The girls and I headed out at 9 this morning. I even headed to the truck ahead of time to check the tires and secure my walker in the truck box. Everything was going as expected.
One of the things that I’ve been noticing on the truck is that the oil pressure has been slowly dropping over the past while. Still within normal levels, though, and I figured an oil change would address that. Yesterday, my husband had called the garage to book one for me, because I would remember while driving, then forget once I got home. In the last few days, however, it was starting to drop even while at highway speeds and, when stopped at traffic lights, the needle had started to drop just under the “normal” line. Again, not enough to be too concerned yet, but definitely something to look into.
Two things happened once we got on the highway.
The check engine light turned on, and the pressure gauge started to slowly drop while I was still at highway speeds. Still within “normal”, but it hasn’t dropped like that, while maintaining a speed, since we got the oil pressure sensor changed again.
My daughter messaged my husband for me to call the garage again (he’d left a message, yesterday) about the oil change appointment, and to mention the check engine light was now on. I’d texted them last night to ask them to do a general check on things during the oil change, because we were going to have a lot of medical appointments to drive to. So when my husband called, they were ready with an appointment time for me, tomorrow afternoon. They squeezed me in. Normally, it’s at least a few days before they can book me. Mind you, that was at their old location. They have more bays available in their new locations.
I was taking the highway into the city with no construction on it, rather than the one that went straight into the city almost directly to the hospital my daughter’s appointment was at. That meant we had a town to drive through, with gas stations and plenty of parking space. Since we’d left so early, I pulled over any my younger daughter checked the oil for me. Oil level was fine, but the engine was still hot, so it would not have been completely accurate, but with where my daughter could see the line (something I have a very hard time seeing), we didn’t see any need to add more oil.
My older daughter made the executive decision to cancel her appointment (which, to be honest, she’s been wanting to do for at least a couple of weeks now), and we headed home.
As soon as I parked the truck, I linked the OBDII scanner while my daughters headed inside to call and cancel the appointment. A couple of codes came up. This was one of them.
Top reported fix (the only reported fix, actually): replaced EVAP Canister Vent Solenoid Valve Assembly.
The other code was for the oil pressure sensor performance. That one listed 4 top reported fixes. Replacing the oil filter, which would have been done with an oil change, was the first. Second was replacing the oil pressure sensor, which has already been done, and is finally working. Next is to replace the engine valve lifter oil filter, followed by cleaning said filter.
It also doesn’t look like it’s going to be a very expensive fix, though I have only the link to Amazon parts to compare to. The price will likely be higher, locally.
On the plus side, after this fix, our mileage should improve. When we stopped at our usual gas station’s parking lot to check the oil, they were at $1.699, down 10¢ from yesterday. The other gas station, across the highway and just up the block, had gone UP 10¢ to $1.899 !!!! Yesterday, I’d pre-paid enough gas that the needle was just barely touching the full line, and we’re already down a quarter tank since then.
I screen capped the scanner’s readings and texted them to the garage once I got inside. My older daughter had called the hospital and left a message telling them we had vehicle troubles. My younger daughter remembered to call prescription refills to the pharmacy for delivery tomorrow. The doctor called back not long after. I had a chance to talk to her for a bit and said we’d turned around and come home because of the truck. She was understanding. She spoke to my daughter for a bit, and they will call back with a new appointment time later.
Ah, that reminds me. While we were out yesterday, my husband answered a call from the eye clinic. My 6 month eye tests are in the middle of next month, and they were needing to reschedule. That came in before I reached my own doctor’s appointment. Since I’m now expected to have my surgery in about 4 weeks, that actually works out, since I would probably have had to reschedule, anyhow! I want to book an appointment for my older daughter at the same time. It’s been years since she had her eyes tested, and she needs new glasses badly. Once she has them, she can finally take her written test for her driver’s license. She knows how to drive – we taught her how when we were living not for from here before, and she was just big enough to reach the pedals. Since moving out here, she just hasn’t been able to get it done. She doesn’t even have photo ID for this province.
Now that my younger daughter has her current medications, she wants to do her road test, but she needs to do 2 hours with an instructor, and get access to a loaner vehicle, since our truck wouldn’t be accepted for a road test. They don’t care that the light on the dash is just tire sensors needing replacement. We don’t know how much a road test and loaner vehicle will cost, but with all the extra bills we’ve been having, we don’t have anything “extra” to cover it anyhow, even with the girls helping out as they are able. Now there’s going to be another truck bill.
*sigh*
Well, it is what it is. We just need to deal with things as they come.
It would be nice to get a break, once it a while, though!!
Today was my doctor’s appointment to get my test results.
My daughter and I left very early, so we could pick up some parcels at the post office, as we knew it would be closed by the time we got back. I made sure to pick up another 40 pound bag of kibble for the outside cats, too.
I tried a route that I knew would avoid most of the road construction on our usual route. We still had to go through a couple of constructions zones, then an unexpected third zone as we crossed from one highway to the next. With how early we left, we were okay with the delays, though driving along an area where there was a knee deep drop where the shoulder used to be was a bit nerve wracking.
Our first stop in town was the Walmart, where my daughter and I had lunch at the McRaunchies, then we did some shopping. My husband had his own shopping list this time, too. We took our time about it, and I had my walker while my daughter took care of the shopping cart. She brought her new cane along, too. We were both starting to hurt by the end of it, though.
After we got what we needed and put them away in the truck (with plenty of ice packs we remembered to bring, for the frozen stuff), we still had lots of time, so we walked over to the dollar store across the parking lot. We got a few small things, but ended up cutting that a bit short because I was starting to hurt worse. I’d even taken my painkillers on schedule, before going into the dollar store.
With that done, we went to the clinic, where I even found an actual public parking lot we could use this time. We were there an hour early, but we were okay with that. Both of us really needed to sit for a while by then.
We ended up being called in late though, to be honest, it didn’t feel like we’d waited more than an hour at all.
The first thing we noticed in the room we were taken to was the sky light.
We both found that quite funny! It looks almost like a projection, but I’m guessing it’s a coating on the back of the light cover.
When the doctor came in, she was quite apologetic about being late.
She asked a few questions about what tests my regular doctor had done before, and we went through the time line again, and I mentioned again that I had been referred to a specialist in the city, but ended up seeing her first, after my first ER trip.
