Mother's Day

A visit in, and getting things done

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This morning, I woke to find a message from my older daughter. She had been up all night, not feeling well at all. Her sister stayed up with her to be available to help out.

Not being in a position to cook for herself, she sent me some funds and a request. After talking to her about it, I added a Walmart trip to my list of places to go today.

The first order of business, was to load up the truck with garbage and recycling for the dump. My younger daughter helped me, but she had been up for more than 24 hours, so she was pretty dead on her feet! She headed to bed shortly after the truck was loaded.

Silly me, I headed out right away, forgetting that the dump is not on summer hours. They open at 10am now, not 9am. Thankfully, I remember that before I was a mile away, so I turned around and headed home. It worked out for the better, since I had time to have a real breakfast before going.

The dump was surprisingly busy today. Driving up to the pit, I found a row of four trucks, two with trailers, unloading. I rarely see more than two vehicles at once.

When I checked in with the attendant and told him I had household garbage and recycling, he said I hoped I had only glass! They have one recycling bin for glass, and the rest for general recycling. Six big bins, and they were all full. The recycling gets taken to the city for processing, and it hadn’t been done yet. After I was done unloading into the pit, I found the least over filled bin. Normally, as per instructions on signs, recycling would be removed from any bags; there’s even a separate blue bin, the size of a large trash bin, just for the bags. I didn’t do that today, and just set all the bags on top. When I saw the attendant going by, I made sure to tell him I was leaving them in the bags, so things wouldn’t get blown away. He appreciated that!

Once done, I headed home long enough to change out of my grubbies, then headed out.

On the way to the truck, I spotted this adorableness.

I’ve turned off the heat lamps in the sun room again, since it stays warmer overnight, but for the next couple of days, I’m leaving the heat lamp on in here. When things warm up again, I’ll shut it off during the day and turn it back on at night.

The cats were really appreciating the heat lamp!

It’s been a while since I’ve been to anywhere I could pick up a card, so I stopped at a small department store to get a Mother’s Day card and signed it before going to the TCU to visit my mother. I stopped at the nursing station first, to ask how she’s been.

The woman that had spoke to us before to talk about my mother wanting to see a doctor, and about her medications, was there. She told me that, after our little meeting, my mother had gone to the nursing station to watch her prepare my mom’s supper time medications – and was already telling her, they were the wrong medications.

They aren’t.

In the end, it comes down to my mother simply refusing to believe the nurses know what they are doing, and believing that they are deliberately messing up her medications, because she’s old and they want old people to die.

*sigh*

The staff tell her what the different pills are, every time they give them to her, explaining which is which and what they are for. She apparently just looks at them and nods her head, most times, and that’s about it. Yet I know she’s been writing notes on a pad she keeps in the drawer under her bedside table, of what she’s getting and when, writing down the descriptions of each pill and making little doodles of them, later on.

As we were talking, another nurse came behind the counter and settled in. Hearing us, she said, “Oh, we’re talking about [my mother].”

“Yes.”

“Ah…”

All I could do was shake my head. It’s not the first time I’ve had that response about my mother! She did clarify that this was a good “ah”. She was my mother’s nurse, this morning.

As we were talking, I brought up about my mother calling me, demanding I take her over to the clinic down the hall, so she could make an appointment with a doctor there. I had told her, I already asked them about it. They won’t do it. Which the nurses both confirmed with me. I told them, I had repeated this several times, until my mother hung up on me – and that’s the last time I have talked to her!

They wished me well on the visit. 😄

After getting updated on things, I went to my mother’s room to see if she was there. She wasn’t, so I headed to the common room. There were other people visiting with another resident in some armchairs by the door. My mother was in her favourite spot; an armchair right in a corner, between two large windows. Snoozing!

She woke right away, though, as I grabbed a chair and settled in beside her. I gave her the card, which she asked me to take out and read to her.

