health issues

Bebbies, doctor’s visit and deer scarer failure

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Today was my follow up with the doctor after my last ER visit. The appointment was in the afternoon, but my daughter and I left early, with plans to have lunch before heading to the clinic.

I am quite glad we left as early as we did!

On the way to the truck, though, I checked on the catio in its new location. My daughter had seen the kittens at the branch pile again when doing the morning feeding, but they soon joined the singleton kitten at the shrine feeding station, so I wanted to see if they were still around.

I found a furry little slug in the carrier.

It moved before I had a chance to get my phone out to take a picture.

It had been completely flattened along the curve of the carrier, snoozing. After looking around a bit, it finally saw me and got nervous, so I left it be.

In wandering through the garden beds, I discovered something.

Every single Yellow Swiss Chard that had been growing between the garlic is now gone. All of it. There’s nothing but weeds left.

The deer scarer did not go off while I was there, even though I set it to 24 hours instead of night only. Yesterday I was hearing it go off constantly, but never saw any critters. I think tree branches in the wind might have been setting it off. I thought maybe the solar charge was dead because of this but when I tested it, it still worked. So I have no clue why it stopped working! Not that it matters anymore. There’s nothing that the deer like to eat left.

*sigh*

Meanwhile, I had been feeling quite good when I got up this morning but, by the time I finished walking around the yard, the pain was starting to come back, and it kept getting worse throughout the day.

*doublesigh*

With all the construction on the highway we would normally have taken, we took the highway towards the town south of us before cutting across. It was a very disheartening drive. There were SO many squished garter snakes on the road! There were some live ones we managed to avoid hitting, one I never saw that my daughter thinks I might have hit and one that I know I missed, only to look in my rear view mirror and see the vehicle behind me run over it. 😭

I wish the “snake fences” that are on the highway nearest the snake dens extended further south. These are fences in the ditches that guide the snakes through tunnels under the highway. These were built in an area so close to the dens that had so many snakes crossing it, it was impossible not to hit them and the highway actually became dangerously slippery from them all. We don’t get THAT many snakes this far from the dens, but it is still a tragic number of snakes never making it to their winter dens. Garter snakes are not at all dangerous and are excellent pest control. We need more of them!

Taking the alternate route did allow us to avoid most of the construction, but there was still a section of it we needed to get through before our turn off. Then we got stuck behind slower traffic. We still got to the area early enough to grab a quick lunch, then continue to the clinic. We left almost 2 hours early, with the drive normally taking about 45-50 minutes. We got to the clinic only 15 minutes early for my appointment.

I was most definitely relying on the walker at this point, and my daughter came in with me. We must have been quite a sight. Me with my walker, her with her cane!

We spoke for a while about how things went after the surgery, leading to the ER visit, and how I’ve been doing since then. I told her I’ve been taking the T3s every 6 hours as instructed, but I really don’t feel it’s making a difference. I had taken my afternoon dose just before going into the clinic, and the pain just kept getting worse as I sat there. We talked about taking tramadol and I told her I did still have some tramadol left, though not a lot. I’d had the tramadol injection at the ER, which did seem to work. I brought up that the ER doctor had suggested hydromorphone and that I might want to try my husband’s, just to see if it worked and if I had any reaction to it. I explained that she had said to take 1mg, and to split the pill if my husband was on 2mg, but that my husband’s dose is 12mg. The doctor was rather startled by that and asked what was wrong that he was on such a high dose, and I explained his back injury – and that the hydromorphone basically just takes the edge off the pain for him.

In the end, she did say that, if I felt the need, to go ahead and try my husband’s dose of hydromorphone! She could not prescribe it to me, though, as she did not have the hand written, triplicate prescription pad needed for it, as a “controlled substance”.

I never got to mention that I already had tried it, some time ago, and it worked quite well. I haven’t tried it again since then because it cannot be taken with the same class of painkillers as T3s. I’d have to wait until any acetaminophen type medication is out of my system completely. That includes the tramadol I still have left.

Meanwhile, we talked about it a bit more and she said she would prescribe some Percocet for me to try. At this point, we’re just on pain management until she gets the results of the biopsy. She did check before coming in to see me, and there was nothing back yet. I already have the 4 week follow up appointment booked, so I’ll be seeing her again in the middle of September and she will have the results by then.

She did start to tell me that she didn’t think she would have good news for me, but with that she meant she expects I will need a hysterectomy. To which I responded YES PLEASE!!! She laughed, because I’d already told her I was just fine with having one. If, however, the tests show cancer, I’m going to have to see a specialist in the city, because the hospital she does surgeries in does not have the resources for that. If she didn’t have to wait for the test results, she told me she could do the hysterectomy at any time, based on what she saw on the camera during the fibroidectomy. She said it’s actually pretty common as women get older.

Even as I was sitting there with the doctor, I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable from the pain. I was till okay to drive to the nearby Walmart, while the doctor said she would fax the new prescriptions to our pharmacy. With my daughter helping out, we picked up a few things we hadn’t gotten during the city trip yesterday. I even finally found a package of assorted grades of sand paper that I had been looking for but couldn’t find while in the city.

There wasn’t much else we needed to get there, and we were soon heading to town to pick up my new meds, with my daughter driving. When we got to the pharmacy, I stayed in the truck while she ran in. She was soon back to let me know they had not received the fax yet. Meanwhile, I had just received a message from my husband. The pharmacy had called him to remind him that he’d be getting a delivery on Thursday. So I asked her to let them know that, once the fax comes in, my prescriptions can be added to the delivery.

Meanwhile, tomorrow, I will phone to see if the faxed prescriptions came in. If they did not, someone will need to call the clinic about it.

That done, we only needed to stop to get more gas in the truck – once again, I stayed in the truck while my daughter took care of it – before heading home.

It took a while, but the pain did finally start to recede and I felt able to go outside and walk around a bit. I tried fishing for kittens after topping up the food bowl in the catio (my older daughter took care of their evening feeding while her sister and I were gone). Theirs gets cat milk added to soften the kibble which, unfortunately, means I spent more time chasing other cats – and a very determined skunk! – away from their food. I was able to stay out until my alarm went off for my next dose of T3s. Which seems pointless. Taking it regularly should be acting as a preventative, which isn’t happening.

Hopefully, the Percocet will work better.

