before anything would be ready.

Thankfully, they had a bank machine, so I took some cash out and went to the Chinese restaurant next to my mother. They are cash only. It’s been a few months since I’ve gotten anything there, so I was far from unhappy with having to change plans.

From there, I finally went to my mother’s. Today was warm enough that I didn’t need to worry about my groceries and the water jugs freezing in the truck cab.

Since I was able to get what my mother needed along with my own stuff, after we had lunch, I did other errands for her. It was her day to do laundry, so I changed her bedding for her, which was enough to make two loads for her. Once those were started, I did some light housework for her, and all those little things that she now finds difficult to do. The one unusual thing was trying to figure out why her TV wasn’t working After trying various things, it just kept reverting to a message saying to check the network connections. I checked everything I could think of before I finally took a picture of the message on the screen and sent it to my brother; he bought her this TV and did all the setting up, so he knows it a lot better than I do. A quick message back from him, and I found the setting that my mother somehow accidentally turned off. She has a habit of button mashing her remote control when things don’t work the way she expects, but when things go wrong, she has no idea what she did that caused it!

All in all, we were able to have a pretty good visit today, which is really unusual for the length of time that I was there. I really appreciate days like today. No personal attacks. No attacks on my family. Only mild attempts to attack my brother that I could easily address. No racist rants or bizarrely conflated topics she likes to rage about, even though she has no idea that she’s talking about completely different things. She still can’t figure out why she’s getting fundraising mail from a political party she is no longer a member of. I’ve told her, she’s on a mailing list and would need to ask to be removed. She things that “the government” (meaning, the federal government) is spending all this money to mail things out using taxpayer dollars. I’ve tried to explain to her that party mail is paid for by party members and party donations. They cannot use federal funds for stuff like this. I can tell she simply does not understand what I’m trying to explain.

One thing she did bring up is that she is noticing her own cognitive decline. She’s still convinced that she is dying, and told me she’s feeling all sort of pains, but it’s different now. How is it different? All she could do was vaguely gesture at her chest and stomach. She just doesn’t have the vocabulary, or understanding of anatomy, to explain what she is feeling and where. Aside from that, though, she’s finding it harder to remember words she uses regularly.

She’s still doing pretty darn good for being 93 years old! She does acknowledge that and is grateful for it. But she does need to be in assisted living of some kind!

At least she does live in town, and has home care coming in three times a day for medical assist with her prescriptions. The help she needs, though, home care out here cannot provide, nor can my siblings and I.

So we do the best we can. In the end, my mother really is doing amazingly well to still be living independently! I would not be at all surprised if she outlives us all. 😄

Anyhow.

Once done at my mothers, I got home while it was still light out (I am SO loving the longer days!). After the truck was unloaded, I made sure to check the ejector. The pump had gone off while my daughter was showering, and I could see by the melted splash area that the ejector still has a decent amount of pressure behind it.

On checking the pump, I saw the water level in the filter was getting low, so I topped it up again. After putting the lid back on, I could see air bubbling in from the intake opening as it started to drain. It has to be the back valve again. I took some video of the bubbling and updated my brother about it. He’s not saying much but, knowing him, he’ll probably find a way to come out this weekend to look at it again.

Tomorrow, though, we have to do a much needed trip to the dump, since we didn’t do it during our recent deep freeze. The dump is open longer hours on Saturdays, and I hope to get that done as early as possible. We’re supposed to be colder tomorrow, but nothing extreme. For the next while, it’s going to feel like spring!

I’m quite looking forward to it.

The Re-Farmer

A quick shop: This is $128???

January 23, 2025 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

So, today didn’t quite work out as planned, but close!

With the time for my daughter’s doctor’s appointment being when it was, we decided we would leave very early so that we could run some errands first, then she would have her appointment, and we would be heading back early enough to pick up parcels at the post office before it closed. We planned to leave by noon, or after the prescription delivery came in. The new delivery driver is a bus driver, too, and he does the deliveries in the morning after he parks his bus for the school day. Usually, that means he gets to our place in the late morning.

Usually.

When it was past noon and we hadn’t heard from him yet (he calls in advance, so we can open the gate, or meet him at the gate), I called the pharmacy to make sure the delivery was still happening. It was. He just had a lot of deliveries today.

My husband was having another really bad pain day, so there was no way he could meet the driver outside, and my older daughter was in bed for the day, having finished her work night at about 5:30am. By 1:00, though, we couldn’t wait any longer. My younger daughter and I had to head out, leaving the gate open for the delivery driver.

I later got a message that the driver arrived almost half an hour after my daughter and I started heading out.

Our first stop was at the feed store for a 40 pound bag of kibble. We weren’t out of feed store kibble, but we did run out of regular kibble, so the inside cats got feed store kibble this morning.

They don’t like it!

Spoiled buggers!

Since the feed store is so close to the gas station we usually pick up from fried chicken for lunch at, we could have gone there. The medical clinic, however, happens to be near a Subway, so I asked if my daughter wanted to go there, instead. I knew she hadn’t eaten yet today and would be really hungry, but she was willing to wait longer. It’s been ages since she’s been to a Subway.

So that was our next stop. We had enough time for a comfortable sit down lunch before her appointment. We were going to do the grocery shopping part together, before her appointment, but that changed. The grocery store and the clinic are in the same shopping complex, though, so that was convenient. I just went on my own after my daughter checked in at the clinic for her appointment. I didn’t have much on my list, so I took my time to see if there was anything else I thought we might need.

I was really shocked by how more expensive things were. This is a much larger town – almost a city – and closer to the big city than we are, but the prices were higher than even in my mother’s town! I’m hoping this isn’t a reflection on how much everything has gone up everywhere. Our gas prices increased to $1.569/L since the last time I was in town. I had filled the tank and it was $1.499/L then, already an increase from $1.469/L.

Anyhow. This is what $128.24, after taxes, looks like.

That is a very empty cart.

The thing that was actually the best deal were the energy drinks, which were on sale. My daughters requested them, so these are for three people.

Here is what everything cost.

So the Monsters were only $2.50 each, instead of almost $4. I couple of them were for my daughter and I to have for the ride home. Normally, I would have bought them by the case (4pk), which normally costs about $11 when not on sale, even at Walmart. Elsewhere, they’re even higher, but with this sale, buying them in pairs was a better price than buying a 4pk.

The milk and oat milk were the same price as everywhere, since milk prices are controlled. The 30 pack of eggs were more expensive then locally. The celery stalks were a sale price. The block of cheese at $10.49 used to always be about $6.49 before the prices all went crazy during the illegal lockdowns. The cheese and celery were the only things I got that were not on my list.

The rye bread was the lowest price I could find. It wasn’t on sale, but the on sale ones were sold out. I choked at the price for kibble, but we won’t be going to a Walmart or anything like that until we are doing our big stock up shopping, so I got the cheaper 7.26kg bag. They did have 9kg bags, but it was just too expensive.

We don’t normally buy salad dressing, but I’d bought a whole lot of bagged salads last time, but one bunch of them were a salad mix, not a salad kit, so it they didn’t come with their own toppings and dressing packages.

Last of all where the canned drinks. My husband requested Fresca. Every now and then, he has a craving for it. The Coke Zero is for me. Those were both on sale, but their regular price is pretty much the same as everywhere else.

That’s it. Thirty two individual items, but it’s just cat kibble, bread, milk, cheese, eggs, drinks, celery and salad dressing. There were other things I could have picked up, but just couldn’t justify the expense. Like bananas. They were almost $1.50/lb! Usually, the more expensive ones are 99¢/lb, while most places are 79¢/lb There were all sorts of meats on sale, some of which also had stickers with at-the-till price reductions, but even the sale prices were higher than regular prices I have been seeing elsewhere.

I’m rather concerned that when we do our stock up shopping, I’m going to find major price increases all over.

Anyhow.

After I got the shopping done, I loaded up the truck. My daughter had said she would meet me there, but I my list was so short, I knew I would be finished before her. So I went to the pharmacy adjoining the clinic and cashed in a couple of lotto tickets, and ended up getting myself a pair of slipper shoes. I still haven’t found indoor shoes to replace my usual ones, but they’re really starting to fall apart, so I hoped these would be okay. The price was right and, if they didn’t work out, one of my daughters would have a new pair of slippers!