She then apologized and told me it was bad news. It’s endometrial cancer. Not what I was expecting, to be honest, but the “cure” is the same. A hysterectomy. The only thing is that she now has to refer me to the city, where they can do tests she can’t, to see what stage I’m at. I should get a call either Thursday or Friday, and I should have a time to go in for further testing in a couple of weeks. The surgery should be done in about a month. What happens beyond that depends on what the tests show.
Which is really fast. Unusually fast. I commented on how I wished it would be that fast for my older daughter, and she was actually quite concerned and asked specific questions. My daughter’s condition, however, is currently controlled with medication. Mine isn’t.
We talked about painkillers a bit since, even after taking mine about an hour and a half before my appointment time, my pain kept increasing to the point I was having difficulty sitting up straight. The T3s don’t seem to be doing well. I forgot completely to tell her what the Percocet was doing to me. I did mention that I sometimes took the Tramadol I had left and that seemed to be doing better, so she said she would send out a new prescription for me so I can get more, instead of the T3s.
The doctor apologized again for the bad news but really, it doesn’t bother me at all. She had mentioned there’s a possibility of chemo, if it turns out to be later stage (she doesn’t think so, based on what she saw) and I told her I would probably turn that down. That’s a case of the cure being worse than the disease, in my view.
As she was telling me about having to send me to the city and likely won’t be going back to her again, she said she was going to miss me and my sparkly hats. 😄 I was wearing a blue sequined one, this time. It is possible, depending on how things work out, that I might be able to go back to her. I told her, I would prefer that. Not that I have anything against the doctors in the city – I haven’t even seen them yet – but because I just like her. Plus, I don’t like going to the city. She started talking herself about how bad it’s been getting; not enough parking, expensive parking, road conditions getting worse, etc. I told her I used to live in pretty much the down town area some 30 years ago (it’s actually closer to 40, now that I think about it), and it has gotten so much worse over the years. Endless construction, and nothing gets fixed!
So we shall see how that works out. I’ll know, either way, within the next month.
That done, we headed out and my daughter started messaging the family to update them. Which is when I realized my daughter was looking really upset and trying not to cry. Maybe I’m weird, but that kind of surprised me. I don’t see anything to be upset about. It is what it is. Later on, I told her we need to come up with a name for it, though. We named the cyst I had removed years ago George, so that’s taken. My daughter suggested “B***” 🤣😂
Our next stop was the gas station, which was just up the block from the clinic. I’m glad we did it there. Gas prices were $1.649/L and my CAA card got me 3¢/L off. I had to pre-pay, so I put in $40 and that just barely filled the tank. On the drive home, everywhere else was $174.9 or $1799 !!! At my husband’s request (and his budget), we stopped at the Walmart again and got some McRaunchies to bring home for supper, then my daughter took over the driving. By that time, the pain was starting to recede – interestingly, having an energy drink actually seemed to help quite a lot! ??? When we got home, I was feeling well enough to get out and open the gate, then walk to the house without a walker or a cane.
Which seems to be the pattern. Hopefully, the Tramadol will make things different, but I seem to usually start out okay in the morning, slowly get worse through the afternoon, regardless of painkillers, then it fades on its own. Some days are worse, of course, but that’s become the general pattern.
I did manage to get some stuff done outside, after supper, though, and that did more to make me feel better – psychologically, at least – than anything else!
After a draining morning, I lay down after taking my pain killers to wait for it to pass.
It didn’t, but it at least got less severe.
Somewhere past 3:00, I headed back outside with my walker. I fed the outside cats, then say with the fishing rod toy to keep Sweetie busy so the littles had a chance to eat. We have storm warnings for tonight (as I started this, I could hear thunder in the distance!), so I took the bigger carrier we had set up for the kittens to explore and put it inside the catio, setting the door mostly closed. Then I headed to the garden.
One thing I noticed over the past while is that some of the winter squash on the chain link fence are producing more female flowers! I was even able to hand pollinate a few this morning.
Most of them are these Butterneck squash. There’s at least one that looks like it’s going to wither away, but the ones I got pictures of all look pretty darn good. I also spotted a new Black Futsu female flower that was open and hand pollinated it. Why I bother, I don’t know. It’s Sept. 6 today. There is basically no season left for them to mature! Still, I want to give them all the chance they can. It should be interesting to see how big they get before it gets too cold.
We will, however, have one winter squash this year, at least.
The outer shell of the Arikara squash is getting pretty hard. I should be able to cut it and set it to cure fairly soon. All the other squash that started on this plant have died off, almost as if it pruned itself.
The yellow bush beans around the Arikara squash are producing quite nicely, and I had plenty to pick from a relatively few number of plants. I also found a single red Manitoba tomato, hiding under some leaves that I picked. Then I went to the high raised bed and picked the bush beans there…
… after I picked the two Chocolate Stripes tomatoes that were ready.
In the above photo, all the beans to the left of the tomatoes are from the later planted beans by the Arikara squash. Everything to the right of the tomatoes are from the high raised bed. The yellow beans in that bed seem to have had a second life and are suddenly producing quite a lot, again. There’s only a couple of green bean plants, and they are not at all productive.
I didn’t keep this. I got a bowl for it all, then wheeled over to my brother and SIL’s caravan and offered it to them. They were quite happy to accept. After my SIL transferred them to their own container and brought back my bowl, we were able to stay outside and chat – I just sat on my walker rather than try to climb up into the caravan. They have stairs with a hand rail now, but they came outside rather than have me hobble my way in.
Unlike my mother, with her snarky comments about the little tomatoes I brought her, it was nice when my brother and SIL quite appreciated the beans and tomatoes I brought for them! They have been growing some things on their balcony, but no beans. My SIL is thinking that, next year, she’ll try to grow enough tomatoes to do some canning. This year, they have cucumbers and cucamelons that have done quite well!
We got all caught up with the birthday visit with my mother this morning. My brother hadn’t had a chance to go into detail with my SIL yet. My mother was so all over the place, it took both of us to describe things and figure out what she was saying. Part of the challenge is that her sense of time is completely gone. There was something she’d said that my brother thought had happened recently, but I’d caught her mentioned the town she used to live in, which means it could have happened several years ago. In some things, we had to mash together things, my sister had told me my mother had said to her, compared to what my mother had told me, compared to what my mother had told my brother, and work out what was actually intended. It’s like putting together a puzzle, but half the pieces are still missing, while pieces from another puzzle show up randomly, too.
