Medical

“It’s like a movie.”

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Okay, Re-Farmer. Take a deep breath, and relax a bit!

What.

A.

Day.

Well. Morning, really. It’s only mid-afternoon, as I start this!

I had a 9am appointment with the guy that runs homecare for my mother’s town, and area. After feeding the outside cats, including giving Gouda his personal bowl of lysine supplemented cat soup, I had to leave it to my daughters to do the morning rounds. Instead, I went through a copy of one of the assessment forms the homecare guy had given me a copy of, after his last visit with my mother.

To recap: my mother wants to go into a nursing home. A very specific nursing home. Back in July, we went to her doctor about it, and she started the ball rolling. What we didn’t know at the time was this was something that gets decided by the home care department, not the doctor. The doctor does have to approve it and fill out some paperwork, but normally, people who need it tend to go from a hospital, after some sort of incident, into long term care without ever going back home in between. My mother is not at that stage. After he did a panel with her, assessing her physical needs, it was clear she was not that far gone… yet. He recommended supportive living.

There is only one supportive living place my mother would be willing to live in, and after looking into it, today was to start the process of application to get her in.

Which would put her on a year long waiting list.

There was, however, that behavioural assessment form.

When I first started going through it, after he gave it do me, I’d read a question and think, oh, no, she doesn’t do that. Then I’d read the examples and realize, wait… yes. She does that. Has done it for years. It’s getting worse as she gets older. Yes, this is a problem we are dealing with.

The thing is, we’ve been dealing with a lot of these for so long, we don’t even think about it anymore. I had to see it written down as questions, with examples, to realize just how far she was deteriorating in this category.

I had talked to him on the phone about this a little bit, but today we had to go through all the other assessment forms he needs to go through, as well.

We were at it for two hours.

I am so glad he was able to fit me in this week! He’s going to be away all next week, the last week of the month is the busiest time for me, and I had only one day available – and that would be the week I would expect the exterminators to try and visit my mother’s unit to confirm the bed bugs are gone. If she doesn’t let them in for a third time, she will get evicted. I’m hoping to be there that day to prevent that.

Long story as short as I can make it:

When it comes to her physical needs, her recent diagnoses have actually been helpful for her, in that she actually wants to go into a personal care home (aka: long term care aka: nursing home). He updated the file on her medical changes.

With some things, it’s hard to say. As my mother is living independently, I’m not there to see if, for example, she can or can’t wash herself properly. All I can say is, she refuses to shower, and does not have a bath tub, so all she sponge bathes herself every night. Is she doing a good job? I can’t say. I can say, she refuses to use the commode her was able to requisition for her, even when I found that her bucket fits perfectly in it, making it easy for her to empty it herself. What is she doing instead? I’m not sure.

With other things, I can see she has made adjustments to work around her mobility issues. Can she dress herself? Yes, because she only wears clothing she can put on herself. No buttons. No zippers. No ties or snaps. Can she feed herself? Yes, but she has trouble eating, because she refuses to have her dentures fixed to account for a tooth that was removed – a tooth that her one of her dentures was held by. Her being able to find work arounds or just put up with things puts her on the line between categories.

We did talk about having home care come to her place to prepare meals, and to make sure she takes her medications on time and properly. They can do bulk meal preparation for her either once every two weeks, or once a week, or someone can come by once a day for a meal prep.

If it was once a day, it would be something very quick – I think they’re only allowed 15 minutes. So it would be something like making a sandwich and heating up a bowl of soup. Everything would have to be ready in advance so that a meal just needed to be assembled quickly.

If it was weekly or bi-weekly, someone would come in for 2 hours or something like that. They’d do all the cooking, divide it up into individual portions, and set those in the freezer (except those that would be used right away).

We decided it would be best to try my mother with every two weeks, then adjust as seems appropriate. As the person who does my mother’s grocery shopping, I would have to talk to the home care person about meal plans and what they would need.

We also talked about my mother’s medications, and how she’s not taking them as she should be. Someone would be coming to her place three times a day to make sure she takes them. They can only do that with medications that are in bubble packs. They’re not allowed to touch anything from a bottle. That includes the new eye vitamins my mother is now on.

Then we got to going through the behavioural assessment.

As we went through the questions, I had to give examples and, in come cases, explanations. This included telling him about what’s going on with our vandal, and her habit of reaching out to him and poking the bear, in spite of our efforts to protect her from him.

I’ll have to get back to that one, later, as we have some new crazy going on from there!

As we went through the different questions and he struggled to take notes that would make sense, there were a few times when he had to just sit back and talk about some of the things. Even things that happened to her when she was still living in Poland, and the atrocities she witnessed and survived. He even made note that she would likely need what they call “spiritual care” that is available, typically for combat veterans and former prisoners of war.

I gave other examples of some of my mother’s behaviour, including something she did during a road trip with my brother and his wife a few years ago, and some more recent examples while driving with me. I also told him about what she did to stab my brother in the back, which she still doesn’t recognize as being at all a problem. After a while of this, he stopped and sat back, hesitating.

“I don’t want to sound rude,” he started, pausing to try and find the words.

“It’s like a movie,” he finally said. A movie where all this crazy, insane stuff keeps happening to people, that’s so over the top. I basically said, “yeah; and when they see the movie, people would find it unbelievable and unrealistic, because people don’t behave that way, right?”

Yup.

Even with all this, though, my mother is a very unusual case. He’s not even sure she qualifies for supportive living, because a lot of her needs are beyond what they offer, but she doesn’t qualify for assisted living at all. Her behavioral assessment, however, may actually be what puts her in personal care – which is what she wants. She’s just on the edge.

In the end, he’s going to have to have a consultation with the person he deals with that makes the final decision. He does know, my mother needs help, and we can’t give it to her. Regular home care can’t give it to her, either.

On the plus side, since all this started because my mother went to the doctor to try and get into a nursing home back in July, she already has the doctor’s form on file that is recent enough, along with the chest X-rays they require. She’s also supposed to get a brain scan, but we’re still waiting on a call for that. She’s already been visited by the geriatric care person, and the occupational therapist. They will need a copy of my brother’s PoA paperwork, which I have and can get to them soon. As PoA, he’s first contact for next of kin, while I’m second contact, as I’m physically closest to her.

He printed out what he needed, and then he had to deal with something quickly before going to my mother’s. I called my mother to let her know we were going to be coming over, only to find she had been still in bed! She had time to get dressed, at least, but when I got there, she didn’t even have her glasses, and was all worried because her floor wasn’t swept.

My sister was coming over to do some housekeeping for her!

She was going to get me to call my sister to cancel, and I told her, we couldn’t be that long. I did tell her that I would need to take her remaining bubble packs to have the new medication and vitamins included.

I am so glad she’s going to have someone come and help her with her medications.

When I told her about including them in her bubble packs, she started to get angry, saying, they get taken separately. Which they don’t, and I’m not sure where she got that from. I was still trying to explain to her about how home care can only help if it’s in bubble packs when the home care guy arrived.

He needed her list of medications, including the new prescription and supplement. As we were talking about her new prescription, she mentioned she’d taken it twice.

??

It’s once a day; the vitamins are twice a day.

Nope.

She took one last night, at about midnight, then taken one this morning… I’m not sure why she took one this morning.

Oh! Crap!

I need to call my mother right now…

Oh, I am so glad I wrote this out and caught on to this!

Yes, my mother took this once a day pill last night, then again this morning – and would have taken it again tonight, if I hadn’t just called!

And THAT is a good example of why she needs home care to help her take her medications!

That was one of the things the home care guy needed to hear her agree to, and sign for, along with the meal preparation.

She also needed to sign a form saying that yes, she agrees to going into a personal care home, when a space becomes available. We explained to her that this might not be where she wants to go at first, but once she’s in the system, she will be higher on the list for a transfer, should a space become available where she wants to be. She just needs that foot in the door.

