Morning in the garden, and then off the rails!

May 10, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

It’s just past 5:30pm as I write this, and it’s all I can do to keep my eyes open. I am SO tired! Please forgive any odd sentence structure or typos, because I’m sure I’m going to miss many when I got over things before hitting publish!

The cats had me up at about 5am this morning. I got up and fed them – the morning feeding includes kicking all the cats out of my bedroom except Butterscotch and Freya. After the dry kibble is dispensed, I pour some cat milk into a small bowl for our elederly Freya (Butterscotch gets the rest of the little carton), and then I sit beside her on my bed, holding the bowl for her while she eats until she is done. This saves her from having to jump down from the bed to eat, and she can stay all curled up in whatever cat bed she’s in.

Yeah. I’m a suck for the cats.

After a while, I let the other cats back in, then tried going to bed for a couple more hours. I swear, the cats know exactly when I fall asleep for real, and that’s when they start getting into things they shouldn’t, and start making loud noises. Or just going crazy. Tissue got the zoomies this morning. So what sleep I did manage to get was highly interrupted. I can’t even keep the door closed, because then they start scratching at it and that keeps waking me up.

The temperature had dropped to 2C/36F at 5am. By about 8am, it had warmed up to a whole 8C/46F. Which was about when I started heading out. First, the kitties got fed, and I got a daughter to help out. Not with the feeding, though. With kitten catching! Kale and Sir Robin the Brave are incredibly fast about getting into the old kitchen, and haven’t learned to stay away from moving feet, or closing doors! After luring the adult cats away with kibble, I closed the inner door into the sun room and my daughter started handing me bowls of wet cat food to set out for the littles, plus one with both wet and dry cat food for Poirot at her cat carrier nest. Another bowl with part kibble and part wet cat food went into the cat house for Caramel and her babies.

Then I continued my rounds, leaving the sun room closed up, even though all three mamas were out. The white and grey mama has been seen nursing the creche babies more often, now that her third baby is in the sun room again.

Poirot’s grublings are getting more mobile, so I set up a a bit of a shield for them.

I’ve been saving cardboard for the garden in the old kitchen, and there just happened to be a couple of pieces of cardboard that was used as spacers inside a box that were just perfect for this. In the second picture, you can see how they’re set up to cover the gap between the shelf and the wall, and cat carrier and the wall. This should be enough of they accidentally squirm out of the carrier. As they get more mobile, we might just move the carrier to the floor, so they can go in and out as they wish.

Once done with tending the colony, the first thing I do it switch out the memory cards. As I go out to the sign cam, past where the food forest is being built up. That corner gets very sun baked and dry in the summer, but these guys don’t seem to mind at all!

They are absolutely everywhere. It’s impossible to not walk on them, but they don’t seem the least bit bothered by that. I don’t know what they are, but if I had to guess, I’d say they are some type of pansy? Whatever they are, they are pretty indestructible!

The next thing was to check on the garden beds. Especially the one where I just planted peas, yesterday. I thought they were fine until I got to the northernmost end, where I saw the cats had been digging. *sigh* Hopefully, they didn’t actually dig up any seeds, but I really couldn’t tell. I was trying to figure out some way to cover things when I remembered I still have grass clippings saved to use as mulch. There isn’t a lot left, but enough to do the job!

The soil got a gentle watering, first. After the grass was laid down, that got watered down, too. Partly so it wouldn’t blow away too easily.

The plastic covered beds all got watered, too. With the sprouting seedlings, it’s hard to tell which are what I planted and which are weeks. Some that I suspected to be weeds were starting to show their true leaves, and I was correct: they are maple seedlings. So I pulled as many of those as I could, along with identifiable stuff like dandelions – so long as pulling them wouldn’t disturb any other sprouts.

The low raised bed that no longer has plastic on it got watered. I’d tried blocking off one end of the cover and hoped that would be enough protection until I could do the other end. This morning, I discovered, I was wrong.

*sigh*

After repairing the digging damage as best I could, I got creative. This is all temporary.

In the first picture, you can see I just stuck some boards across the opening. The stick holding them in place is secured at the top through the mesh, so those could only go so high, so I used what I could find to add verticals on the inside. Hopefully, the cats won’t try to jump through the gaps.

In the next picture, you can see the twine I wove through the mesh to close up the end. Again, temporary, but this should hold for a while.

After the watering and weeding was done, I headed inside for breakfast, before going back out and continuing what I hoped to get finished today.

It was almost exactly 10am and I just sat down with my food when the phone rang.

It was my mother.

No one showed up to do her med assist this morning.

I should have gotten a call, but I got nothing. My mother had tried calling the case coordinator, but it’s Saturday; her office is closed.

So I told her, I would quickly finish eating, then head out to give her her medications. She wanted me to dispense her other two meds for the day, too, in case her med assist didn’t show up for those times, either, but I refused. Got quite a mocking for following the rules. So what will you do? she asked me. Come out two more times?

I said, yes! I will!

I told her, there’s a reason your medications are in your lock box. You were messing with your medications, forgetting if you took them, etc. Oh, I wasn’t that bad, she said. Yes, you were, Mom. That’s why you have a lock box! She actually seemed to stop and think about that!

One of the things I did was write up a note and leave it in their notebook, stating that I had dispensed that morning’s medications and at what time.

I also told her that, since I was out anyhow, I would make a trip to the nearest Walmart to do a bit of shopping. I had planned to do it later in the weeks, but I could do it now. The Walmart carries 2L plastic milk jugs, which she finds easier to handle, so I told her I was thinking of getting a plastic jug for her. I did just get her a carton, but…

She does still have milk, but it turns out she had dropped the carton while trying to open it and spilled some. So more milk, in a better container, was a big yes from her!

I ended up leaving with a small shopping list and some cash. One of the things she was running low of was the topical pain killer she’s been using on her knees. She’s now using it on her back, too, so she’s going through it faster. I had already been thinking of checking that out, too, as I figured it would be a better price.

Since it was well past 11am by the time I was going to head out, I offered to make a lunch for her, but she said she had leftovers from yesterday’s Meals on Wheels, so she was fine. Once I knew she was settled, I headed out.

My first stop was actually a Dollarama that shares a parking lot with the Walmart. There were a few small things that I wanted to pick up and, of course, I went through the garden supply section. I ended up picking up four 4′ metal posts. Not T posts, but the same idea. They have hooks in the metal to hold trellis netting. They would have been perfect for what I was doing yesterday – and easier to set into the soil! We will be trellising pole beans and more peas, though, so new posts will not go amiss. I probably should have gotten more, but I should be able to get some more next month, if I need to.

After I was done at the Dollarama, it was across the parking lot to Walmart.

I got a few things that were not on my list. 😄

One thing that was on my list was more wet cat food. Since we are giving wet cat food to the kittens, we’re going through it faster. Normally, at Walmart, I pick up cases of 32. Looking at the new prices for the individual cans, though, I realized it would actually be cheaper to buy them loose, than by case lot! I ended up using some of their cardboard flats and got 48 cans of paté for the inside cats (paté works better when making cat soup) and 24 cans of chunks in gravy for the kittens.

They had sales on canned food for humans, too, and I got a flat of 24 cans of tomato soup for the pantry, too.

I also went through the garden centre. I picked up some replacement Yukon potatoes, since I’m sure the ones I’ve been chitting are no longer viable. Their herbs and vegetables were out, so I went hunting and found a few herbs. I got English Thyme, Golden thyme, two containers of oregano, lemon balm and basil. These will go into the tiny raised bed in the old kitchen garden, which has a cat proof cover already.

As for my mother’s list, the topical painkiller she uses was there – and cost $11 less than at her local pharmacy! That’s a huge difference!

The store was very busy, so it took a while for me to get everything I was looking for (and then some), and I was really tired and hungry by the end of it. I had some frozen stuff in my cart, so I stopped to get some take out that I could eat while driving, then headed out, making sure to update my family and let them know I was on my way to my mother’s, then home.

Which is when things went sideways.

Literally.

The last part of my route to my mother’s is a provincial trunk road, from one highway to another, that leads to my mother’s town. This is an east/west route.

The wind was coming from the south.

As I was driving towards an area of wide open fields, I saw the entire horizon was covered with what looked like black smoke. Once clear of some trees, I could see it swirling over the fields – but no flames.

It was dust.

Basically, the topsoil from the south side of the road was being blown to the north side of the road.

As I was being buffeted by the wind, driving through it.

Which is when I heard and felt something behind me and looked in my mirror just in time to see the cover over the box of our truck blow off, into the ditch and keep on going!

I pulled over, but by the time I did, there was no sign of the cover. I’m sure it was still being blown across that field for some time!

I had stuff in the box of the truck, and it was already getting scattered across the box. I gathered it all together and crammed it mostly into the back of the cab, making sure nothing went to the front that could get mixed up with my mother’s stuff.

I made sure that there was no way those metal posts would be able to slide and hit a window!

Once everything was put away, I continued to my mother’s place. Wow, what a difference in how the truck felt while driving! The wind swirling into the box of the truck was very noticeable.

When I was done at my mother’s, I was able to get for damage, which you can see in the second image in the slideshow above. There was enough flex on the box when the cover was torn off that it cracked the tail light cover.

But I didn’t get a chance to see that until later.

As soon as I entered her apartment, my mother, who was lying in bed, started saying, Oh, I’m so glad you’re here! I’m so glad to see you! while getting up to sit on the side of her bed.

I’m doing poorly, she tells me. Maybe I should go to the hospital. What do you think?

I certainly did not voice what I was actually thinking. My mother has cried wolf so many times, and uses having us take her to the hospital as a way of getting attention.

I asked her questions about what was going on. She was pretty vague about it; as if she expected me to already know. She told me she took one of the new pills (the T3s), but it didn’t seem to make a difference.