I’m wearing them now. I’m still not sure if they will work out.

After putting stuff away in the truck, I went into the clinic. I couldn’t see my daughter around, so I asked how long since she had been called in.

It turned out she had just been called into the examination room a couple of minutes before, and the doctor hadn’t seen her yet!

So I waited.

Interestingly, talking to my daughter later, she said she could tell I was in the waiting room because she recognized my cough! I have gotten to the point that I barely even notice my chronic cough anymore. It’s just something I do. Like breathing. Which makes sense, since breathing is what seems to trigger the cough. 🫤

After my daughter was done, she had some stuff for the receptionist to scan for her files, and a follow up appointment was made for the end of next month. She also got another PCOS referral, this time for an ultrasound.

From there, we stopped to fill the gas tank (about an eighth of a tank cost $31 and change), then headed home. By the time, we weren’t sure if we would make it to the post office before it closed. Especially when we found ourselves behind a snow plow! Thankfully, there was just enough of a gap in traffic that we could pass, and we got to the post office, just 2 minutes before closing!

One of the packages we got in the mail was a supplement for the cats that’s supposed to help calm them down. Butterscotch, for example, is still a bundle of stress that not only refuses to leave my office/bedroom, but is so anxious about the other cats, she has limited herself to basically 1/4 of the room (which is still a lot of space, really) and won’t use the litter box unless I chase the other cats out and close the door! I’ve learned to recognize when she needs to go by her behavior. Even once the other cats are out, I still have to pick her up and put her down near the litter box. She will then dash in, use is as fast as possible, before running away and back into her corner.

Once we got everything unloaded and put away, I made sure to make cat soup with the supplement. It’s only a small container, though. The does is by weight which, for cats, is the smallest dose recommended. For the amount of cat soup I made, it was probably less than that per cat, but it really comes down to how much they eat. Which means the bigger cats will be eating more of it than the little cats, so I guess it works out. It’ll take a few days, I’m sure, before we can see any difference. If we do, I’ll give more details about the product.

As I write this, I’ve got about a dozen cats sleeping on my bed. I can’t say they’re sleeping because of the calming supplement, though, since that’s pretty much what I usually have on my bed, every day. The main thing will be if we have less fighting between certain cats, or if Finnegan, aka: Dah Boy, stops spraying all over the place. That is definitely a stress response, since he didn’t start doing that until a few years ago, after our indoor population grew to the point it’s at now. We’re all pretty tired of cleaning up after him! If that’s the only benefit we get, it’ll be worth the cost of the stuff!

Meanwhile, we completely forgot to grab water jugs to refill, so I’ll need to head out tomorrow for that. Which reminds me. I need to call my mother and see if she wants me to do her grocery shopping tomorrow. We’re still expected to reach a high of -3C/27F tomorrow, so that would be a good time for it.

For now, however, it’s supper time. My older daughter made us a big batch of cream of potato and bacon soup while we were gone. I can’t wait to have some – it smells amazing!

The Re-Farmer

More driving today… and tomorrow, and the day after, and then…

December 30, 2024 / Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

You know, it’s a good thing my “job” is to take care of this place. Otherwise, I have no idea how I’d manage to get things done.

Things like unexpected shopping trips.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, the cuteness!

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There was one heck of a crowd in the isolation shelter when I came back from doing my morning rounds! As I came closer to the shelter, some of the more feral cats ran away, leaving “only” eleven left in the upper level of the shelter. I think there might have been as many as fifteen cats, crammed into that upper level, as I was walking up to the shelter!

Once I was back inside and having my breakfast, my daughter suddenly came in with her phone. She’d been wanting to book a follow up visit with her doctor today, which was on my morning to-do list, as I wanted to book a meet and greet for myself, too. The doctor I’m seeing now is still the interim doctor. It may be convenient having the same doctor as my mother, but we’re working to get my mother into assisted living, and it would be more convenient to have the same doctor as my daughter. That and the clinic is right next to a grocery store, which is extra handy. 😄

Well, the clinic called her cell phone (I’m shocked they got through!), and she was wondering what date worked for me to drive in. So I talked to the receptionist and booked a double appointment for us. After the call, my daughter asked, who goes first? I told her, I would, and then I could go to the grocery store if we needed anything, while she had her appointment. It’s been a long time since I’ve had my bloodwork done, though, so I won’t be surprised if I get a requisition for that to be done. There is a lab in the pharmacy right at the clinic, too.

After the call and while finishing breakfast, I was wrestling with myself. There were a few things I wasn’t able to get at the grocery store yesterday. If I left early enough, I might be able to find them before they sold out. Mostly, I was looking to get a party tray of fresh vegetables, and maybe another of fruit, to go with our finger food New Year’s celebration. Plus a flat of eggs. With tomorrow being New Year’s Eve, I knew things would be busy and things would sell out fast, but none of it was necessary, and I really didn’t want to go.

Then my mother phoned.

She was worried about her MRI appointment on the first. It’s a big holiday, and everybody has the day off, so there must be some sort of mistake. I told her, hospitals don’t have the day off. Oh, for emergencies, sure, she tells me. I finally asked, are you wanting me to cancel the appointment? Oh… no… but are you sure there’s no mistake?

I assured her that, when I got the call, I did ask because the appointment was on New Year’s day. They confirmed.

Then she started talking about how, when she looks into her fridge, it’s looking pretty empty.

Did she want me to come over?

Oh, no, she tells me. Then starts listing off all the stuff she still has (even after telling me she was out of various things). Plus, it’s cold, and she also needs to go to the bank, and she doesn’t want to go out in the cold. Plus, today is Bingo day.

I told her, it’s going to start getting colder again after New Year’s. Looking at my calendar, I added, it’s either today or Thursday, and it’s supposed to be colder on Thursday.

She hemmed and hawed some more.

Finally I told her to just start her list, because I can come over today. She was getting her Meals on Wheels today, so I told her I would be there for about 1pm, after she had a chance to eat.

I ended up leaving early enough to do my own shopping first. This little grocery store doesn’t do party trays, so I ended up getting some fresh vegetables to make our own party tray, some grapes to go with our charcuterie board, plus a few other things. Then, because the price was right, I picked up a 2 pack of frying chickens for less than a single chicken normally is. The Instant Pot I got for my daughters is big enough to fit a whole chicken in it, so that would work out well.

(As I write this, I can hear the pot venting away; they’ve started a pot roast for the first meal with it!)

From there, I put some gas in the tank (we’re going through a lot more gas than usual, with all the extra driving around!), got my own lunch to eat in the truck (the truck seats are more comfortable) and still ended up at my mother’s about half an hour early.

When I got there, she was in the lobby, looking for something.

She was wondering why bingo wasn’t set up yet.

I asked how she was doing, and she was silent, making motions and acting like there was some reason not to speak out loud. Finally, she said, it’s better not to say.

So…. I guess that meant she wasn’t feeling well?

She did manage to tell me that she wasn’t up to going out and would just give me her list. Then she was going on about where bingo was one or not, then knocking on a neighbour’s door right by the common room to ask him if he knew if it was still on. He didn’t, and seemed confused that she was asking him. She told him she could just phone, instead. I told her, it’s barely past 12:30. It’s probably still too early, thinking it started at 1, but nope: turns out it starts at 1:30. Way too early to be setting up!

I managed to get her back to her place and, as soon as she sat down, she started digging around for a phone number. I eventually figured out she meant to call the senior’s center (they run the social events in her building) to find out if bingo was still on. I told her, why bother calling? Just go over at 1:30 and see. It’s either on or it isn’t, but there’s no need to call. She agreed that she could do that.

Then we went over her list, she gave me funds for her shopping, and I was soon off. The shopping is a lot faster when it’s just me using her list. When I got back and made my way through the common room, I saw that they were starting to set up for bingo! 😄

I made sure to tell her that, when I got to her place. After putting away her groceries, there was time for a bit of a visit before bingo started. As we were talking, she told me how her breathing issues seem to be connected to how much commotion is going on. After asking some questions, it seems like a stress response. The problem is, my mother is creating a lot of her own stress, like worrying about there being a mistake with her MRI appointment (this isn’t the first time she’s done that with appointments, so it’s not just about it being on New Year’s day), or that bingo was cancelled because nothing was set up an hour in advance.