Still, we do the best we can.
I can hear that the rain has started. My SIL was very happy to have gotten the mowing done!
It would be really awesome if the weather holds long enough for us to actually get more winter squash.
The kittens are definitely more comfortable around my daughter, and were willing to come over for cat soup while she was right there, and she was able to pet them. When she tried picking them up to put in the waiting carrier, though, that was too much. These kittens are a lot more skittish than the ones we took in yesterday.
Sweetie, of course, didn’t help much!
After a while, my daughter and I talked about it and decided it would be better to wait. We made sure to leave the big cat carrier out, door open, so they could go in and out as they pleased and not find it scary. The white and grey singleton also came out, but it’s even more nervous that the littles.
We will try again tomorrow – if the weather holds. We’re supposed to get heavy rain in our area overnight and all day tomorrow. It’s supposed to be worse to the south of us, and the city is getting flash flood warnings, so we shall see.
Once inside and having breakfast, I remembered to tell my brother about the chainsaw mill. He would have seen it by now, but I wanted him to know that he was welcome to use it at any time, since it’ll be a while before I am able to. While we were chatting, I mentioned my plans to go into town to buy a birthday card and visit out mother, since I wasn’t able to do it yesterday.
He was planning to visit our mother today, too, so he offered to drive me in his car, which was very sweet of him. I had enough time to head outside again to move some hoses, as my SIL said she wanted to mow the inner yard for me, then I picked some Orange Currant tomatoes and even a few Blueberry tomatoes for my mother. I figured she make snarky comments about them being so small, but thought she would still enjoy them.
We dove out in their recently acquired electric car, and there’s a charging station almost across the street from the nursing home, so we went there to top the charge up, then walked over to the dollar store, half a block away. I found a card but decided against looking for the other stuff I had been thinking of on this trip. My brother had already brought a card last weekend, but found an actual 95th Birthday card and got it for her, too. Then we walked over to his car to fill the cards out inside.
We had brought my walker along and, by then, I felt that I was going to need it, so he got it out for me and we headed in. It was coming up on lunch time, but my mother was asleep in bed when we got there. Once she was awake enough to realize we were there for a visit, she got up and moved to her corner chair.
The visit was… draining.
My mother almost immediately went at my brother, going on about how she wanted a “good” radio – she simply will not accept that the station she wants to listen to cannot be picked up in her room, and insists the problem is the “junk” radio. My brother had not intended to tell her yet, but he ended up explaining that he did get her an internet radio, like she asked for, and had spent the last week setting it up. She can’t understand any of it, but when she gets it, she’ll only need to push a button to get a Polish radio station. It was not easy, since the one station she wants doesn’t broadcast online like most others. It took him 4 days to figure out how to get their website stream connected to the radio. It was just that one station that was an issue, but none of it was easy. The next step is to activate the new internet that was installed in her room. He tried to explain all this, but she kept interrupting him and complaining.
The rest of the visit did not get any better.
She mostly dismissed the cards we got her. She mocked the tiny tomatoes, then was wondering where her garlic was. She had asked for a bulb of garlic, which my sister had brought, but apparently it wasn’t good garlic (small?). Then she asked me if I had garlic in the garden. I told her no, it’s harvested. She glared at me, asking why. I told her, it’s September. It’s all harvested. She then went to talking about how my sister and her husband eat garlic every day, and that’s why they are so healthy, so she wants garlic.
My sister and her husband are not that healthy.
Then she went on about how she’s gained weight (she hasn’t; she has water retention and bloating) because they feed her too much and keep “pushing” snacks, and “they” put chemicals in food and that’s why she’s gaining weight and why people are getting cancer. She’s cutting our beef and pork, convinced it’s the cause of her “stomach problems”. Then she started talking about something she saw on the news (she doesn’t have a TV, so I’m guessing in one of the common rooms?), except she was clearly combing two completely different things into one, but that’s why everyone is dying of cancer. ??? Then she started on how, after she’s gone, she wants my brother, sister and I to all get along and not fight and push each other away – clearly she had imagined some sort of scenario and believes it happening or will happen, or… I don’t know, but she was making a big deal of it. Not the first time, though the first time she assumed we were behaving a particular way. Then my brother mentioned she’s used our sister for something (he didn’t even try to cover how badly she had stabbed him in the back and broke his heart in the process) and I mentioned she has specifically told our sister to keep it a secret from us, pointing out that she is the only one doing things like that.
It went over her head.
On and on it went, until someone came in with her lunch. We helped her set up with her table and tray to eat, then my brother said he and I would be going out for lunch now, leaving her to eat.
I think we were there for maybe half an hour.
My brother is a saint. I would have left much earlier. Mind you, by then the pain killers were wearing off and I had very little patience in me.
We did not go out for lunch. Neither of us had the energy for it.
Once at home, I had to pretty much lie down right away and my brother, being my brother, had many projects to work on. Later, he said that with all the manual labour he did over the next few hours, none left him as tired as that half hour or so with my mother! I’m glad we were able to go in together. If it had been just him, she would have been much worse. *sigh*
I eventually made it outside again, too, and get into the garden, but that will be in my next post.
They seem to like hanging out around the old burn ring, rather than the catio. The catio may be too exposed feeling.
The girls have still taken on my usual outdoor stuff. No watering of the garden today, though, as it rained all night. Just walking around the yard taking video was enough to leave me feeling exhausted.
I’m at war with myself between all that I want to be doing, and knowing that I need to not be doing any of it to I can recover.
In some ways, I am a really terrible person to myself.
I am doing very well, which means I want to do more than I should, without even thinking about it! I was doing so well, I was able to do a walkabout yesterday evening… with my daughters both joining me to make sure I was okay!