I told her, these pills aren’t magic. They are just stronger painkillers. As she kept on basically about what her expectations were (take pill: pain ends utterly and completely), I told her that her prescription for these is just a couple a day, morning and evening, as needed. I’m on the same pills, same dosage per tablet, and I can take up to 9 of them in total, per day. So it really depends on the individual.

She was pretty shocked that I could take so many per day, when she had a limit of two per day.

As I was putting things away, she lay back down in bed and suggested that maybe using the topical painkiller would help (confirming, finally, exactly what it was that was causing her problems this time). So that’s what we tried. She asked me to do, not only her hips (the pain is mostly just on one side), but her entire back as well. As I was doing that for her, she said to add lots, so I did it second time. As I was putting away the tube, she started saying she could feel a difference, already!

Hopefully, that will be enough.

My brother and I are planning to be there tomorrow for Mother’s Day, so we’ll be able to check on her more thoroughly, then.

Meanwhile, whenever I had a few moments, I kept my family and my siblings updated on things. I told my mother that I had frozen things in my vehicle and had to get them home, so I was soon back on the road. A daughter was sweet enough to have the gate open for me when I got in.

After everything was unloaded, and the new transplants and bags of seed potatoes secure in the portable greenhouse, it was time to feed the outside cats. I had another daughter on kitten duty, too! Other than doing a quick check to make sure none of the raised bed covers were blown away, I was more than happy to finally settle in at home.

So much for my garden and planting plans for the day! As I write this, we have continued to get warmer. It’s past 7pm now, and the temperature has risen to 24C/75F, though with the wind, it does feel a bit cooler. Not much, though! One of the local weather groups I follow on Facebook has been posting information and the coming heat way, with significant heat warnings to come.

We’re supposedly getting rain right now, though the current systems are skirting right past us. Later this evening, we’re supposed to be getting real rain. One of the things that the weather nerds that run the group noted is what appears to be pyrocumulous clouds forming in some areas! These are thunderstorm clouds that are created by heat; you might typically see them form over volcanoes, but can also form over forest fires, if the conditions are right. Scary stuff!

Tonight, the coolest temperatures are supposed to be at around 5 and 6am, at 14C/57F, and then start heating right up. The heat wave is supposed to hit us the hardest on Monday and Tuesday, but still be very hot on Wednesday and Thursday.

On Friday, the temperature is supposed to drop right down, with overnight lows of 0C/32F, and a mix of rain and snow. Saturday is supposed to be only slightly warmer.

Spring weather is so chaotic.

Well, if we can work around the hottest parts of the day, I should still be able to get at least some of those walnut seeds planted, get more areas prepped in the garden and, if all goes well, even do more direct sowing done. Chances are, though, that very little will get done until after the heat wave passes, and we’re back into cooler temperatures. At which point, we’ll be needing to protect some things from frost! For now, we’ve been able to leave our transplants in the portable greenhouse day and night, but we’ll have to bring them inside on those coldest nights.

As for me, it’s time to pain killer up and get to bed. If the cats are going to be waking me up at 5am anyhow, I may as well take advantage of it and get work done outside, before it gets too hot! I just have to work out what time I’ll be meeting up with my brother at my mother’s place tomorrow.

What a day today has turned out to be!

The Re-Farmer

Slight change in plans…

April 8, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I got a phone call from home care this morning.

No one was available to go my mother’s med assist this morning.

Hmmm…

I was already planning to go to town today, but not for a few more hours. Instead, I arranged with the girls to take are of feeding and watering the cats outside, while I quickly took my meds, got dressed, grabbed our empty water jugs (the main reason I was going to town today) and headed out to my mothers. Since I had three water jugs to take along, my older daughter came down to help me with the doors before feeding the outside cats. She wasn’t impressed that I got another call to cover a no-show (nothing was said about why, this time, and I didn’t ask). She asked if the med assists were being done by volunteers, or if my mother was paying for the service. I told her, it’s covered by our health care system, so they are being paid. My mother has a list of names for all the home care aids she can expect to see. there are ten names on that list. It does seem odd that, with so many aids just for the scheduled route my mother is on (there would be many others), there isn’t someone who can cover when one can’t do the scheduled rounds.

Ah, well. It is what it is. At least the weather is better!

I did remember to phone my mother, first, to let her know I was on the way!

When I got there, my mother was not at all impressed. She’s angry that I have to drive aaaaall that way (it’s about 20-25 minutes of driving time, so not that bad) to do her meds. At least she didn’t start yelling about how we need to get rid of the lock box because she can do her meds herself.

She did, however, get upset over how I was taking the meds out of the bubble pack, and where the lock box was sitting, and where I put the note pad…

She began telling me how the home care aids would pop the pills out of the bubble packs “in the air” (meaning, not over the table, but right into their hands), and pills would go flying all over. Which may have happened a couple of times but, as far as I know, this was before she went to the hospital. It’s why I brought over the tiny dish so the meds could be put into it and double checked.

There was a different reason I was having issues with the bubble pack, though. I was opening the last bubble in this particular pack – and discovered it had been taped shut. I mentioned the tape and my mother said one of the aids did it because she had opened up the wrong day’s bubble.

I got the pills into the little bowl, then checked on the printout inside the cover of the bubble pack to count how many there supposed to be for her morning medications.

One was missing.

A few days ago, while digging for the lab work requisition form, I found a loose pill on the bottom of the lock box.

Now we know where it came from.

When the next aid came to do the med assist saw the pill and my note, she got a tiny envelope for it, labelled it and put it back in the lock box, so I was able to open that up and include it with the rest of the pills Mom was to take this morning.

I then made out a detailed note about when my mother got her medications, what I found and what I did, including putting a new bubble pack into the lock box.

My mother also has an inhaler to take morning and night and I asked her about it, but she said she hasn’t really been taking it. It was a test to see if it would help any with her breathing issues, and it made no difference that she could tell. So we skipped that.

Since I was there anyhow, I did some other stuff for her. The aids are supposed to have extra time booked to help my mother with things like a meal assist (she usually has food ready before they arrive). Some they ask if she needs anything done. Some of them never do. For her morning visit, this includes emptying the bucket in her commode, but they’re also supposed to be available to help her get dressed if she needs it.

I stayed with her to visit for a bit longer, basically waiting until the pharmacy in town opened at 9am, so I could phone them. When my mother started to complain again about my coming out – she is convinced the aids are cancelling simply because they don’t want to do their jobs – I told her that my being able to come out, and having a reliable vehicle to do it, is a blessing. That seemed to take her aback a bit, and I think she liked the idea of thinking of it that way.

After saying my goodbyes to my mother, I spent some time in the truck to update my family and my siblings before calling the pharmacy. With the meds my husband takes, I wasn’t sure they’d even be ready so quickly; he’d called in his refills just yesterday. As we were talking, she asked my time frame, so I told her where I was (which gave her an idea of how long it would take) and why. We deal with this particular pharmacist often enough that she remembers our names and most of my husband’s medications. When I mentioned that there was no one to do my mother’s med assist this morning, she completely understood. They had been in the same situation with her own mother – they even had a lock box. She said they often had home care cancelling visits for them, too. Being in another town, they had their own home care office and staff, but the issue was exactly the same. Last minute cancellations that the family had to cover, frequently. It seems to be a pretty universal problem, and not just in our province.

As for my husband’s refills, they wouldn’t be able to have them ready today, so that’s still scheduled for delivery in a couple of days. Which is fine. I still needed to make the drive to town. I just wasn’t going to go to the pharmacy as well.

Once in town, I got the water jugs refilled. I have a “frequent buyer” list where, after getting 10 refills, I get one free, so one of my refills was free today.

While there, I picked up a couple of things for home, as well as things for our Easter basket. I think we have everything we want to put in it, this year, except for a small ham, which we might simply skip this year.

That done, it was just a quick stop for fuel before heading home. After unloading the truck to my daughter in the house, I left her to put things away while I parked the truck and closed up the gate. I had noticed the plastic on the cover over the raised bed in the old kitchen garden had some gabs fluttering in the wind, so I got the clear duct tape to secure it more.

Before finishing up and heading inside, I spotted Brussel with her babies and decided to give her a squeeze treat. She was really nervous today, though.

I found myself wondering if other cats had been bothering her and her babies – or maybe a skunk or a raccoon! In the two videos above, you can see how agitated she was.

Once I started giving her the squeeze treat, she was right in there – still agitated and somewhat aggressive, but very quick to start eating the treat! When I had to move my hand out so I could use my other hand to squeeze out what was left in the tube, she actually snarled at me and attacked my hand, trying to pull it back! I ended up squeezing the remaining paste onto my fingers (it didn’t start out on purpose!) and let her lick the treat off. She was okay with that, even as she continued to snarl at me.

It should be interesting to see if she has calmed down any, when I do the evening feeding.

I’m glad I was able to go into town for errands today, though. As I write this, we’ve reached our expected high of 6C/43F We’re actually supposed to stay above freezing overnight, but in the wee hours, we’re supposed to start getting a combination of rain and snow, which is supposed to continue through tomorrow. Tomorrow’s high is supposed to be only 2C/36F, but if the long range forecast is at all accurate, that’s going to be the coldest high we have from now on. We’re even expected to reach 15C/59F in a few days! Things are supposed to cool down again, and we’re even supposed to get more mixed rain and snow later in the month, but daytime highs are no longer expected to dip below freezing.

Not including wind chill. That’s a whole other animal!

I will continue to monitor the temperatures inside the greenhouse. While it gets colder overnight, it still maintains at least some warmth. I might decide to try starting seeds inside there, rather than in the basement, when it’s time to start the next batch.

As it is now, I am expecting to start potting up the pre-germinated tomato seeds tomorrow. I could do some tonight, but I want to be able to do all of them at once. Maybe not all 4 varieties, but at least all the seeds in a couple of varieties, just because of space issues.