Then she started talking about her vision. Oh, her vision. It’s getting worse.

Now this set off all sorts of alarm bells with me. With her wet macular degeneration, we were advised to monitor it closely and, if it starts getting worse, to get her back to the eye clinic in the city right away. So of course, I started asking more specific questions.

As she started talking about how her vision is getting worse, she casually mentioned that the “black spot” is gone…

Wait… what???? !!!!

Then she mentioned the wavy lines are gone.

????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The wavy lines were from dry macular degeneration in her left eye. She’s taking special vitamins to keep that from getting worse. For those to be gone is amazing, but not as amazing as for her to say the “black spot” in her right eye is gone!

I got her to cover her left eye, then held my hand about two feet from her face, raising two fingers. I asked her, can you see the two fingers?

Yes, she tells me.

I raise a third finger without saying anything.

Three fingers, she tells me.

I’m totally shocked that she could see any fingers at all!

I moved my had back another couple of feet and tried again.

She couldn’t tell me how many fingers, but she could see that “something” was there.

I am totally blown away. While at the clinic with her, less than a month ago, a tech did the same test with her, and she couldn’t see his fingers. When he had her try and look at a single letter on the eye chart, she saw nothing at all.

The eye doctor had told her she shouldn’t need more injections, but also that her eye would not get better. There is scar tissue that will not go away. The injections were to keep it from getting worse, but that we shouldn’t expect it to get better. Her next appointment is in February, and we are to monitor her and bring her back if it gets worse.

Now, it seems her vision around that scarred area in her eye has healed enough that she can see more.

But, she told me, her vision is getting worse. It’s getting “dimmer”. I tried to ask questions to get a better idea of what she meant, but she started getting really frustrated. She simply doesn’t have the vocabulary to tell me what she means. So we dropped that part.

She’s been wearing her old glasses, though, since she decided the eye doctor she got her prescription from gave her a bad prescription and cheated her (they treated her like gold). I suggested that tomorrow, she try wearing her new glasses, as those would have the most up to date prescription. She agreed that it was worth a try.

Hopefully, she will remember to do it in the morning.

Then there was a knock at the door. One of her neighbours had come over to let her know, bingo would be starting soon!

So we said our goodbyes, and I headed home.

By then, it was pretty much time to do my evening rounds, so I headed out and topped up the kibble and warm water for the outside cats.

I just had to get a picture of these two.

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The one in the freshly emptied food bowl is Magda. She is pretty friendly and lets us pick her some and sometimes even carry her.

The one above her, with the black splotches on its nose and mouth, has been named Ink by the girls. It also has black splotches on its front paws. The girls think it looks like he’s been playing with a pot of ink, so that’s what they’ve named him.

Or her.

He’s pretty feral and won’t let us anywhere near him to find out, one way or the other!

Oh, there was one other unexpected thing today.

Not long ago, my daughter tried to log into her bank account and found it locked. I got a message from her while I was on my way home. She’d gotten through to the bank on the phone and discovered that someone tried to use her debit card number (she has no credit card) at a restaurant in the US. !!! It was stopped and her accounted locked as potential fraud, so nothing was taken from her bank account, thank God!

She would, however, need to go to a branch and get a replacement card.

As soon as I could, I called the branch in my mother’s town to confirm their hours. They are open tomorrow.

Which means that, tomorrow, I will be driving my daughter to our bank branch in my mother’s town (we won’t be able to do that much longer; I hear this branch will be closing!).

Then, the day after tomorrow – New Year’s Day – I will be taking my mother to her MRI appointment.

Then, on the 2nd, my husband and I will be going to trade his phone in before they ding him with the end-of-contract bill of almost $700. It has to be done before the 4th, and that’s the only day I’ve got left.

The next day, Friday, I’m taking the truck in to get the MAF sensor and block heater cord replaced.

Then, on the following Monday, I’m taking my mother to her regular doctor for a follow up appointment.

Then, on the Wednesday, I’m going back to the same town, but a different clinic, for the joint appointment for me and my daughter.

I’m doing as much driving in the next couple of weeks as I would normally do in a month in the summer. In the winter, I try to do as little driving as possible, but that’s just not working out!

Thank God winter has been mild and conditions pretty good, so far. Based on the 10 day forecast, though, that joint appointment is going to be on a day where the high is expected to be -24C/-13F, while the lows are supposed to be -29C/-20F.

At least we’ll be able to plug in the block heater by then! That’s being replaced on Friday, and Thursday night is when overnight lows are starting to dip below -20C/-4F again.

Weirdly, the long term forecast now says we’ll have about 10 days of that, then 10 days or so of temperatures rising to just below freezing again. This is a La Nińa winter, though, and the system should start affecting our area more over the next couple of months. For our region, that usually means colder temperatures, but it looks like we’re going to be getting temperature whiplash, instead!

Once we get past that last appointment, I hope to not have to do anything more than short trips into town – and hardly any of those! – until it’s time to go more stock up shopping at the end of January!

I just want to stay home.

The Re-Farmer

Unexpected stock up shop: this is what $307 looks like

December 28, 2024 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Now that we have the truck back and it’s no longer screaming at me, I was able to get quite a bit done today!

I’m happy to say that the problem with the sensor did not show up again, which was always on my mind as I drove. The oil pressure gauge stayed where it was supposed to the whole time, which was quite a relief!

Today was going to be another warm one – the predicted high was 0C/32F, but we at least hit 1C/34F again – so when I finished doing my morning rounds, which included setting up the new solar powered trail cam at the gate, I took the time to chip away the ice on the sidewalk and patio blocks around the house. They and the driveway were insanely slipper this morning, with a new layer of ice on top of the snow. Then I brought the truck into the yard and my daughter helped me load up the garbage for the dump. With everything going on lately, we haven’t been to the dump for a while, so there was lots. We left the recycling for another day!

The dump is far enough away that, if that sensor was going to be a problem again, it would start before I got there. Happily, it did not.

The only real good thing about not going to the dump for so long is, the area in front of the pit is packed with snow deep enough to cover any sharp things on the ground. I’m still paranoid about getting another flat tire. Even so, I had to stop backing up so I could get out and clear the area before I could get closer to the pit to unload. It’s like people don’t even try to toss further than the edge. 🫤

That done, I went home and got a few little things done before heading out again. I was hoping to connect with the Cat Lady en route, but the timing of things didn’t line up. She says she has more canned cat food her cats won’t eat to pass on to us. We are quite fortunate that her cats are so fussy! 😄

After a quick stop in town to get more gas, it was off to the nearer city, with me eyeballing that oil pressure gauge the whole time. I was happy to see the roads were nice and clear, if wet, though some parts of my route were shaded by trees, so they were still icy.

I had just one stop I needed to make, and that was the Walmart. I didn’t have much of a list, since we got so much during are trips earlier in the month. I don’t expect we’ll do another Costco trip until the end of January or the beginning of February.

I ended up getting most of the things on my list, plus some extras, taking advantage of sales. Thankfully, the store wasn’t any more insane than usual, too.

This is what $307.24, after taxes, looks like.

Even with the sale prices, that cart isn’t very full for $300

The 32 packs of canned cat food was on sale. They never go on sale! So I got three different variety packs. (Yes, we are actually out of the donated canned cat food!) I also got two 9kg bags of kibble. With so many cats, we can never have too much kibble!

Since I don’t expect to do Costco again today, I picked up a large package of toilet paper. It was on sale.

Probably the most important thing on my list was the distilled water for my husband’s CPAP humidifier. I hadn’t realized he was almost out! Four gallons should last him a while.

The 10 pound bags of Russet potatoes were on sale, costing the same as a 5 pound bag of red potatoes. The bacon was also on sale, so I got two packs of maple flavoured bacon. I also grabbed two variety packs of sliced meats for our New Year’s Eve munchies. I wanted to get more finger food type things for New Year’s, but the only things I saw that interested me, we already had. The pecan pieces are for a baked brie we plan to make, as well.