While the home care guy was there, my mother just happened to launch into a tirade towards him, just like some of the examples I gave him earlier. Some of it, anyone in home care sees pretty regularly, but then she went sideways and made it about something else entirely, making connections where there shouldn’t have been any at all.

When he was ready to leave, I grabbed what was left of my mother’s bubble packs and her new stuff for the pharmacy and walked out with him, and we were able to talk about what just happened.

He told me it would probably take a couple of weeks for the process to work its way through. He has a lot of paperwork to submit, and needs to talk to a few people about my mother’s case – and he’s going to be away for all of next week, as well.

He is a total gem. Sadly, when he gets back, he won’t be staying for much longer, as he’ll be moving to another office, so we’ll be dealing with someone else before long. He’ll be going over all his case files with this person before he moves to the other office, though.

I then went to the pharmacy and explained the situation and asked if they could add the new items to my mother’s bubble packs. My mother had mentioned the pharmacy had called her before I got there, talking about her next set of bubble packs.

When I said who this was for, the pharmacist assistant I was talking to started telling me, I just spoke to her, and I’m sorry if I seemed a bit rude.

???

WP AI generated image

Every time the pharmacy calls about her bubble pack refills, my mother gives them a hard time, saying she still has lots, and it’s too early. I keep telling her, she needs to get her refills BEFORE she runs out, but she doesn’t get it. Well, the last time she did this, they held back. When she ran out and came to get her refills and they weren’t ready, she apparently chewed out whoever was at the counter about it not being ready. So when she talked to my mother today, and my mother tried to give her a hard time about it being too early, etc., again, she told me mother, no, this is the date. This is when they’ll be ready.

I think they were relieved to hear my mother is going to be getting home care to help with her medications!

There was only one hang up.

Bubble packs can only have prescription medications in them.

The eye vitamins are not a prescription, so they couldn’t include them.

The pharmacist asked me about the eye doctor, and it turns out they know each other. He will call the eye clinic and get an actual prescription for these supplements from him.

Until then, they would pack 10 days worth of the eye vitamins in their own, separate bubble packs.

As for the new prescription, it says once a day, but doesn’t say when. It’s at night that she has issues, so that’s why she was going to take them in the evening – and why she took one last night. That was the first one she took, even though I brought them for her the day before.

It was going to take them about an hour to update the current bubble packs, so I took advantage of that to go for lunch and update the family a bit.

By the time they were ready and I brought them back to my mother’s, my sister had showed up, done the housekeeping she was going to do, and was getting ready to leave. I needed to explain the bubble packs to my mother, so my sister stays so she’d be up to date, too.

So I went through it all, explaining why the supplements were in their own bubble packs, but she needs to take them with her morning and evening (breakfast and supper) pills, and that the new prescription was with that last pill of the day she’s supposed to take before bed.

That’s why I had to call my mother just now.

The new pill is in with tonight’s bubble pack. She’s already taken one this morning.

After confirming that yes, my mother did take the new prescription pill this morning, as well as taking one last night, I told her to NOT take the one that’s in the bubble pack for tonight, because she’s already taken today’s pill.

I repeated this a few times, and even told her to go ahead and take it out now, and put it somewhere else, but I’m not completely confident she’ll remember.

She was very glad I called about it, though, because yes, she would have taken that pill again tonight, if I hadn’t.

She also realized that I brought back the bubble packs, but not the bottles with the rest of the pills. I told her that the pharmacy is keeping them so they can be included in her new bubble pack refills, as she has already paid for them.

Anyhow… I’m ahead of myself.

It took me a while to explain the bubble packs to my mother, and the times to take them. Even my sister had to chime in to reinforce what I was saying. My mother has a very had time grasping the times on the bubble packs. She’s been taking her morning and evening pills at 5am and 5pm. Why those times, I have no idea, but that’s what she settled on. Only recently did she say she changed to 6am and 6pm, so she could sleep a bit more.

I told her, when home care starts coming to help with the pills three times a day, for the first two they’ll be coming for breakfast and supper – so she won’t have to get up so early anymore! She can sleep in.

She seemed to like that idea!

While we were talking, some mail was slid under my mother’s door, so I opened it for her. It turned out to be her ambulance bill. I was surprised it was only $250 The last I heard, it cost more than $400.

It included a survey on how the paramedics did, and so I started helping her go through that. She got really angry and first, saying, how can they expect her to remember? It was so long ago! (It’s been maybe 2 months?) Then she started saying, the paramedics treated her much better than the people at the hospital, before launching into a story that, at first, we thought was about the paramedics, but was actually about something in the hospital. It included some pretty racist comments, but she talked about how she was being moved around in a wheelchair while her coat and purse were left in an examination room. Long story short, while they insisted she check her purse to make sure everything was there (I’d say it was really obvious to them she believed they would steal from her), she said all her money and ID, etc. where there. However, she now says someone stole “pictures” (which could have included clippings from magazines, newspapers, printouts… ) from her purse.

Of course, the accusation included racist rants.

When I asked, why would anyone take pictures from her purse…

I didn’t get to add, instead of her money or whatever, when she started to get into “that” mode, at which point, my sister said it was time to go!

So we said our goodbyes, then I stayed a bit longer and talked some more about how it went with the home care guy. I explained how she’s just on the edge of things, because she can still do things like feed herself and dress herself, but has other issues. I told her, he needs to consult with someone about her situation, to figure out where is best for her. She was just really happy to know that going to a nursing home is an actual possibility now.

By the time I left, though, I felt like a wrung out washcloth.

But, it’s done. The process is well on its way.

Now, if she can just keep herself from getting evicted, that would be nice!

The Re-Farmer

So many distractions, I almost forgot!

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It’s just past 5:30pm right now, and I’m so tired, I’m about to go to bed!  What a draining day, and I’ve got to be on the road early, tomorrow.

First, the fun stuff.

Catio progress!

Last night, I was able to reinforce the damage wire mesh along the door, after painting the base.  The door still opens fully, with no obstructions, which was my goal.

My daughter did a second coat on the base, as the original white paint was showing through.  She also painted the water stained underside of the “floating” shelves.  Once the paint has cured for a couple of hours, it’ll be flipped upright, the plastic cover removed, and the rest will be painted.  Then, the roof panels can be put on.

As for my day with my mother, she insisted on going back to her previous eye clinic, as she decided the one I took her too screwed up.  The eye doctor there is an Asian woman, so my mother’s racism is in full play.

It turns out, the problem wasn’t her glasses at all.  Since her last eye tests, she developed macular degeneration in one eye.  It’s almost completely blind. 

They can’t do anything for her out here, other than get her to take special vitamins to protect her other eye.  She will need to go to the city once a month for eye injections.  As the person that will be driving her, the specialist clinic will call me, probably within the next 2 weeks, to start that.

She is now glad she went to a “real doctor”.  The thing is, I was in the room with her last appointment. I was there when they took images of her eyes.  I saw the images when the doctor showed them to her.  She did not have it then.  This is something that can happen quickly, which is obviously how it is with her.  But this doctor is a white man – and she knows his parents! – so that means he’s a good doctor, nor the other doctor.

*sigh*

After that, we had lunch, and ran into a friend of mine from high school!  I spent time explaining things the eye doctor told us as we ate. 

Then again as I drove her home.

Then again, after I picked up her meds, Tylenol and the eye vitamins she needs to take, and her groceries.

Then again, because she couldn’t figure out why she had 3 bottles of pills instead of two.  She suddenly decided the vitamins were her prescription medication, and the prescription medication were the vitamins.

They have completely different instructions.

I ended up writing it all down, complete with illustrations, to help her remember.

At least she can still read with her left eye!