With how chilly it is in the basement, they should handle the cooler night time temperatures in the greenhouse fairly well! My younger daughter has made a point of working on things while in the basement, so that the heater can be left running. She’d been down there for a couple of hours when I joined her for a bit, and the thermometer was still at 12C/54F. Meanwhile, the thermometer in the greenhouse was reading 19C/66F!

With the combination of rain and snow we’re getting tomorrow, I’m not going to uncover the raised bed but, by the day after, it should be thawed enough that we can take the mulch off the winter sown seeds.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what manages to germinate.

The Re-Farmer

They’re open!

April 4, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

While doing my morning rounds, I found that Brussel had left her babies and gone outside. This gave me a chance to take a peak at them before she returned, and I gave her her wet cat food treat.

The babies are a lot more mobile now, and their eyes are now open!

You can see the calico’s eyes in the first image, and the black and white kitten can be seen blinking in the video at the end.

I went to my mother’s today and was gone long enough that it was time to feed them again when I got home. I started that before even going inside, and asked my daughter to bring a jug of warm water for them. I was coming back into the sun room when she warned me about the stinky kitty!

She says this little guy had been hiding under that shelf all day!

This is the little one I’m not sure what to make of. He seems… lost, somehow. He’s quite a bit smaller than the couple of others that I’ve been seeing. He and the cats don’t seem to mind each other. I’ve sort of given up trying to chase him out, since he just goes under that shelf instead of out the door. The others will leave the sun room when I go to chase them out, sometimes even just by telling them to leave through the intercom on the critter cam, but not this little guy.

That crunching noise they make when they eat the kibble is very distinctive!

Anyhow…

Today has turned out to be a lovely day. Which was appreciated since my mother had to actually go with me for some of her errands. I’d made a point of eating breakfast before I left, since I wasn’t planning to eat at her place with my current Lent restrictions. I have given up sugar, but my mother gives up meat on Fridays. She did ask me to pick up some wedges for her, forgetting that she got her Meals on Wheels today. They tend to have fish on Fridays in general; today, it was a tuna sandwich for the main protein portion. She had enjoyed most of her wedges before it got delivered, so she just ate the soup and saved the rest for later.

This time, I remembered to take her blood pressure, though I had to ask her where she’d put the machine. It should be left on the table, tucked away behind her telephone’s base, next to the lock box, but she decides it takes up too much space, and hides it. This time, it was in the linen closet.

As she was eating her wedges, I went into the lock box to get her lab requisition paperwork for this month. The printouts had ended up on the bottom of her lock box and I had to really did to get them out.

Which is why I found the pill.

One of her medications – a pill she takes once in the morning, and again, just before bed – was loose on the bottom of the box. I checked her bubble packs in there to see which medication it was. There is no way to know how long it’s been in there. Even before we got the lock box, the home care aids are supposed to empty the bubble pack capsule for the time of day into a tiny bowl with a lid I’d given my mother, specifically for this. When she first started getting med assists, there were a couple of times when a pill was almost lost, just on her table, and another was found on the floor when she was sleeping. That’s why I brought the tiny bowl. It’s a sauce bowl made to look like a miniature tagine, so it has a conical lid. I ended up putting the found pill into the bowl, along with a note for the next home care aid. The pill would need to be thrown out, but they need to know that this happened, even if we have no idea when. Their job is to make sure my mother takes her meds properly. For them to start losing pills and not even notice is a problem!

My mother had other things she needed help with today, and I was able to get some things done before we left for our first stop, the lab at the nearby hospital (that doesn’t really have any doctors!). I had my own requisition forms from my doctor, which I’d left in the truck, yesterday. Which was an oops. It turns out my blook work required fasting. I was able to get my EKG done, though.

From there, we went to her bank for some cash, then to the pharmacy to get her bubble packs. They were going to be delivered later in the day, but she wasn’t sure if there would be money owing on it or not. It turned out there was; the fiscal year for her pharmacare deductible has flipped. She had stayed in the truck, so when I came back to tell her house much it would be, she was surprised and said she’d never paid that much before. Which just means she doesn’t remember, since it would have been a year since she’s had to pay. I explained it a bit, as she thought that getting charged for her meds was some random thing. She would not have understood what a deductible is, but she did understand that she’d have charges every April.

Not that she’ll remember, next April! Hopefully, by then, she’ll be in the supportive living situation she wants to be in.

After that, my mother was ready to go home. Once I got her inside and settled in, I got a couple of loads of laundry started for her, then headed to the grocery store with her shopping list. It turned out to be timed perfectly. By the time I got back, her wash was ready to be loaded into the driers.

I had to make a few substitutions on her shopping list this time, and I always go through everything with her while I put things away. I even made sure to open the milk carton for her. Her local grocery store only carries the 2L cardboard cartons now, instead of the plastic jugs. They can be difficult to open at the best of times. The last time I opened one for her, I had to use a knife to separate the carboard! This time, it opened properly, but my mother still would have had a hard time with it.

While waiting for her laundry, I had time to do some more housekeeping stuff for her.

Which is when we talked about a gift bag that was set aside when I first arrived.

From our vandal.

It turns out he had come over this morning, not long before I got there. She had told him I was coming and he apparently completely lost it and started saying some really horrible things about me. My mother didn’t want to repeat what he said, but confirmed that it was “the usual”. She said she told him that his hate is why he’s so sick now. He won’t let her talk, though. If she tries to stand her ground and respond to what he says, he just leaves.

The bag turned out to have a small head of cabbage, a couple of onions, and a jar of soup wrapped in paper towel to insulate it.

My mother has told him repeatedly, not to bring her soup. She says the terrible things he says and does makes it taste bad.

There was also an envelope, with written instructions that what was inside was only for her to read.

Which, of course, is the last thing she should actually do.

I ended up opening the envelop for her, then handed it to her to do as she wanted. There were some copies of a photo of our vandal in there, clearly taken while he was at the hospital, though not in a hospital bed. Then she started trying to read the letter, out loud.

After a while of her struggling to read it, I offered to read it to her.

Once I saw it, I could see why she was struggling! It wasn’t just because English is not her first language, or her eye sight. It wasn’t even because his writing was messy; in fact, it was somewhat more legible than usual. Just looking at the shakiness of the writing, he clearly is having a hard time controlling the mobility of his hands. No, it was the content and some of the very strange spellings of things. He had some terrible things to say about me, of course. According to him, I’m to blame for his cancer – and his doctor and counsellor agree, 100%. He also claimed I told my mother the soup from him is poison. ???!!!??? Plus a few other things that had us wondering where his mind is at, because they were complete inventions.

We talked about him for a while. Thankfully, my mother was able to handle the contents of the letter better than in the past, and she didn’t try to defend or make excuses for him.

Then I put everything back in the envelope, set it aside, and we moved on to other things.

All in all, even with the issue of our vandal, it turned out to be a really good visit. My mother was in good spirits, even if she was clearly really struggling to move around her apartment. The visit went well, the laundry and housework got done, and my mother is now well stocked with groceries and her medications.

Just before I left, my mother checked the time and realized that I was there for five hours! We got lots taken care of in that time.

It actually felt like I wasn’t gone that long, because it was still so bright out by the time I headed home. I am just loving these longer days!

It’s going to be extra nice once the snow is gone, and we can start getting work done in the garden!

Which I sort of started this morning.

Which I will share about in my next post!

The Re-Farmer

Some beautiful babies, and a visit with the doctor

April 3, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

First, the cuteness!

I got this photo of Brussel, earlier.

I wasn’t able to push the cat cave back into the cube, and it didn’t take long for Brussel to knock it over onto its side. When it was being used by the inside cats, they were constantly knocking it over, too.

Gosh, Brussel is a beauty!

My daughter and I had our appointments with the doctor today. When we got back, it was well past when the outside cats would normally have gotten their second feeding of the day, so they were all over the place – including Brussel. Once the kibble was out, I took advantage of the opportunity to fix the cat cave. I was able to taker her babies out and set them on one of the cat beds on the platform above.

What an adorable pair!

Also, they didn’t hiss or spit at me, or act afraid, while I handled them this time. We need to be really careful about handling them, as it risks Brussel moving them somewhere else if she doesn’t like it, but they do need to get used to human contact if we want any hope of socializing them.

I was able to get the cat cave pushed into the cube in the cage, then used a broom handle to push it in even further, and settle it onto the blanket on the bottom of that cube. Hopefully, it won’t get pulled out of the cube again, and the walls of the cut will keep it from tipping over.

Once that was done, I went to park the truck in the garage and, by the time I got back, Brussel was in the cave with her babies, and I was able to give her her wet cat food treat. If nothing else, the extra food we give her might be enough to keep her from moving her babies. I’ve found the mamas tend to move their litters several times before they get too big – sometimes to the empty farm buildings across the road from us, and we really don’t want her dragging her babies through the garden, across a rather busy gravel road, ditches on either side, and around a pond on the other property, before crossing the farm yard to reach one of the buildings they can get into!

We do what we can to keep them close, but with the ferals, there’s just no real way to do anything about it. Even Butterscotch, before we finally got her spayed and indoors, would move her kittens across the road, and she was a socialized cat!

We shall see how it works out.

In other things…

My daughter and I had our appointments one after the other – having the same doctor is very convenient! – in the afternoon, but we left a fair bit earlier. We stopped at the feed store in my mother’s town to pick up a couple of 40 pound bags of kibble (we’ll need at least 2 more, but I’m hoping to get them at the feed store to the north of us) for the outside cats. Another quick stop for drinks and some beef jerky for the road, and we continued on to the town the clinic is in. We got there in good time and hung out in the truck for a while, chatting, before going in. My daughter had her appointment first, and I was waiting in the examination room next to where she was by the time she was done and making a follow up appointment for next month. I could even hear her at the desk and made a point of checking my calendar to let her know what dates/times worked for me. My own appointment was for a physical, so I was booked for a longer time.

Last month, I had brought my medical files from the other clinic over, and was able to keep the hard copies after they were scanned. I finally remembered to go through them last night, and I certainly had some things to discuss with the doctor! I was quite perplexed by some of what I read in there.