Here we are, past the middle of August, and the sunflowers are just starting to form their heads. In the second photo of the slide show above, the one tomato we have that formed the earliest is finally turning red, but it’s taken so long, the skin looks dried out and damaged. There are, however, a decent number of other Manitoba Tomatoes on the plants, though still very green. The Blueberry tomatoes have quite a few forming fruit, all incredibly hard. There are lots of Orange Currant tomatoes, and they’re the only ones in that bed that have had anything ripen, but only from the same spray of fruit. Everything else is solid green. Same with the Chocolate Stripe tomatoes in the main garden area. We might be able to bring them in to ripen off the vine, but it’s way too early for most of them. Meanwhile, we’ve had some surprisingly cool night temperatures lately. We dropped to 6C/43F last night! Overnight temperatures over the next while as supposed to be warmer. The app on my phone says we’ll get another drop like last night within the week, but that app is also saying it’s raining right now, has been for hours and will continue through the night.
It’s not raining. It’s not even overcast.
Looking at the weather radar, the system is passing to the north and south of us. We might get a bit of rain in about an hour and that’s it.
I was able to sleep last night, and even sleep in, as my younger daughter took over the morning routine. She made sure the catio food bowl had a generous amount of cat soup to lure the babies (I have not seem or heard them at all today), and she watered the garden. We talked about that for a bit and the potatoes will no longer be watered so the soil will dry out and they can be harvested.
Which won’t be by me.
Later in the morning, she and I headed out to town, stopping first to pick up a parcel at the post office that turned out to be three parcels. I’m really amazed by how quickly my husband’s Tei Fu order came in! This time, he got some oil as well as the lotion that my daughter will test out. I was up to driving, but my daughter ran into the post office so I didn’t need to get in and out of the truck.
Our first stop in town was the pharmacy so I could get my post-op prescriptions filled. My husband has a refill scheduled for delivery tomorrow and I was hoping to pick that up, too, but I was not allowed to. Being a “controlled substance” it was too early for a refill. Idiotic and frustrating. Both my daughters had refills to get filled as well, with one of those also being a “controlled substance” that had to wait until it was almost gone before it would be refilled – which means it would have been out completely if she waited for delivery day.
While we wait for the prescriptions to be filled, my daughter got a wrist brace for her sister and I ended up getting a thumb brace for myself. I wore it only for the afternoon, and it has already made a world of difference.
Wandering around the store started to be a bit much, though, and I didn’t want to push myself, so I sat in the waiting area for most of the time. My daughter got the meds for herself and her sister faster, so she paid for the wrist brace (their meds were both covered 100% by our province’s pharmacare insurance) then headed out to another store while I waited.
My meds, being new, got a discussion about instructions with the pharmacist. The antibiotics need to be taken every 6 hours until the bottle is empty. The number of days is a bit off, since I wasn’t able to fill it yesterday so, in theory, I’d already “missed” several doses. The other is to stop bleeding. I can take it every 8 hours, but only as needed, and the fewer I take of that, the better. It’s the same thing my older daughter has a prescription for, and she had asked if I was getting it. The prescription was hand written in a short hand, so I had no idea until the pharmacist named it as she gave it to me. My daughter was very happy to hear I got this prescription, because it works incredibly fast and well. It’s highly unlikely I’ll need to take it for more than a day or two.
Once done at the pharmacy, we decided to go to the grocery store for a few things; bread, eggs and milk, mostly. We ended up getting more, of course. They had several cuts of steak, plus beef roasts, on sale for prices I haven’t seen in a very long time. I ended up getting two packages of steaks for tonight, a small roast plus a seasoned pork roast that is always a good price. Pork is about the only affordable meat right now.
Before we could finish going through the store, though, I had to give my daughter my cards and turn the shopping over to my daughter, so I could head to the truck and sit down. I had only been walking around, using the cart as a walker as I usually do, but I could tell I had started to push myself too far and needed to sit. My daughter did the driving and, once we got home, I took my new meds and lay down pretty much right away, making sure to set a timer and an alarm for the two different lengths of time to the next doses.
The girls took care of all the stuff I normally would have done at least part of. My older daughter also cooked the steaks for supper, finishing off the last of our store bought potatoes, together with cabbage and beans from our garden, to go with it.
It was deliscious.
Before supper was ready, I felt well enough again to go outside for the evening cat feeding – promising my daughters I wouldn’t do anything else!
Then my older daughter saw me through the kitchen window, dragging the hose across the yard, and sent my younger daughter running. I was just taking it to the catio to refill the water bowl for Slick and her kittens, but they were afraid I was going to start watering the garden or something! 😁
My daughter stayed with me while I finished and brought the hose back, and we got to talking about how Sprout’s little one has gotten so talkative!
It has a squeaky little meow it gives off while waiting for us to distribute the kibble. It is so nervous about eating, and I’d had to use the hose to chase off a big skunk that had scared it way, just by being there. This poor baby is all alone. Mama doesn’t stay close to it anymore, and it’s too scared to come to the house, so it has formed no “friendships” with any of the other cats. If they come by to eat, she runs away, so we try to get them to eat from other bowls, instead.
Once the cats were fed and watered, my daughter chastised me until I went back inside. 😄
Along with the meds, I’m under some pretty strict instructions on what I can and can’t do. No lifting anything over 10 pounds. No “strenuous activity” for a week… I suspect digging up potatoes counts as “strenuous activity”. Apparently, I’m supposed to be eating a “light diet” or things like toast or soup until I can tolerate more. I have had zero issues with what I have been able to eat. The steak dinner my daughter made REALLY hit the spot! Of course, there are also the warnings to look out for that, if they start, I am to get to the nearest ER immediately.
So far, though, I just had that while where I could tell I’d pushed myself, and lying down was sufficient.
The down side of feeling so good after the procedure; I REALLY need to force myself not to just get back into my normal activity levels!!!
Meanwhile, my timer just went off… time to go take the next dose of antibiotics…
Not just for the surgery itself, but so that I can start taking my supplements again.
I got hit with a Charlie horse last night, somewhere around 2 – 3 in the morning. It actually started with the top of my left foot, the tendons yanking my toes and ankle up. As it got worse, I managed to fling off the three cats that were using me as a bed, sit up and grab a tube of Tei Fu lotion. The tube was more empty than I expected, so I had to fight with it, while my foot was painfully cramping. I ended up with way more than I intended on my hand, what actually turned out to be a good thing.
I got some on my other hand and raised my knee onto the bed so I could start rubbing it into the cramp, only for the position to trigger more cramping in my thigh. I ended up with cramping in my entire left leg, from the tip of my toes to my hip, with my right leg starting to threaten. I had enough lotion to apply to both legs, pre-emptively preventing any cramping in my right leg.