I have to say, I’m feeling increasingly frustrated. My daughter joked with the doctor about how I’m not allowed to do yard work right now. Fair enough, but I need to be doing SOMETHING! There is so much that I want to be doing. The doctor had brought up putting me on bed rest but decided against it. She could see I was already doing that as needed but one of the meds I’ll be getting is the one to stop bleeding, and I can’t be on bed rest if I’m taking that. I would have to mover around or risk blood clots. So I have not been put on bed rest, but I have to NOT be doing anything that that involves physical exertion.

At least I can use the riding mower.

On the way home, I talked to my daughter about some of the things I can physically do, with just a bit of help to set up. Like work on the round cutting boards I want to make out of slices of that elm tree. I want to get those cut, cleaned, sanded and conditioned before the green wood starts to dry out and crack. We’ll see about getting the chain saw out to cut the slices to the thickness I’m after, and she’ll take care of actually lifting and moving the pieces to where I can work on cleaning and sanding them before they can be oiled.

Cutting the slices might be a challenge. My electric chain saw has a 14″ bar. I’m pretty sure the pieces I’m looking to cut into thinner slices are more than 14″ across! The pile of elm pieces is right near an outdoor outlet, so that helps.

We had a solid rainfall last night, and rain off and on today, which was much needed. No rain is expected over the next few days, though, so we should be able to plug in the chain saw and do some cutting, if my daughter is up to moving very heavy pieces of wood for me.

We shall see.

The Re-Farmer

I accomplished something today!

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Okay, yes, the stock up shop did get done yesterday, but my daughter did most of the actual work, so that doesn’t count. 😁

This morning, she did the outside stuff for me, as usual, and even stayed out to do a deep watering of the garden. We’ve been dealing with flea beetles, all of a sudden. The nasturtiums work as a trap crop for those, and they are absolutely covered with them. So many that, when startled, you can hear them bouncing off the leaves and petals like rain.

They also love the Daikon radish. These had all bolted and were being left to go to seed. They are now all stems and pods. No leaves left at all. My daughter has been blasting the beetles off with the hose, but there’s really nothing that can be done. They’re also on the remains of the cabbages. I’m not sure if the netting would have been enough to protect them, had they not already been harvested!

In the early afternoon, my daughter and I headed in to town. We wanted to get some ice cream to go with the birthday cake, among a few other small things. We ended up getting several ice creams. A small tub of lactose free ice cream for my husband, and another small one for me, since I’m not big on ice cream, and my daughter chose a larger tub to share with her sister. They like to add a scoop to their coffees, sometimes.

By the time we were done the shopping, I was starting to feel dizzy, so my daughter took over the driving. It wasn’t that bad, but just bad enough that I didn’t feel it would be safe for me to drive.

After everything was brought in and put away, it wasn’t too much longer before it was time to feed the outside cats, and I was feeling well enough to do that. I was eventually able to spot the four remaining kittens. We have the food and water bowls set up in the catio, which is great for luring them out, but is also a problem. The other cats and the skunks go in there and steal the kittens’ food! Hard to chase them away without also scaring the kittens.

Once that was done, I broke out the riding mower. There’s no way I can use a push mower of the weed trimmer – my daughter will be taking care of that part of the lawn care – but I can at least use the riding mower!

I ended up mowing for almost 4 hours, and I am so happy! I was able to get all the inner yard done, including in the main garden area. Everything I can get to with the riding mower. Some areas can only be done with the push mower or the weed trimmer, which my daughter is planning to work on tomorrow.

It felt so good to actually be productive. The forced inactivity is driving me bonkers. The yard looks so good, now, too. The outer yard and driveway still need to be done, but that can wait a bit longer. My SIL has been doing that area with their big zero turn mower for the past while, but they’ve got their grandsons still and will not be coming out here on the weekend, so I hope to get at least part of it done with the little riding mower. We are not touching the zero turn mower, at all! 😄

I was happy to get it done while it was still light out, too. That gave me a chance to top up the kittens’ bowl with kibble and cat milk again. It was completely empty, and I know the kittens didn’t finish that off one their own. Even while I was mowing, I had to chase both cats and skunks out. I made sure to top up the gas tank before running out, driving the mower to the garage to reduce the amount of walking I had to do, and ended up driving towards the catio so the noise would drive off the critters stealing the kittens’ food!

After refilling their bowl, I paused on the way back to the house to get a couple of photos at the chain link fence. In the time it took for me to do that, I spotted kittens heading for the new food I’d left for them. Encouraging!

These two photos are both of Black Russian sunflowers. The Mammoth sunflowers are not blooming at all, yet. Both varieties are supposed to have large seed heads, but I don’t think that will happen. The ones in the photos are about the size of the palm of my hand. It should be interesting to see how much bigger they get.

I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that we’re at the end of August already. About two weeks away from our average first frost date (I’m not going by the new date ranges). Just a few days until September. Good grief!

I’m hoping that Super El Nińo will help us out with a long, mild fall and no frost for a long time. Since moving here, we’ve had one year were the first frost happened in November, if I remember correctly. The shorter days will still set things back, but if the frost holds off, it’ll be good for the garden.

Meanwhile, I’m happy to say that I did NOT over do things by getting the lawn mowed. I’m so thankful for that riding mower!

The Re-Farmer

Costco stock up shop: this is what $900

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$900.72 to be exact.

Ouch.

I had a much interrupted night last night, so I was quite thankful that my younger daughter is still insisting on doing the morning routine so I can sleep in. When I got up, I was feeling quite good, overall.

Which made me very suspicious.

As we were getting ready to head out, I checked on the catio and found this adorableness looking back at me.

They still run off when we come by, but not as far, and they tend to stop and watch. When this one started looking like it was going to run out of the catio, I backed off and continued on my way, rather than give it a reason to feel more nervous.

I felt well enough to be doing the driving on the way out. We stopped at a gas station in the town along the way to get some road drinks and a snack to tide us over. My daughter had eaten breakfast, though, while I hadn’t, so the fresh potato wedges I got for both of us ended up just for me. Which meant we didn’t need to stop for lunch while at Costco.

When we got there, our first stop was filling the tank. Regular gas was at $1.489 and it cost me $68.99 to fill the tank from a little over half.

I did make sure we brought my walker while my daughter pushed the flat cart and loaded it for me.