For a number of appointments, there was a list of “no this” and “no that” for various symptoms. There was one in there that should not have been; every one of the lists included “no joint pain.”

????

I’ve been dealing with joint pain and osteoarthritis for 30 years – and the OA was never even mentioned in there! After one appointment I remember, it mentioned that I brought up about going on disability, but that it was not recommended. It did NOT mention why I thought I should go on disability – which was my joint pain! More specifically, I had so much pain in my hands at the time that I couldn’t even grip the door knob to my bedroom to open it. We actually switch to a lever style handle to accommodate me. That was on top of everything else, like needing to use hand rails and arm bars, just to take two steps, and using my husband’s bath chair to take a shower. I mentioned a few other things that should have been in there, but wasn’t, like my chronic cough, and the mystery pain in my side that, while getting better, has never really gone away.

While talking about the arthritis pain, I remembered to ask if the painkillers she prescribed to me were something you could get used to. She had doubled my dose (basically, so I could take the full dose twice a day, instead of once a day), but it was no longer really working. Especially at night. Lately, my hips have really been bothering my, making it much harder to sleep due to pain and constantly have to roll over. She double checked. The general answer was yes; our bodies can technically get used to any pain killer, but also yes for this specific painkiller.

I was already at the max dosage.

So that was going to need to be changed.

She asked me how I felt about getting hip replacements. I told her, I’ve never been referred to anyone about that, but I’m still pretty mobile, even with the pain, so it’s not really something I think I’m ready for.

Then she asked me about going on disability. As in, was this something I’d be interested in starting the process for.

That rather surprised me, and I asked if she thought I qualified and she said yes; with my OA, I most definitely did.

I found out later that she suggested it with my daughter, too.

So I’ll need to go online to find the paperwork to fill out – I did that years ago, but there would be changes in the forms since then. I also need to find out why my printer started to print things squeezed onto the page in landscape orientation, as if for a 2 page spread. I’ve gone through all the settings and can’t figure out how to fix it. Technically, we can still fill them out that way; it’s just that the print is really tiny!

Once we have the forms printed out, there’s parts we need to fill out, then parts for the doctor to fill out. We went through this with my husband, of course, so we already know they will probably be rejected automatically, and we’ll need to apply again, which will get accepted. I think that’s how they weed people out, since many won’t try again. Or they die, first.

While I was getting my physical exam, she was palpating the area in my side with the mystery pain. Which got rather painful!

It’s also no longer a mystery.

She explained that, since it was determined not to be related to any organs, it had to be the muscle (when I first noticed the pain, years ago, I at first thought I’d pulled a muscle). Not the obliques, though. I just had to look it up; the Latissimus Dorsi. They attach at the floater ribs and around to the spine. Which would be why I feel pain at the bottom of my ribs, and why I have a tendency to hunch to one side.

I told her, this is the first time any one has mentioned this to me in all these years. She told me, she wishes someone had, years ago! This pain goes back to somewhere around 2011-2012.

What I forgot to do was ask what I can do about it!

That’s okay. I’ll have a chance to ask her, next month.

It’s been ages since I’ve had my blood work done, so she wrote me up for that, along with an EKG. I got my regular prescription renewed, and the new painkillers to try. Since my daughter will be back next month, she said to double book with her again, and we’ll follow up on the test results, and on how the new painkillers are.

That done, I was going to do my blook work at the lab right there, but they had closed for the day by then. I’ll be going to my mother’s tomorrow, though, and will be taking her for her monthly blood work, so I can do mine – and the EKG – at the same time. My daughter had already called the pharmacy about her medications, including a new one, so I called ahead about mine. I told them where we were, so they knew they had more than half an hour before we’d get there, to have the medications ready for us.

So we made the drive in to pick those up, then run a couple of errands, since we were in town anyhow, before heading home.

I really hope those new pain killers work better. The last while has been particularly bad for hip pain.

I must say, I’m really happy with this doctor. More importantly, so is my daughter! It’s been so hard to get her to see a doctor – and to find a doctor that takes what she is there for, seriously. The last time she’d tried to see a doctor, it was for major upper back pain, and the doctor instead kept asking her about things like her periods – she quite obviously has PCOS, so that is legitimate, but it wasn’t why she was there! Now that we’ve found this doctor, she’s actually starting to be able to bring up various things she’s been ignoring for years, so it looks like we’ll be doing monthly appointment for quite a while. Which just happens to get me to finally see a doctor more often. I’m terrible for just not bothering. Especially after all those years of trying to find out why I have a chronic cough, or that pain in my side, and having test after test come back normal. After a while, the doctors start to look at you like you’re making things up, or that it’s all in your head.

So that is now done for this month.

Tomorrow, I’m off to my mothers to do her shopping for her, and get her to the lab for her blood work. She has an appointment already booked with her doctor in a couple of weeks, so we’ll be able to go over the results for that.

At some point, I have to get my husband to a lab for his blood work. He got a requisition in the mail, weeks ago, but between his pain levels, and both of us simply forgetting, it hasn’t been done yet!

He’s one that has pretty much given up when it comes to any sort of treatment or health care, even with his new doctor.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Well, that took a lot longer!

February 20, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Longer by a few hours!

My daughter and I planned to head out early for our appointments and errands. Before that happened, I’m happy to say the electric company showed up to replace the bulb in our yard light. It hasn’t been working right for quite a while. I’d submitted a repair request through their website, but the only way to do it was as a “report street light outage”. I never got a response, so I sent out another repair request about a week ago. This time, I included both versions of our physical address, neither of which exist on online maps, so I also included our section number. Which is what our electric bills use as our address already. Last time, the section number was the only address I’d given. I guess it worked, because today, they showed up!

The repair guys were just leaving when I headed out to warm up the truck, so I had a chance to talk to them. We now have an LED light, which should last longer, and should also be brighter. My daughter and I got home late enough today that it was actually on, confirming that it’s working again.

Yeah. It took that long before we got home!

We were on the road pretty early, which worked out well. Our first stop was at the clinic to get my medical files printed out so I could transfer them, but before that, I made sure to get the bloodwork requisition for my mother.

I spoke to the receptionist about my mother needing these every month, and that the doctor I’d talked to on the phone had said they could mail it.

Her eyes got a bit wide on that.

The frustrating thing is that they’re now allowed to fax the forms to the labs. I’d thought it was just some labs, but nope. None of the labs in our province are allowed to accept faxed forms.

It’s a government thing, it turns out. It basically comes down to them assuming everyone is able bodied and mobile, has access to transportation, and lives close to clinics and labs. If you’re someone like my mother, but don’t have family or friends who can help out, you’re SOL.

After confirming that my mother will be getting tested for the same thing every month, she came up with the idea of simply printing me more copies. I got 7 of them. My mother’s doctor likes to see her patients in person at least once every 6 months, and my mother hasn’t been in since last summer, so after my mother gets her first lab results in, I’ll see about getting her in to talk to the doctor about the results, follow up on various other things, and get her physical. Until then, the forms can stay in the lock box with her medications.

I was very happy that she could do that!

Then I got my own medical files printed out and paid for. After that, my daughter and headed out and parked near our new doctor’s clinic, where we could also walk over to a Subway for lunch. The plan was to have lunch, have our appointments, and hit the grocery store, without ever having to move the truck!

Which would have been very convenient. 😄

The first thing I noticed was a sign on the clinic doors stating that they were not taking any walk ins today. I hoped that would mean we would be seen on time.

We were not.

I dropped off my medical files while my daughter and I both checked in, roughly half an hour early for my daughter’s appointment, then we waited.

And waited.

Happily, my daughter through to bring her knitting along. She got quite a bit of progress on the cuff of the sock she’s working on!

By the time she was called in to an examination room, it was more than 40 minutes past her appointment time. Mine was supposed to be 15 minutes after hers, but I didn’t get called in for another 45 minutes – and my daughter wasn’t done her appointment yet!

While I was waiting, though, I remembered to ask about my medical files. I’d brought printouts, which would have been scanned into they system. What was going to happen to the paper copies?

It turns out they get put into a secure box for shredding.

I asked if I could get them back when they were done with them (I did just pay $35 for them!), only to find out they already were. The receptionist got the keys so she could get them our of the shredder bin for me! So I now have a physical copy of my files. It should be interesting to go through it all!

Once I got those, I kept waiting. Even after being called in, I was waiting long enough to get a message from my daughter telling me when she’d made her next appointment, in April.

My own appointment was pretty straightforward. I was following up on the new prescription pain killers. With the dose she gave me, I was to take one or two capsules, once a day. I told her, I’ve been taking 2 before bed, which have been helping get more pain free sleep, but it doesn’t help me any during the day. After confirming details on the medication, she updated my prescription. The dose per capsule has been doubled, so I can just take one instead of two, but I can also take them twice a day, if I feel the need.

That done, we talked about her now having my medical files, so my next appointment should be for a physical. Once we worked that out, when I left, I booked my next appointment on the same day as my daughter, so we can just make one trip again.

My daughter had gone ahead to the truck and sent me a message while I was updating my calendar. My husband had let her know that the pharmacy had called about her prescription, and wanted to know if she needed it filled right away. I told her to say yes, and that we could go straight there once I was done.

When I got to the truck, my daughter was talking to our pharmacy, so I quietly let her know I needed to talk to them, too. Once she was done arranging for her prescription to be done, she let them know I needed to talk to them, too.

I explained that my prescription had been modified, but they had not yet received the fax. I told them where we were driving in from to get my daughter’s prescription, which gave them an idea of how long we would be, and she said she would keep an eye out for the fax for my prescription.

Our plan to go the the grocery store we were parked next to went out the window, as we needed to get to the town our pharmacy is in before they closed. Part way there, my husband messaged my daughter to let us know the pharmacy had called him again, saying that my new prescription was received and being filled.