The monthly treatment she will be getting should fix her eye, though maybe not 100%.  We don’t know how long it will take.

That’s the short version of a very long day.

I need to try and get some sleep, now!

The Re-Farmer

A Button situation update. Good grief!

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As has become usual when I start my morning rounds, I look for Button to make sure he is okay. I’m just that paranoid about the tiny beast. Especially with a busy night chasing raccoons out of the sun room. I had the critter cam feed up, and my goodness, where they busy last night! At least I knew the cats had a chance to eat first. Most of them, at least. Any late comers would have had to contend with the raccoons. There was one big one that came in several times. Then a mama her family of four “little” ones (not so little, this time of year!) and then another mama with three littles that my daughters chased out.

With the cats having eaten, I probably wouldn’t have bothered chasing them out, except that they started going into the cat cage, where a couple of babies were sleeping, and on top of the cat cage, where there is a fairly large cat bed full of kittens.

Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep last night!

This morning, however, Button was, as usual, cute as a button!

What a little fluff ball!

It was pretty early in the morning when I went out, to water the garden before things got hot (as I write this, it’s 28C/82F with the humidex putting it at 30C/86F. While I was in the city, it was 30C/86F with the humidex putting it at 38C/100F), I sent a message to the Cat Lady. I told her I was going to be in the city and what area I would be in, and offered to bring Button to her.

Well, that poor woman just can’t catch a break. She was already dealing with painful recovery from surgery on her hand. I was almost finished with the watering when I got a response from her.

She was in the hospital with her son, who suffered a head injury while playing hockey. I got updated through the day, and the potential prognosis is very dangerous, so they’ll be keeping him in the hospital for at least 5 days.

Needless to say, she wasn’t about to leave her son to pick up and deliver a kitten!

Good grief.

Gotta keep this amazing woman and her family in my prayers, that’s for sure.

When I finally headed out, I made sure to grab ice packs from the freezer – leaving the ones my daughter uses around her computer. I even double insulated the packs, putting them in a smaller soft sided insulated bag, then tucking that soft sided bag into an insulated hard sided bag. They actually stayed frozen for the entire trip!

The trip itself took longer than expected. My plan was to go to the town my mother is in to get a bit of gas, then cross over to another highway that would take me straight into the street I was planning to do my shopping at.

The highway going past our place is in the process of being resurfaced with fresh chip seal. Everything was considered a construction zone. Normally, that means the speed limit is 60kph.37mph, but they didn’t have those signs up. They did have signs saying to reduce speed to 40kph/25mph when passing oncoming traffic.

Most of the oncoming traffic I encountered didn’t even slow down from highway speeds, which is 100kph/62mph.

Then the traffic came to a complete standstill, with a highway worker holding a stop sign up. We ended up waiting there for about 5-10 minutes, during which time a couple of dump trucks with more aggregate were allowed through.

After a while, we started to see oncoming traffic behind a pilot vehicle. The pilot vehicle pulled over to let the traffic behind it through, the turned around to pilot us back the other way. The highway was down to one lane only, and we ended up driving on the shoulder at one point, to make room for oncoming traffic behind another pilot vehicle.

Things cleared up just a short distance from my mother’s town, where there is no road construction happening at all. When I got to the gas station, however, I could see construction signs in the distance, south of town. I don’t know how much further south the construction zone continued, and was more than happy to cross over to the other highway.

Needless to say, I took the other highway to get back home when I was done!

The trip itself was productive, at least. It was a small trip, but still expensive. 😢

I’ll cover the stock up shopping in my next post.

The Re-Farmer

Back home, and a new source for cat food?

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But first, the cuteness!

Big, giant cuteness.

Leyendecker is such a big boi!

Today was my day to take my mother to her medical appointment. It got hot fast this morning, even as I was just going my rounds. As I write this, coming up on 7pm, we are still at 29C/84F, and the humidex is at 34C/93F. This heat is supposed to continue for the next couple of days, and no rain or even thunderstorms expected, so tomorrow morning, I’ll have to make sure to give the garden beds a deep watering, before it gets really hot again.

I am really appreciating the AC in the truck!

I was thinking of going to my mother’s a bit early, so we could get a bit of a visit in before her appointment, since I had to go to pick up eggs after. I was going to call her to see if she was good with my arriving early when she called me, instead.

While I was in the washroom, of course.

The message she left was almost a wail, asking where I was, and did I forget about the appointment today?

I had told her I would arrive at about noon. She was calling shortly after 11.

So I called her back and told her I could leave right away. In the end, it was only about half an hour earlier than I intended to be there originally.

I tried to have a conversation with her. I really did!

Unfortunately, it didn’t work out well. A couple of times, I was trying to share some information with her related to the topic at hand, and she would cut me off and start going off on a rant. It was as if she’d assumed the conclusion of what I was saying and responding to that – even though it was not at all what I was trying to say. She had no interest in what I was actually saying, but in what she thought I was saying.

When she cut me off again by making a racist comment, I gave up and suggested it was time to leave.

So we were a bit early for the appointment.

While in the waiting room, we got to talking about the purpose of the appointment, which was to get her medications reviewed, including the changes done by the ER doctor, and for the pharmacy to get the updated information before they have to do her next bubble packs.

That’s when I found out my mother wasn’t taking the one pill the ER doctor told her to start taking again, every day. She was taking it every other day. She had already been saying to me, how she was feeling better after being back on the pill, but then she was saying that she was feeling worse after being back on that pill.

I told her she needs to stop messing with her prescriptions, and that we needed to make sure to tell the doctor about this. She was to stop taking the pill for 30 days, and the blood work she had done would tell the doctor if anything about it needed to be changed.

When the doctor came in, we explained about my mother going to the ER. She tried to look it up on my mother’s file.

The hospital never sent the information to her!

She was able to go online and link into their files, though, and see test results, at least. There were no notes of any kind attached, which was very frustrating. The ER doctor had not only told my mother to start taking this one prescription again, but doubled another one, so she’s now taking it morning and evening – but no information as to why the doctor made these decisions!

The other information was there, though. My mother had Xrays done, and everything looked clear. The hospital’s blood work was done a week after my mother did her scheduled blood work after stopping the pill for 30 days, so the doctor was able to compare three different test results; the first one that identified a problem, then the other two showing any changes.

My mother’s results showed significant improvement in that 30 day period, and even more improvement in just the week before the ER tested her again. Everything is now right back where it should be!

The doctor has taken this pill off my mother’s prescriptions. If my mother starts to have any particular symptoms start, she’ll add it back, but only as a “take as needed” prescription, not part of her bubble packs.

My mother’s turning 93 this year and, for all her complaints about her health, she is remarkably resilient and has an amazing recovery time. It’s just amazing!

After her appointment was done, my mother had wanted to go to a particular grocery store that was on our way out of town, but she changed her mind as we were leaving. It turned out she’d only eaten a piece of toast for breakfast, and had deliberately not eaten lunch before this appointment. I’m not sure why! Needless to say, she was famished, so we stopped for lunch and shared a pizza. After that, she didn’t have the energy to get out of the truck again.

As we were leaving her town, I’d pointed out to her where I’d be going to get eggs later; part of their property borders the highway. My mother suggested I stop to pick up the eggs on the way, rather than driving back later. She even said she might want to get some eggs, too.

Of course, what she really wanted as to see was the egg lady’s place and make judgements. Because that’s what my mother does!

I ended up sending a message to the egg lady, because I wasn’t sure if she was even home.

She wasn’t, but she was on the way.

I told her about my mother being interested in getting a dozen eggs, too, and we worked things out. I was going to stop at a gas station and take my time about it, to give her more time to get home ahead of me.

Which worked out well. We got there and, as we were driving in, my mother got to see the guinea hens, and a couple of free range goats, without having to leave the truck.