There wasn’t much to talk about, really. My brother had called her yesterday, as he and his wife were going to spend Mother’s Day weekend with their grandsons, in another province. The TCO recreation person had gotten permission from us to take her out for a Mother’s Day meal at a nearby restaurant, which is fully accessible. There were enough ladies to do this with, so they were splitting it between two days. I didn’t know which day my mother was going to be going, and I asked her about it. She said she didn’t go, because she hadn’t been feeling well. In the end, it worked out, because my sister visited that day.

She then asked me what I was planning for Mother’s Day and I ended up telling her about the all-terrain walker my husband got for me, which should arrive soon. Something that can handle being used around our yard as I work, and to keep hand in case I have another fall, like I did last year, where my daughter brought my husband’s walker for me to use to get back to the house. I even mentioned to her that I have my appointment at the sports injury clinic in the city on Monday. That got my mother talking about how my brother and I should really get my sister to be more involved in taking care of my mother, because I have so much to deal with, even though my sister doesn’t understand my mother’s medications like we do. I told her, it makes more sense for me to be the one, because I am the most available, and live the closest.

After a while, my mother brought up about wanting to see a “real” doctor at the clinic down the hall. There are three doctors that some in from the city, she says. Women doctors. She should see them. I tried to explain, again, that the clinic won’t do that. She is under a doctor’s supervision where she is, and there are nurses to take care of her. Nurses that play doctor, she told me. With some of them, she doesn’t believe they are nurses at all. One, because he’s male, and men can’t be nurses, in her mind. She had the same attitude about the male home care workers.

Before she could go off on another tangent, she then told me about the nurses messing up with her medications and not giving her what she’s supposed to, at the right times. She described an incident she says happened more than once that made absolutely no sense to me. Partly because she said she was supposed to have her blood pressure medication at that time, which I knew she didn’t. She got that one earlier in the day. She insisted, and then told me about how this person had given her her Tylenol, but not her other medications. When my mother brought it up, she claimed the person said she got was she was supposed to, but then took a pill out of a blister pack and gave it to her. My mother said she took it.

None of this made sense to me.

In the end, it was a short visit. My mother got her lunch while I was there. A chicken burger, with lettuce and tomato, cut in half, potato salad, canned peaches, tomato juice, milk and the hot water she requests in place of tea. She ate only half her burger, the potato salad, her peaches, had a few sips of tomato juice, but mostly drank the warm water. She offered me the other half of her burger, because she didn’t want it to go to waste. She said she doesn’t have as much appetite anymore. Overall, she seemed pretty down, tired and depressed. She did add that she looks forward to when it’s warmer, so maybe one of her children will take her out to that restaurant for dinner. Considering it was cloudy and trying to rain, I can understand that. Overcast and rainy weather always leaves me feeling drained and tired, too. The only time she showed any sort of energy was when the group of people across the room suddenly started to laugh. My mother glared at them, her eyes filled with absolute rage. That is something she complains about constantly, every time she’s been in the hospital over the years, and now that she’s in the TCU. Other people laughing. She has even berated people in restaurants for laughing. She complains about the noise and how disruptive it is, but I’ve come to realize, it’s not really the noise. She just hates other people showing happiness. Often times, she also believes that they are laughing at her, specifically. I think part of the problem is that she can’t conceive of other people being happy, because she, herself, never is. When – if – she laughs, it’s never out of happiness. It’s usually to mock people, or to try and manipulate them. I honestly can’t remember my mother ever laughing out of happiness, in all my life. I’m sure she had at some point, but I was probably too young to remember it.

My mother’s mind must be a terrible place to be in.

There was very little to talk about, so I helped her put aside the bedside table with the food tray so she could get up, and walked her to her room before heading out.

From there, I drove to the nearer city to do my Walmart run. Since it shares the parking lot, I swung by the Dollarama first, to see if there was anything to pick up. The gardening supplies are being stocked, and they have some really good stakes and plant supports and much better prices. They didn’t have much for those, this time, but I did end up getting a sprinkler hose. Something I can set up under a covered garden bed, so I can water without having to take the cover off completely. I do have a couple of soaker hoses, but they release water so slowly, it takes forever to water a bed. It’s just a cheap one, dollar store hose, so I don’t expect it to last very long, but it’ll last long enough that I can decide on whether it’s worth getting more. At some point, when the budget allows, we’ll probably get a drip irrigation system. Not until we trench a hose from the house and set up a replacement garden tap.