I am so glad I had that walker.

By the time we reached Costco, the pain was starting to return. The more time went by, the more often I had to stop and just sit for a while, keeping an eye on the cart as my daughter ran around getting things. When we got to the line to pay, I gave her my cards and settled at the other end of the cash desk until things were being loaded onto the belt and the cashiers were scanning things on the cart. With a long drive ahead of us, I let my daughter know before dashing to the washroom. By the time I came out, she was done and heading in the direction of the exit. Once I caught up with her, we squished ourselves to the side and paused. My alarm was about to go off, so I took my pain meds then my daughter dashed off to refill my water bottle from the fountain. Which gave me time to get my usual photos.

Does this look like $900 to you?

Yes, we have a birthday coming up! This time, my husband’s. It’s early to get a cake, but we have never been ones to celebrate on the actual day, and a cake that size will last us several days!

So, what did we get for our $900 and change?

Let’s start with the cat stuff.

We got two 9kg bags and two 11kg bags of dry kibble, a case of wet cat food and a box of XL puppy pads.

For non-food items, we got our usual toilet paper, plus a case of facial tissues, all purpose cleaner, and a 2 pack of the Head and Shoulders that we use as an anti-fungal body wash.

In beverages, we got a case of Monster, a case of Vanilla Coke Zero, a 3 pk of oat milk and two 2L of kefir. We also got a large box of Earl Grey tea.

For dairy, we got 5 pounds of butter, a block of Old Cheddar and of Mozzarella cheese, plus a shaker of Parmesan that was on sale.

We did not get a lot of meats. Two panini packs of sandwich meats, a 6 pack of canned chicken, and two packages of loose mild Italian sausage meat.

In breads, we got two 2 packs of rye and two packages of tortilla wraps.

In case lot foods, we got an instant oats variety pack, a case of tomato soup, spaghetti, Ramen noodles. In fresh/frozen stuff we got a case of Pizza Pops, rainbow tortellini and our usual double flat of 5 dozen eggs.

Then there was a large jar of mayonnaise, another of peanut butter, a box of Sweet and Salty mix granola bars that was on sale, a bag of Basmati rice, and a jar of strawberry jam that comes in a jar my daughters like to reuse for their tea.

For my husband, there’s the birthday cake, plus a giant bag of nachos and a large Caesar Salad kit. My daughter chose two nigiri platters for herself and her sister (which I have been reimbursed for), plus I chose a sushi platter for myself.

That’s everything. That all came out to $900.72 While there were a few things on there that we don’t get every month, the only thing that was completely not usual was the birthday cake.

*sigh*

My daughter took care of bagging our stuff (we did remember to bring ice packs) and load up the truck, and she drove home. We made a rest stop at a gas station just outside the city where we got a couple of drinks and small snacks to pay for our toilet paper 😉 and then it was straight home.

Once at home, I left everything to my daughters to unload and put away so I could lie down for a while. I actually did feel better by the time we got home (the drive is about an hour and 15 minutes, give or take), but I definitely could not have made this trip on my own without leaving myself in really bad shape.

I think this worked out. We should be able to do our second stop up shop in the weekend like this, before I see the doctor on Monday afternoon.

I am so tired.

The Re-Farmer

Kitten, currant tomatoes and back in the ER

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What a day.

I kept feeling worse and worse all day. The pain was back, though not as extreme as the last time I ended up in the ER. It was the other stuff that came with it. Fatigue. Dizziness. Breaking out in sweats. Overall weakness. Feeling dehydrated, even though I was being careful to get enough fluids.

After things kept getting worse, I finally broke down and tried to call the health line number. This is a number in our province that we can call to talk to an RN about whatever’s going on and getting advice, including whether or not to go to the ER.

I got a robot voice telling me that “due to technical problems”, they couldn’t response, try again later, and then it went to a busy signal.

*sigh*

Not long after that, I asked my daughter to drive me to the ER. Last time, I was able to do it myself. This time, I could barely walk, never mind drive.

The girls loaded me (wearing a night gown and moccasins, because I didn’t have the energy to change) and the walker up and we headed out. I made sure to bring along the sheet I got from the hospital that listed the three procedures done during the surgery, and my new prescriptions. I was admitted immediately – by the same person that admitted me last time!

The first time a nurse called me into the triage room to take my vitals, I walked in but asked for the use of a wheelchair after that. The only one she could find left was actually meant for children, which was fine by me! As we were talking, I mentioned what happened when I tried to call the health line. She scoffed in frustration, saying they just tell people to go to the ER.

Next, I was wheeled over to the lab to get some blood work done. That went well. I have excellent veins. They always have the hardest time with my husband but, with me, it’s very easy for them! I’m pretty sure I recognized at least one of the staff in the lab as having taken blood from my husband.

I ended up being seen by the same doctor as last time and she remembered me (it wasn’t that long ago!), which made it easier to explain that yes, I’d seen the specialist she was able to get me to see so very quickly, and that yes, I’m post-op. My follow up appointment isn’t until the 15th of next month, though.

As we were talking, she even commented on my obvious discomfort. I’m glad my daughter was there because at one point, when she asked about my symptoms – something I’d already repeated several times to others – I was having difficulty speaking and my brain was too fogged to remember them all, so my daughter was able to list them off for me.

In the end, we had the same “problem” as last time. There was little that they could do for me in the ER. There was concerns that I was still bleeding and we went over how the T3s basically do nothing for the pain. She wanted to wait for the results from the lab, which would tell her if I needed a transfusion or not (I did not expect anything like that), or an IV for fluids, if I were dehydrated.

The main thing that they could focus on was pain control. She suggested hydromorphone, which my husband is on. I told her that, so she knew I was familiar with it. If the T3s aren’t working, she was willing to prescribe some to me, but that falls under the “controlled substance” label. In the end, she said it was okay if I took one from my husband to try and see if it works, or if I would have a reaction to it. I didn’t know what his dose was, and she told me to take 1mg, so if he’s on 2mg, I should break it in half.

For now, though, I’m to take two T3s every six hours, instead of the 1-3 tablets every 8 hours as needed, but not at the same time as the hydromorphone, if I’m going to try that. I got all the other warnings – no alcohol, don’t try to drive, don’t go swimming, etc. I told her, if I’m going to take it, I’ll be taking it and going straight to bed!