We got to the pharmacy in good time. We even had enough time for my daughter to pick up the melatonin the doctor recommended she start taking, and she reminded me to pick up some antihistamines. I don’t know what I’m allergic to, but I’ve been reacting to something almost every morning of late.

From there, we popped to a store across the street that had something my husband requested, and then we went to the grocery store for the stuff we intended to get after the doctor’s appointment. Mostly, food we could use to make meals with as little cooking and as few dirty dishes as possible, since Sunday will be the earliest my brother can come out to fix the septic pump – hopefully!

We’re going to be eating sandwiches a lot, over the next while!

From there, it was one last stop to get more gas in the tank, and we could finally head home, several hours later than we expected! As soon as we got home and the bags were brought in, I immediately left my daughter to put things away while I got a jug of warm water, then headed outside to feed the yard cats and top up their food bowls. It’s the latest they’ve been fed for quite a while. I usually make sure to feed them before it starts getting dark, as it gives them a chance to eat before and skunks or other critters show up.

From the smell of the sun room this morning, we did have a skunk visit last night!

While it made or a longer day than planned, I’m glad we were able to get everything done today, before things started to close. Tomorrow, I’m out again to help my mother with her shopping, and bring over those bloodwork requisition forms. If all goes well, on Saturday, we’ll be making a trip to the dump. Then, starting on Tuesday, things really start to get busy for us, first with taking the truck back to the garage to get some work done. Then we will have our stock up shopping and another medical appointment for my daughter.

Oh, she got another referral today. She remembered to bring up her ganglion. It has gotten so painful, she can hardly use her left hand. So she has been referred to a plastic surgeon to start the process for surgery. She was hoping to avoid it, but it’s gotten really bad. Hopefully, it won’t take very long to hear back. She’s been referred to an endocrinologist, at her last appointment. They are part of our medicare system, so I don’t expect to hear from them for a year or two. Plastic surgeons are private practices that also do medicare cases, so I would expect to hear from them much more quickly. It was certainly that way when I had my medically necessary reduction mammoplasty with a plastic surgeon.

We shall see how it works out.

All in all, though, I’d say it was a rather productive day! We don’t get a lot of those, this time of year. 😄

The Re-Farmer

Home

February 10, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

First, the cuteness!

Here we have David the Magnificent, formally known as F****d Up Dave, due to the eye problems he had that led to him being brought indoors. He is snuggling with Ghosty, curled up in his belly and using Mitsy. At least I think that’s Mitsy. Mitsy is using Clarence as a pillow.

Partially visible behind David is Tiny, The Beast, next to a small carboard box that is a favourite bed for many of the cats. Beside David’s head you can see part of Peanut Butter Cup.

What a bunch!

I didn’t get any pictures of the outside cats this morning. I headed out earlier than usual – it was just starting to get light – to tend to the outside cats and do my morning rounds. Once those were done, I messaged with my SIL, then headed out to my mother’s town to meet her. We were early enough that when we drove to the pharmacy, we had to wait a few minutes for the doors to open.

I was afraid I would be too early, but my mother’s updated bubble packs were ready and waiting. Once we saw the packs, we knew without a doubt that they would never fit into the lock box! Especially not 4 week’s worth.

From there, we head to the the hospital in the town nearer to our place. When we got there, we found my mother was all dressed and ready. We gathered up her stuff, including a lovely orchid and succulent pairing she got as a gift. My SIL took everything to her car and was going to move it closer to the doors, while I went to the nurse’s desk.

One of the staff came back to my mother’s room with me and we went over the paperwork. One page was ensuring that my mother’s stuff was accounted for, including that I’d already taken her old bubble packs, earlier. We went over her prescriptions list that was faxed to the pharmacy, with special attention to the new or changed medications. There were notes about my mother needing to have monthly follow ups with her doctor to monitor her kidney function, now that she’s back on water pills, and with the person in home care to keep in touch, in regards to supportive living.

This was all stuff for us to keep. Normally, it would go to my mother’s but she isn’t able to read or understand most of it. I took them home with me, and made sure to get photos of each page to send to my brother, just like I got a photo of the medication list in my mother’s bubble packs and sent it to him, after we picked them up. This way, we will all have at least digital copies of everything.

Once going over the paperwork was done, it was time to head out. We took it slow, and my mother had to stop to rest a few times. When we got to the lobby near the doors and gift shop, she stopped to rest longer in one of the comfortable arm chairs.

My mother says she is feeling a lot better now, which tells me she was feeling really bad the day she went into emergency! The last time I saw her, after doing some grocery shopping for her, she was not having as hard a time as she was, just today, after 2 weeks of hospital care!

She did have an easier time getting into the car than when I last drove her somewhere, while using my brother and SIL’s other car. She needed a stool to get in, that time. I’d brought it along today, just in case, but she was able to manage without it.

From there, it was straight to her apartment. The spot I usually park at, by a sidewalk to a door closer to her apartment, was blocked by a fire inspection vehicle, so we had to stop at the loading zone near the main doors. I had found a notification under her door during one of the times I checked on her place, about the annual fire and safety inspection. The date range was from the 6th and the 10th, but I had no way of knowing if they’d done her building yet. Seeing the truck, it seemed we got my mother home, just in time to miss it!

I went with my mother into the building while my SIL moved the car out of the loading zone, so she could bring everything in after parking. Some of my mother’s neighbours were in the common room, and they were quite happy to see my mother coming home. My mother also got introduced to the new building manager. After confirming which apartment was hers, he said they had just finished doing the inspection there. I don’t think she quite heard him, though, which is good, because she would have gotten quite angry. She is still convinced the exterminator guy stole a jar of change and dug through her boxes of papers to steal 80 year old passports. She now thinks anyone that goes into her apartment – whether it’s the exterminator, or safety inspectors, or any other official entrance – is there to go through her stuff and steal things.

After a brief conversation, we continued to her apartment, and my SIL caught up to us soon after.

Once my mother was settled comfortably into her chair, we went through some stuff with her. She wondered what the lock box was and we explained it, but my SIL took it with her. They should be able to return it. The new, larger one will arrive in a couple of days. So my mother’s medications will not be locked up until then. They’ve been left in the pharmacy bag and my mother is under strict instructions to leave them, and only home care can touch them.

Oh! I almost forgot.

While I was walking around the yard, doing my rounds this morning, I got a phone call. (It seems my “new” phone is much, much better and getting phone signals than my old phone!)

It was home care, letting me know that they did not have someone available for my mother’s morning medical assist today.

…

I said, that’s good, because she’s still in the hospital.

I did confirm that she would be getting her usual visits for her evening and before bed pills.

While it worked out today, I’m rather displeased. This was her first day back on home care visits, and they were already calling me about not having anyone to do a it! Her morning assist now included getting dressed and emptying her commode, too, not just her med assist.

This is a real potential problem. I live the closest, but it still takes me about a half hour to get to my mother’s, if I am able to leave right away. If we have a situation like a few weeks back, where all home care is cancelled because of a storm, it would be too dangerous for me to do the drive. Since my mother’s medications will now have to be in a lock box, she can’t even take them herself (which she shouldn’t be, due to her habit of messing with her prescriptions). It’s not like we live in the same town and I’m just blocks away!

My SIL and I were talking about this while waiting for the pharmacy to open, and agree that this could become a real issue. They’ve called me quite a few times since she’s been on med assist, letting me know that no one could make it.

We’ll do the best we can to manage things, but it’s just one more thing to stress how badly we need to get my mother into supportive living!

I went through the cupboards and fridge to show her what what my brother and SIL had picked up for her, and where they were. She asked about Meals on Wheels, as they would normally come on Mondays. I told her they would not be coming today, as I didn’t know what time we’d be getting her home, so I would be calling them later to get it started for Wednesday.

My mother told us she hadn’t had her lunch yet (which we knew, since discharge time is an hour before lunches are served at the hospital), and we assured her, we would take care of that.

Once we got everything worked out and organized, my SIL gathered up the lock box and I went out with her to her car, transferring stuff to my own vehicle that I would be taking home, before we said our good byes.

That done, I went back inside and made a lunch for my mother. Once that was ready and she was starting to eat, I said my good byes and headed home. I had lots of phone calls to make!

The home care coordinator is now aware of the situation with the lock box. I’d already called her this morning to give them the combination. The new one will have the same combination.

I had to call the clinic at the hospital near my mother’s place. She was wanting to change doctors to the local clinic, and seemed to think that the nurse practitioner that saw her was now her primary caregiver.

He isn’t.

In fact, while talking to the receptionist, she told me there’s even a note saying that he can’t see her as a patient, because she already has a family doctor.

The one my mother doesn’t want to see, because she’s female, black and has a strong accent.

So I had to call the clinic in the town that’s about half way between my mother’s town and the city. I explained things to the receptionist there a bit, and suggested a telephone appointment with my mother’s doctor might be more efficient. She agreed. I now have a phone appointment for this Friday. Her doctor should have all the files, notes and test results sent to her by now, but she wouldn’t have any reason to look at them, yet.

The receptionist I spoke to also does home care, privately, so when I mentioned my concerns about getting my mother to monthly appointments, and that I wasn’t happy she was sent home from the hospital, she totally understood. There are so few supportive living places, and they all have long waiting lists.

While I was at it, I asked about getting my own files transferred. I had the same doctor as my mother, as an interim doctor, after our regular doctor moved to another clinic. Now that the doctor my daughter is seeing has accepted me as a new patient, I have to get my files transferred.

I can show up at the clinic at any time they’re open, with $35 cash or check. They’ll print out my files, and I would deliver them to my new doctor’s clinic myself.

This province’s system is so antiquated.

Once I was done with that call, I called my new doctor’s clinic. I need to talk to her about my prescription pain killers. After explaining things to the receptionist, she was able to book me in right after my daughter’s appointment, next week. The appointments are in the afternoon, so if we leave early, we can go to my old clinic, get my files, then take them to the new clinic before our appointments.