She changed her mind about the eggs, though. Which I expected, since I knew that was just her way to get me to take her to the egg lady’s place.

I don’t think my mother was impressed. It didn’t look like a picture postcard, but an active homestead and home based business that also involved animals.

I’m probably going to hear about it later. At the time, she was just too tired to say much.

I got her home and settled in, but couldn’t stay long with the eggs in the truck; they didn’t fit in any of my insulated bags. Hopefully, my mother went for a nap soon after I left!

As we were driving into her town, though, I realized the farmer’s market was started. It’s every Friday, but I’m almost never in this town on Fridays. I saw my cousin’s truck there, too, so I wanted to make a quick stop.

But first, I wanted to stop at a nearby feed store. We haven’t been able to connect with the Cat Lady to pick up the kibble donation, and we were running low. I knew the grocery store prices would be insane, but maybe the feed store would be better.

Plus, it was half a block away from the farmer’s market.

So I went there first and looked around. Sure enough, they did have cat food – in 40 pound bags! (18.1kg). The price was a little over $60, though, which would have used up most of my cash on hand. They did have 20 pound bags (9.1kg) for just over $30, though. It looked like they had only one 20lb bag left, too! So I bought it and paid cash. Then I picked up the bag and set it on my shoulder to carry it out.

Which is when I heard and felt something very strange.

I pulled the bag down and discovered the sewn strip across the top had come loose. I’d just spilled kibble all over the floor!

Of course, I was very apologetic. What mess!

The guy behind the counter came out with a broom and dustpan to clean it up while telling the other guy (the owner?), who was in the office, what happened. They talked back and forth for a bit when the other guy said, “give her a 40 pound bag.”

??? !!!

In the end, the other guy came out and went to their storage building out back and got me a 40 pound bag himself, while the guy behind the counter finished sweeping up the kibble.

So I got to take home a 40 pound bag for the price of a 20 pound bag!

That was so awesome of them!

As soon as possible, I want to go back and pay the difference.

The one guy (the one I think is the owner) was also complaining to the guy behind the counter that almost ever third bag they’ve been getting, the stitching is loose at one corner, so this is not the first time it’s been a problem! As he was loading the bag into the back of my truck, he made a point of telling me this, and to watch out for those corners.

With such great customer service, I definitely plan to go back there!

Plus…

While the price per kg is slightly higher than what I’m paying at Walmart for the 9kg bags, and Costco has even better prices for that size, the price is SO much better than at the grocery stores. Factoring in the cost of gas to drive to the city, and it comes out cheaper.

So while we will still pick up kibble when we are already in the city to do our stock up shopping, when it comes time to get more, later in the month, it would be more cost effective to buy from the feed store than to drive to the nearest Walmart.

Best of all, I’ve already given some to the cats outside, and they like it. The last time I got kibble at a feed store, it was in another town, and they had 16kg bags (35 pounds) for an even better price. The problem was, the cats didn’t like it, at all. Even the outside cats didn’t want to eat it. They did anyhow, since there was nothing else, but this stuff is clearly a better quality cat food.

After getting the cat food, I popped over to the farmer’s market. I talked to my cousin for a while, and picked up some of his creamed honey. He doesn’t have a lot of honey right now; he lost all his bees when a neighbour sprayed their field for grasshoppers, and had to buy more. He doesn’t have much of an inventory yet. No 3kg buckets for quite a while!

Then, I made a quick stop at a booth selling baked goods and picked up a bumbleberry pie. It had better be good – it cost more than the honey I just bought, and more than twice the grocery store price!

While I was doing that, I got a message from my husband asking if I could swing by the post office. I had just enough time to get there before they closed.

All this made for a very long day, but a more productive one than I expected. I’m really glad I remembered this feed store and decided to check it out.

Ugh. I need to go outside and do my evening rounds. It’s now coming up on 8pm, and we’re still 27C/81F with the humidex at 30C/86F.

It’s going to be sticky out there!

Even our overnight temperatures are supposed to only drop to 19C/66F. I think I’ll be leaving my window fan to keep blowing hot air out, for the night.

There should be quite a few raspberries to pick, though, so I’d better remember to bring a bucket of some kind, and get out there!

The Re-Farmer

Unexcepted concerns, and unexpected finds

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I am so exhausted.

First, the cuteness.

Adam was blocking my way into the house again, nursing the bebbies – including Button! I’m so happy to see he’s been absorbed into the creche.

Now for the more serious stuff.

Last night, I got a call from my mother. She had called for an ambulance and, as we had discussed before, she was letting me know so that I could update the rest of the family and check on her place, etc.

That was at about… 4:30pm – ish.

After several hours with no word, I tried calling the closer hospital ER I thought they would take her to.

She wasn’t there.

So I tried the next hospital, and there she was.

She was stable and doing fine, but a doctor had not seen her yet.

After confirming phone numbers for myself and my brother, who has PoA, that was about it.

My plan was to head over to check on her place in the morning. I wasn’t decided on whether I should call the hospital before I left, or from my mother’s town.

I ended up not being able to sleep at all until past 5am. Since I was intending to do some driving, when I woke up less than 2 hours later, I asked my daughters to take care of the morning outside stuff and tried to get more sleep.

It didn’t work.

About an hour later, I found a direct message from my brother, asking if I’d heard anything. No one had called him. I had not heard anything, either.

I was tying my shoes, getting ready to head out, when the phone rang. It was the hospital, letting me know my mother was discharged and ready to go home with a prescription. After confirming which entrance I’d be picking her up at, I was on my way.

It turns out she’d spent the entire night basically in the waiting room, in between getting tests and Xrays done. There were no beds available. When I got there, she was talking to another older woman who had been there just as long as my mother, and still hadn’t been seen by a doctor! It was 15 hours in the ER by then!

I got my mother into the truck, and she was so tired, she wanted to go straight home. She was, at least, given a meal while she was there!

I tried to ask lots of questions about how things went, and she was already starting to forget details. I got information in dribs and drabs over the next while. When we were at her place, she showed me the hand written prescription she was given. I didn’t think she had one, since she also told me the doctor assured her copies of everything would go to both her doctor and the pharmacy.

The good news is, the issue found the last time she saw the doctor has improved. The bad news it, it had nothing to do with why she called the ambulance. She did get one of her prescription doses increased, though, and – little by little – she told me things the doctor suggested that we’ve already been trying to get her to do for … oh… several years now? She still flat out refuses to get a hospital bed.

Then she showed me the physical prescription. I couldn’t read some of it, but it looked like one medication’s dose was increase, so I said I would take it to the pharmacy and talk to them about it.

I’m glad I did. They needed that physical copy.

It turned out one medication was back to normal; the pharmacy didn’t even know there was a chance, since it was a temporary experiment. Another did have an increased dose. After some discussion, I went back to my mother’s to get her bubble packs, so they could add the change to them. It was going to take long enough that I had time to have breakfast while I waited!

By the time I got the updated bubble packs and brought them to my mother. She was sleeping soundly, so I just left them on her table with a note.

I think hung around town just long enough that the post office would be open when I got to our little hamlet. M, I got your surprise parcels, but have not looking them them yet. Thank you so much! I ended up having 4 packages, including a large but light one, so I messaged my daughters to have one of them meet me at the garage, to bring them in.

Once we got everything inside, it was late enough that I decided to top up the kibble for the outside cats.

That’s when I found a less pleasant surprise, on the ground under the water bowl shelter.

A stillborn kitten, still fully encased in its amniotic sac and attached to its placenta.

I went around to put kibble in the bowls under the shrine, and found a second one!

After that, I decided to do some walking around to see if there were any others.

There was not, so I buried the two that I found.