I got an 18 pack of eggs, because we can never have too many eggs, plus another can of dark roast coffee for the girls. The bag of carrots were the only fresh vegetables that looked appealing to me, that the family will eat.

There was a selection of teas for only 97¢ each, so I got four different flavours. I would have gotten a fifth, but they were completely out of vanilla rooibos. 😢

I got a small jar of artichoke hearts for our New Year’s spread as well – and Lacteeze for my dairy loving but lactose intolerant family! The package of crackers is also for New Year’s. I also got four tubs of sour gummies for my husband. They are a comfort snack for bad pain days. That and he’s been having low blood sugars lately, and these are cheaper than the glucose tablets.

Last of all, I got a drink for the drive home.

I had meant to get more rye bread as well, but decided it wasn’t worth the risk of the loaves getting squished on the way home. I meant to get bar soap, but got distracted while going back for it and completely forgot until I packed everything up. That’s something that can wait, though.

So that’s what I got at the Walmart. Since I was in town, I decided to pop across to the Canadian Tire to look for something. I found it but didn’t buy it, as I couldn’t justify spending the money for it, but I did get something else. The girls and I were talking, just last night, about getting a back up electric kettle. We like the glass ones that have a light when it’s turned on. The one we have now has lasted longer than expected already, to be honest, but our hard water is very rough on things like that. It’s starting to not automatically shut itself off at times.

While cutting through some displays on the way to somewhere else, I spotted a stack of boxes with glass kettles – for $29.99. This particular kettle is normally considerably more. So I snagged it. Plus, I used my Canadian Tire credit card, which has bonus Canadian Tire Money promos right now, basically tripling the amount such a modest purchase normally would have gotten. These little bits add up. I’ve got a goal set to save enough to get a septic pump for free, though it doesn’t look like Canadian Tire actually carries that type of pump. Once I reach my goal, I’ll get a staff member to see if they can find the type of pump I need. If not, I can use it to get things like a back up sump pump or a new table saw. Now that we’ve got credit cards again, I’ve been judicious about where I put our budget amounts specifically for goals like this.

So, between getting gas, having breakfast… er… lunch, the stock up shopping and the kettle, it was a bigger shop than I intended for today, but none of it was extraneous. Were it not the holiday season, I normally would be doing my big stock up shopping around now, anyhow, but with the extra stocking up I was able to do earlier in the month, that isn’t necessary.

Meanwhile, while I was gone, my daughter took advantage of the lovely day and opened up windows all over the house while she did the mopping and cleaning up. It was still just wonderful out there, while we were unloading the truck. We’ve got a few more mild days before the temperatures start dropping in January – just in time for when I need to start driving my mother to medical appointments, and get the truck back into the garage for a couple more fixes.

I will be much happier when we have the block heater cord replaced and can plug it in! We are expecting January temperatures with highs colder than -20C/-4F and lows dipping below -30C/-22F. After the mild temperatures we’ve been having this winter so far, that’s going to feel brutal!

But who knows. If there’s one thing about weather forecasts you can be sure of, it is that they are constantly changing, and almost never match reality!

Still, I’m happy that we are well stocked. If it weren’t for appointments and helping my mother out, we could probably just stay home for most of January and be fine!

Which is why I take advantage of days like today, and get a little extra, when we can.

Not that we’re getting much for our money, even with sales on, these days. 😢

The Re-Farmer

Costco extra stocking up: this is what $899 looks like

December 6, 2024 / Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

I am exhausted.

It was a good trip. The actual shopping wasn’t too bad, considering the time of year. I’m just getting drained, and it’s starting to have an effect on me.

With Christmas and New Year’s coming up, which changes when my husband’s disability payments come in, I decided to go into next month’s budget and get as much as I could on this trip. So this shopping trip included larger packages or extra items to stock us up into January. Plus, I’ve started to get things that we will be having for New Year’s in particular. We have decided to make our Christmas and New Year’s celebratory meals to be as stress free as possible. So there will be a lot of frozen appetizers as finger foods, heat and eats, etc. We will likely do some charcuterie as well, so some items, plus any fresh foods, will be picked up locally, closer to Christmas.

We already have a turkey in the freezer, plus we are getting our 1/8 beef next week. We’d been making monthly payments against that until the ranch told us they thought there was enough. The beef has been butchered and is being cut and frozen now, so they got the final weight, and it turned out we overpaid for our share. We will be getting a credit on that. I would have preferred extra beef, but they don’t butcher for general sales anymore; just pre-ordered beef shares, so there was no extra available. So we didn’t need to get a lot of meat this trip, not did we need to get as much cat food.

On the way out, the truck’s tank was below half, so I did stop at a gas station in my mother’s town along the way. I got $30 of gas, at $1.309.

As had been my plan when I tried to do this trip last week, I stopped at a shopping mall, first. It was past 11 by then, and I hadn’t had breakfast yet. This time, the food court was all open, though, and I ended up getting some Chinese food. That cost about $18 and change.

Once at the Costco, my first stop was to fill the tank. The Costco price for regular gas was $1.119 and it cost me $47 and change to fill the tank. So before I even started shopping, I already spent $77 in gas and $18 on food.

This is what $899.82 at Costco looks like.

I got a shot from each side, because so much was hidden from view.

So what did I get for almost $900

For the cats, I got two 9kg bags of kibble and a box of puppy pads. There is a case of Coke Zero for my husband and I, plus a case of energy drinks, which my daughter paid for. Also among the drinks list was a large box of Earl Grey tea and some iced tea mix. I also got some Eggnog, which was on sale, mostly for the girls, and a case of oat milk, completely for the girls.

Paper produces included toilet paper and paper towels. I probably should have got more facial tissues, but I didn’t want to take up too much space on the flat cart. I needed room for the big bag of sugar and the case of vinegar.

Also among the non-food items is some dish detergent, toothbrushes and a package of pens. I was out of normal coloured pens.

In the pharmacy section, I got both acetaminophen and ibuprofen, plus adult gummie multivitamins for my daughters.

For bread products, I got a couple of 2 pks of rye bread, four packages of tortilla warps and a 3 pack of sunflower and pumpkin seed, multigrain sliced bread.

For protein, I got a package of chicken breasts that was on sale, plus some tilapia fillets for the girls. I also got a panini pack for sandwiches, with canned chicken and pack of Spam for the pantry. There’s also a double flat of eggs (5 dozen).

In dairy, I got 5 pounds of butter, whipping cream, a 3 pack of cream cheese, mozza, Old cheddar, marble cheddar, goat cheese and a wheel of brie.

There’s also a bag of spinach and mini portabellas (aka: cremini mushrooms).

Among the jarred items, there are two big jars of mayo, olives and pickled asparagus, which was on sale. The pickled asparagus will be used, along with tortilla warps and cream cheese, to make appetizer pinwheels for our celebratory dinners.

There is a bag of Basmati rice and some hazelnuts. Oh, and a 3 pack of 4 cheese, rainbow tortellini, which was on sale.

For snacks, I got my husband a big back of Munchies Mix, and two boxes of Sweet and Salty granola bars for the four of us.

Then there are the frozen items. Along with a box of perogies and a box of Pizza Pops for quick heat and heats, we have the appetizers for our celebratory dinners. There are Mac n Cheese bites – something we’ve never tried before – mozza sticks, bacon wrapped scallops and mini quiche.

And that’s everything.

Hopefully, I won’t need to go another Costco trip until February! Or at least not until mid-January.

So it was a very productive trip, though part way through the shopping, I realized I was not doing well. I was over heating, but also getting very dehydrated. I did use their public water fountain about half way through my shopping, which helped a lot, but by the time I was standing in line to pay for the stuff, I was starting to feel dizzy and getting the shakes. I was at least getting a breeze from the giant fan above, while half taking off my coat and removing my hat, which helped.

While my items were being rung through and they were doing the stuff still on the flat cart, I dashed over to a water bottle vending machine and got one to start hydrating once back at the till. It wasn’t a large bottle, so by the time I loaded everything into the truck, I’d finished it off. I also keep water in the truck, and still had half my drink from my lunch, so I was able to continue hydrating for the ride home, and was feeling much better.

My back was also starting to give out, well before I reached the till, but that was also much better by the time I got home. An hour or so of sitting instead of walking around, wrestling the flat cart, helped a lot.

