I never want to move again

Clean up: firepit area, gate and fence line start

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This evening, I decided to be methodical about clearing the west yard trees, and get right into the fence line.

It was a lot more work than I expected!

This is what it looked like when I left it last time.

I didn’t get photos from this angle today, but if you look behind the dead trees I cut down, that’s the area I focused on.

I had not really intended to start on the fence line on this side yet, but the mess was starting to get to me.

I am using the row of elm trees as my guide line for clearing the fence.  Anything between where those trees are and the fence line will be taken out.  This will leave a walkable path to access the fence.

I started at the gate post and made a discovery.

20180806.cleanup.firepitarea.gateposts

There’s two of them.

From what I can figure out, as the older gate post started to become unstable, a second post as added, and new and old were tied together with a loop of barbed wire.

It was most likely a temporary fix that ended up a permanent one.

The problem is…

Both posts are rotten and broken at the bottom.

The hedge that had grown into the fence was pretty much the only thing holding it up.

I don’t really want to replace this fence.  I’d rather take it out completely.  I am wanting to install new fencing that will include both driveways, instead.  So for now, this old fence will remain for as long as it holds up.

As I worked down the line, I also discovered that there’s not just two gate posts, but two fences!  Somewhere along the way, the old barbed wire fence got a mesh wire fence added with it.  Then other cable type wire was also added, along the bottom.  You can see part of it at the bottom of one of the gate posts, above.

This made clearing away the lilacs more challenging, because it was woven through both the barbed and mesh wire.  For many of them, I had to cut them at least twice, so I could get the pieces out of the fence.

A surprising amount of the lilac was already dead.  Most of the living lilac is on the other side of the fence.  Which I will leave for now.  It’s keeping the fence from falling over.

In the end, it took me almost two hours to clear barely 8 feet of fence line!

20180806.cleanup.firepitarea.fenceline.start

I’m also clearing in between and around the lilac and caragana that is in line with the row of elm trees.  That included taking down a dead lilac that was a thick as a tree!

I’m going to have to change up when I work in the yard.  We’re getting heat wave weather warnings for the next week.  I like to do the work in the afternoon or evening, but the hottest part of the day tends to be around 5pm.  It’s almost 9pm as I write this, and we’re still at 25C, with a “feels like 29C”.  I’m going to have to start working on this stuff in the morning, instead, when it’s cooler, because by afternoon, it’s supposed to reach 29C, and feel like 34C, but be only 18C in the morning.

I am not a morning person. :-D

Well, if I’m driving my daughter to her shifts that start at 8 or 9am anyway, it will work out for me to do yard work when I get back in the morning, instead of after I pick her up at 4 or 5pm.

She has a road test booked in September.  She’ll be able to drive herself to work, if we don’t need the van for something else.

It is becoming increasingly clear we are going to need a second vehicle for the girls.  That and our utter dependency on having a vehicle makes me extra paranoid about having only one.  It’s not like there are any buses we could use instead, or anything is close enough to walk to!  We went about a month not driving our van until we had the money to replace the fuel pump, to avoid causing more damage (which our mechanic really appreciated), and that was enough for us!

At least we’ve finally reached a point where we are caught up.  As of this month, we have no expenses left related to our move.  Yay!  It only took us 9 months. :-/  Starting next month, we can start diverting money to a contingency fund to pay for things like getting the trees cleared from the power lines and roof in the fall, or towards getting a second bathroom installed.  Or unexpected emergencies, like the van breaking down!

The problem is, there are SO many things that need work around the house and yard, it will be hard to prioritize.  We had hoped to get the second bathroom installed this summer.  It’s high on the priority list, but clearing the trees became the higher priority since… well… we’d really like to NOT have our roof damaged or have branches knock out our power lines.

Little by little, it’ll get done.

The Re-Farmer

Are You Kidding Me?

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Finally sitting down to my first cup of tea today.

That’s right.  It’s been one of those days where I haven’t even had tea until evening.  ;-)

Green tea with chamomile and honey.

I’m definitely going to need me some chamomile!!