I don’t even know what cat was pregnant. There is one – I believe a sibling to Peanut Butter cup – that we’ve not been able to get close to, but I’ve been able to confirm as female. I think she might be pregnant. She’s so fluffy, it’s hard to tell, but if she is, she still is, and the stillborns were not hers. No other cat that I know is female looked even remotely pregnant.

After the sad job of burying the babies, I made a point of checking things I normally would have in my morning rounds. I find my morning rounds to be very meditative and enjoyable.

It was, however, hot and muggy. As I write this, just past 4pm, we’re at 29C/84F with the humidex at 32C/90F, and we haven’t even reached our high of the day, yet.

Yesterday, when I saw no rain in the forecast, I wrote that I would have expected thunderstorms. Well, last night, I did hear thunder in the distance as storms passed us by. While I was driving to get my mother, there were storm warnings on the radio, including the possibility of golf ball sized hail! Our local forecast now says rain should be starting around 11 or 12 this evening, and continuing until about 2am. We are now also expected to have rain all day Monday. We’re supposed to cool down slightly over the next few days, then get hot again. For us, that means close to, or hotter than, 30C/86F.

The conditions are frustrating. The coolest part of the day is in the morning, but the humidity is so high, it’s too damp to do anything like mowing or weed trimming. I need to get the weed trimmer out to work on the log frame of the low raised bed, but the winter squash plants are getting so big and long, it’s going to be a challenge to do the work without damaging them. I should be able to temporarily fix them to the trellis netting for the peas and beans, though.

So the grass cutting and weed trimming needs to wait until things are no longer too wet – but by then, it’s too hot. The temperatures don’t start coming down until about 7pm – and if the heat doesn’t get us, the mosquitoes and horseflies will! Bug spray or not bug spray!

Bah. At least the garden is planted. If we’re expecting rain tonight, I might take a chance and plant some kohlrabi in the empty space where the Purple Caribe potatoes didn’t come up.

But not until things start to cool down.

Until then, I’ve got a couple of boxes to open up and see what’s inside!

The Re-Farmer

New bed progress

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I’m taking a hydration break, then we’ll be doing a dump run and an errand run into town, so I figured I should make a progress post before we head out.

Yesterday’s fast passing thunderstorm didn’t give us enough rain to saturate the cardboard on the bed I worked on, yesterday. I used a hose on the cardboard, but I’m not too concerned about getting it really saturated before adding the soil. That spot doesn’t have standing water right now, but it is very wet. Once the weight of the soil is on the cardboard, and it is compressed against the wet soil below, it will get saturated quite quickly on its own.

The first thing I needed to do was push my way through the jungle to get to the pile of garden soil. This is the first time it’s been uncovered this year. It’s amazing how much can grow under that … landscape cloth? I salvaged from around the old wood pile, years ago.

The soil was so full of crab grass rhizomes, I actually had to sort of pre-sift the soil with my hands and pull out as many roots as I could, just so I could shovel it onto the sifter over the wheelbarrow! I didn’t fill the wheelbarrow as much as I normally would, as I wanted room to mix in the sulfur granules. I broke open the second package for the first time, so we’ll be able to compare with the other beds, if there’s any difference in how well they help acidify our alkaline soil.

With the smaller loads, it meant more trips. I think was five or six loads? I lost track I made the bed deeper in the middle than the sides, since it’s going to have large squash plants in it.

Then I stopped for a cool down and hydration break. According to my weather app, it’s 17C/63F out there, with a “feels like” of 16C/61F

It felt way hotter than that, to me!

Before I get back to it, my daughter and I will be doing a dump run, then a trip into town. She and her sister have some of their own shopping to do.

Once I get back at it. I’ll be transplanting the three Crespo squash into the new bed. I’ve decided that, since I have to put something around them to protect them from deer, I will take advantage of that. I will plant pole or climbing seed beans along two sides and the barrier will be their trellis. The deer do eat bean plants as well, but if I put the netting on right, that won’t happen until the plants are much larger and better able to survive such an onslaught.

In theory, I could do a “three sisters” type thing, but the idea of planting just a few corn in the middle of the squash seems useless to me. If we’re going to plant corn, it’s going to be a much larger amount!

Anyhow, I’ll take a look at the bean seeds I have and decide if I want to do pole beans for fresh eating, or seed beans that will be left alone until fall to harvest. I’m leaning more towards fresh eating, since we’ve got so little of that started right now!

The first week of June is already done, and I’ve done none of the “after last frost date” direct sowing, yet! Okay, okay. It’s only 6 days since our last frost date, and we’ve been known to have frost even later, but it just feels like time is slipping through my fingers, with all the delays and interruptions.

Ah, well. We’ll get in what we can, and make do with what we have!

Then, just to make things even more frustrating, I got a phone call from my mother while I was writing this. When I asked how she was doing, she started going on about her pills, and my first thought was that she was going to ask me to take her to the hospital for some reason. As she kept talking in circles, I had to stop her and tell her to get to her point (I was just too hot and too tired to follow her when she gets like this). She didn’t aske me to take her to the hospital. Instead, she started talking about how she took all her pills – it sounded like she was saying she took all her pills at once! – and then about the one she was not supposed to take anymore…

I eventually was able to get her to explain to me that she had been going through her pills yesterday evening, and comparing them to her old, leftover pills that she never throws away, and comparing them to each other, and she has decided that white round pills in the morning (her water pills) and the round white pills in the evening (blood thinners, if I remember correctly) were the same pills, because they also both have the number 20 on them. I explained to her that the number is for the pharmacist to know what the dose is, not what kind of pill it is. She said, they’re mixed up. I said no, that’s why they’re in the bubble packs. So they don’t get mixed up. Don’t take them out of the bubble packs, so they don’t get mixed up!

She hung up on me.

So my mother has decided her pills are “wrong”. The one I identified for her as the water pills are not really her water pills.

She is absolutely determined to mess herself up, and convinced that others are deliberately giving her the wrong medications or telling her the wrong things, because they are hiding things from her.

This is not the first time we’ve had these issues. It’s just getting worse, as she gets older.

I ended up sending an email to my siblings to update her. Then I called the guy at home care and left a message about what’s going on, and what she’s doing to herself, because there’s no way we’d be able to talk about this during his meeting with her. That would really set her paranoia off!

Hopefully, between my siblings and I, we’ll be able to convince her to take her medications as directed.

Now that I think about it, my mother probably took her pills out of their bubble packs so she can see them more closely, and now can’t tell the white round pills apart. If she only did that for one day, that wouldn’t be too bad, but who knows, at this point.

*sigh*

I wish I could say this is a new thing showing up with her cognitive decline but, to be honest, she’s always done this. It’s just getting worse as she gets older.

I admit, I was shorter with her than usual. I was hot and tired and just didn’t have the ability to follow her along when she starts talking in circles like that. I really think a big part of it is, she wants us to be paying attention to her, and to jump when she says jump. There is very much a control element involved. Again, not a new thing, but at this stage, it’s far more disruptive, and far more potentially harmful to herself.

I’m glad that she actually wants to go into a nursing home, and asked for the process to be started. Her reasons why may be about her physical limitations, but I really think it’s her cognitive issues that are the more urgent safety concerns right now.

Well, we’ll see how things go when the home care panel is done on Monday. Hopefully, she’ll get in for that required brain MRI soon – or that it is not something that would delay any decisions to get her into long term care.

It is what it is. We’ll figure it out!

The Re-Farmer

More plans gone awry

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I should be used to this, by now.

With my computer dying before Christmas, we never did our traditional family photo that I email to family and friends every year. With the lilacs in full bloom, we were doing to do it now, posting under the lilac hedge.

The weather did not cooperate.

Then I got an early morning phone call from my mother’s doctor. My mother’s last lab work included a kidney test. The last time she had this done would have been around February, and the results were fine. This time, there was a significant decline. The doctor explained the test results and gave me instructions for my mother; she needs to stop taking her water pills, and work on hydration.