I was able to back the truck up quite close to the house, making it easier to unload. My daughter’s knee was still hurting her from her fall yesterday, but she was no longer using a cane. Once the truck was empty, I had to feed the outside cats to get them away from the truck – by then, it was starting to get dark and time to feed them, anyhow – so I could park it. Once I got back to the house, I also got some warm water to top up their bowls. The big water bowl in the sun room just had sheets of ice left in it, and the working heated water bowl in the shelter was almost dry!

The babies in the isolation shelter still had plenty of water. They got canned cat food with their morning feeding, along with the kibble. There was still kibble left in their bowl, but the wet food was long gone!

Unfortunately, as I was unloading bags to the door, I spotted Kohl digging around on the cat bed on the lower level. The little bugger had just pooped on the cat bed, instead of the littler box, right next to her!

Both of them seem much calmer now, but Kohl would not let me touch her, never mind pet her, or check her incision. I’m not too concerned about her, though. I’m more relieved the male it no longer panicking and trying to bash his way out through the wire mesh walls. They were both watching us closely, as we unloaded the truck, right near them.

When I topped up their kibble, neither tried to escape or anything like that. When I reached in to try to pet Kohl, I could feel it is nice and warm in there. I’ve been keeping the Cat Lady up to date on how they are doing, and she was very relieved to hear they are doing well. For all the effort we’re making to provide them with a safe, warm shelter during their recovery, the isolation shelter is still basically just a small box outside in the winter. She would really like to find homes for them. I told her to go ahead and share the photos I’d been sending her, and to tell people these two will be released to the yard again, after their recovery period. Hopefully, that will encourage someone to want to adopt and rescue them from the outdoors and give them an indoor forever home. It doesn’t hurt that they are both so incredibly adorable!

So, that’s my running around for today. Tomorrow, the dump is oven longer hours, and we are overdue for a trip, so I am hoping to get our garbage and recycling finally out. From there, I should be able to continue on to the feed store with the brand of kibble in 40 pound bags that the cats like better. As of right now, the high for tomorrow is expected to be 3C/37F, which makes it the ideal time to repair the wind torn vinyl around the catio. Plus, there are some tears in the vinyl around the bottom of the isolation shelter, where other cats were trying to get in. We should be able to patch those up with the extra vinyl table protectors I picked up while I was waiting for the vet to finish with the spay and neuter, yesterday.

Which means tomorrow will be another day of running around. Thankfully, I will be able to stay home on Sunday. I’ll be going to my mother’s on Monday. She has a telephone doctor’s appointment, and she wants me with her, since I help her remember things, and can understand what the doctor tells her and can spend the time to explain it to her later.

Meanwhile, I really, really glad to get this stock up shop done, even if it did get pretty expensive. This is meant to last us longer than usual, and will hopefully result in a quieter time over the holidays.

I’ve reached that stage in life where quite and boring is all I want! 😄😄

The Re-Farmer

Our Costco and Walmart shop: this is what $774 total looks like

November 2, 2024 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Today was my day to head into the city for our monthly stock up shop at Costco. Another city stock up shop was done just a few days ago.

Normally, when I do a Costco trip, Costco is my only stop of the day. My husband was running low on distilled water for his CPAP humidifier, though, and Costco doesn’t have that, so I this time I made a stop at a nearby Walmart.

I did the Walmart trip first, since there would not be anything that needed refrigerating. It was also my breakfast stop, at the in-store McDonalds, since Costco no longer has food in their cafeteria that I can eat, or like.

Gosh, I miss their Montreal Smoked Meat sandwiches!

Of course, while in Walmart, I looked around for other things that we might need. Including a small donation, this is what $62.99 looks like.

The items on my list were the water bottles for my husband, and the pumpkin seeds to grind into powder and include with the cat’s food.

I remembered that I needed a new notebook. The one I’m using now to keep track of our budget is on its last page.

The New England Clam Chowder was on sale for $2.97 each. These days, those are usually around $5 each, depending on the store, so I got that for the pantry as a treat. I also grabbed a refill of liquid soap for the bathroom, plus some laundry detergent that was at a better-than-Costco sale price.

That’s it.

This didn’t even half fill one of my hard sides bags (not counting the large containers, of course).

Then it was off to Costco.

The first thing I did there was fill up the tank and reset my trip mileage counter. Most of the city was at $1.249/L, but Costco was $1.179/L, so it cost me $48.44 to fill my tank.

Doing Costco on a weekend can be pretty hectic, but today wasn’t too bad. Just the usual trying to maneuver a flat cart around people who think I can stop instantly, or turn on a dime. 🫤

I had hoped to keep the total down but, even with not getting some things I normally would get, I spent more than I intended to.

Remember when beef stew meat was the cheap meat?

This was not one of the larger packages, either. We used to get stew meat at Costco all the time, but just can’t afford it anymore. The price has pretty much doubled in the last few years.

This is what $711.89 looks like.

I got only three bags of kibble this time, buried under other items.

There were a few things that were still priced all right, and I stocked up. The flour tortillas, for example, are still $9.99 a package. I also got two, 2 pks of rye bread.

I got a case of water bottles; that has gone up in price, but it still cheaper than elsewhere. We don’t use bottled water a lot, but it does come in handy for in the truck. There’s a 30 pack of Coke Zero that is a better price than elsewhere, too.

For the pantry, there is a large pack of ramen noodles and a 9 pack of baked beans. Those have certainly gone up in price.

There’s two cases of canned cat food and three bags of kibble – I’ll be getting more kibble for the outside cats from the feed store, so this is mostly for the inside cats.

There’s toilet paper, of course.

There is a double flat of eggs (60 eggs) that I think has gone up in price since last time. For meat, I got a pork loin that was on sale, and a chub of ground beef, which was slightly cheaper/kg than the family packs. There’s a pork blade roast – pork is still reasonably priced – and a panini pack of sandwich meats. I also got 2 rotisserie chickens, as they are cheaper than buying uncooked chicken.

Their salad mixes are a much better price than elsewhere, so I got a couple of their double packs in two different mixes; Asian Cashew and Mexican Corn salad.

There’s 5 pounds of butter, plus avocado oil and sunflower oil, one liter of whipping cream, marble cheddar, extra old cheddar, frozen perogies, the Kirkland brand of mayonnaise, a big container of popping corn, plus some vitamins; gummie multi vitamins and B12. I also picked up a package of the clear leaf bags that we use for our recycling. Last of all, AA and AAA batteries. I got the Kirlkand brand, because the usual Duracell ones were just too expensive.

In total, there are 46 items for that $700 plus.

Altogether, including gas and breakfast, today was an $843, plus change, day.

Ouch.

Thank God my husband’s private insurance disability payments are as good as they are. We can juggle the numbers and make things work, still. Others are not so fortunate, so we are grateful for what we have, and to still be able to get a few non-essentials as “treats”.

And feed the cats, inside and out. I’ll be honest; things would be a lot better if we weren’t feeding so many cats. The rescue has helped so much in getting them adopted out, but we’re reaching a point where we need to seriously consider culling some of the outside cats. Particularly any we aren’t able to catch to get spayed or neutered. Even with the inside cats, we’ve been trying to adopt some of them out for years. Ginger and Toni, our two tripods, were supposed to be taken for adoption almost a year ago, and that hasn’t panned out, as sick or injured cats took priority.

We’ll figure it out, of course. It’s just getting harder to manage.

I can’t even imagine how much the Cat Lady and her family spend on their cats. They’ve taken in so many that are not adoptable, mostly for health reasons. Between special cat foods, medications and vet bills, it must get insane, and yet they still try to help us out, too! They are just awesome.

But I digress.

I’m happy to have been able to do our second stock up shop today. We’ll be good for quite a while, now. 😊

The Re-Farmer

First stock up shop: this is what $374 total looks like

October 30, 2024 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

Today (or, should I say, yesterday, by the time this is published!) I headed into the city to do the first of our stock up shopping trips. I was using the car loaned to us while our truck was being repaired, so it was not at large as it would have been, if we were using the truck.

My first stop was the international grocery store, where I had breakfast – Dim Sum and a drink cost just over $20 – before I started shopping.

This is what $147.62 looks like.