Okay.  This morning, I headed out to the post office, remembering that they close at noon on Wednesdays.  The postmaster was there, so I started off letting her know I had an odd question to ask her.

Did she know me?

She kind of hesitated, with a “not really… I mean, I remember you, but I remember your daughters, more.”

Which was fine.  She could confirm my identity.  She remembered me well enough to remember what house we lived in before leaving the province, how many kids I had, and so on.

I was rather impressed, really.  I barely remember any adults from when I was the age she was at when we left the province!

Anyhow.  I explained why I asked and what I was hoping she could do.  She didn’t have to know me well.  She just had to know me.  After looking over the form, she confirmed that she could sign it for me.  I filled out my part (it specifically states that it has to be filled out in front of the person confirming my identity), then she did the rest, while I regaled her with the problems I’ve been having with updating my ID.  I thanked her profusely.  I could finally go and do my driver’s license!  The first step in a series of steps.

I went home first, to take care of some things, like calling my auto insurance company that I got a letter from, saying my file was “incomplete.”  Talking to the guy on the phone, he explained that my coverage was coming up for renewal and, with my new address, they wanted to confirm it should be renewed.  I explained the situation to him.

Apparently, quite a few people are having the same problem.

As it stands now, my auto-renewal kicks in after March 30.  It would be really good if I can get this straightened out before then.  Not because I’ll lose my insurance, but that if I have to cancel soon after, I will be charged a cancellation fee.  If I cancel before March 30, there will be no fee.

Nice of them to consider that.

Meanwhile, he attached notes to my file about my transfer being delayed and why.

That done, I headed into the next town with all my paperwork to get started on updating my driver’s license.

There was a different woman at the counter this time, so I explained from the start why I was there, and what I had to confirm my identity.

Well, it turns out it didn’t matter.

They still need my marriage certificate.

She even phoned the main office to confirm.  She even gave them my name and information, and they found me in their system from when I last had a license in this province, back in 2004.

Yes, they have me on record with my hyphenated name.

However, because it’s been so long, they have to start over (if I’d moved back within 2 years, it wouldn’t have been an issue).

A marriage certificate is the ONLY document they will accept to do that.

Ugh.

After getting home, I started going through a bin I hadn’t finished unpacking yet that had papers in it, hoping that it might be in there, but nope.  Nothing.

There’s really no point in trying to find it.  I’ll have to phone Vital Statistics and get a new copy.

Who knows how long that will take?

I had even asked her if I should drop half my name and go back to using just my birth name but, as I expected, it would still be the same problem, since my current ID is all in my married name.

I just can’t get over what a pain this is.

At least it’ll be easier for my husband and daughters!

The Re-Farmer

Un. Be. Lievable.

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Wow.

Just.

Wow.

Today, I finally was able to go into town to begin transferring my driver’s license, and our van, to our new province.

I’ve done this before.  Several times.  I even went back to the same company I’d dealt with before, when we were last living in the area.

Thirteen + years, and the place looks exactly the same! :-D

The van will have to wait.  I was kinda expecting that, since one of the requirements to transfer the registration is a provincial license, so I have to do that, first.  I also confirmed that it is now required to have the vehicle safetied, first.  We’ve had a lot of work done on the van before coming out here, but I know there are still little things that would prevent it from passing safety, but I don’t know what this province requires anymore.  So I will have to talk nice to my cousin again. :-/

I needed several pieces of ID for the driver’s license.

Birth certificate?  Check.

Medical card? Not in yet.  So I would need mail, such as a bank statement or utility bill, with our new address on it.

Utility bill with our address on it.  Half check.  Our electric bill has our box number on it, but not our “street” number (the driveway marker number).  Our service address, which is basically the coordinates for the location of the main quarter section of the farm, was not enough.

Bank letter.  Just across the street is the bank I’ve had an account at for several decades.  After we moved, I didn’t bother closing the account, because they said it could only be done in person.  Kinda hard to do when living in another province, and when we did come to visit, it just wasn’t a priority.  However, as modern technology and online banking improved, it became irrelevant.  So I walked across the street and asked for something I could give the public insurance company to open an account for me.  It’s good I did, because changing my info online apparently didn’t take.  They still had our out of province address in there.  So that got updated (the electric bill came in handy again, confirming our postal address) and a letter was printed off, signed and stamped for me.