I’ve been trying to get her to increase her hydration for quite a while, now!

Then she needs to be tested again, in a month.

That call done, I knew it was too early to call my mother, so I sent an email update to my siblings, did a short version of my morning rounds and had breakfast.

I did make sure to leave food for Broccoli in the old garden shed. Her kittens were not in the cat bed, but I could hear her growling in the back somewhere, so I left the food and closed the door. As I was leaving, I saw her pop out where the hole in the back of the shed is. Later on, I saw her standing guard near the shed. So I’m guessing her kittens are still in there, but that she’s tucked them somewhere in the back, under a bunch of stuff that’s been in the shed since before we moved here.

After a couple of hours, I tried calling my mother – and she was still in bed! Ah, well. I told her about the call from her doctor, and explained the instructions for her. The problem is, she’s not sure which of her pills is the water pills. I have a photograph of her prescriptions in her bubble packs, but that’s somewhere in the external drive of data saved from my dead computer. I sort my pictures by date, and I have no idea when I would have take the picture. My brother has the list, but won’t be able to get to it until he gets home from work.

After talking to my mother, I called her doctor’s clinic and asked about her requisition. I wanted to know if they could send it to the lab in the hospital that’s just a few blocks from my mother (the clinic there has even more trouble keeping doctors than other towns we’ve tried). It turns out they can’t fax it to that lab. They’d be willing to, but it goes against the rules of the other lab. However, if I were in the area, I could swing by and get it printed out for my mother. Once she has a physical copy, she can go to any lab she wants. So I’ll see if I’ll be able to do that within the next few weeks. Otherwise, I’ll have to drive her to the town her doctor is in, and that’s very tiring for my mother.

I did make arrangements with my mother to help her with grocery shopping tomorrow, so I can go through her prescriptions and verify. She’s on the same water pills my husband is, but when he showed me his, they didn’t look like any of hers, so they must be from a different supplier. The pharmacy we go to is a different franchise.

Speaking of pharmacies…

I was getting ready to head outside, when I found out I was going to need to go to the pharmacy. I was planning to do a dump run when it opened in the evening, then a run into town anyhow, but that would have cut things close to the pharmacy’s closing time, so I left for town right away, instead. By then, the post office was closed over the lunch period and a couple of packages had come in early, so I went to a couple of other places after getting the medications, then did the grocery store last. Once of the things I wanted to do was pick up a new water jug, along with getting a refill. With one of the jugs springing a leak, we were down to three, and that was just not working out. I was rather shocked to discover getting a new 18.9L jug cost just over $26!!! The fill is free when you buy a new jug, but I did have to buy a new cap, since I had to take off the cap it came with, in order to fill it.

All the running around took several hours.

I must have over did myself yesterday, more than I thought, because by the time I got home, I was pretty much wasted. I still feel wasted, and it’s all I can do not to just go to bed right now. It’s not even 6pm yet.

It also rained again. We weren’t supposed to get rain today. Not much. Just smatters of rain, but there’s no chance of anything really drying out right now.

I did make myself go outside, though. I gave the outside cats a light afternoon feeding (the little skunk was back for food, too!). I wanted to at least check all the transplants. The plastic on the box cover around the eggplant and hot peppers was starting to tear loose on one side, so I stapled that back on. The twine I tied around it yesterday did help, but the winds have been just insane for the past while.

All the transplants look just fine, though. None of them look stressed at all in their new locations. I’ve no doubt their protective plastic rings has helped with that, considering the winds we’ve been having. I checked the mulberry, too, but they didn’t look all that healthy when I planted them, so all I can say is, they don’t look any worse!

The largest chokecherry tree, out by the main garden area, has started to bloom. It actually starts blooming later than the ones along the edge of the spruce grove that I haven’t removed. Those ones actually get more sunlight than the one by the garden. The double lilac in the old kitchen garden is starting to pass its peak blooming period, but the honeysuckle are just starting to open. The white lilacs are also well into their blooming period now, while more Cherokee roses, by the sun room door, are starting to open. The pink rose inside the old kitchen garden has buds, but even with the pruning we’ve done, it still doesn’t get as much sunlight because of the ornamental crab apple tree in the corner of the garden bed. Those have bloomed, but not as much as in the past few years, and all of the crab apple trees seem to already be done blooming. They did not stay in flower for very long at all!

All the common lilacs are blooming now and, as you can imagine, the yard smells amazing! At least for a few moments before the wind blows the scent away. The dwarf Korean lilac by the house is still just budding, and then there’s the one I can’t remember the name of, over the be vehicle gate into the yard. That one blooms last of all.

I wonder if it would bloom earlier if we got rid of that big elm tree by the people gate? It does seem to be struggling a bit more this year. That could be because it’s so close to the “moat” that’s formed around the garage, with all the rain we’ve had.

Checking on things and repairing the box cover over the eggplant was about as much as I could manage. Even my ears are burning, from being out in the wind, yesterday and today. That left elbow is still giving me grief. I forget about it, until I try to pick something up, and my arm just fails on me. At least I can still turn doorknobs. 🫤 I took more pain killers and they should have kicked in by now, but it doesn’t seem to be making much difference. Ah, well.

I just want to hang on a bit longer before going to bed. Hopefully, I’ll get an early start tomorrow – and well finally get that family photo that keeps getting delayed, along with everything else!

The Re-Farmer

A very long day, and that’s hilarious!

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Today was my day to take my mother in for her doctor’s appointment, but it was late enough in the day that I could still do my morning rounds.

The double lilac in the old kitchen garden are starting to really open up. With the recent deluge we had, with other areas getting snow, quite a few people on my gardening groups lamented the loss of everything they planted on the May long weekend. Quite a few others responded by saying to not put out any tender transplants or seeds until after the lilacs start to bloom.

We have 5 different kinds of lilacs, and they all bloom at different times. These double lilacs bloom first, and we’re still almost a week away from our last frost date! So that’s a rule of thumb I’m going to ignore! 😄

Speaking of thumbs, we’ve got more Red Thumb and Purple Caribe potatoes coming up. No sign of the German Butterball, but they were planted quite a while later. Of the sugar snap peas, the first ones we planted still have a whole three sprouts growing, but the second planting has quite a few breaking ground now! The carrots are still so tiny, it’s hard to tell how many have actually survived. We’ll need to plant more, anyhow. The spinach seems to be struggling, too. We’ve had both excellent results with spinach, and absolutely awful results. In this bed, though, I would have expected better results. We’ll see how they do as our weather clears.

I also spotted some tiny, distinctive leaves in the wattle weave bed. The chamomile successfully self sowed!

I headed out to go to my mother’s early, first to make sure the truck was prepped for her to be able to climb in, and to be able to get her folded up walker in, behind her seat. The little step stool I got was also handy. Of course, I checked the tires, because I always check the tires! The spare is holding up nicely, but that front driver’s side tire needed a top up again. It’ll be good when we can finally change out those valve stems, but my goodness, our budget has been hit hard these last few months.

Before going to my mother’s, I swung by the post office to get the mail. I’ll get to what was in there in just a little bit! As I was in the truck, updating the family before leaving, who should pull in, but our vandal. At first, he seemed to avoid looking at me, but as he got to the door of the store, he actually waved hello, pleasantly, before heading in. My hands were occupied, so I just smiled and nodded. I have heard that he’s been going to AA and such, as well as struggling with health issues, so maybe he’s improving. I’m not holding my breath, but there was a time when we were very close. One can hope things will get better.