That Tei Fu lotion is gold.
The frustrating thing is that the magnesium, potassium and zinc I’d been taking to prevent this in the first place is off limits until after the surgery. I was eventually able to get myself up and hobble to the bathroom to wash my hands before I took some painkillers. My older daughter was awake and working, so I messaged her and she came down. I didn’t need any help by then, but she stayed and we talked for a while, and she made sure to let me know I could message her at any time if problems started again. Thankfully, it did not and I finally got some sleep.
When I got up a couple of hours later, I saw my husband’s light was on, which means he was driven awake by his own pain. I popped in to talk to him about what happened, mentioning that I was going to be starting my last tube of Tei Fu. The last time he ordered some, he got 4 tubes, and I’d given one to my younger daughter. She recently mentioned to me that she had been out for a while. My husband immediately went online to order more. He was thinking to get in on a monthly subscription, but I don’t use it that often. My daughter, however, might do well with that, until she has her own surgery, which may be months from now.
I was able to get another hour or so of sleep before I finally got up for the day and headed out to do the morning routine. I got to feed the feral baby.
The kitten now comes out and meows when I start putting the kibble out. It still won’t let me near, but seems to be catching on to the routine and understanding that I’m there to leave food, not try to hurt it.
No sign of Slick’s branch pile babies this morning, though she came to the house for breakfast, as usual. I do hope she hasn’t moved them!
I did my morning rounds and should have picked some bush beans, but didn’t have a container, so I left it for later.
I might have to get my daughters to do it. They’ve been taking over most things for me today. My younger daughter was kind enough to make breakfast for me when she found out I had started to do it, but had to stop before anything was ready to actually eat.
I didn’t push myself at all this morning, but as the time wore on, I started having issues with my left arm. All the joints from my rotator cuff to the fingers. Then the abdominal pain started to kick in.
*sigh*
One. More. Day.
My younger daughter was able to come down and do my arm with diplofenac at joints, then I did my lower abdomen myself, along with my left hip, which now hurts pretty constantly. The abdominal pain kept getting worse instead of better. I still wanted to go to the general store and post office to pick up a parcel and another 40 pound bag of kibble, so we wouldn’t have to worry about it while I was recovering. When the post office re-opened at 2pm, I got my daughter to drive me. When we got there, however, I was no longer up to getting in and out of the truck, so I gave her the mail box key and my card for the kibble.
She got the mail first, and came out with two larger packages. I was only expecting one. The larger box was quite beat up, and part of the contents was broken through.
It turned out to be the blower I’d ordered for her forge! The one my husband had received a message offering a refund or a replacement blower, and tracking said was still at customs!
I checked before starting this post and, according to the tracking, it’s still at customs.
After dropping the boxes off in the truck, my daughter went back in to buy the kibbled. When she was done loading it into the box of the truck, she gave me my debit card back and told me it hadn’t worked, so she paid for it herself.
I had done some banking earlier and there were no issues. It wasn’t until I went to put the card back in my wallet that I realized, I had given her my Visa instead of my debit card. The cards look identical, except one has my name on the front, and the other on the back. The general store is not set up to take credit cards.
Oops!
Once we got home, I was able to take the mail in, as they were quite light, but I could barely walk from the pain. I was still able to open up the bashed up package, though, which had a piece of metal sticking out one side!!
Thankfully, the blower is not something easily broken. Even the foam around the opening was broken, but there aren’t any dents. Of course, my daughter got the handle on and we tested it right away.
Now, all she needs is fuel for her forge and some steel to practice with – and we have scrap steel all over the place – and she can start doing some blacksmithing here at home!
Once we were back, though, the pain was still getting worse, so I took more painkillers and lay down.
My older daughter, meanwhile, took over another project for me. She first went out to give that old bathtub a thorough scrubbing. Then, once it was fully dry, she used the enamel paint I picked up on it. She has since been able to put on a second coat.
With the condition of the tub, we know it’s going to have lumps and bumps, and the paint might have trouble adhering. I’m not too worried about it, though. It’s going to be used to soak and wash filth cat beds and blankets. I just need it to not be rusted out and flaking, and to hold water.
My daughter will be adding more layers over the next few days, giving it plenty of time to cure in between, pretty much until the can is empty.
All this, in between making a supper of ribs and roasted cabbage from our garden. She wanted to make sure I ate very well, before I have to start fasting at midnight. The house smells amazing right now.
As for me, the pain did finally start to subside while I was lying down, but then the bleeding suddenly increased. A lot.
We’re doing laundry now.
One. More. Day.
That prescription I was given – the “safer” version of what my older daughter is on – has done nothing for me. I may as well have not been taking it. It should have at least reduced the pain, and there shouldn’t be any bleeding at all.
Hard to imagine that all of this got trigged by taking an anti-inflammatory that had been so helpful for my arthritis!
Plus the original driver’s side door from our previous vehicle.
My brother and his friend got it all out, late this morning. As expected, the modern tanks were relatively easy, and could just be carried up the stairs.
The old, original tank’s inner chamber, however, was another story. My brother saw those loops at the top and had the same thought I did. They hooked up a ratchet strap made as short as possible to create a handle. My brother’s friend recenty hurt his back, so he took the top with the strap while my brother lifted from the bottom, and they got it out once step at a time.
That thing is HEAVY!
Then they got the old Uplander door out, which was more awkward than the modern tanks in some ways. My brother saw the two old pumps I’d moved over as well and wanted to take them up, so I told him about the others that were hidden by some old light fixtures I’d had to move to make room for the tanks.
The red pump is the newest one that just got replaced. The olive green one beside it, my brother tells me, is the original pump from when we got running water in the house back in the mid 70’s. That one ways about twice as much as the red one!
There were two other pumps we’d found while cleaning out the basement. I’d put all of them in the same general area, and the last two were on the bottom of a shelf. I had to move something so he could see them, and he’s pretty sure they still work, so he left them. He remembered there had been pumps under the work table, but I told him I’d moved them out from there and he’d already taken them outside.
I’d also rolled over the dehumidifier, as the last time I tried turning it on, it started making some rather unfortunate noises. My brother thinks what I described is something minor, so he left that, too.