Back across the street I went, and we continued.

Bank letter identifying my physical address. Check.

Then a glitch happened.

By the time we were done, I had three people trying to help me out, giving me different options and providing me with a form I might need.

The problem?

My married name does not match the name on my birth certificate.

Seriously.

A birth certificate is supposed to have my BIRTH information on it.  That’s whole point of it.  It’s as if they now expect women who change their name after marriage to apply for a new birth certificate with the name change.  Which is ridiculous.

They agreed.

At one point, I turned to my younger daughter who had come with me and told her, “don’t change your name!”

To which one of the women helping enthusiastically concurred.

I didn’t even completely change my name.  I hyphenated (now people can spell my name wrong in TWO languages! :-D ).  So my birth name is still part of my married name.  But because the birth certificate doesn’t match the name I use everywhere else, they knew that if they proceeded with opening the account, they would get a letter back about it; and if it took too long to fix, the partially set up account would just get cancelled.

Now, if I also had my marriage certificate, they could have included that, but I don’t.  I mean, I have it.  I just haven’t seen it in 25 years.  It’s in one of those boxes that got dragged around, move after move.  After move.  After move.  For 14 of my 18 moves, to be exact.

So my choices are;

  1. find my marriage certificate
  2. contact vital statistics and have them send me a copy of my marriage certificate
  3. get someone to fill out a form, vouching for my identity.  It has to be someone who’s known me for at least 2 yrs, and among a long list of acceptable persons, including MLAs, MPs, judges, police officers, Chiefs, a lawyer and…

… a postmaster.

Now, the postmaster would be an easy one.  This is the town I grew up in, after all, and while the original owner of the store that was also the postmaster died some years ago, it’s still in the family, and the person who runs it now has known me for decades.

Except.

She’s not the post master.  I believe it’s her daughter who is.

Now, her daughter also knew me, but considering she wouldn’t have seen me since probably 2004, she may be too young to actually remember me.

It doesn’t have to be someone in this province, but getting someone from another province to do it would take weeks.

Which means I can’t transfer my driver’s license until all this gets straightened out.

At least it will be better for my husband and daughters; especially once our medical cards come in.  My daughters will still need to get a letter from a bank.  One will only need to update her banking information, since she’s not bothering to close her own account to open a new one, locally.  My older daughter, however, had an account with a credit union, and they don’t have a branch out here.  So she’ll have to open a new account locally.

For which she will need some kind of ID with our current address on it.

Un. Be. Lievable.

The ladies at the company were very apologetic, even though they had no control over the situation.  They certainly understood what a problem it is.

At one point, I commented that I have NEVER had this problem before.  Ever.  When did this start? I asked.  Basically since 9/11, I was told.

*sigh*

We were living in this province when 9/11 happened.  We’ve moved 3 times in between then and our current move, including our initial move out of this province.   It still has never been an issue until now.

Meanwhile, we’re supposed to have all this done within 3 months of moving.

That’s not going to happen.

The Re-Farmer

Old and New

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One of the areas I had on my list to tackle today was my desk.

Yes, the desk I’ve been using for a while now.

I’d emptied the drawers and packed away the contents that used to belong to my dad, but that was as far as it got.  Today, I was going to clean them out, so that I could start unpacking some things into them.

Oh, dear. Continue reading →

Estimate In

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I received the estimate, last night, for replacing our power pole and hooking electricity back up to the garage.

The total, including taxes, is $1500.25

Which is actually lower than my brother had expected. He thought the labour, alone, would cost about $1500.

It also includes delivery of the pole.  My SIL, who works for the electric company, had looked into getting it done through a contact she had.  It would have been a bit cheaper, except they would have had to pick the pole up and deliver it themselves (even if our van was repaired, we don’t have a trailer hitch, so we couldn’t do it ourselves).  And to do that, they would have had to go to a town about half an hour north of us.  So it would have been about two hours drive for them, just to get it.  Then they’d have had to load it up themselves, haul it here, unload it, then drive the 1 1/2 hours back home.