Yeah. That little cart load is almost $150.

This store is where we tend to get some things I would consider treats, though.

The coconut milk was on sale, and my daughters like to use it, so I got a couple of cans. The evaporated milk is for my younger daughter’s baking. They also requested the jar of Lao Gan Ma chili sauce.

The Coke Zero is for myself and my husband, while the Cranberry Ginger Ale is for my daughters – buying both got me the sale price.

My older daughter requested the Monsters, but they are for both my daughters, plus myself, and I took advantage of another 2-for- sale to get 6 cans. The cases were not on sale; just individual cans.

For meat, I got the locally produced smoked bacon slab, some pork chops and some ground beef.

The two types of Gouda are treats. I can’t remember if we’ve tried Forest Mushroom before, but we certainly haven’t tried Smokey BBQ before!

I got an extra bottle of my husband’s favourite soy sauce. For my daughters, I got a couple of cartons of oat milk – the brand of soy milk we used to get is having issues and has started to go bad very quickly, so they’ve requested oat milk in another brand. I thought I was getting plain, but got vanilla, instead! They mostly use it in their tea, though, so that works.

I picked up some black teas that were on sale – a variety pack, plus Irish Breakfast, which was not included in the variety pack. I got a flat of eggs that should last us until we do our Costco shopping, were I get double flats of eggs. I also remembered to grab some recycling bags. They’re smaller than what we need, but it was the largest size they had, and we are completely out. I’ll pick up our usual size bags at Costco.

Using my loyalty card saved me $18.54, which isn’t too bad, I guess.

I had considered hitting a Superstore after this, but I was messaging with the garage and with my SIL about getting our truck home, so I decided to skip it and went straight to Walmart.

This is what $226.69 – including a $10 donation – looks like.

Yeah, that cart looks even emptier.

This is what I got.

The big expenses were the wet and dry cat food. I just got one bag of kibble for the inside cats. I will get more at Costco. For the outside cats, I get 40 pound bags at the feed stores.

Thee was an excellent sale on whole chickens, so I got two. I also found plain oat milk for my daughters – at a better price, too. It’s the same brand.

I got packages of sliced turkey and sliced ham for sandwiches. The light rye bread has gone down in price, so I picked up 4 loaves for now. Oh, and I grabbed a couple of cheeses – Havarti and Old Cheddar.

In the non-food category, my daughters requested some personal care products they will pay me back for later. I also got a 15′ extension cord rated flexible to -40C/F This will replace the one we currently have plugged into an outlet inside the cat house. The current one can have only one thing plugged into it, and it’s used for one heated water bowl. A second one is in the sun room, and now we have a third.

So these two shops came to a total of $374.31, including taxes and a donation.

On the way home, I picked up a bag of kibble at the feed store, which came out to just over $63 after taxes. Next time, I’ll go to the feed store to the north of us, where they have a brand that costs less, and the cats seem to enjoy more. Variety is good, though.

Adding in the feed store kibble and the food, that brings things up to about $457. Plus, I filled the tank on the loaned car for $38 and change, then put $30 of gas into the truck after we picked that up, though my CAA card gave me a bit of a discount. Gas prices had dropped to $1.279 today, so that helped. All in all, we’re looking at $525 total, give or take some change, for the day.

Oh, and another $320 for truck repairs and an oil change, bringing our total spending for the day up to about $845. My daughter will be covering the cost of the truck repairs later, though, so at least that will be going back into the budget!

The next trip to the city for our Costco shop won’t be for a few days. Possibly not until after the weekend. We’ll see how things work out.

If nothing else, it’ll give more time to catch up on getting things done for the winter, outside!

The Re-Farmer

Stock up shopping at Costco: this is what $680 looks like

September 30, 2024September 30, 2024 / Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

Good grief.

With today being a new holiday, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I first checked to make sure Costco would even be open, and they were, for slightly shorter hours. They will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, which is the second Monday of October – 2 weeks from today – so I figured it would either be pretty dead, or insanely busy.

It turned out to be insanely busy.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I left for the city before having breakfast. I considered eating at the Costco, but there really isn’t anything they have at their cafeteria that I can eat, anymore. I don’t care for their hot dogs or pizza, and the coating on their chicken strips has just enough spicy heat that I can’t tolerate it.

There is a mall nearby, though, so I figured I could go to the food court.

Nothing was open, yet. With the holiday, they weren’t going to open until 11, and I was there shortly after 10.

The Dollarama beside the food court was open, though, so I went to see what I could find there. I ended up getting one of those little snack packs with a tin of chicken salad, a few crackers and a stick for a spoon, plus a drink.

That actually tided me over until I got home!

The parking area for the mall shared access to a Canadian Tire, so I went there, next, and got 4 bags of stove pellets for the litter boxes. That came out to $33.56

My next stop was the Costco gas station. The price of regular there was $1.229/L, while the other stations in the city were generally $1.299. Much to my surprise, there was almost no one at the gas station, and I was able to get to a pump right away. I was at a bit under 3/4 of a tank, and filling cost $41.03.

I always reset my trip meter after filling at Costco, so I have an idea of how much we drive in a month. When I reset it, we were at just over 2400km – about 1000km more than usual for us! All that extra driving I’ve been doing for my mother really added up!

With how quickly I got through the gas station, I figured the store couldn’t be too bad!

Boy, was I wrong.

This is when I finally got in line. This is near the back of the store and, pretty much immediately after I got in line, so many more people got in line behind me, it had to do a switchback into the other aisle. When I got to the end of this aisle, The end of the line was already past the same end of the other aisle!

As the line moved forward, I found myself next to a second line. I knew there would be a third one – two for the cashiers, one for the self check. Self checkout being limited to 12 items or less. I hoped I was in the correct line and figured I was, since just about everyone else in the line with me had larger cart loads.

I was wrong.

The line I was next to eventually split off around the other side of the centre displays. So that one line was actually for the two lines to the cashiers.

The line I was in turned out to be the self checkout line.

Thankfully, someone in the other line let me in in front of him. Once we got to the cash desks, he ended up getting to a cashier before I did, so that worked out well for him, at least!

The weird thing is, it seemed as if more people were standing in line to pay than were shopping! The shopping itself wasn’t all that busy. The only real problem I had there was trying to get to places while pushing a flat cart. I kept having to navigate around people in line!

This time around, I didn’t put the cat supplies on a separate bill, as most of the dry kibble is going to be purchased at feed stores.

Everything all together, including pet supplies, came out to $680.88 after taxes.

Yeah. That far from full flat cart load is almost $700.

This is what we got today.

What you can’t see in the photo above, among the larger items, is two cases of canned cat food and a box of puppy pads.

For bread products, I only got four packs of tortilla warps.

Hhmmm… I could have sworn those were supposed to be on sale for $7.99, not regular price at $9.99 I don’t trust my memory for that right now, though.

There’s a case of Coke Zero in there, along with laundry detergent, a giant box of ramen noodles, and a big bag of paper towels. Not the ones we usually get, but these were on sale. We got facial tissues and toilet paper, too. There’s a bag of Basmati rice, frozen perogies, and a variety pack of sliced meats.

Among the smaller items in the cardboard box, we got 5 pounds of butter. I picked up a couple of 2pk salad mixes, whipping cream, cream cheese, goat cheese and a block of Old Cheddar cheese.

There’s a bag of hazelnuts, a jar of olives and a jar of Kirkland brand mayonnaise, which is a bigger jar for a lower price than the Hellman’s we usually get.

I got some pickerel filets for the girls, which were on sale, plus some lean ground beef. That ground beef… I can’t believe it cost more than the pork loin, which has a lot more meat! The package of pork chops was about the same weight as the ground beef.

Remember when ground beef was the affordable meat?

I picked up a 3 pack of Spam, a big bag of tortilla chips for my husband, a double flat of eggs and a giant pumpkin pie. While standing in line, close to the cashier, I threw in a box of Sweet and Salty granola bars, too.

That’s it.

There was stuff that was on my list that I didn’t get, because I was already going above budget for today. I decided to go for it since some of the items – the paper towels and facial tissue in particular – will last us a couple of months.