Now that the tanks are no longer blocking the bottom of the stairs, I will bring up the old divider from between the basements so I can use it for curing things under the canopy tent.
Like the garlic.
It started raining yesterday and was supposed to stop raining by about 7am. It was still raining well past 1 pm. Which is wonderful for the garden, but not the strung up garlic. Since I wasn’t able to hang two long strings of garlic across the middle of the canopy tent, but only smaller lengths around the edges, they did get rained on, if only on one side. I trimmed off most of the stems, and the weight of the bulbs flipped them all so that they are now hanging root side down. The trimmed stems will make it easier to set them into the wire mesh of the old divider, and they will be completely under the canopy.
Not long after the tanks were taken out, I prepped the truck for a dump run. When I messaged them to let them know I was planning to do a dump run, followed by a Walmart run (which is why they took the tanks out when they did), my SIL asked if I could grab some of the bags by the old burn barrel. I’m glad she reminded me of those. We didn’t have a lot for the dump today, so we had room, but I keep forgetting they exist.
I also remembered to finally grab the garbage bag the can in the garage. I knew I needed to bring a new bag for the can, plus I knew some of the bags by the old burn barrel were torn, so I grabbed a bag of large, clear garbage bags that had been set aside. I’m glad I did. After backing the truck up to these old bags, I discovered they had been exposed to the elements for so long, the bags disintegrated as soon as I tried to pick one up. Not just the ones that I had noticed were already torn, but the ones that looked just fine until I tried to move them. It didn’t help that they were all filled with paper and cardboard meant for the burn barrel – which had been rained on all night. All that water made them quite heavy. I managed to get a decent number of them into fresh bags until I ran out, filling about 3/4 of the truck box.
That done, I backed up to the house, where my daughter started passing me the household garbage and recycling from the old kitchen. The poor thing. Even from the truck, I could hear she was dealing with a lot of back pain!
Since we were planning to go to the Walmart after the dump, I took the time to change out of my grubbies and my daughter and I were soon headed out.
I had considered I would need to be careful not to get my clothes dirty from the bags, but I forgot about the clay. I should have worn my rubber boots! I didn’t think of it, since we were supposed to go shopping next.
By the time we got rid of the garbage and recycling (I made sure my daughter didn’t lift any of the water logged bags, with her back giving out like it was), it seemed the rain was finally stopping. By the time we got back on the highway, though, it was raining much harder. At that point I decided we would just go home. There was nothing we needed to get that couldn’t wait another day, and I didn’t want to be driving the highway in those conditions if I didn’t have to.
So we headed home.
The good thing about the grass being so wet is that I was able to clean my shoes while walking from the garage to the house, just by dragging my feet! 😄 The grass was recently cut, though, so my daughter ended up having to use the hose on her boots.
Not long before I started this post, I headed out to do the evening cat feeding and my evening rounds. I’d done a bit of research first and made a point of checking the green cabbage to see if they were ready to harvest.
They are.
It’s too wet to do it now, though, so I will do it in the morning. The largest heads look like they are beginning to open up, which means they are starting to bolt; something we want to avoid.
So we should have a dozen heads of cabbage harvested tomorrow. Possibly thirteen; one of the pots had two transplants in it, and I wasn’t able to separate them without damaging the roots, so I left the extra.
The potato plants are almost completely died back now. Those will be harvested once the ground is dry again, then set under the canopy tent to cure.
I’m happy that, with the help of my brother and his friend, we at least got two major things accomplished. First, the tanks, pumps and old van door are now out of the basement. My brother wanted to leave them near the house until he could drive his trailer in and load them, rather than move them to the junk pile. They are not in the way near the house where they are, so that will be fine.
The other major thing was that we made it to the dump, and the truck didn’t break down.
This little guy was waiting with the cats in the sun room when I came out. It seems to prefer this particular tray just outside the sun room, and was eating kibble where when I came out with the cat soup. It did not want to stop eating when I came close! Hungry baby. It did finally move but came back as soon as I moved on to the next tray. I find it amusing that Sweetie – who still behaves as if terrified all the time – is buddies with the skunk!
After feeding the cats, I hoped to water the garden but, after walking around and checking the beds, I was just in too much pain – and I had taken pain killers before I headed out. So I went in to have breakfast and hoped the painkillers would finally kick in.
They didn’t.
In the end, after waiting long enough, I took some more and tried lying down. That finally did it.
One of the things on my to-do list today was a trip into town. My younger daughter had her own list, so she came along. While heading to the truck and getting things ready, I had a surprise. The shed my brother had bought was up! I never heard a thing!
I had been wondering what could be done to create a base for the shed. After leveling the area, my brother salvaged an old steel door – for some reason, there are quite a lot of them scattered about! – to set under the shed. It is the perfect width.
I later found out that the shed is surprisingly light, so he wants to find a way to secure it to the steel door, so it doesn’t blow away in the wind.
I had a bag and a half of non-aluminum cans in that spot, and the cats were already starting to get into one of them. They are now in the shed. No more coming out to find cans scattered all over the place!
My daughter and I headed out soon after. I haven’t seen the renter’s cows for a while and I think they’ve been rotated out. We decided to leave the gate open and I made sure to send a message to let my brother and SIL know, so they knew it was us and left intentionally.
We had lunch first. While we were eating, I started getting a lot of notifications on my phone. It was the security camera at the gate. My SIL took advantage of the gate being open while she was mowing around the driveway. We had actually talked about that earlier and she wasn’t planning to mow, as we haven’t had rain lately and the grass wasn’t very long. The path to the barn that my brother uses a lot, however, was a fair bit taller, so she mowed that for them and just kept on going!
After lunch, we went to a nearby store to look for one of the things my daughter was after. She ended up finding a couple of things she needed, which was handy. Then it was off to the grocery store. I had a couple of the big water jugs to refill, plus a short list from my husband. Since we were there anyhow, I picked up some fresh fruit and a few other things that we would need soon that were on sale, and my daughter found a few things as well. I’m glad she was able to come along.
By the time we got home and everything was unpacked and put away, it wasn’t too much longer before it was time to feed the outside cats again, so I took care of that before doing the watering. This time, I also watered the trees and bushes in the food forest area. It’s been dry enough lately that they got extra watering.