She approved of that.

She then told me that, on Monday, I need to call the specialist that did the surgery, tell her that I’d gone to the ER, and to get in to see her as quickly as possible, rather than waiting the 4 weeks.

Until then, I got an injection of tramadol for the pain I was dealing with right then. The nurse that came to me in the waiting with the injection recognized me from the last time I was there immediately! I think it was my sparkly hat. 😄

Not long after, the doctor came by with the lab results, which turned out to be really good. One of them was even better than the result from last time, and she told me to keep doing what I’m doing.

The main thing was, I did not need a transfusion or IV. I had just got the tramadol injection, so she said I could go home.

Then my daughter went and brought the truck over from where she’d parked it once I was admitted and we were soon on the way home. As we were driving, she commented on how quickly they took care of me. I suggested it might have had something to do with how terrible I looked.

She agreed. I was looking very ill!

Once at home, my younger daughter drove right up to the house to unload me and help me to the door, where her sister was waiting to help me once inside.

Have I mentioned how much I love all the arm bars and hand rails this house has? Quite a few times, I’m sure!

My older daughter had just finished making supper and, though it was early, got a plate ready for me, as I’d had only soup and toast all day. By this time, the tramadol was starting to do its job and I was feeling better. I did end up lying down again, as I was completely drained.

I don’t know how long I was down for, but I was awakened by the screeching of skunks fighting outside my window. I ended up going outside to see what was going on. I never saw the fighting skunks, but I did chase off two huge ones. One was coming around the corner of the house. The other was in the isolation shelter! Earlier, my daughter had messaged us to let us know she’d gone outside to feed the cats, but there was a skunk in the sun room that couldn’t leave – cats in the doorway were blocking it. So she went out the other door. While in the yard, she checked the sun room and found the skunk stretched out and taking a nap, right under the door into the old kitchen! So she didn’t go into the sun room at all.

Between that and the skunks, when I went out, I found all the kibble trays were empty. Even on the house house roof, there was only a few dregs.

By this time, my younger daughter had come out to check on me. I was going to top up the food bowls, but she did that for me. While she did that, I went over to the branch pile to see if the kittens were out.

I found one.

I saw no signs of any others.

I was feeling so much better that I kept walking around – slowly – to check on the garden beds. My daughter walked with me (turns out she was supposed to get me to go back inside, and failed!) and, when I spotted some colour hidden deep among the orange currant tomatoes, she picked them for me.

She found another spray with ripe Orange Currant tomatoes after the photo was taken. I think there were about 6 or 8 in total. Those vines are covered with sprays of tomatoes – so many!!! – and they’re all very green! The girls tell me the Orange Currant tomatoes are very delicious.

We did pick the one red Manitoba tomato, but it ended up going into the compost pile. The skin on that one got damaged while it was still green, and it was in pretty bad shape. There are more, but none are turning red yet.

Our single Arikara squash is getting huge.

Tomorrow, my daughter plans to harvest beans. She got the one golden zucchini that was ready, this morning and the garlic is ready to have their roots trimmed off and the soil brushed away before they come inside. She had planned to do a few things in the garden for me today, but got side tracked with having to drive me to the ER! I’ve been ordered not to have any more medical emergencies. 😂🤣

Meanwhile, at the moment, I’m feeling much better. The pain is gone, though I’m still feeling really weak. I’ve got timers and alarms set for the different meds I have, though I will be out of one of them rather soon. If things get bad again, I might try the hydromorphone. I have a slight problem with trying one of my husband’s, though. The doctor said to take 1mg, and split the pill if he’s on 2mg.

He’s on 12mg, and they’re not tablets, but gel caps. It’s the highest dose they’re allowed to give out, if I remember correctly, but I didn’t know what the actual number was until talking to my husband about it and he double checked.

I will admit, though, that I have actually tried it before, when the pain got extremely bad some time ago. I took one before bed and it worked incredibly well. No bad reactions, and it actually killed the pain, unlike the T3s. It also helped with my hip and shoulder pain. I was able to actually sleep. This is something to avoid, though, if only because he’s already so limited on when he can get refills.

Hopefully, things will be better tomorrow – and stay better! I still have to call the specialist’s clinic on Monday, though, and get in to see her as soon as possible.

What fun… not.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2027 + Garden: seeds in – and it’s back

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Today has been a difficult day.

I felt so good after the surgery, but the more time goes by, the worse I’ve been feeling.

Now, it’s back.

The pain that the doctor said the procedure should end.

Still not bad enough to go to the ER, but that is a possibility.

My daughter drove us to the post office to pick up a parcel. I ended up giving her my debit card along with the mail key and staying in the truck, in case she saw something in the general store worth picking up.

There ended up being two parcels. My latest MI Gardener seed order was in, too. Follow the link to see what made me choose these specific varieties.

There was also a surprise complementary packet of seeds; a “Salad bowl” mix. Who knows. We might even try growing some of those under lights in the winter.

The new seeds should be added to my seed bin that’s in the cool of the basement, but I can’t do the stairs right now.

In fact, I think I’m going to lie down again in a bit.

The Re-Farmer

Hard to hold back

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In some ways, I am a really terrible person to myself.

I am doing very well, which means I want to do more than I should, without even thinking about it! I was doing so well, I was able to do a walkabout yesterday evening… with my daughters both joining me to make sure I was okay!

Here we are, past the middle of August, and the sunflowers are just starting to form their heads. In the second photo of the slide show above, the one tomato we have that formed the earliest is finally turning red, but it’s taken so long, the skin looks dried out and damaged. There are, however, a decent number of other Manitoba Tomatoes on the plants, though still very green. The Blueberry tomatoes have quite a few forming fruit, all incredibly hard. There are lots of Orange Currant tomatoes, and they’re the only ones in that bed that have had anything ripen, but only from the same spray of fruit. Everything else is solid green. Same with the Chocolate Stripe tomatoes in the main garden area. We might be able to bring them in to ripen off the vine, but it’s way too early for most of them. Meanwhile, we’ve had some surprisingly cool night temperatures lately. We dropped to 6C/43F last night! Overnight temperatures over the next while as supposed to be warmer. The app on my phone says we’ll get another drop like last night within the week, but that app is also saying it’s raining right now, has been for hours and will continue through the night.