That done, I headed to the Walmart. I had a small list of my own, as well as stuff my daughter requested, and it didn’t take very long. I kept feeling like I was forgetting something, but had no idea what. It didn’t help that this location is still in the process of being renovated, and everything has been moved. It was also really busy, not just with customers, but with pallets, trollies, pallet jacks and more, blocking the aisles.

I remembered what I was forgetting, just now. I don’t even know where the section is, anymore. I was going to pick up water soluble fertilizer to add to the water for the earliest transplants. They’re getting big enough to need it. It’s will probably be at least 4 more weeks before any of them can be transplanted outside, unless I’m able to cover the beds with plastic.

That done, I headed home, though I did have to stop for gas along the way. Gas prices are still $1.889/L

After everything was unloaded and put away, I updated my siblings, then called the TCU. The woman I spoke to before visiting my mother answer the phone, which made things easier. I explained, as best I could, what my mother had told me. It didn’t make sense to her, either.

What I now know, however, is that the Tylenol they get comes sealed in blister packs. The medication my mother gets before bed, which is a blood thinner, not a blood pressure pill, comes in a paper packet that is torn open. My mother had said the nurse had waited and watched her take the Tylenol, but it had to have been her blood thinner – yet she’s never said anything about a pill being taken out of a paper packet.

I was assured that, when my mother is given her medications, each one is shown to her and explained. When talking to me about it later, it’s clear my mother doesn’t believe them. She’s had it explained to her, many times, that even though the pills might look a little different – or a lot different, as is the case with her eye vitamin – they still have the same medication and dose in them. My mother keeps saying, they are the wrong pills. Especially with that eye vitamin. Before, she had been getting the gel version, which is large and almost black in colour. Now, it’s a round white tablet.

I explained that this has been an issue in the past, when the pharmacy changed suppliers for one of her meds. It looked every so slightly different in size and tint. My mother decided that the pharmacist had changed her prescription and was giving her something else. My siblings and I explained it to her. The pharmacist explained it to her. The doctor explained it to her. She never accepted that. I told her about my mother having to have a lock box for her meds, and that I’d found a pill organizer with probably 50 pills in it that she’d taken out of her bubble packs, long before she got the lock box.

I don’t think the problem is that my mother isn’t able understand that the same medication can come indifferent forms. I think it’s more that she refuses to accept that as a possibility. She would rather believe people are incompetent, or deliberately messing with her medications.

*sigh*

Still, the nurse said she would look into what my mother described. She asked if I knew what the nurse looked like, or when it happened, but my mother’s sense of time has gotten very bad, and she only gave a description of things that bothered her for some reason. The hat the nurse was wearing, the fact that she had curls of hair hanging out from under it, behind her head, and that she was wearing a cross body “purse” (with how my mother described it, I don’t think it was a purse) that she never took off. It wasn’t much for her to go on. All I could be relatively sure of is that what my mother described would have happened after the nurse had her meeting with us, so within the past week. In the end, though, I can’t even be 100% sure of that. My mother made it sound like it was recent, but she’s done that about things that have happen days, weeks, even years ago. So who really knows.

Meanwhile, I’m getting messages, photos and video from my brother and SIL, hanging out with their grand kids. Oh, and their son and daughter in law, too. 😁 They’re having a blast! I’m glad they could make the trip out.

All in all, even with the short but rather odd visit with my mother, it’s been a good and relatively productive day. Tomorrow is expected to be cooler again, so I will use that as my excuse to get a real, honest to goodness, day of rest. I hadn’t pushed myself hard yesterday, but I still needed to get my husband to slather on the diclofenac last night. Even between that and the painkillers I took before bed, I was awakened this morning by sharp pain in my hips. Both of them. Which, strangely, lessened as soon as I was up and moving around.

