We’ve had a steady rain, all day today. A perfect day to be indoors, with a hot cup of tea.
But nooo… That would be too easy!
Late in the morning, as the girls were heading upstairs, they discovered water.
The bathroom floor had water all around the toilet, and with our uneven flooring, it also flowed into the hallway and around the doorway into my office. Continue reading
We have had a house guest for the past week and a half, which made for some creative sleeping arrangements that involved our king size mattress on the dining room floor. We drove her to the airport in the wee hours of the morning, which meant we could clear it out again. We won’t be able to lean the mattress against the dining room wall, as we had before, though, as we will be having guests tomorrow, and need to get it out.
For now, it’s leaning against the wall in the hallway.
The inside cats are loving it there as much as they loved it in the dining room.
Especially our mama cat.
She was rolling around up there in pure ecstasy. It’s better than cat nip! She paused in her rolling just long enough to show off some toe beans. :-D
She’s so funny!
The Re-Farmer
With a house guest staying with us for the next while, we have been making use of the king size mattress that’s been leaning on the dining room wall since my husband got his hospital bed.
It’s now set up in a corner of the dining room (we can even still use the dining table! :-D ).
The cats have taken advantage of this new arrangement.
The first day it was there, they claimed it as their own. Though no longer quite as novel, after a couple of nights, they still take it over, every chance they get. :-D
The Re-Farmer
DahBoy likes it on top of the piano.
I love how he dangles his chin over things. And how his cheeks just sort of … puddle.
The Re-Farmer
That face…
I actually thought he was asleep when I saw him sprawled on his back like this. Then I saw the eye. Staring. At me.
The Re-Farmer
We have ourselves another scorcher today. I had hoped to mow the inner yard today, but I don’t want to risk the riding mower’s motor overheating in these temperatures. So it will wait. I was also thinking of doing the last bit of the clean up I had started doing around the storage house yesterday, stopping when it got just too hot to be working outside, but nope. Not gonna happen in this heat!
Despite the heat, both cats are very cuddly. DaBoy spends his nights upstairs, taking over the bottom of one of the girls’ beds. You’d think, with his fur coat, the last thing he’d want to do is be in the hottest part of the house, snuggling up to warm feet, but he does.
At least his mom is doing it in the coolest room in the house; the master bedroom.
She was using my ankle and foot as a pillow.
Being the suck that I am, I was “trapped” for some time by the adorable fur ball.
My husband has been having a very bad pain day today, so he asked me to go into town to pick up something to help.
It’s a good thing he did. Otherwise, we would not have known until we were heading out for his medical appointment tomorrow, that we were locked in.
My younger daughter came along with me, and when the girls are along for the ride, they typically go ahead to the gate to unlock and open it while I get the van and drive through, then they lock it up again. This time, I drive up to the gate, and she’s still struggling with the gate.
The lock is a combination lock; the only thing we had handy at the time my mother asked us to start locking the gate. Of the 4 tumblers, three weren’t turning.
We tried using tools. We tried oiling it. Nothing. Those tumblers would not move.
Thankfully, we have another driveway, and that gate has a key lock on it.
This other driveway is not normally used. I’ve mowed a path to it, because we still need to rebuild the barbed wire gate and just haven’t gotten around to it. Right now, the lock and chain are the only thing keeping it upright and closed. It’s a rough drive to the gate, the the driveway itself is overgrown. I knew the path to the gate was clear, because I’d just mowed it, but we double checked the driveway itself to make sure there was nothing that would blow a tire on us or something. It was good.
So when we got to town, our first stop was at a hardware store. I picked up a new key lock, plus heavier duty bolt cutters. It was funny as we went to pay for them. The cashier joked about using the bolt cutters to cut a lock, then replacing it with a new one. We told her that yes, that’s exactly what we were doing! Then we explained that our lock was a combination lock, and the tumblers weren’t turning. I added in, “Either the weather got to it, or someone tampered with it.”