It’s not raining. It’s not even overcast.

Looking at the weather radar, the system is passing to the north and south of us. We might get a bit of rain in about an hour and that’s it.

I was able to sleep last night, and even sleep in, as my younger daughter took over the morning routine. She made sure the catio food bowl had a generous amount of cat soup to lure the babies (I have not seem or heard them at all today), and she watered the garden. We talked about that for a bit and the potatoes will no longer be watered so the soil will dry out and they can be harvested.

Which won’t be by me.

Later in the morning, she and I headed out to town, stopping first to pick up a parcel at the post office that turned out to be three parcels. I’m really amazed by how quickly my husband’s Tei Fu order came in! This time, he got some oil as well as the lotion that my daughter will test out. I was up to driving, but my daughter ran into the post office so I didn’t need to get in and out of the truck.

Our first stop in town was the pharmacy so I could get my post-op prescriptions filled. My husband has a refill scheduled for delivery tomorrow and I was hoping to pick that up, too, but I was not allowed to. Being a “controlled substance” it was too early for a refill. Idiotic and frustrating. Both my daughters had refills to get filled as well, with one of those also being a “controlled substance” that had to wait until it was almost gone before it would be refilled – which means it would have been out completely if she waited for delivery day.

While we wait for the prescriptions to be filled, my daughter got a wrist brace for her sister and I ended up getting a thumb brace for myself. I wore it only for the afternoon, and it has already made a world of difference.

Wandering around the store started to be a bit much, though, and I didn’t want to push myself, so I sat in the waiting area for most of the time. My daughter got the meds for herself and her sister faster, so she paid for the wrist brace (their meds were both covered 100% by our province’s pharmacare insurance) then headed out to another store while I waited.

My meds, being new, got a discussion about instructions with the pharmacist. The antibiotics need to be taken every 6 hours until the bottle is empty. The number of days is a bit off, since I wasn’t able to fill it yesterday so, in theory, I’d already “missed” several doses. The other is to stop bleeding. I can take it every 8 hours, but only as needed, and the fewer I take of that, the better. It’s the same thing my older daughter has a prescription for, and she had asked if I was getting it. The prescription was hand written in a short hand, so I had no idea until the pharmacist named it as she gave it to me. My daughter was very happy to hear I got this prescription, because it works incredibly fast and well. It’s highly unlikely I’ll need to take it for more than a day or two.

Once done at the pharmacy, we decided to go to the grocery store for a few things; bread, eggs and milk, mostly. We ended up getting more, of course. They had several cuts of steak, plus beef roasts, on sale for prices I haven’t seen in a very long time. I ended up getting two packages of steaks for tonight, a small roast plus a seasoned pork roast that is always a good price. Pork is about the only affordable meat right now.

Before we could finish going through the store, though, I had to give my daughter my cards and turn the shopping over to my daughter, so I could head to the truck and sit down. I had only been walking around, using the cart as a walker as I usually do, but I could tell I had started to push myself too far and needed to sit. My daughter did the driving and, once we got home, I took my new meds and lay down pretty much right away, making sure to set a timer and an alarm for the two different lengths of time to the next doses.

The girls took care of all the stuff I normally would have done at least part of. My older daughter also cooked the steaks for supper, finishing off the last of our store bought potatoes, together with cabbage and beans from our garden, to go with it.

It was deliscious.

Before supper was ready, I felt well enough again to go outside for the evening cat feeding – promising my daughters I wouldn’t do anything else!

Then my older daughter saw me through the kitchen window, dragging the hose across the yard, and sent my younger daughter running. I was just taking it to the catio to refill the water bowl for Slick and her kittens, but they were afraid I was going to start watering the garden or something! 😁

My daughter stayed with me while I finished and brought the hose back, and we got to talking about how Sprout’s little one has gotten so talkative!

It has a squeaky little meow it gives off while waiting for us to distribute the kibble. It is so nervous about eating, and I’d had to use the hose to chase off a big skunk that had scared it way, just by being there. This poor baby is all alone. Mama doesn’t stay close to it anymore, and it’s too scared to come to the house, so it has formed no “friendships” with any of the other cats. If they come by to eat, she runs away, so we try to get them to eat from other bowls, instead.

Once the cats were fed and watered, my daughter chastised me until I went back inside. 😄

Along with the meds, I’m under some pretty strict instructions on what I can and can’t do. No lifting anything over 10 pounds. No “strenuous activity” for a week… I suspect digging up potatoes counts as “strenuous activity”. Apparently, I’m supposed to be eating a “light diet” or things like toast or soup until I can tolerate more. I have had zero issues with what I have been able to eat. The steak dinner my daughter made REALLY hit the spot! Of course, there are also the warnings to look out for that, if they start, I am to get to the nearest ER immediately.

So far, though, I just had that while where I could tell I’d pushed myself, and lying down was sufficient.

The down side of feeling so good after the procedure; I REALLY need to force myself not to just get back into my normal activity levels!!!

Meanwhile, my timer just went off… time to go take the next dose of antibiotics…

The Re-Farmer

Morning baby, barely made it and one more day

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One more day.

I am so looking forward to surgery.

Not just for the surgery itself, but so that I can start taking my supplements again.

I got hit with a Charlie horse last night, somewhere around 2 – 3 in the morning. It actually started with the top of my left foot, the tendons yanking my toes and ankle up. As it got worse, I managed to fling off the three cats that were using me as a bed, sit up and grab a tube of Tei Fu lotion. The tube was more empty than I expected, so I had to fight with it, while my foot was painfully cramping. I ended up with way more than I intended on my hand, what actually turned out to be a good thing.

I got some on my other hand and raised my knee onto the bed so I could start rubbing it into the cramp, only for the position to trigger more cramping in my thigh. I ended up with cramping in my entire left leg, from the tip of my toes to my hip, with my right leg starting to threaten. I had enough lotion to apply to both legs, pre-emptively preventing any cramping in my right leg.

That Tei Fu lotion is gold.

The frustrating thing is that the magnesium, potassium and zinc I’d been taking to prevent this in the first place is off limits until after the surgery. I was eventually able to get myself up and hobble to the bathroom to wash my hands before I took some painkillers. My older daughter was awake and working, so I messaged her and she came down. I didn’t need any help by then, but she stayed and we talked for a while, and she made sure to let me know I could message her at any time if problems started again. Thankfully, it did not and I finally got some sleep.