Paying to have it delivered is the much better choice!

Once I had the estimate, I responded to the movers.  With the cost being above their deductible, it means I will be dealing with their insurance company.  Which I hope will be more professional than the moving company.

I also sent an email to my lawyer, updating him.  If all goes well, that will be then end of that, with him.

My email to the movers also asked about the status of the $400 they said they’d pay me for our damaged belongings.

We shall see how that works out.

The Re-Farmer

Some updates

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So, in between unpacking and rearranging, cooking with sourdough, feeding the critters outside and taking pictures of our deer visitor, other things have been going on.

First update: I did get an email back about our claim to the moving company.

Actually, I got two.

Continue reading →

One a Day

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Okay.  New Year’s is done and while Christmas isn’t over for a few more days, we won’t be able to do anything for Three Kings Day this year, so I have no excuses.

Holiday is over.  Time to get back to work unpacking.

We are at that point where the essentials are unpacked, so we can get away with not unpacking more and still be able to function, despite the chaos.  So it’s really easy to get distracted with the many other things that crop up.  We are also not taking more things to the shed for storage right now, because of the cold.  It’s not far from the house, but loading and unloading the vehicle in these temperatures can lead to frostbite.  So it will wait.

My goal now is to unpack at least one box a day.

This is not as small a goal as it seems.

In order to unpack a box, that requires a place to unpack its contents into.

To give an example.

My FIL is very generous and, when he got himself a Keurig and began ordering pods online regularly, he would order extra for us as a gift.  We were getting cases of Keurig varieties every month.  This was faster than we actually consumed them, so they quickly added up until we thanked him but let him know we were good for a long while.

When we started packing up the room they were in, I even found about 6 unopened boxes that had been set aside, then covered by something else and forgotten.

I filled a size large box of unopened boxes of pods, plus another medium box mostly full of opened ones, plus my daughters had more opened boxes on the third floor.

We ended up setting the Keurig machine up in the living room, near my crochet corner.  The shelf it’s on has a bunch of open boxes of pods for immediate use stuffed inside, but there was no where near enough room for all the opened boxes, never mind the unopened ones.

I decided that I would store the rest of the boxes in one of the bottom shelves of our large divider shelf between the living and dining rooms.

In order to do that, we had to move the things that were in front of it.  This included 4 extra chairs, used when we have enough company to extend the table.  My sweet daughters checked out all of the dining chairs that were here and picked out the 4 most stable ones for daily use, then hauled the remaining 4 into the basement.  A couple of them are heavy oak, and the design of these chairs is cumbersome, so this was not an easy job.

Then I had to find temporary places for the other stuff in front of the shelves, move the litter box out of the corner (we still haven’t figured out a permanent spot for that), clean the space the litter box was in, and only then could I finally access and open the shelves I was after.

I completely filled the shelves, and still had to find a way to jam a bit more into the shelf I’ve got the Keurig machine sitting on.

I’m going to set up a separate garbage can, just for the pods.  When it’s full, I’ll empty the contents into the compost bucket, then keep the cleaned pods for starting seeds.  Considering how many pods we’ve got, I’ll likely have plenty to do crafts with, too.

What?  Did you think we were just going to throw them all in the garbage?  ;-)

End result: I got a size large box, plus half a size medium box, unpacked, meeting my goal of the day, and in the process, cleared out another space that needed to be worked on.

Which is how it’s going to be for the next while, with pretty much every box that is left to be unpacked.

I look forward to when it’s warm enough to move more furniture and boxes to the shed.  There are still several areas I haven’t even looked at, yet.   Like the dresser tucked into a nook between the bathroom and Old Kitchen doors.  I have no idea what’s in it, but on top of it there appears to be a memorial of some kind, for a woman who’s name and face I don’t recognize at all.

Every now and then, I look at it all and it’s so disheartening.  It’s going to take months.  But if I just do that one box a day, it will much more manageable.

And to think I used to like moving.

The Re-farmer