Once at my mother’s, I was early enough that we could go over a few things first. She had two shopping lists; one for the pharmacy, and one for the grocery store. She also had a few little things she needed help with that I could do when we got back, plus some stuff she wanted me to take home with me. This included a church bulletin, which is basically just a newsletter. When we had a church to go to in the city, I really liked their bulletins, as they were basically what the service was for the day, with either responses right in the bulletin, or page numbers for them in service books/hymnals. This was especially appreciated when we first starting going there.

Gosh, I miss that church.

Along with the bulletin, she had a couple of women’s magazines for me. The social workers that visit her building give them to her, then she passes them on to me instead of putting them in recycling. I told her, we don’t read them, so go ahead and recycle them. This was about the only time my mother went on a bit of a rampage. Apparently, she wanted us to read the magazines because we (meaning my daughters) don’t go anywhere (she assumes), and don’t do anything (???), so we need to be exposed to stuff like magazines. I told her, these particular magazines are pretty much all about selling weight loss products. Oh, but they have good recipes! To which I said, Mom. We have the Internet. We have access to everything that’s in this magazine, and more. If fact, we can have access to these magazines, too! She finally stopped pushing after that. I must say, I am getting rather tired of her basically giving us her garbage to get rid of.

Speaking of which, she also had a container of something frozen… for the cats.

*sigh*

At least this time, it wasn’t something full of onions! I mentioned that onions are poisonous to cats, and I think she remembered.

We left fairly early for her appointment, so we had a bit of a wait. That gave me time to show her some photos and videos on my phone that my brother and his wife had sent me, as they are currently out of province. As time passed, I ended up showing her pictures on Pinterest to keep her occupied. I know what to look for, for her, and she seems to really enjoy it. She never got much chance to complain about how long it was taking, which she started to do a whole 3 minutes past her appointment time. 😄

The appointment itself went far more quickly than I expected. When we told the doctor we were there for a long term care assessment, she looked up the file and read the report from the woman that assessed my mother’s cognitive abilities a while back. The one area of note involved memory loss – more short term than long term. There is a medication that can help with that, but I already know my mother wouldn’t want to take another prescription. It turns out to be a moot point. One of the medications my mother is on is for a heart condition, and this medication is dangerous for people with heart conditions. Not that my mother actually has one. When she last saw the coronary specialist, it was shortly after we moved here, and I was there for it, along with my brother. My mother has a very healthy heart, and she was most unhappy to hear that, since she was convinced she was having heart problems and that he must be lying to her (we now know she was feeling really bad heartburn, but it took a few years to figure that out!). This heart medication she’s on is for something else. However, if there’s any sort of contraindication, my mother is not going to get this other prescription.

As for the long term care assessment, I was expecting my mother to get lots of questions, but the doctor basically accepted that, if my mother feels she needs to be in long term care, then she needs to be in long term care! There are just hoops to jump. The first ones, we could take care of right away. My mother got requisitions for lab work, chest X-ray and an EKG. All of that was available right across the waiting room. The only set back there was my mother had to get onto a bed for the EKG. She really struggled to get up there, and there wasn’t any way for us to help her. There was a stool available, but that was actually more difficult. Later on, as she was struggling to get into the truck, she told me it was easier to do that, then get onto that bed for her EKG!

The next things she needs will be done later. She’s got a referral for a home care panel, which will be done in her home, and she has a referral for a brain MRI. Once the doctor gets the last of the results, it all gets sent in for the long term care referral. I’m assuming there is some sort of approval process, then she gets put onto a waiting list.

I had been told we’d be asked to give the names of our top three preferred long term care centres, and I had that ready. However, when it came up, the doctor said there isn’t a choice. You get wherever there’s an opening. Which I found rather strange. Still, even if she doesn’t get in where she wants to be, my mother can be transferred later, when there is an opening. Transfers take precedence over the waiting list.

So the ball is now rolling. My mother is getting increasingly eager to move into a nursing home! I think part of that eagerness is because she feels that, if she ever did need help where she is now, like if she had a fall or something, the people around her couldn’t be relied on to come to her aid. She wants to be somewhere with a staff that has that ability to help, and I think she recognizes her own decline, to a certain extent. Talking about things like memory loss, during the drive back, we talked about things like forgetting the stove on – something she is already extremely cautious about, even if she hasn’t used the stove! When I commented that, if she were having such issues, she wouldn’t even know it, she immediately agreed. I think that was something else she was aware of, but didn’t have the vocabulary to express.

So that was done.

Before taking her home, we made the stops we needed for her shopping. She stayed in the truck! After everything was brought in and put away, I did the few things she needed help with in her apartment. By then, it was time for her to take her evening meds, and she was feeling really tired. So was I!

Once at home and I brought in the mail, I had a package I was told was coming – but the contents were a rather hilarious surprise!

Healthy Poops! 😂😂

Thank you, M, for the donation! 😄😄

The ingredients are pumpkin, flax seed, coconut, chicory root, turmeric, ginger and banana. The dose for under 25 pounds is 1/2 Tbsp per day. The container holds about 28 Tbsp. When we make our cat soup again (we are currently out of wet cat food), this can replace the ground pumpkin seeds we are using now. Until then, it can be dusted onto the kibble.

Not all the cats have … issues… but it certainly won’t hurt! Turmeric is anti-inflammatory, and I’m sure our elderly cats will appreciate that, too. It should be interesting to see how they respond to it! Apparently, cats like it enough that it comes with a warning that this is to be used as if it were a treat, not as a meal, and to start off slow.

So that is something we will start using tomorrow. The lysine we ordered came in early, along with some other cat meds, too.

Yeah. We’re sucks for the cats!

The Re-Farmer

All the things…

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… and it’s barely past noon!

First the fun stuff.

I counted 31 yard cats this morning! Likely because it’s a rather chilly and damp morning – and I was a bit later than usual for bringing food out!

With the chill and that damp, I don’t expect to get much done outside, but I might get some seeds planted into cells this evening. I might wait another day, but when I checked the mixed melon seeds when shutting down the lights last night, I saw a whole bunch of radicles peaking out! None of the other seeds are showing them yet, but almost all the mixed seeds were sprouting. I checked again this morning, and it looks like we’re at not quite 100% germination with the mixed melons, already! This was the packet that had 21 seeds in it. The large celled trays I am trying out this year have 21 cells, so that works out, if they all make it. I don’t want to put them in soil too quickly, though. A bit more time in the warmth and dampness above the heat mat will be good for them.

Speaking of dampness…

While checking the status of the basement, I was able to shift the new blower fans to focus more on the stairs. The space under the stairs is looking pretty dry, as well as most of the concrete floor, but it’s going to take longer on the steps.

We should probably remove that carpet that’s nailed to the stairs. Most likely, it’s scrap carpet salvaged from somewhere that my parents acquired and added during the years we lived out of province. Likely to make them less of a potential slip hazard? Or just because they felt like it. I don’t know. I think, in the near future, we should pick up a gallon of durable paint, get rid of the carpet, and paint the stairs as soon as possible, so there aren’t any exposed holes in the wood. The girls have plans for fixing the basement up a bit, including painting the ceiling – the exposed floor beams and joists – white, to brighten up a really dark area. I’d like to get more of those shop lights that we are using as grow lights. I prefer them to the lights that are already down there and, to be honest, I’m not too keen on replacing the existing wired in fixtures just yet.

But those are plans to slowly work on over time.

I checked the root cellar floor as well, and it’s mostly try, so the box fan remains. The hydrometer I’ve got in there was at 60% humidity still!

We might later need to move the new blower fans to the counter shelves. The pedestal fans are still aimed at them, and there is significant improvement, but there’s a lot of stuff blocking air flow. We’ll probably need to move some things out – and it’s a good excuse to finally drag out the old door from our old van that my brother was able to replace for us, shortly after we moved out here. Yeah, it’s been sitting there all these years, just in case parts were needed. Now that we no longer have the van, there is no reason to leave it there.