When I got up a couple of hours later, I saw my husband’s light was on, which means he was driven awake by his own pain. I popped in to talk to him about what happened, mentioning that I was going to be starting my last tube of Tei Fu. The last time he ordered some, he got 4 tubes, and I’d given one to my younger daughter. She recently mentioned to me that she had been out for a while. My husband immediately went online to order more. He was thinking to get in on a monthly subscription, but I don’t use it that often. My daughter, however, might do well with that, until she has her own surgery, which may be months from now.

I was able to get another hour or so of sleep before I finally got up for the day and headed out to do the morning routine. I got to feed the feral baby.

The kitten now comes out and meows when I start putting the kibble out. It still won’t let me near, but seems to be catching on to the routine and understanding that I’m there to leave food, not try to hurt it.

No sign of Slick’s branch pile babies this morning, though she came to the house for breakfast, as usual. I do hope she hasn’t moved them!

I did my morning rounds and should have picked some bush beans, but didn’t have a container, so I left it for later.

I might have to get my daughters to do it. They’ve been taking over most things for me today. My younger daughter was kind enough to make breakfast for me when she found out I had started to do it, but had to stop before anything was ready to actually eat.

I didn’t push myself at all this morning, but as the time wore on, I started having issues with my left arm. All the joints from my rotator cuff to the fingers. Then the abdominal pain started to kick in.

*sigh*

One. More. Day.

My younger daughter was able to come down and do my arm with diplofenac at joints, then I did my lower abdomen myself, along with my left hip, which now hurts pretty constantly. The abdominal pain kept getting worse instead of better. I still wanted to go to the general store and post office to pick up a parcel and another 40 pound bag of kibble, so we wouldn’t have to worry about it while I was recovering. When the post office re-opened at 2pm, I got my daughter to drive me. When we got there, however, I was no longer up to getting in and out of the truck, so I gave her the mail box key and my card for the kibble.

She got the mail first, and came out with two larger packages. I was only expecting one. The larger box was quite beat up, and part of the contents was broken through.

It turned out to be the blower I’d ordered for her forge! The one my husband had received a message offering a refund or a replacement blower, and tracking said was still at customs!

I checked before starting this post and, according to the tracking, it’s still at customs.

After dropping the boxes off in the truck, my daughter went back in to buy the kibbled. When she was done loading it into the box of the truck, she gave me my debit card back and told me it hadn’t worked, so she paid for it herself.

I had done some banking earlier and there were no issues. It wasn’t until I went to put the card back in my wallet that I realized, I had given her my Visa instead of my debit card. The cards look identical, except one has my name on the front, and the other on the back. The general store is not set up to take credit cards.

Oops!

Once we got home, I was able to take the mail in, as they were quite light, but I could barely walk from the pain. I was still able to open up the bashed up package, though, which had a piece of metal sticking out one side!!

Thankfully, the blower is not something easily broken. Even the foam around the opening was broken, but there aren’t any dents. Of course, my daughter got the handle on and we tested it right away.

Now, all she needs is fuel for her forge and some steel to practice with – and we have scrap steel all over the place – and she can start doing some blacksmithing here at home!

Once we were back, though, the pain was still getting worse, so I took more painkillers and lay down.

My older daughter, meanwhile, took over another project for me. She first went out to give that old bathtub a thorough scrubbing. Then, once it was fully dry, she used the enamel paint I picked up on it. She has since been able to put on a second coat.

With the condition of the tub, we know it’s going to have lumps and bumps, and the paint might have trouble adhering. I’m not too worried about it, though. It’s going to be used to soak and wash filth cat beds and blankets. I just need it to not be rusted out and flaking, and to hold water.

My daughter will be adding more layers over the next few days, giving it plenty of time to cure in between, pretty much until the can is empty.

All this, in between making a supper of ribs and roasted cabbage from our garden. She wanted to make sure I ate very well, before I have to start fasting at midnight. The house smells amazing right now.

As for me, the pain did finally start to subside while I was lying down, but then the bleeding suddenly increased. A lot.

We’re doing laundry now.

One. More. Day.

That prescription I was given – the “safer” version of what my older daughter is on – has done nothing for me. I may as well have not been taking it. It should have at least reduced the pain, and there shouldn’t be any bleeding at all.

Hard to imagine that all of this got trigged by taking an anti-inflammatory that had been so helpful for my arthritis!

One.

More.

Day.

The Re-Farmer

Another quiet day

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… after a much interrupted night.

Ghosty knows that if she digs into things, it wakes me up. I’d sit up in bed and see her looking at me from wherever she was that she wasn’t supposed to be! Usually, I can figure out that she’s letting me know the food bowls need topping up, but that was already done. I never did figure out what she was wanting, other than to wake me up! By the time I was ready to get up for the day, I was ready to throttle her. 😄

The morning routine was normal and uneventful. I got to see the feral kitten. Sprout doesn’t seem to have anything to do with her baby, and I didn’t even see her at all today. I got a head count of only 10 yard cats this morning, including the kitten. Clearly, the little one has been weaned as essentially abandoned, and seems to be staying mostly in what’s left of the junk pile.

Unfortunately, once again, I got hit with the pain again. This time, it started later in the morning. I took some T3s but it kept getting worse, and I finally had to lie down. Not because lying down is any less painful. I’m just not fighting gravity to stay upright anymore. I even tried the topical painkiller and that made no difference, either. It took about 4 hours before finally fading away. I wish I could say I got some rest, but that didn’t happen, either.

When the pain finally faded, it was as if it had never been there. Which is good, but the unpredictability of it is very frustrating.

Five more days and, if all goes well, this should never happen again!

I felt well enough to head outside in the early evening to do my usual routine, feeding the yard cats and watering the garden, including the food forest trees. That leaking barrel I have set up to leak next to the apple tree has almost completely stopped leaking! So strange.

I am really perplexed by my red noodle beans.

They are so yellow. Only two of them are climbing the trellis (you can see one in the second image above). They have certainly grown more than last year but, once again, seem to have reached a point and stagnated. The trellis should be a wall of darker green leaves, flowers and bean pods.