After finishing watering the main garden area and the trees, I came around to do the south garden beds when I found my daughter going by with the wheel barrow. She had dug up the enameled bricks from around the fire pit and brought them closer to the house, where they are currently soaking in water to loosen the dirt before she scrubs them a bit. We were planning to take those bricks out and replace them with rocks that we’ve picked out of the garden, more of which needs to be brought over to the fire pit area. Knowing these were going to be taken out, she wanted to salvage them – to use in the basement! She is wanting to reorganize and do a keep clean in the living room. We’ve got that big fish tank we’d used as a greenhouse for seed starts in the past, and it’s in the way. We’d been talking about putting it in the basement, where I can use it as a greenhouse in the spring, but the concrete gets wet in the spring (parts of it are still wet now) because the weeping tile is probably full of silt and tree roots. Anything we set up has to be elevated, and we’d run out of bricks. Once she has these salvaged bricks cleaned up a bit, they will be used to set under the stand the fish tank rests on, so the wood won’t rot.
Getting all that out of the living room and down the stairs is not going to be easy. It will, however, free up a lot of space we need!
This was set up near the old kitchen garden so, once the bricks were soaking, that’s where I started the watering. While doing the wattle weave bed, I decided it was time to lift the garlic in there. These are from a bulb of garlic I’d found while preparing the rectangular bed nearby in the fall. This was well after I’d planted the garlic in the main garden area, and were clearly quite a bit smaller, even before I dug them up.
These are very young and small garlic, so we will be using them right away, rather than setting them with the other garlic to cure.
It’s a good thing I enjoy doing the deep watering, because it takes at least 2 hours – closer to 3, when the trees get watered, too. I was pretty tired, sore and hungry by the time I was done, and my daughters were sweeting enough to make me a supper when I came in.
Meanwhile, my brother has headed back to the city while my SIL stays here for a while longer. We never crossed paths in person today at all!
Anyhow.
Today has been a mixed bag, but I am happy with how much I was able to get done, in between dealing with pain. One of the things that came up while I was talking to my daughter about what I was feeling this morning was my doctor’s offer to start the process to get me a new pair of knees. I said no to that, as they aren’t that bad, really.
My left hip, however… that is something I should probably bring up, the next time I see my regular doctor!
Not anytime soon, though. One thing at a time, and there’s three of us waiting for various surgeries right now!
So the past couple of days have been SO much better, it just blows me away!
Yesterday, I was not only well enough to go into the city for the stock up shopping at Costco, but felt well enough to keep on going after everything was put away and we’d had supper. I headed outside for the usual evening cat feeding, then gave the garden a solid watering before heading back in.
A couple of nights ago, my brother and SIL quickly came by to drop off a box with a small raccoon proof shed they picked up. I had some bags with cans at various stages of sorting against the garage, and critters had gotten into them again, spreading them all over. So this is something we can store the aluminum cans in until it’s worth bringing them to the scrap yard. Most of the cans are cat food cans. Even though they are empty, the critters still smell food on them and sometimes tear the bags apart – even after ignoring them for months!
They also let me know that they were coming back the next day (yesterday) to take the trail loaded with metal items to the scrap yard. When they told me about the shed, I mentioned that we had more bags of cans in our basement that would fit in the truck. My SIL said that they could load the bags into their truck (which has a taller cap over the box) and take it in with the rest of the load.
I didn’t know what time they would be coming by with the shed, so I headed out with some fresh bags to at least re-bag the bag with aluminum only that had been torn up. As I was walking to the garage, however, I saw something that wasn’t there when I’d gone out to feed the cats and water the garden earlier.
That wasn’t there when I was out watering the garden beds! I sent the picture to our family chat and my daughters said they had heard something – maybe 40 minutes earlier – fall. It wasn’t even particularly windy at the time!
After re-bagging the aluminum cans at the garage, I came to see how bad the damage was under this tree top. Much to my surprise, the garden bed cover was not damaged. The netting was bent, but it doesn’t have hoops under it, to it can be easily pushed back into shape. All those branches sticking out in every direction actually kept the full weight of the tree top from landing on the cover and doghouse roof. I broke off some of the branches while one of my daughters came over, and she held the tree top up until I could get the garden bed cover out from under it, then pushed it aside, so it’s not over the old dog house anymore. We’ll have to come back with the chain saw to break it down, soon, but for now it waits.
We went in after that and my brother and SIL were in and out to drop off the shed in its box so quickly, if I hadn’t gotten security camera alerts, I’d never had known they were here!
With my SIL’s kind offer to take our aluminum in, that meant getting all the bags out of the basement. I didn’t know what time they would be coming buy, and knew I’d be going to the city, so I wanted to get the cans out before we left. Which had to be done in stages, since we can’t just leave doors open, or the inside cats would be getting into the basement, or outside.
I got it done, though. By the time I got them out near the junk pile, which has been cleared out significantly, thanks to my brother and SIL, I had 11 large clear bags, plus another 8 or so small blue bags. Including the two bags from beside the garage I’d rebagged the night before.
What I found out later was that they weren’t coming out until my brother was done at work (I had thought he might have arranged to leave early or something). So we were back from Costco well before they got here, in seperate vehicles.
I had actually gone back out to water the garden, but suddenly realized my brother had somehow arrived and parked by the barn without my ever hearing him! Then I heard my SIL arriving at the gate. So I postponed the watering and started tying the garlic off so I could hang them to cure.
Which didn’t work out as planned.
Normally, I make two long strings of garlic that I hang under the canopy tent to form a large X across the middle. The garlic, however, turned out to be too heavy. The first string of garlic kept snapping at different spots. In the end, I hung the remaining pieces, reinforcing the longest one with more jute twine. With the rest, I tied off strings of roughly a dozen garlic each and hung them around the sides of the canopy tent.
I was working on this when my brother and SIL drove their truck and trailer up to where the aluminum bags were. In the end, though, they didn’t take them yet. They didn’t have time. The scrap yard closed at 8, but it was at least a 45 minute drive to get there, and they needed to be there before closing time. Last call is usually about 15 minutes before closing.
So they left without the aluminum, with my brother driving the truck and trailer and my SIL following in the car my brother had come out in. They got there just in time and were able to get it done. Once the trailer was cleared, my brother took the car and drove home, since he had to go to work the next morning. My SIL drove the truck and trailer back here.