After I was done all the phone calls, I updated my siblings, and then called my mother to update her. I had to explain about her doctor situation. She wasn’t happy. In her mind, the doctor that is at the clinic in the hospital next to her place should take her as a patient, just because she wants him to – even though she claims that “everyone” doesn’t like this doctor. They should get rid of that doctor and get a new one. She doesn’t understand that there’s only so many patients a doctor can take on, and that if they got rid of this one, a new doctor would just be taking on the other doctor’s patients, not taking in new ones. That clinic needs more doctors, and there just aren’t any. All the rural clinics need more doctors, but even among the doctors we have, few want to live and work in the boonies.

What I’m hoping is that, since my mother needs to have bloodwork done to monitor her kidney function every month, her doctor can send her a requisition and my mother can get it done in the lab, locally. She’d still need to make the trip to see the doctor in person, but hopefully not every month!

Hopefully, this won’t be for very long, and a space for supportive living will be found. We’ve already stressed with my mother to take any space that comes up, even if it’s in one of the towns she doesn’t want to live in. She just needs to get into the system as soon as possible. Once she’s in, it will be easier to get her transferred to where she would prefer – though where she would prefer is long term care, not supportive living!

It’s not very often they have someone who actually wants to be in a nursing home!

Well, it is what it is.

For now, my mother is home. We just need to go from there!

The Re-Farmer

Getting things ready

February 9, 2025 / Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Today, I wanted to make sure the morning rounds were done in good time. The outside kitties were happy to get their breakfast; I think I counted 30 this morning.

The down side was…

Slick is in heat.

Slick is the tabby in the above photo. Aka: Octomom. She had a litter of 8, a couple of years ago. Two of them, Soot Sprite and Tiny (The Beast), we have indoors, and the Cat Lady has The Wolfman. Slick is one of the more feral cats The white and grey in the photo is fixed; you can just make out where his collar is. He was just checking out what the fuss was! The black and white is Hypotenose. We could only get two males done at one trip, and Stinky – the grey and white – is one of the dudes we were able to get into a carrier that time.

*sigh*

This is so, so early for them to go into heat. I’d hope to be able to start trapping them before that would happen. We have no way to monitor a trap, so we have to wait until it’s warmer.

Crud.

Hopefully, next month, we’ll be able to bring more ladies in to the vet. The rescue has been able to help us with two at a time – we are not the only ones they are helping with spays and neuters, and donations are still slim.

Well, we do the best we can.

Once the morning rounds were done, I was able to heat out early to my mother’s apartment. The plan was to meet my brother and SIL there this afternoon, but I remembered that the pharmacy in her town opens at noon on Sundays. I hoped to be able to bring in my mother’s old bubble packs and, if all went well, bring her new ones home. If it was going to be today, I would expect them to need at least an hour to get it done.

So I timed things to I would arrive at my mother just before the pharmacy would open. I had her bubble pack that she brought with her to the hospital, plus there was an almost empty one in the home care folder. There should have been a partial one in her cupboard that she was supposed to set aside when one of her doses was changed. I was already supposed to take that to the pharmacy, so they could repack the ones that did not get changed.

I never found that one. I think she used it up, anyhow. I’m not sure the home care aids would have known they were supposed to go straight to the new refills. I did find another partial bubble pack with a supplement for her eyes that had to be packed separately until the pharmacy got an official prescription for it, so I grabbed that.

Then I noticed a weekly pill case and checked it out.

Oh, dear.

THIS is why my mother is on med assist.

And why her medications will be going into a lock box.

I think I know what happened – or at least part of what happened.

Some time ago, the pharmacy had to change suppliers for one of her medications. The pill was a slightly different shade of the same colour. My mother decided that meant the pharmacy had changed her prescription. She stopped taking it for a while before we found out. The same thing happened with the split pill. For the longest time, they would split a particular pill for her, but they were eventually able to get it in the exact dose she needed, so they no longer had to split a pill. My mother thought that meant she was getting a higher dose.

When we found out she was taking her pills out of her bubble packs and picking and choosing which ones to take, because she thought her prescriptions had been changed by the pharmacy, we were eventually able to get her on med assist. Given just how many pills are in these containers, though, I am now wondering just how far back these go, or if she is still doing it. She complains that the home care aids don’t come to her place at the right times (meaning, when she is up and having her meals), so she’s been taking them before they arrive. She’s also been telling them not to come in the evenings and just set her before bed pills aside for her to take when she is ready, because she “doesn’t want to bother them”.

Well, that’s not going to be an option anymore.

Well, I’m going to be busy for the next while

February 6, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

We had quite a bit of snow come down overnight, so when I headed out for my morning rounds, I did a fair bit of shoveling. Not everything, as I had stuff to get done inside before heading out, but I got the main paths done so that I could at least get to the electricity meter for a reading, the garage and the trail cams. Yes, even the sign came. The snow was getting too deep to just slog through.

Yesterday, I switched the old trail cam there for the spare solar camera. I think it should have enough light, but if not, we can always switch the old camera back again – with fresh batteries. The new cameras have solar charged batteries that are the default, while regular AAs are used only if the solar charged batteries get drained. If all goes well, we won’t need to change batteries again for a very long time.

As I write this, we’re past 5:30pm, and we’re at -13C/7F. I think we hit -11C/12F today, which is warmer than was forecast. The wind chill, however, is at -25C/-13F, and I think it was colder than that while I was outside this morning.

The outside cats seem to be handling it quite well. I think I counted 29 this morning.

After they had their breakfast, I counted 7 of them in the cat cage. They really enjoy going into there! They can only use one side of the second level, though, as the piece of insulation that was a floor on one side got knocked down, even though it had been zip tied into place. The wire frame on there has openings 2″ square, so they can’t walk on it without something there.

Once inside, one of the things I wanted to do before I left was upload the trail cam files. As I was doing that, I started getting messages from my brother. They were already on the way to the hospital to visit with my mother, before the meeting with the doctor.

As for the trail cam files, I found myself uploading over 200 files on the sign cam! Usually, a busy day has only about a dozen. I forgot and set it for one still, then 10 second video, to that doubled the number of files from what I needed on that camera.

The first thing I noticed and appreciated is the difference the wider angle lens made. The entire sign is in the image, not just part of it, and even part of the main road going past us was in frame. As for the files, I found myself looking at lots and lots of files of nothing. I think the sensor may have been triggered by the tips of spruce branches above. That’s all I could see that could have been triggering it. So the next time I’m out there, I’ll have to switch it to stills only, then see if I can either lower the camera a bit, or try and tilt it downwards somehow, so the branches won’t trigger the motion sensor.

If that’s what’s doing it.

While that was going on, the snow started again, so I left more than an hour earlier than I originally planned. Even if I had to drive slower, I would get more time to spend with my brother and SIL.

I most definitely had to drive slower.

I did stop at the post office first to pick up a couple of parcels. I messaged my brother before I left to let them know I was on the way. Visibility wasn’t very good, but I could see a snow plow in the distance, so I knew they were at least getting that done.

The road itself had a lot of packed snow on it, and a lot more blowing snow. I had to slow down even more for oncoming traffic, as visibility dropped to almost nothing from the snow kicked up behind the vehicles.

Still, I got there in good time, and we had a very nice visit with my mother while we waited for the meeting. There was only one time it got very strange with my mother, when she made a comment about my brother and SIL that was a total shock. It’s like she basically just invented something in her mind that she believed they did, but it was completely untrue. We never did figure out where it came from!

As for the meeting, it started late, as they gave my mother a chance to finish her lunch. We had the doctor that’s been treating my mother, plus two people from different areas within the home care department.

One of the things the doctor had brought up with my brother and SIL (I never saw him before today, so I never had a chance to talk to him) was concerns about my mother’s heart. We found this odd, as my mother has complained about her heart for many years, had been seeing a cardiologist until just after we moved out here. I was there for her last appointment with him and, while she did have an irregular heartbeat (as do I), he was not concerned and said her heart was really healthy. We eventually figured out the pains she thought were heart attacks were actually heartburn. She’d also been complaining about her breathing for years, too. Only recently did she say that things were feeling different, but she didn’t have the vocabulary to tell me how.

My brother asked the doctor about my mother’s heart, and he went into an explanation about what a fib is, which we knew, but that was okay. Different doctors have different ways of explaining things. He also brought up about the edema as being related. My mother doesn’t need a pacemaker, though – we made sure to ask before the appointment if she would be okay with one, if the doctor recommended it, and she’d said yes.

Then my brother asked about the results of the ultrasound they’d sent her to the city for. They tested the efficiency of her heart.

It was fine. Well withing acceptable ranges. In fact, her heart is working more efficiently than my SIL and my husbands, but a substantial percentage.

Oh, and as far as the doctor was concerned, my mother could go home today.

We disagreed.

We talked some more about my mother wanting to go into long term care, which she is not unhealthy enough for, or supportive living. This is where the home care people were the ones to talk to.

I brought up that we’d started this process some times ago. I mentioned she’d had an EKG and chest X-rays done as part of that process, and her heart and lungs were fine, just a few months ago. The doctor was surprised to hear that. We were surprised to find out that the the supportive living coordinator had found the paperwork to panel my mother was sitting on someone’s desk…

… since October.

We got the impression someone was going to get chewed over about that!

So they are going to push that process through. However, it could take months before there is an opening.

After much more discussion, we came up with a plan of action.

My mother will be discharged on Monday, which is when everything should be set up and ready for her.

Home care will still come three times a day, but the morning visit will be longer, to assist my mother with getting dressed.

The case coordinator is going to talk to the pharmacy about the changes in my mother’s medications, and get her file active again.

My mother’s medications will go into a lock box, which we have to provide. The home care aids will know the combination, as will my brother and I, but my mother will not. This will mean that, if no one is able to come to my mother’s for a med assist for some reason (which happens sometimes), I will have to go to my mother’s to give her her medications. In explaining to my mother about this, she did say, “sometimes, I forget things…” She definitely recognizes her own decreased cognitive abilities. Which is good; she’s not in any sort of denial about it.