All of the Daikon radish has bolted. The heat we got earlier in the season really messed with them! I’ve tried pulling some and there’s just spindly radishes – and the largest one had grub damage. I grew these for my younger daughter, who really likes Daikon radish, but it’s not something we buy often. She suggested we just leave them be and collect the seeds.

That’s going to be a LOT of seeds! 😄

While doing my evening walkabout, I had my usual furry followers. Including this guy.

Stinky is adorable, but I’m not happy with him. He has been attacking Sweetie! Other cats, too, but Sweetie is so tiny compared to him. It’s hard enough to try and get her to trust us, but harder when he goes after her and I break them up. She has no way to know that I’m only after him, and trying to protect her.

*sigh* Poor little thing!

Oh! I got a call I was very happy to get today. The tree company called to let me know they were be out here tomorrow afternoon with the stump grinder. Once that is finally removed, we’ll be able to work on the patio area, leveling it off with a slope away from the house, instead of towards it. It’ll be nice to have that area level again! The cat isolation shelter will be set up there again for the winter, and the wheels kept getting stuck on the heaved edges of the blocks.

That’s pretty much it for the highlights of today. Pretty boring, really.

I like boring.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: utter destruction

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*sigh*

This is what I found this morning.

The complete and utter destruction of our corn patch. Clearly, the motion activated noise maker did nothing to deter the raccoons!

I found a whole three cobs that looked untouched. You can see in the last image, what was in them. Basically, just one cob that had anything remotely like ripe kernels.

This is so, so disappointing.

The rest of the day wasn’t much better. Ended up spending several hours in bed dealing with pain that painkillers had no affect on. Then I got a call from my mother who immediately began ranting at me about how nobody is visiting her, and why didn’t my brother or my sister visit her? By the time I had to cut the call short and hung up, it had gone from, no one is visiting her to trying to say I should visit her because she provided the roof over my head and “gave” the farm to my brother to the staff is neglecting her because they are paying more attention to other residents than her to wanting to know very specific details of why I’m getting surgery that are NONE of her business to saying I should make sure that I have a white doctor because brown people don’t care about white people and brown doctors make mistakes.

By then, I was more than done with the call.

The day has gotten better, though. My daughters were able to clear a path and get the big aquarium into the basement. They were able to get the living room actually useable again. There is now a charcuterie and a movie about to happen.

I really need that right now!

The Re-Farmer

Catching up

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So the past couple of days have been SO much better, it just blows me away!

Yesterday, I was not only well enough to go into the city for the stock up shopping at Costco, but felt well enough to keep on going after everything was put away and we’d had supper. I headed outside for the usual evening cat feeding, then gave the garden a solid watering before heading back in.

A couple of nights ago, my brother and SIL quickly came by to drop off a box with a small raccoon proof shed they picked up. I had some bags with cans at various stages of sorting against the garage, and critters had gotten into them again, spreading them all over. So this is something we can store the aluminum cans in until it’s worth bringing them to the scrap yard. Most of the cans are cat food cans. Even though they are empty, the critters still smell food on them and sometimes tear the bags apart – even after ignoring them for months!

They also let me know that they were coming back the next day (yesterday) to take the trail loaded with metal items to the scrap yard. When they told me about the shed, I mentioned that we had more bags of cans in our basement that would fit in the truck. My SIL said that they could load the bags into their truck (which has a taller cap over the box) and take it in with the rest of the load.

I didn’t know what time they would be coming by with the shed, so I headed out with some fresh bags to at least re-bag the bag with aluminum only that had been torn up. As I was walking to the garage, however, I saw something that wasn’t there when I’d gone out to feed the cats and water the garden earlier.

That wasn’t there when I was out watering the garden beds! I sent the picture to our family chat and my daughters said they had heard something – maybe 40 minutes earlier – fall. It wasn’t even particularly windy at the time!

After re-bagging the aluminum cans at the garage, I came to see how bad the damage was under this tree top. Much to my surprise, the garden bed cover was not damaged. The netting was bent, but it doesn’t have hoops under it, to it can be easily pushed back into shape. All those branches sticking out in every direction actually kept the full weight of the tree top from landing on the cover and doghouse roof. I broke off some of the branches while one of my daughters came over, and she held the tree top up until I could get the garden bed cover out from under it, then pushed it aside, so it’s not over the old dog house anymore. We’ll have to come back with the chain saw to break it down, soon, but for now it waits.

We went in after that and my brother and SIL were in and out to drop off the shed in its box so quickly, if I hadn’t gotten security camera alerts, I’d never had known they were here!

With my SIL’s kind offer to take our aluminum in, that meant getting all the bags out of the basement. I didn’t know what time they would be coming buy, and knew I’d be going to the city, so I wanted to get the cans out before we left. Which had to be done in stages, since we can’t just leave doors open, or the inside cats would be getting into the basement, or outside.

I got it done, though. By the time I got them out near the junk pile, which has been cleared out significantly, thanks to my brother and SIL, I had 11 large clear bags, plus another 8 or so small blue bags. Including the two bags from beside the garage I’d rebagged the night before.

What I found out later was that they weren’t coming out until my brother was done at work (I had thought he might have arranged to leave early or something). So we were back from Costco well before they got here, in seperate vehicles.

I had actually gone back out to water the garden, but suddenly realized my brother had somehow arrived and parked by the barn without my ever hearing him! Then I heard my SIL arriving at the gate. So I postponed the watering and started tying the garlic off so I could hang them to cure.

Which didn’t work out as planned.

Normally, I make two long strings of garlic that I hang under the canopy tent to form a large X across the middle. The garlic, however, turned out to be too heavy. The first string of garlic kept snapping at different spots. In the end, I hung the remaining pieces, reinforcing the longest one with more jute twine. With the rest, I tied off strings of roughly a dozen garlic each and hung them around the sides of the canopy tent.

I was working on this when my brother and SIL drove their truck and trailer up to where the aluminum bags were. In the end, though, they didn’t take them yet. They didn’t have time. The scrap yard closed at 8, but it was at least a 45 minute drive to get there, and they needed to be there before closing time. Last call is usually about 15 minutes before closing.

So they left without the aluminum, with my brother driving the truck and trailer and my SIL following in the car my brother had come out in. They got there just in time and were able to get it done. Once the trailer was cleared, my brother took the car and drove home, since he had to go to work the next morning. My SIL drove the truck and trailer back here.