Her response was, someone probably tampered with it. When I commented that we live in the middle of nowhere, she just nodded and said, yeah; that’s where it’s most likely. Then she told us about her brother, who has a trailer out in the sticks, and someone had broken into his locked gate and stole a quad.
An unfortunately reality of living in the sticks. You’d think it would be safer, but people know that chances of getting caught are much lower, and the police are at least half and hour away.
I couldn’t see any sign of tampering on our lock, but unfortunately, I can’t rule it out. For it to suddenly stop working like this, it actually seems more likely to be the cause than weather.
After getting the new lock and bolt cutters, we finished our errands, then did a bit of quick Pokemon Go. We paused to battle a gym at the beach, sitting outside at a picnic table as we played. Oh, what a lovely breeze off the water!
The temperatures were 28C, with the humidex putting it at 32C, but the lake it still quite cool, and it made for such a pleasant time outside.
We didn’t stay for long, though. Once at home, we cut the broken lock off and put on the new one. I’m going to have to cut copies of the key, so we all have one, plus an extra in the house. I’ve kept the old lock and will see if I can find a way to open it up and see why it stopped working.
We did stop at the post office on the way home, and found a nice little surprise. We got our reimbursement for our vehicle registration in our previous province. It was enough to cover the cost of the bolt cutters, at least. :-)
For now, we keep cool inside. Looking around in the basement, I found an oscillating fan that actually works, though it needs a major cleaning. That’s what I’ll be working on, next.
While having lunch with my brother and his wife on the weekend, I found out about something I had been wondering. In the old part basement, at the window that we used to throw wood through, is a platform. I had no idea why it was there. It turns out my brother built it to hold a fan. There is a screen to replace the window that’s there now, and the fan was used for air circulation to help keep the house cool. The basement doors would be left open to help cool the house down, but we can’t do that until we’ve cleaned up the new part basement so it’s safe if the cats get down there. We talked about getting a cheap screen door in the short term, to keep the cats out until we can do that. The door is a standard size, so we could actually do that. Something to keep in mind!
My brother described the fan he had on the platform, and none of us could remember seeing it, so I went looking around today. Which is why I found the oscillating fan.
No sign of the fan he’d built the platform for. Like so many other things, it has gone missing. Another thing that came up in conversation, since I’d mentioned my search for a pitchfork in the past, is that there had been about 6 or 8 pitchforks stored in the barn. There is no sign of them, now.
It’s a good thing we are living here now. Too many things disappeared while this place was empty. :-(
The Re-Farmer
I want to start by sharing some photos of the cats this morning. Because it’s a great way to start the day!
Like waking up to this…
Actually, I woke up to see her sitting there, staring at me. :-D The cats really appreciate the extra thickness of the window sill, thanks to the log walls in the original part of the house. They’d love to get up onto the other window, too, which is much, much bigger, but it’s the one that didn’t get replaced. Which means it still has sheets of plexiglass covering them on the inside, so there’s nowhere they can sit at. Which drives them bonkers, when the outside cats are in the trees outside the window, looking in. :-D
Speaking of outside cats…
With all the rain we’ve been having, I moved the food bowls under the little roof over the basement window. They actually seem to prefer when the kibble gets a bit wet; likely softer on their teeth. “A bit wet” is not what’s been happening, lately. Which is a good thing!
When I came out this morning, Squishum (not in the picture) was all talkative, squeaking away as if wanting attention, but still won’t let me come near. Nasty Crime Boy, Beep Beep and Butterscotch were content to ignore me to come to the food.
The Hand, on the other hand…
…would not go to the food while I was around! I took this through the screen door of the sun room, after bringing back the container I use to take food to the bowls. She would only peak her head around the corner of the shelf outside, watching to see what I would do. I was able to move my phone enough to get more than just her head, but she was not comfortable with me being there and slunk away to the clothes line platform to wait for me to leave.
I don’t want to prevent her from eating, so I left.
I so want to touch that cat! :-D
Instead, I got to touch the Butterscotch!