My mother will also be getting a Lifeline to wear around her neck. If she starts to have trouble breathing again, or the swelling returns, she’s to get to a hospital right away. With this, she can just press a button and help will be on the way. Or, if she has a fall, it will automatically trigger a call for assistance.

All of this has to be done over the next few days. Then, on Monday, I will go to the hospital to take her home.

She is also supposed to go to the doctor for bloodwork once a month, to monitor her.

It’s not the best situation for her, but we have no other options right now. She doesn’t need to be in the hospital anymore, and they can’t take her straight to supportive living.

After the doctor and the home care people left, we went over everything with my mother again. She didn’t quite understand all of it. We had to tell her – again – that when an opening in supportive living comes up, to take it, even if it’s not where she wants to be. Once she’s in the system, she is going to have an easier time to get to where she actually wants to be, which is the long term care facility not far from the hospital she’s in. It may take months to get her into supportive living, but it could take years to get her into long term care.

That done, we said our goodbyes to my mother, then the three of us went out for our own lunch (breakfast, for me!) so we could talk things over. My brother is going to get the lock box for our mother’s medications. I’ll be taking her home on Monday. We had lots to talk about in general, though. We’re all really frustrated that she’s going home at all, but there’s nothing we can do about that. My mother is ready to leave the hospital, but she’s worried about being on her own. The Life Line will be a help, but even that might overwhelm her. My father had one before he went to the nursing home, but he kept tucking it under his undershirt to keep it from moving around, which rather defeats the purpose of it being able to trigger a call for help if he fell down! With my mother, I can see her simply taking it off when she goes to bed, or simply because she feels it’s in the way.

Ah, well. We’ll work it out!

After we parted ways, I made a stop at the grocery store. I remembered to bring our empty water jugs for refills, and my daughter sent funds for some extra groceries.

While I was away, my younger daughter finished shoveling the paths, and also shoveled the driveway! She didn’t do the turn around space in the yard (which is more than the driveway needed). Tomorrow, I’ll have to break out little Spewie and do the yard. I actually started to get stuck in the snow, trying to turn and back up to the house!

In other things, I now have a “new” cell phone. My husband upgraded, and now I have his old phone. Mine is a Galaxy S22, and his is an S23. (I forget what his new one is, but it’s also in the S series) The main thing for me is that, while I still can’t add a memory card for extra storage space, it has 500g. My current phone has only 124g. Since I tend to use it a lot for photos and videos, I would run out of space quickly.

My husband transferred my data to my “new” phone. Now I have to set it up the way I want it. I’m already having a hard time of it, as I can’t find where the apps are to add the ones I want to my screen.

Oh, I almost forgot.

Before going to the grocery store, I stopped at the garage to book the truck in. I kept forgetting to text or phone!

I booked an appointment to get the tire with the slow leak’s valve replaced. It wasn’t until I pulled into our driveway when I realized…

I booked for Monday.

I’m taking my mother home on Monday!

So I quickly texted him, and I’m now booked for Wednesday.

While I was talking to him, I brought up about the check engine light and the oil pressure gauge. He had been thinking about how best to address the situation, so he asked me when I needed to get an oil change done next. The truck’s onboard computer has me at 60% or so, so I could go for a while longer, but I want to get it done earlier, and was thinking of next month. He was glad to hear that, and told me what he had in mind, for what that’s done. The issue is that moisture has gotten into the system and is really hard to get rid of. So what he will do is flush the engine out after the old oil is removed, replace the sensor, since it would have moisture in it, too, and then put in the fresh oil. That should finally resolve the issue.

Which means that next week, I’ll be taking my mother home on Monday, getting the truck to the garage on Wednesday to take care of the tire with the slow leak,, then I’m taking Fluffy back to the vet on Thursday for a follow up appointment.

The week after that, my mother has her appointment at the eye clinic on Wednesday, and my daughter has a doctor’s appointment on Thursday.

The following week, the last week of the month, my daughter has an ultrasound in the middle of the week, and we will work our two stock up shopping trips after that.

Finally, on the first week of March, I’ve got the truck going back in for the engine flush and oil change. That, on it’s own, will cost about $350 before taxes.

Meanwhile, somewhere in there, I’ll be doing my mother’s shopping and errands once she is home. I expect to do some grocery shopping for her on the day I bring her home, but probably at least one more before the end of the month. We’ll be sure to start her Meals on Wheels up again, too.

I keep wanting to do as little driving as possible in the winter.

This month, I think I’m going to be doing the most longer-distance driving since we moved out here!

Of course, the gas prices have gone up again. In town, I saw $1.559 and $1.569 when just a few days ago, I saw prices at $1.449 and $1.459

*sigh*

Well, we do what we have to do.

What other choice do we have?

The Re-Farmer

Finally! Costco! This is what $777 looks like

February 4, 2025 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I did NOT want to go out today.

The temperature of -27C/-17F stayed for most of the morning. Only the wind chill fluctuated. The screen cap above was taken just before I headed outside, so it was still -35C/-31F at the time.

I did short rounds, but I also made sure to get the truck running and check it over. The one tire was still looking low, even though I’d topped it up not all that long ago. The gas station pump I used really sucked, though, so I wasn’t too surprised that it was. I fired up the compressor to top up all the tires. The truck was plugged in and started fine, but the compressor was not enjoying running in these cold temperatures!

Last night I got a call from the gentleman from my mother’s church that had been helping her out the day she went into the ER. He still had her walker. I don’t know where he got my number from, but I’m glad he did. My mother had told me his name, and my brother had tried looking it up in the church director, but couldn’t find him.

It turned out, that wasn’t his name.

My Mom couldn’t pronounce his French name, so she was using an English version!

Yesterday, I’d cleared the end of the driveway from the gate to the road, which is where it tends to drift. The main thing was to clear the old plow ridge that now had more snow drifted over it. Then I cleared in front of the garage. I kept telling myself not to push it, but I do enjoy shoveling a lot, and just kept going!

My daughters took care of all the evening stuff once I got in, because I was really stiffening up! I would have stayed home today to recover, but then we started getting weather warnings. We’re supposed to get snow all day tomorrow, and into the next day. It was either go to the city today, or I probably wouldn’t manage it for at least two days.

I did wait before heading out, as I had a package to pick up at the post office. I called the gentleman with my mother’s walker to let him know I could stop by today, then headed out.

Only to discover that the post office opened a half hour later today.

I was only 15 minutes early, but I wasn’t going to wait around.

So, off I went to get my mother’s walker. The gentleman lives in the building where the Meals on Wheels are prepared, as well as meals for residents.

Wow, did it smell good when I walked in!

I found his apartment and had a nice chat with him and his wife before heading out. There was someone with a hair net in the lobby as I was reaching the door, so I asked if she was one of the Meals on Wheels cooks. She said yes, so I made sure to tell her just how much my mother enjoyed their meals. It turned out she knew my mother, so I updated her a bit on how my mother is doing.

My next stop was my mother’s apartment. I found some mail under her door, and a notification from the public housing department, saying that there would be a fire and safety inspection coming up. I don’t think my mother will be back for that. Hopefully, she won’t be back at all, as she really wants to be in long term care, and I’d hope to at least get her into assisted living, if long term care can’t be managed.

I grabbed a few items for my mother. Her daily devotions book that she has read and re-read so many times, it’s held together with duct tape. I know she likes to have a candle while saying her prayers, and there was an LED candle in an adorable mini bird cage on her table, so I grabbed that. It took me a while, but I found her rosary, too.

Once I was sure everything was good, and her plant was watered, I headed to the town my mother is in. I did stop to get $40 of gas first, though. The price was $1.459 there and the last time I was in the other town, they were still at $1.499. I didn’t fill, though, as I planned to do that at Costco.

When I got to the hospital and my mother’s door with her walker, I found it closed completely, which is unusual. Just in case, I went to the nurse’s desk to make sure my mother hadn’t been moved to another room. She was not, so I headed back.

As I was walking down the hall, I saw a young man walking towards me that was looking very, very familiar. It was my nephew! I haven’t seen him in ages. He does live in this province, but about 2 hours away, and works nights, to it’s rather difficult to connect. We had a nice chat before we had to part ways.

When I got to my mother’s room again and knocked, there was no answer. I went in and found the bathroom door closed, so I set up the stuff I brought for her on her little table. She could hear someone was there, so I let her know it was me. When she came out, she was using the hospital walker, which is too tall for her. She was very happy to see her own walker, and immediately wanted to switch!

Then she saw what I’d brought for her and…

… started lecturing me on how she has too many things. She’s only there temporarily. She only prays the rosary when taking communion, and she’s going home in a few days.

What????

I asked about it, and she told me they were going to be sending her home on Thursday. We have a meeting with the doctor on Thursday, so she said they would probably send her home after that.

Which did not make sense to me at all.

I didn’t ask more about it, though, and we had ourselves a short visit. I explained to her that I had to go into the city next, because we’re expecting more snow tomorrow. It was a good visit, overall. My mother is looking better, but she says she doesn’t have much energy.

For someone that’s 93 years old, though, she is still a dynamo! People far younger than her have a hard time keeping up.

As I was leaving, I did stop at the nurse’s desk again and asked about her being sent home on Thursday. The receptionist looked at her files, and there was nothing about that. Just the meeting with the doctor. We have no idea why she thought otherwise, but she told me she would tell the nurse about it so she could let my mother know she will NOT be going home on Thursday.

From there, it was off to the city, which was about an hour’s drive. Once I got close to the Costco, I stopped at a mall to have lunch at the food court. I’d only had a banana for breakfast, so I was getting pretty hungry! I ended up going to an A&W for a single Mozza burger (it’s been so long since I’ve had one, I forgot I usually ask for a double), onion rings and a medium drink. That cost $17.43! I can’t remember exactly how many years it’s been (4, maybe 5, years), but the last time I ate at A&W and had the double Mozza meal, it was less under $12.