This time around, when I was offered assistance in loading, I accepted. When I got water refills yesterday, I used the wagon to the house. After unloading and starting to take the wagon back to the garage, I stopped to reach for something my daughter had, but my hand got caught in the handle of the wagon. I twisted several fingers, with one being twisted the most. That finger it still hurting.

Which puts me in a bit of a pickle. The nerve damage in my left elbow means I have to be careful lifting or carrying anything heavy with my left arm. The finger I injured is in my right hand, and I now have almost no grip strength in that hand because of it. On top of all that, our current temperature whiplash has resulted in every joint in my body being stiff and sore, including all my finger joints.

I nearly dropped that jar of olives, three times, because I couldn’t hold it!

So… yeah. I got help loading the truck.

Mostly, I was bagging things in our hard sided grocery bags. I brought ice packs to use in the insulated bags. While I was doing that, the guy helping me loaded up all the stuff too big to put into a bag. He started having trouble working around the litter pellets, so I brought out our garden claw tool that we keep in the truck and used that to push the bags further in. He was really happy and commented that they need to have something like that handy at the store for times like this!

That done, I could finally start heading home.

Before I left, I got a message from my SIL, letting me know my brother was coming out today, along with the guy with the triple axle trailer. They decided to move some decorative limestone blocks they have out here, and all of it together was way too heavy for their trailer. My brother had one more antique looking piece of equipment he wanted to bring out, too.

I have no idea what it is.

I thought I was miss my brother entirely, but he was still here when I got home, though the guy with the big trailer had already left.

Before I even started to unload, I went to say hello – and goodbye! He was gone before we finished unloading the truck. At least I got a hug in, first!

I unloaded most things to my daughter at the door, then she took care of putting things away while I finished unloading the larger items going straight into the old kitchen. Then I had to feed the outside cats, to get them away from the truck, so I could park it.

By the time I got back, everything was put away.

Except the pumpkin pie.

There was no room in the fridge for it!

So… we just had to sacrifice ourselves and eat it. Along with some whipped cream my daughter made. 😄😄

But not before I finally had some real food. I’d got the Crockpot going last night, with half of one of our winter squash on the bottom, and a whole chicken on top. The squash was so big that, even using just half, there was hardly any room for the chicken, even after spatchcocking it. Once everything was seasoned, I covered the top with parchment paper then pushed the lid on. It still couldn’t close all the way but, as the squash cooked, the chicken sank down. During the night, when my older daughter checked on it for me, she was eventually able to remove the parchment paper.

It was really nice having that to come home to!

I can’t say I like this particular squash all that much, though. Of the two we’ve tried so far, they were both… okay. Not as tasty as the Banana or Candy Roaster squash we grew last year, nor as good as the Red Kuri/Little Gem we’ve grown before.

But that’s why we tried this Wild Bunch mix this year – so we can taste, without having too many of one type we might not like!

Anyhow…

The last of the stock up shopping is now done, and I am so glad that’s over with! We’ll just need to get more dry kibble at the feed store, and fresh stuff locally, throughout the month.

Meanwhile, the winds have been wreaking enough havoc that we’ve lost power, momentarily, a few times, so I’d better publish this before we have another one and my computer gets shut down again!

That rain we were supposed to be getting right now has been pushed back a couple more hours. Time enough for me to do my evening rounds!

The Re-Farmer

First stock up shop: this is what $513 in total looks like

September 25, 2024 / Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

Okay, so today turned out to be completely different then planned!

Today was supposed to be a day to catch up on things outside before I have to do things with my mother for the next couple of days. Then I noticed that my husband’s CPP Disability came in earlier than I expected. So it was either do the first stock up shopping trip today, or do it on the weekend.

Today, it was!

My daughter came along this time, so we could try a different place for the shoes she’s been trying to buy for herself. There was going to be a prescription delivery this morning, though, so we just needed to wait until that was done.

Then the phone started ringing…

One of the calls today was from the home care guy, about my mother.

The first thing he brought up was that one of the aides that comes in to help my mother with her medication found a notice slipped under my mother’s door. It was about the bed bug exterminator coming in to check/spray her apartment today, and did I know about that? I told him about the call my brother got, and that they will be coming in on Friday afternoon – a manager and a tech, just to do her place – and that I would be there.

They are really bending over backwards to try and not have to evict a 93 yr old!

So for that day, while my mother is supposed to be out of her apartment for at least 6 hours, he has cancelled the home care visits.

I also explained that she does not seem to actually have bed bugs, but it looks like her neighbour does. So until this is taken care of, the home care aids will be wearing shoe covers and gloves and the like when they visit her. Hopefully, that will help my mother to take things more seriously.

Probably not.

Then he told me that the home care aids have been coming in in the mornings, and found that my mother had already taken her morning medication. That would be her usual 5am time, which has never been a requirement, but it seems she’s always been doing that. We’ve told her, she can sleep in. Take them when the care aides arrive.

When it comes to her before bed pills, she now has two, but insists she only takes one, and the other one she will take before she goes to bed, some hours later. They come in at 9 for the nightly pills. She should be taking both. She has been told this, too.

Then there is a confusion of bubble packs, and they are finding blisters have already been opened. It looks like she’s been taking the pills out and deciding what to take and what not to take? Either way, it’s hard for them to keep track.

He’s asked us to talk to her about it. If she can’t stop messing with her medications, they will have to put the bubble packs somewhere she can’t reach.

This could be a real problem.

After we got that call, I got another one… from the same home care guy! This time, it was about my husband. They’re supposed to do annual checks on those getting services; in my husband’s case, it’s about the state of his hospital bed and if it’s still in good shape (he had to have one replaced a couple of years ago). They also need a couple of signatures for his file, which I can do, so I will be leaving for my mother’s early tomorrow, so I can stop at their office, first.

Then I tried calling my mother. I ended up leaving a message, telling her I got the call from home care, and saying she needs to not touch her bubble packs, and only take her medications when they are there to help her with them.

I tried to be quick about it, because we were expecting the pharmacy delivery driver to call. It turns out he’d tried to call while I was on the phone with home care. While I was leaving a message with my mother, my daughter heard the honking at the gate, and ran out to get the delivery.

I’m so glad she did, because I never heard a thing!

That done, we could finally get what we needed – particularly ice packs – and headed out.

Our first stop was for my daughter’s shoes. We went to a factory outlet place she had recommended to her.

I so need to go there for my next pair of steel toes.

It’ll take some saving up for it, though!

While looking around at their displays, we could hear noises from other parts of the building. Those were the sounds of boots being made! It truly was a “factory” outlet, and every pair of shoes and boots in there were hand made.

Other stores carry their brand, though. In fact, the last time my daughter had herself a really excellent brand of shoes, it was this factory’s brand. She wore them until she outgrew them, and cried when they didn’t fit anymore.

She found the same boots!

She is so incredibly happy now. She’s been needing good shoes for a long time; her feet are almost as messed up as mine! They cost about $300, which took her a while to save up for, but these should last her a lifetime.

The entire rest of the day, she was practically dancing beside me as we walked around! No more foot pain. No more back pain!

This outlet happened to be not far from our first stop, which was the international grocery store.

This is what $123.57 looks like.

That doesn’t look like much for $123!

The seafood, oat milk – regular and chocolate – and coffee creamers are for my daughters.

This is where we like to get some excellent cheeses to try as treats. This time, we got both a honey gouda and a beer gouda.

The herbal tea is nettle; something for us to try. We do have nettles and could probably make our own, but we don’t have a lot and I like to leave them for the butterflies whose caterpillars like them.

The other tea is Irish Breakfast; something we haven’t picked up for a long time.

There is also an instant milk tea on there. We’ve tried something like this before, but it was a different brand. It has individual packets to make 1 cup of milk tea, which can be very handy at times.

The soy sauce is the Filipino brand my husband likes.

The applewood smoked bacon is a locally made brand I’ve not seen anyone else carry. After much searching, we finally found ground sage – a strange thing to be out of stock all over for such a long time! Last of all, we picked up some sweet potatoes (yams, on the receipt). We have a lot of peppers right now, and I found a recipe for a bell pepper and sweet potato soup that my daughters might want to try. Something I will taste, but I’m not likely going to be able to eat!