Other than the weight and how awkward it would be to get it up the stairs and out the door!

Anyhow.

After I did my rounds this morning, I called my mother. She sounded better, but she told me she was preparing to head out to the clinic. I asked how she was feeling, and yes, the Pepto seemed to really make a difference. We talked a bit about that, and then she went back to talking about going to the clinic today.

Why, if she’s feeling better?

She kept jumping back to my brother telling her that she needed a doctor to say she could move to the nursing home, and I eventually figured out that she believed she could just show up at the clinic, have a doctor say she needed to move to a nursing home, and basically start getting ready to move.

She has gotten really eager to move out of where she is and into the nursing home! Specifically, the one in town, where her sister and my father spent their final time, as well as many old friends and neighbours of hers.

Once I figured out why she still wanted to go to the clinic, I told her it doesn’t work that way! I told my mother she would need to make an appointment, then told her I would call the clinic about it right away, and get back to her.

Which I did, and had a great conversation with what turned out to be an unusually knowledgeable receptionist on the topic. It turns out she also does home care and is quite familiar with the process.

One of the things she told me is that we need to give the doctor a “top 3” of nursing home choices, not just the one my mother wants to live in, and they all have to be in the same region.

My mother’s doctor, however, is on holiday for most of May, so the earlier appointment I could get for my mother was at the end of May. She booked my mother for a longer appointment, since it is for a long term care assessment, and made sure the appropriate forms were attached to the appointment file.

I really like the people in this clinic!

Then I called my mother back with her appointment, and explained things to her, including how this just puts her on a waiting list, so the whole thing can take months, and she might not end up where she wants to be. We talked about other towns with nursing homes, and even the smaller, nearer city, which is in the same region (the bigger city is its own region, by itself). When we’d talked about assisted living previously, she was adamant she never wanted to live there, but now that we’re talking nursing homes, she actually seemed quite okay with the idea of living there. Particularly since it puts her closer to both my brother and sister. It’s roughly half way between us and my brother’s, so our trips to see her would be about the same length of time. My sister would be only maybe 15 minutes away, at most.

But, who knows? We have to get her assessed first, and we now have an appointment to get that ball rolling.

My mother updated, I then updated my siblings. While we can all help out, ultimately, it’s on my brother, as Power of Attorney for my mother, to finalize things on her behalf.

After all that, I was finally able to take a breather, have breakfast and start this post – at lunch time! 😄

I’m glad to have gotten that done, but I’m also glad to NOT be making a trip to the clinic with my mother, nor anywhere else. I don’t even have to go to the pharmacy; my husband’s refills are going to be delivered today.

Between all the phone calls and writing, and the cool, damp weather, what I’d really like to do now is go for a nap. Weather like this always makes me so sleepy!

The Re-Farmer

Gorgeous days, and another delay

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It is so beautiful out there right now!

And so is this beastly beast!

Rolando Moon was loving the hard packed snow on the sides of the driveway, while I was doing my morning rounds. In fact, all the cats were running around, enjoying the bright morning sunshine. I counted 26 this morning. The most I’ve seen for a while, now!

At the time I did my morning rounds, it was about -5C/23F, but felt much warmer. As I write this, shortly after 1pm, we’re at 2C/36F, and expected to reach a high of 5C/41F! Several degrees warmer than the forecast has been, for the past few days.

Even yesterday, with the forecast shifting and predicting a high of 2C/36F, we actually hit 4C/39F, and things were melting all over!

This morning, I took the time to widen a section of the driveway, to make it easier to turn into the garage when coming home. Coming back to the house I noticed the old market tent set up by the fire pit was partially collapsed. It’s broken on one side, so it doesn’t take much. Unfortunately, we haven’t dug any paths to the fire pit, so I was slogging through snow half way to my knees to get to it.

Getting the roof of the market tent, which is set up over the old picnic table and the folding table we made with parts and pieces we found in the barn and basement, clear was more difficult that I expected. Because of how warm it was yesterday, melted snow started pooling in the canvas roof, even leaking through and leaving icicles hanging on the inside. We have an old hoe with rounded edges that is safe to scrape the snow off without damaging the canvas. The handle is a steel pipe welded onto the hoe, so we use it in the fire pit, rather than the garden, so it was handy. I got as much snow off the tent roof as I could, then ducked underneath to try and knock it off from below, and lift the roof supports. One section turned out to be really, really heavy for some reason. That’s when I realized there was a big pool of water that had frozen overnight! I was able to scrape more snow off and break up the ice from the outside, until I could finally lift things from the inside.

We have been using the picnic table to cure onions and potatoes, setting them on old window screens I found in the barn and sheds. Short scrap boards were used to elevate the screen for more air circulation. All of that is still stored on the picnic table. The boards are just long enough that I could set them up on the picnic table and the folding table to prop up the tent roof supports. Unless they get knocked over by a cat or something (the cats do love the shelter the tent and tables provide!), they should keep the roof from collapsing again. The long range forecasts have changed again and now say that, a week from now, we will have highs below freezing again and, depending on which app I look at, we might get a bit more snow, too.

I got a message from the Cat Lady last night. The “problem cat” that the city shelter had asked her to take on is going to her today. The cat had all its teeth pulled and is now well enough for her to try and rehabilitate. Which means she couldn’t meet me to get our three today. We should be able to connect mid week, but that will depend on how things go with her new acquisition.

Since we were going to meet her half way, at the smaller city, I was going to take advantage of the trip to pick up a few things. Now that we were not going to be meeting her today, after all, my younger daughter and I went to town this morning, instead. Since I was in town anyhow, one of my stops was at the pharmacy. My husband had ordered prescription refills for delivery on Wednesday, so I thought I might be able to pick those up while there. They weren’t ready yet, so those will wait, but the other reason I was there was to get our printouts for our taxes, now that my husband’s second T4A is in. They were able to print mine out, but then needed permission them to be able to give me my husband’s printout. They gave me the form for him to fill out, and we’ll give it to the delivery guy when he comes. They will make sure my husband’s printouts are included in the bag with his refills.

I found out something interesting while doing this. Just about everyone that works there knows me well, by now, so when I come in, they know my husband’s name, and that I have a hyphenated name. Today, there was a new person helping me. I first asked about the refills, and gave her my husband’s name for her to look up. She confirmed having the right file using our postal address. After she confirmed the prescription wasn’t filled yet (since it didn’t need to be delivered for another 2 days), I said it could wait and mentioned the printouts.

In looking up my file, she didn’t know I had a different name. She started confirming my postal address, but the box number was one we hadn’t used since the last time we lived in this province, some 25 years ago! A pharmacist that knows our file well came by and helped her find the right file under my hyphenated name. While doing all this, I commented that the box number she had read out was one we used to have, many years ago. She noticed that the health care number was the same.

They had two files on me!

My old file had been using my non-hyphenated married name – something I would use when people didn’t have enough space to put in my full name. A common problem I had for many years! At some point, programmers changed software to fit longer names, because I no longer have that problem.

As I was leaving, they were in the process of merging my old and new accounts, so they will have just one account for me now.

To think, if it hadn’t been for a new person who didn’t know me as well, it wouldn’t have been discovered that there was a second file for me!

I may not have been able to get my husband’s refills early, nor get his tax printouts, but we at least got that discovered and fixed!

Today was such a nice day to be out and running errands. In the time it took me to write the above, we’ve already warmed up to 4C/39F – with a “feels like” of 7C/45F! That’s downright tropical for this time of year. 😄 Meanwhile, the thermometer in the sun room is reading 15C/59F!! There are cats played out in sun spots all over the room. 😄

On days like today, I can hardly wait for the snow to be gone, and finally getting outside and back to work! We’ve still got probably another month or two before we can do that, though!

I guess I’ll just enjoy it as it is. 😊

The Re-Farmer