I even got a decent picture of her! She makes it very difficult. :-D
I wandered around the East side of the house and did a bit of weeding to free up some irises that are coming up. Looking into the spruce grove, I just had to get another picture.
Remember this?
That photo was taken on May 15. The leaves are barely coming out at this point.
This is what it looks like, today.
That broken piece of tree in the first picture is still there, in the left side of the photo. Completely hidden from where I was standing, and barely visible even at other angles.
That horseradish is coming up nicely, too.
In time, that underbrush will be cleared mostly away, and the dead tree will be cut down. Likely not this year, though. I think we will focus on cleaning up the maple grove, first. At least as much as we can, until we have a working chain saw.
My goal is to have both the maple and spruce groves open under the trees, park-like and mow-able. I would like us to, at the very least, be able to walk through the trees without having to skirt dead branches, dead trees and other detritus. Including my husband, with his walker. Maybe set up a picnic table or something in the shade, so we can enjoy the spaces more.
Little by little, we will get there.
Late this morning, my older daughter and I made the trip into the city for our monthly bulk shopping trip. Our usual routine is to stop at the town we drive though on the way, to fill the tank. The gas station we stop at is a co-op we have a membership with, which will translate into a check at the end of the year, so we make it a habit. When we got there, however, I got the nasty surprise of seeing the gas prices had gone up 10¢ per liter. !!! Our tank was lower than I normally let it go (we drove over 1800km since I filled it and reset the trip counter at the end of last month), so I kind of had to put something in. I ended up putting in $30, which didn’t even bring it to half a tank. While paying for it, I asked when the big jump happened. Turned out to be a mere 2 hours before we got there!
When we finished our Costco shopping, I filled the tank there. The price was 14¢ per litre less! Plus, since it’s Costco, that will also be included in the check we’ll get at the end of the year. Even at the lower price, and having already put in $30 of gas and bringing it to just below the half way mark, it still cost over $60 to fill the tank. That’s almost half our gas budget for the month, right there. Thankfully, our van does have good mileage.
The increases in gas prices are really going to be a problem. The politicians can talk about how we should be using alternative transportation all they want. Even in the city, that’s not always feasible. For anyone living in the country, what choice do we have? It’s not like there’s a bus we can hop on, and we certainly can’t bike to the city to do our monthly grocery shopping. Or even to the next town. Plus, most people have multiple vehicles, because they are work tools, not just transportation. Heaven help those who make the commute to the city! When we last lived out here, my husband had a 70 minute commute, one way. That’s highway driving, for the most part, so it wasn’t affected by traffic until the last 10 minutes or so. I know others who have longer commutes. Back then, it was a big deal when gas prices went higher than 60¢ a litre. Now we’re looking at $1.309 (there are about 4L in a gallon, for those of you in the US. That works out to about $5.24 per gallon), and other areas are even higher.
That’s going to make life more difficult for a lot of people. :-(
We got the monthly shopping done, at least. $600 later. :-/ My splurge of the month was new wiper blades for the van, to replace the ones being held together with electric tape. :-D Tomorrow, we go to the regular grocery store to get the things we don’t need to buy in bulk.
It feels good to have well stocked cupboards, fridge and freezer again!
The Re-Farmer
We had predictions for a series of thunderstorms throughout the day, starting at noon.
It didn’t quite work out that way. At least not in our area. The first rainfall (I won’t even call it a thunderstorm, though there was some thunder) didn’t start until late afternoon/early evening.
Which worked out well for us, since today was when one of my husband’s medical appointments was rescheduled to. We left early enough to have lunch in town. Ooooohhh… a date! His appointment was for an hour, though, so it did make things a lot longer than was probably good for him. Especially after pushing himself so much for the family dinner in the city on Sunday, which he would not have recovered from quite yet. The specialist he was seeing cut the appointment a bit short, which was a good thing. We still had to stop at the pharmacy, grocery store and post office on the way home, too. My husband stayed in the van, with the AC going, by that point. No sense in dragging the walker out for quick stops.