We also had a lunch at this store, before we did the shopping. Dim sum and smoked salmon sushi, which was really delicious. I forget what that cost. It was out of a different budget.

Our next stop was a Superstore. There wasn’t much we wanted to get there, though. It’s probably the smallest shop I’ve done at Superstore in a very long time!

This is what $91.12 looks like.

The only things we were really after was torpedo buns, a giant block of cheese, and to check out their energy drinks section, in case they had Beaver Buzz in stock.

They did not.

We got the torpedo buns, as well as a sourdough loaf, and a giant block of mozzarella cheese. After that, we just took a quick look around and added a big bag of bacon and cheddar cheese perogies, a couple of bags of pot stickers, two 1L boxes of orange juice, some prosciutto and a large package of chicken breasts.

Next, it was time to hit the Walmart, for what turned out to be the biggest part of our shop. This is what $298.73 looks like.

Yes, that’s a canopy tent in there! It was on clearance, and we needed one.

The canopy tent was on clearance, at $39, so I really didn’t want to pass that up.

The planned purchases included a large bag of dry kibble and two cases of 32 cans of wet cat food, for the inside cats. I also found a package of the XXL (30’x30′) puppy pads that I wasn’t able to find last month.

We got some toilet paper and a couple of spray bottles of eco-cleaner.

There is a couple of packages of hot dog buns to go with the hot dog wieners we got. The roti was a last minute grab; I haven’t had roti in ages! It won’t be as good as fresh made, but I don’t care! 😄

There’s some lean ground beef in there, as well as a frozen turkey – Canadian Thanksgiving is coming up, so it’s cheap turkey season!

We got some coffee, some ice cream to have with our melons, and there was a good deal on the soy milk my daughters like so we got two 2L of those, too. At the request of my older daughter, we also got a bunch of energy drinks.

We also got a couple of cold drinks for the road, and a package of cookies and cream donuts, which I’ve never seen before, as a road munchie.

The donuts were… okay. I had no desire for a second one! 😄

There are a couple of items visible in the cart that aren’t on the bill, because my daughter bought those.

So that was our stock up shopping for today.

On top of that, we got $40 of gas on the way out, at 1.329/L In the city, though, we were able to get gas at $1.269/L, so I put in another $40. We’ll do a fill, and I’ll reset the trip meter, at Costco.

The gas is a different budget, but gas and groceries together totaled $593.42, plus our lunch.

I’m certainly glad we brought along all our ice packs. Our high for today, here at home, was 26C/79F, but it would have been at least a couple of degrees hotter in the city. Plus, the truck would have gotten even hotter inside. By the time we got home, even in insulated bags and with ice packs, things were starting to thaw out!

Tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter, with a high of 28C/82F, and very windy. Since I’m going to be taking my mother to the eye specialist, I’ve asked my daughters to give the garden a deep watering for me. We’ve had some rain over the past few days, but nowhere near enough.

Meanwhile, I have not been able to get through to my mother today. I’m at a bit of a loss. My brother had called her about the exterminator coming out on Friday, and that I planned to be there, but if they showed up at her door today, she might have thought he meant today – and would be wondering why I wasn’t there! She may be staying out of her apartment for the required minimum 6 hours.

That’s just a guess, though. For all I know, she’s hanging out in the common room with some of her neighbours.

Well, if I don’t get through today, I’ll be finding out what happened, tomorrow!

I’m just glad we got this first stock up shopping trip done now. I really did not want to do all this running around on a weekend!

Now, we just need to do the Costco shop next.

*shudder*

The Re-Farmer

An unexpected shop: this is NOT what $60+ looks like

September 24, 2024 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Well, my upcoming stock up shopping schedule has changed again.

Normally, I would be heading into the city for our first stock up shop in a couple of days (Thursday), but I’ll be taking my mother to the eye specialist, instead. With that in mind, I’d already picked up a few things I knew we’d be running out of, yesterday, when I got more cat kibble in the town north of us. Grocery prices there are much higher, so I didn’t much at all.

Today, I wanted to refill our two empty 18.9L/5 gallon water jugs in the town nearest us. The only other thing we needed was more bread. Before I left, I asked my daughter to message me if she spotted anything else we were out of that couldn’t wait until Friday.

When I parked at the store and checked my message. Nothing from home to add to the shopping list.

There was, however, a message from my brother, asking if he could call me this afternoon about my mother.

Nothing he was in the office today, I figured it was urgent! So I let him know I’d just parked in town and that he could call me on my cell phone right away, if he was still able to.

He was.

Long story short, he got a call from the public housing department that owns the building my mother lives in. They don’t want to evict a 90+ year old woman, but if she doesn’t let them in to check/spray her apartment for bed bugs again, they have no choice.

They are going to be there on Friday. They even have an exact time (usually it’s between 9am an 5pm, and would have been done tomorrow, not Friday), and a manager will be there, due to her accusations of theft.

Right away, I assured my brother that I would be there. I had already been planning to go there tomorrow, as they usually come on the last Wednesday of the month.

The city shopping can wait.

As her Power of Attorney, my brother gave them permission to do in. I’ll shoot to be there earlier to move things away from the walls – they just need room for the wand to reach – and run interference with my mother. She has to stay out of her apartment for at least 6 hours. Given that she has respiratory issues, it should really be 12 hours, but that would mean spending the night somewhere. None of us have homes accessible for her, and she is no longer willing to rent a motel room. It was during a time she spent the night in a motel that she believes the exterminator stole stuff from her. Stuff that makes no sense for anyone to steal.

The guy my brother spoke to told him, they have to deal with this sort of thing all the time, unfortunately.

He also said they don’t think my mother has bedbugs, but they’ve been spraying her neighbour’s place for the past several months. If her neighbour has them, it would not take much for them to spread to her apartment. Plus, the eggs can stay dormant for up to a year. However, if the egg casings get sprayed, when the hatch, the hatchling will die as soon as it emerges. So even if she doesn’t have bed bugs, they still need to spray a certain number of times to ensure it stays that way, as far as the eggs go, at least.

So that pushes the city stock up shopping off to Saturday.

Ah, well. We’ll deal!

I still only intended to get just bread and water refills, but I still looked around.

It turns out they had some really good sales on. So good that some things were completely out of stock. The sale ends tomorrow, so that’s not surprising.

The store itself in in the process of being completely rearranged, too. From what I’ve seen so far, it’s going to be a lot more logical in organization – and it looks like they’re expanding their international section, too!

So I ended up getting more than intended, and not all things I would normally get.

This is what $61.89 before taxes would have looked like – not counting the 60¢ for the bottle caps that got paid for when I picked them up at customer service. I cashed in a winning lottery ticket that paid for them. 😄

My loyalty card, however, had $20 I could take off the purchase, so this actually cost $41.89 before taxes.

This is what I got:

Each item shows how much the sale prices took off. You can see on the bottom that the total discounts and savings was $39.11, or 39% of the sub-total. That would be the sub-total before the $20 was taken off, so that means I had $59.11 in taken off altogether, leaving me with having to pay only $43.33 after taxes.

The things I normally would not have picked up were the boxed cereals, the instant puddings and the granola bars.

With the whole chicken, I try to get those on sale whenever I can – especially with it being over $8 off, like today.

The fruit juices were something I was looking for specifically for my daughters. I find fruit juices way too sweet. They’re basically like mainlining sugar, but it gives my daughters something different to drink.

With the bread, I usually get rye bread, but at $2 a loaf, I got two regular loaves of whole wheat bread, one whole wheat Texas Toast and one white sandwich bread.

With the cereals and granola bars, I got four different types for our 4 very different tastes.

The instant puddings were only $1 each and, at first, I picked 4 different flavours. Then I noticed they were all “low fat”. Fat is flavour, so that means they had to replace the fat with something else to make them taste good; usually sugar. So I went for the regular kind, but there were only two flavours that weren’t sold out.

Funny. There were plenty of low fat versions in stock. 😄

So, not the shopping trip I planned, but a pretty good one, I think. We got some things that are very occasional treats that I only pick up when the prices are good. Sometimes I’ll get them at Costco, but there usually isn’t a lot of space on the flat cart for what are essentially frivolous purchases.

Not too shabby, I think. Especially with today’s food prices!

The Re-Farmer

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