Meanwhile, I had finished stringing up the garlic.
There are two images in the above slide show. I don’t like that the garlic is around the edges, as they could be affected by the weather more. We’re not expecting rain for a while, though, so I hope they will be okay.
I was just finishing watering the garden when my SIL got back with the trailer. I helped her unhitch the trailer (something neither of us had done before, though at least my SIL has seen my brother doing it), then she drove the truck over to the bags of aluminum. We didn’t want them out overnight, as the raccoons would probably tear them apart.
It was getting dark, so I messaged my daughters and they were both able to come out and help load the truck. Much to my surprised, they all fit, with room to spare!
By then, it was pretty much full dark. My SIL parked the truck near their caravan and stayed the night.
This morning, I was up by about 6am, even though I hadn’t actually slept much last night. I headed out into the wonderfully cool morning to feed the cats and do a quick walkabout before going back inside.
The last time I saw this Arikara squash, it was maybe 6 inches long!!
I set a brick under it, so it wouldn’t have direct contact to the ground. There are several more squash developing, but this one got huge, fast! One squash plant, and we might have as many as 5 squash off of it, if they all survive. This is how all our winter squash should be looking, but even the biggest of the other varieties do not look this vigorous and healthy!
This is a chokecherry tree, part of which has split.
Oh, I just realized. This is probably NOT wind damage. This might be deer damage. There are ripe chokecherries on this tree. If they were pulling on the berries like they do when going after the crab apples, they could easily have broken the tree like this.
My SIL and I were planning to head out around noon. That gave me time to go through the house for any remaining aluminum cans that were waiting to be bagged up, filling about half of a large, clear bag. Then I went to the garage, where a bag with crushed cans had been torn and spilling and picked that up. Then I crushed all the cans I could find in the crate and bin we us for recyclables. Last of all, I headed outside the garage with a magnet and sorted the last bag that’s been sitting there for months, pulling out the cans with steel. By the time I was done, I’d filled the large clear bag and about half of a small blue recycling bag. I carried them over to my brother’s truck and added them to what was in the back.
At this point, we have a couple of bags with just ferrous metal in them. We could have taken them with us, but it just wasn’t worth is for barely two bags. The price for steel is quite low.
I later found out my brother got 12¢ per pound for their load. The stuff didn’t weigh as much as my brother had estimated.
The cans sorted and bags and cleaned up, I headed back in to change out of my grubbies and into going out clothes. I double checked the hours I’d found for the place online, and they said they were closed today. !!!??? So I phoned.
They were very much open.
My SIL and I headed out soon after. We went to the salvage yard directly to the south of us that I was already familiar with, rather than the one they went to last night. There was enough in there that they brought out one of the bigger cages with a forklift, rather than the bin they’d brought out the last time we’d managed the trip, and we actually filled it. It turned out to be 252 pounds, and they paid out 70¢ per pound. a bit lower than the average going rate, but these were not “clean”; a lot of the cans had been outdoors for some time before we had to put the bags into the basement to keep the critters from getting at them, so they had literal dirt on them.
That got me just over $175 in cash. Not too bad!
I also remembered to ask for a new magnet keychain to replace the one that was stolen, I think by a raccoon. They had a whole basket full of them available to give out!
My SIL had suggested we go for lunch afterwards, and this allowed me to treat her, for a change!
I don’t know a lot of what’s available in this town, so when my sister suggested Chinese food, I was quite happy to try a place I’d never been to before. We had a lovely meal and a great time catching up with each other.
As we were finished, my SIL mentioned she wanted to go to the town north of us after we were done. I asked if she wanted company and went along, with just a side trip to the post office for something my husband was expecting.
The extra drive meant almost a lot more driving time to chat in. I really enjoy spending time with my SIL. She’s awesome.
The place she wanted to go to was the livestock supply store. She’d never been there before, but that’s one of the places I’d been getting 40 pound bags of cat food from, plus this place has all sorts of other farm supplies to ogle. I was able to give her directions to the store, which is actually away from the town itself. Since we were there anyhow, I picked up a couple of bags of cat food, as well as a very plain, inexpensive, folding knife. Something better than the utility knife I’ve been carrying around when doing yard stuff, with no fancy saw edges or do-dads. Just a plain knife. They had one left in bright orange, and I grabbed that. This way, if I drop it in the grass or dirt, it’ll be easy to see!
My SIL, meanwhile, picked up some stall liners. Something to put under the stairs to their caravan, or other places where they don’t want the grass to be taking over.
I have to admit, when I saw them being loaded into the truck, I started wanting one for our kitchen! These are designed to withstand cow hooves. The cats would not be able to scratch this up! They’re actually too big to fit on our kitchen floor, though, but gosh, that would be so nice. Pricey for what would essentially be considered a floor mat, but worth every penny.
That done, my SIL wanted to check out the hardware store. We both got a couple of little things, but mostly she wanted to look at their display sheds. They had quite a variety of designs on display, from basic wide open spaces, to ones with front porches, pretty windows and lofts.
Some of the price tags on these, though… there’s a reason I want to build a garden shed using the cordwood wall technique! The mortar needed for that, plus using wood from dead spruces we already have, would be a lot cheaper, even with having to buy roofing material.
With all the driving and checking things out, it was late enough that the girls took care of feeding the outside cats before I got home. We’re now good on dry cat food for both the inside and outside cats for probably the rest of the month, which was a nice bonus.
My brother has since made it out and they will be here for the weekend. Much of the focus is still going to be on cleaning up and hauling things away.
Which brings me to something the family is going to need to figure out.
My brother is going to retire in a couple of years. The deal is, he pays for the property tax and insurance, we pay the utilities and keep the place up – something that is getting harder for us to do with all of us being broken, one way or another. Something I hope will improve within the next 6 months or so, as my daughters and I each get the surgeries we need.
Once he retires, they won’t be able to keep up paying the expenses for this place. The money brought in by renting most of it out doesn’t even cover the cost of taxes.
We need to figure out what our options are, and we have only two years to do it in. Meanwhile, my husband’s disability income through is employer ends at age 65. That’s only 7 years away. It’s not like we can take over the property. With both our daughters having health issues, their options are limited, too.