*sigh*

From there, it was off to the Costco, where I first filled the tank. Their prices were $1.379 While I’d already put in $40, which put me at 3/4 of a tank, I’d done enough driving that it cost $56.39 to fill the tank.

Even with the cheaper Costco gas, it cost me a total of $96.39 to fill my tank today!

Then it was time to grab a flat card and to the shopping.

This is what $777.06 looks like.

Some things, like the Monster energy drinks, my older daughter already sent me funds for. A few other things on their shopping list will be paid back later.

This is what I got today.

The top item is granulated garlic powder, which was at least a couple of dollars more expensive than the last time I bought it at Costco! The Goodhost Iced Tea is a better prices that most places, though still higher than it was a couple of years ago.

I got the Kirkland brand mayonnaise, as it’s cheaper than the Hellmans we used to get. The Basmati right is one of the best prices for the size of the bag. Coconut oil (an item from my daughter’s list) is also much cheaper at Costco than elsewhere.

The AA batteries were on sale, at least, though they have a pretty high eco fee on top!

The brown sugar (or, should I say, yellow sugar) is a really good price compared to elsewhere. The Irish Spring soap is a pack of 20 and will last us for months. My daughter buy their own fancier bar soap. My husband are fine with the cheap stuff, and these are the cheapest Costco has that I could see.

The salad kits are each 2 packs. Most places are almost that price for just one.

The tilapia fillets are for the girls. I’m glad I picked up meats when I found good sales earlier, because my budget wasn’t enough for more meats today.

The B100 vitamins are what my new doctor wants me on instead of just B12. The Magnesium, I take for restless legs, and I’d run out of those. I forgot to pick up more Zinc, though. I ran out of that, this morning.

For block cheese, I got mozzarella and old cheddar. I also got 2 panini packs for sandwiches. The 4 pack of Pronamel is the brand my daughters prefer. I got a big box of spaghetti, because it was the cheapest pasta. We normally get a variety pack, but not today. The 4 pack of frozen perogies have been steady in price for a while now, though they used to be under $10 for many years.

The stuff I left on the cart includes a flat of Coke Zero for my husband and I. There is also their bulk package of Ramen noodles. I picked up a 9 pack of canned beans; that price has actually gone down again! The oat milk is a 3 pack of 2L cartons for my lactose intolerant daughters. I forget how many cans are in the flat of Monster drinks, but that’s being split three ways. Then there are the puppy pads and toilet paper. Yes, I did get more cat food! Not as many dry kibble bags as I usually would have gotten; the donations are a huge help! While we do still have lots of donated canned cat food, they’re all the same flavour, so I got two variety pack cases of 48 to give them some variety. Last of all in the flat cart was 5 pounds of butter.

Next, we have a 1L carton of whipping cream, which costs more then $7 in other places. The sour cream is a 2 pack of 250ml. They don’t seem to carry the 500ml containers anymore. That and the cream cheese is a very good price compared to elsewhere.

I only got one 2pk of rye bread, a 10 pound bag of potatoes and a double flat of eggs. Normally, I would have gotten more rye bread, plus wraps, but I was pretty much at my budget limit for today, by this time.

So we have $777.06 for the Costco purchases. Add in the gas and my lunch, and my grand total for today was $890.88

Ouch.

And I didn’t even get everything on my list. Aside from not getting wraps at Costco today, other items will require trips to either a Walmart (where I have to go to correct being overcharged, last time) or an international food store.

I’m glad I got this done today, though, even though I really paid for it. On the way home, I stopped at the post office to pick up a parcel. In the hour the drive took, I discovered my entire body had stiffened up, and I was hobbling to get into the building. It got less painful once I limbered up, but it did hit me by surprise when I got out of the truck! I thought I’d been doing pretty good until then.

Once at home, my daughter and I unloaded and got things put away, just in time for a phone call I was expecting from my brother. I’d been keeping them up to date on things with my mother by message. They were on the way to see her, and I was able to give him more details over the phone. They wanted to get a visit in before the snow hit, too!

Looking at the forecast now, the show is supposed to reach us by 10pm tonight, now, and keep snowing until about midnight tomorrow. So the timing of it has sifted earlier by a few hours. Which I’m good with, since the day after tomorrow, I need to get to the hospital for that meeting with the doctor about my mother!

My brother and his wife will be driving home in the dark, but should be home well before the snow hits, and the highways were nice and clear today.

Why does all the medical stuff have to happen in the winter? It never seems to happen in the summer! 😄

In the end, it was a longer day with extra driving, but my mother has her walker, we got a visit in, and we got our Costco stock up shopping finally done.

Which makes it a very good day!

The Re-Farmer

Snow day

February 1, 2025 / Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

I’m so glad I don’t need to go anywhere.

As I write this, we’re at -9C/16F, but the wind chill is at -25C/-13F

Around the house, we are sheltered from the wind direction for a change, so we’re not getting quite that wind chill effect in our immediate area. Which I am happy for, since we have to keep the isolation shelter closed, and there was only two cats in it.

These two.

The (Fluffy) Lady, and The Grink.

I’d given them their wet cat food this morning, and Fluffy stayed well away from me. Even when I was about go go inside the house, saw her sharing the food bowl with The Grink and paused to get my phone out to take a picture, she saw me stop and moved away.

Clearly, she has not forgiven us for her trip to the vet! There’s no way I can check her incision, but at least we can tell how she’s feeling by her behaviour, at least somewhat.

The Grink, meanwhile, seems quite happy to stay right where he is! We see them cuddling together in the cat bed pretty regularly now.

I also managed to get a picture of this dude.

At least I think he’s a dude. My daughters tell me he is, but I haven’t been able to see, myself, with all that long fur. He does not allow us near him. I had to zoom in to get this photo. He looks so much like Fluffy! She doesn’t have any white fur, other than inside her ears, so we can at least use that to tell them apart. This fluffer is one of this past summer’s kittens, so there’s almost a year between them. Fluffy is pretty small for her age, though, so there isn’t a lot of size difference between them.

The snow in our area started last night. It started coming down pretty hard at one point, but mostly it was light and constant, so there’s a few inches accumulated already. We’ve got a break in the snow right now, but it’s supposed to start up again tonight and keep snowing until about noon, with only a couple of hours break at about 7am. From what I’m hearing and seeing on the highway conditions group, the roads were getting pretty snow covered. The road between us and town was pretty bad, which is typical when the winds are blowing this way. The east-west roads are almost always the worst.

Tomorrow afternoon, we’ll have to break out Spewie and do the driveway.

Needless to say, I did NOT head to town to see my mother. I did phone to ask how she was doing. I’d called shortly after shift change, though, so the nurse had only been there for 15 minutes. She knew my mother was doing well, and was feeling better, but that’s about it.

Then she asked if I wanted to talk to her on the phone. They could bring a phone to her room and she could transfer me over.

Yes, please!

It was good to be able to talk to her directly. Not that she could tell me much; she doesn’t understand much of what they are saying or doing in regards to her treatment, but she could tell me how she felt and we could just chat for a bit. My cousin had visited her today, so she was happy about that.

Little by little, I’ve been remembering different places to call that needed to know about my mother. Home care. Meals on Wheels. Today, I remembered to call her pharmacy. They would normally have delivered her bubble packs for the month, yesterday. Now that they know she is in the hospital, they can suspend her prescriptions until either we let them know she’s home, or a doctor calls to tell them her prescriptions are cancelled with the pharmacy, which they would do if she goes into long term care or assisted living.

I think that’s the last place that needs to know about my mother! Her church would already know, since the guy that took her to her appointment is from the church and has been bringing her communion since she hasn’t been physically up to going to church lately, and the church next to the hospital knows, as the priest has already come to give her communion since she was admitted.

It will probably be a couple of days before I can go and visit her again. While the roads might be clear earlier, it’ll take us some time to get our own driveway clear. In particular, I need to get the end of the driveway done. With what’s already there, once the plows go by, we probably would get stuck trying to get through the plow ridge. It’s going to start getting cold again, though. Today and tomorrow are going to be relatively warm, and then we’re getting highs of -19C/-2F, with overnight lows of -27C/-17F

I worry about the outside cats, but they know how to take care of themselves. The cats that used to hang out in the isolation shelter now hang out in the cat house and the sun room. Usually in big cuddle puddles.

We did get a big stinky kitty visit the sun room last night. I didn’t try to chase it out, after watching it on the camera for a while. The big heated water bowl that stopped working is set to the side, near where the heat lamp is. It’s full of ice, but on less frigid days, the heat lamp is enough for it to start to melt, and the cats seem to really like the melted ice water.

So goes the skunk, apparently. On the camera, I could see it sitting on top of the ice, doing something. It looked almost as if it were chewing on the ice, where a gap forms between the ice and the wall of the bowl. When I headed out this morning, I made sure to look. I could see a deeper spot in the ice, with smooth sides. The skunk had been licking the ice enough to create a hole!

By the middle of the month, I’m hoping we’ll have a new critter cam in the sun room. I’ve just ordered a small security type camera. It can be rotated 360° remotely, while the one in there now is stationary. The cats regularly knock it out of position. The main thing, though, is that it does not require a subscription to record and save files. We can add a micro SD card to record locally. As long as it can connect to our WiFi, that should be good. The last camera I tried simply would not connect to our WiFi, and we could never figure out why. If this one works out, I might try to get a lightbulb camera again, for the basement, to monitor the septic pump.

If I had the funds, I’d be like my brother with their old place. He had cameras everywhere! The buyers actually paid extra to keep his camera system. 😄 In the summer, I expect he will start adding more cameras around the property, since he moved his farm equipment here.

I have no problem with more cameras around!

But that will wait for when things are much warmer, and the snow is all gone.

It’s only February, but I am so done with winter already!

The Re-Farmer

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