Meanwhile, I had finished stringing up the garlic.

There are two images in the above slide show. I don’t like that the garlic is around the edges, as they could be affected by the weather more. We’re not expecting rain for a while, though, so I hope they will be okay.

I was just finishing watering the garden when my SIL got back with the trailer. I helped her unhitch the trailer (something neither of us had done before, though at least my SIL has seen my brother doing it), then she drove the truck over to the bags of aluminum. We didn’t want them out overnight, as the raccoons would probably tear them apart.

It was getting dark, so I messaged my daughters and they were both able to come out and help load the truck. Much to my surprised, they all fit, with room to spare!

By then, it was pretty much full dark. My SIL parked the truck near their caravan and stayed the night.

This morning, I was up by about 6am, even though I hadn’t actually slept much last night. I headed out into the wonderfully cool morning to feed the cats and do a quick walkabout before going back inside.

While checking on the garden beds, I found this.

The last time I saw this Arikara squash, it was maybe 6 inches long!!

I set a brick under it, so it wouldn’t have direct contact to the ground. There are several more squash developing, but this one got huge, fast! One squash plant, and we might have as many as 5 squash off of it, if they all survive. This is how all our winter squash should be looking, but even the biggest of the other varieties do not look this vigorous and healthy!

I also spotted this – more wind damage!

This is a chokecherry tree, part of which has split.

Oh, I just realized. This is probably NOT wind damage. This might be deer damage. There are ripe chokecherries on this tree. If they were pulling on the berries like they do when going after the crab apples, they could easily have broken the tree like this.

My SIL and I were planning to head out around noon. That gave me time to go through the house for any remaining aluminum cans that were waiting to be bagged up, filling about half of a large, clear bag. Then I went to the garage, where a bag with crushed cans had been torn and spilling and picked that up. Then I crushed all the cans I could find in the crate and bin we us for recyclables. Last of all, I headed outside the garage with a magnet and sorted the last bag that’s been sitting there for months, pulling out the cans with steel. By the time I was done, I’d filled the large clear bag and about half of a small blue recycling bag. I carried them over to my brother’s truck and added them to what was in the back.

At this point, we have a couple of bags with just ferrous metal in them. We could have taken them with us, but it just wasn’t worth is for barely two bags. The price for steel is quite low.

I later found out my brother got 12¢ per pound for their load. The stuff didn’t weigh as much as my brother had estimated.

The cans sorted and bags and cleaned up, I headed back in to change out of my grubbies and into going out clothes. I double checked the hours I’d found for the place online, and they said they were closed today. !!!??? So I phoned.

They were very much open.

My SIL and I headed out soon after. We went to the salvage yard directly to the south of us that I was already familiar with, rather than the one they went to last night. There was enough in there that they brought out one of the bigger cages with a forklift, rather than the bin they’d brought out the last time we’d managed the trip, and we actually filled it. It turned out to be 252 pounds, and they paid out 70¢ per pound. a bit lower than the average going rate, but these were not “clean”; a lot of the cans had been outdoors for some time before we had to put the bags into the basement to keep the critters from getting at them, so they had literal dirt on them.

That got me just over $175 in cash. Not too bad!

I also remembered to ask for a new magnet keychain to replace the one that was stolen, I think by a raccoon. They had a whole basket full of them available to give out!

My SIL had suggested we go for lunch afterwards, and this allowed me to treat her, for a change!

I don’t know a lot of what’s available in this town, so when my sister suggested Chinese food, I was quite happy to try a place I’d never been to before. We had a lovely meal and a great time catching up with each other.

As we were finished, my SIL mentioned she wanted to go to the town north of us after we were done. I asked if she wanted company and went along, with just a side trip to the post office for something my husband was expecting.

The extra drive meant almost a lot more driving time to chat in. I really enjoy spending time with my SIL. She’s awesome.

The place she wanted to go to was the livestock supply store. She’d never been there before, but that’s one of the places I’d been getting 40 pound bags of cat food from, plus this place has all sorts of other farm supplies to ogle. I was able to give her directions to the store, which is actually away from the town itself. Since we were there anyhow, I picked up a couple of bags of cat food, as well as a very plain, inexpensive, folding knife. Something better than the utility knife I’ve been carrying around when doing yard stuff, with no fancy saw edges or do-dads. Just a plain knife. They had one left in bright orange, and I grabbed that. This way, if I drop it in the grass or dirt, it’ll be easy to see!

My SIL, meanwhile, picked up some stall liners. Something to put under the stairs to their caravan, or other places where they don’t want the grass to be taking over.

I have to admit, when I saw them being loaded into the truck, I started wanting one for our kitchen! These are designed to withstand cow hooves. The cats would not be able to scratch this up! They’re actually too big to fit on our kitchen floor, though, but gosh, that would be so nice. Pricey for what would essentially be considered a floor mat, but worth every penny.

That done, my SIL wanted to check out the hardware store. We both got a couple of little things, but mostly she wanted to look at their display sheds. They had quite a variety of designs on display, from basic wide open spaces, to ones with front porches, pretty windows and lofts.

Some of the price tags on these, though… there’s a reason I want to build a garden shed using the cordwood wall technique! The mortar needed for that, plus using wood from dead spruces we already have, would be a lot cheaper, even with having to buy roofing material.

With all the driving and checking things out, it was late enough that the girls took care of feeding the outside cats before I got home. We’re now good on dry cat food for both the inside and outside cats for probably the rest of the month, which was a nice bonus.

My brother has since made it out and they will be here for the weekend. Much of the focus is still going to be on cleaning up and hauling things away.

Which brings me to something the family is going to need to figure out.

My brother is going to retire in a couple of years. The deal is, he pays for the property tax and insurance, we pay the utilities and keep the place up – something that is getting harder for us to do with all of us being broken, one way or another. Something I hope will improve within the next 6 months or so, as my daughters and I each get the surgeries we need.

Once he retires, they won’t be able to keep up paying the expenses for this place. The money brought in by renting most of it out doesn’t even cover the cost of taxes.

We need to figure out what our options are, and we have only two years to do it in. Meanwhile, my husband’s disability income through is employer ends at age 65. That’s only 7 years away. It’s not like we can take over the property. With both our daughters having health issues, their options are limited, too.

We don’t have a lot of time to figure this out.

The Re-Farmer