It’s been a hot and muggy day today; the main floor manages to stay pretty cool, but the upstairs gets really hot. Just like, in the winter, it got really cold! There isn’t even anything we could do about it. Even if we got, say, an air conditioner, there aren’t enough grounded outlets to plug it in.
When the rains did come, it swept through in short bursts, with one big downpour. We even lost our internet for a bit, which is something we can expect any time there’s more severe weather. At least until we can get about 14 feet cut from the tops of the trees in the south yard.
It’s pretty amazing, how different things are looking right now!
This was our west yard, a month ago.
This is what it looks like now.
So much green!
We needed this so much!
After taking the above photo, I had some issues coming back into the house.
Mom and son, with their noses at the bottom of the door, waiting for me to come back! :-D
The good thing is, when I open the door, they aren’t really all the interested in going outside. They just become a tripping hazard. ;-)
At about 10pm, we’re still at 21C, and its expected to cool down only a few degrees as we get more rain overnight. More thunderstorms are expected tomorrow evening.
I do wish I’d been able to mow the lawn before the rains returned.
Ah, well. At least the girls were able to get most of the eaves troughs cleaned.
My mother had mentioned to me that there was a hooked tool somewhere around that allowed for cleaning the eaves from ground level, though she said a hose was still needed to finish the cleaning. She told me where she thought it was, but the only things there are long handled pruning tools (that I look forward to making use of!). I mentioned it to my older brother and he knew exactly what she was talking about. He’d bought it for my parents! He said it was in the sun room.
So that’s what that thing was! I’d seen it, tucked into a corner, and was wondering.
Turns out that it’s a hose attachment. My brother had demonstrated to my parents how to use it, but he didn’t think they ever did. This was before my mom moved to the senior’s centre, so we’re talking quite a few years ago!
It came in very handy.
It couldn’t clean out the eaves troughs on its own, though. My younger daughter got up on the ladder with a stick to clear out some of the eaves troughs out, then got onto the new part roof through the 2nd floor window to clear the others, while my older daughter used the hose attachment to finish clearing everything away with water.
Thankfully, we do have some very long hose.
There’s still one corner on the north side of the house that needs to be done, but that will have to wait until we get another break in the weather.
With how much rain we’ve been having, I am sure the fire bans can finally be lifted, and I hope the fires around the province have been thoroughly rained on!
We’re basically getting the sort of weather we were expecting last month. Which I suppose makes sense, since the winter weather came in about a month behind, too.
As long as the shift keeps matching all year, it should work out for the farmers and gardeners.
The Re-Farmer
With the new hospital bed installed, we still need to figure out what to do with the king size mattress. The first thing I’ll need to do is get a king size mattress cover before we can store it anywhere. Until then, it’s in our dining room, leaning against a wall.
The cats are in heaven.
They just LOVE the height. The fact that it’s also soft is certainly being taken advantage of, too!
DaBoy is absolutely languid.
Mother and son; a matched set.
They are just too cute for words!
Meanwhile, I phoned the electric company, since someone had come in to check the lines while I was in the city, to find out what their assessment was. The woman I spoke to looked up the notes, and talked about how, if we hired an arborist to clear the line to the house, they would come out to shut off the power, and drop the line, if necessary. What about the lines to the other pole? I asked. There was nothing in the notes. I described our set up, and how the lines from the main pole in the outer yard run through trees in the inner yard to reach the pole in the garden, before continuing on across the road.
You can barely see the power lines just right of center at the top of this photo.
There was nothing in the notes about it. This might be on me; when I called, I was thinking of the line to the house. It wasn’t until after I arranged for the assessment that I walked around and noted the lines to the garden. The guy that came out may have only been told to check the line to the house, which is our responsibility. The house line runs below the lines that lead to the pole in the garden.
Just to be sure, she wrote us up for another service check to assess, and hopefully included her own notes about where it needs to be checked. I hope that, this time, I’ll be home to talk to the assessor when he arrives.
The Re-Farmer