I’m really looking forward to my appointment at the sports injury clinic on Monday!

Hopefully, I won’t have to deal with it again, tomorrow morning!

We shall see.

The Re-Farmer

My husband is the best

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So, it was a rough night last night.

Where I’d slept well the night before, last night I simply could not fall sleep. I finally fell asleep sometime around 6am, which is closer to when I wake up in the morning.

No, it was not because of pain. It was only partly because of cats. At least not until I finally did fall asleep and that’s when Ghosty decided to dig into and absolutely destroy things all over, waking me repeatedly until I gave up. I was finding and putting away bibs and bobs she managed to scatter for hours after I finally got up. I will probably still fine more, later on.

Lack of sleep was totally my fault, though it took me a while to figure it out.

No more Earl Grey tea – or any other caffeinated tea – before bed. 🫖🍵 Especially not an entire pot. 😂🤣

The funny thing is, I could have had an energy drink instead, then slept light a rock. I’ve been trying to ration those, because a case doesn’t last long when split three ways!

My older daughter, sweetheart that she is, took care of the morning routine for me.

Currently, I am indeed in pain, but not in my joints, as usual. That diclofenac gel is doing the job. Instead, I’m in pain because I ended up sleeping on my back, pinned flat under my blanket by the weight of I don’t know how many cats in total. There’s a reason I never sleep on my back, normally! I think they were cold last night, because they were snuggling hard against me!

Ah, well.

My husband had a surprise for me last night that I thought was funny at first, but considering how I feel right now, I think it’s more apropos than not.

He ordered a Mother’s Day gift for me, from one of my wish lists on his Amazon Prime account. Something I’d put there months ago, along with many, many other things we have both added to lists and will probably never order. It won’t arrive until after Mother’s Day, but he let me know it was ordered right away. As of this morning, it has been shipped and is expected to arrive on the 13th; a week from now. I would not be surprised if it came earlier.

This is what he ordered for me.

Yup. I’m getting a walker of my very own.

Now, I could borrow my husband’s bariatric walker. I’ve certainly had to, in the past, such as when I had my fall last June. His is designed for someone that’s burley and over 6′ tall, though.

We also have my late father’s walker, which is more suited for my height, that I have seriously considered taking with me during some of my outings. Those are usually shopping trips, though, and I tend to use a shopping cart as a walker.

Where I would be using it most, though, would be around the yard, and that’s that I had in mind when I found this one and added it to a wish list.

This walker is an off-roader.

The frame is reinforced, and it has larger all-terrain, anti-slip, shock absorbing wheels. It also has a step-on curb climber; something I wish my mother’s walker had! It comes with a cane holder; something we had to add to my husband’s walker, ourselves. There’s even a drink holder. 😁 With my late father’s walker, as well as my mother’s, storage is under the seat. This one is more like my husband’s walker, with the storage in front of the seat (or in back, for the person sitting on it).

My parent’s walkers also folded up by lifting the seat, then pulling a bar or handle in the middle that brings the front and back together. In my mother’s walker, the storage under the seat is a wire basket that needs to be removed in order to fold it. This walker folds together like my husband’s does, pulling the sides together, which I find much more efficient. It also allows it to be free standing while folded, as my husband’s walker is, whereas my parents’ walkers cannot stand on their own once folded up. The storage basket is soft sided, so it just folds in on itself as well though, if I needed to, it could be easily taken off.

When my husband asked me why I had a walker in one of the wish lists, I told him, adding that this was obviously something I don’t need yet.

Today, I’m not so sure!

I don’t expect I’ll need to take it with me during outings, but I most definitely will have it nearby when I’m working in the garden. Many is the time that I simply needed to sit down for a while. Over time, we will have benches and seats built all over the place, but we’re not there yet.

I’ll be modifying it, of course. We added LED lights to my husband’s walker, so that while he’s walking, he can have a white light on the back rest as a headlight, plus red and green lights facing behind him. Red on the left, green on the right, of course. Sailors will understand why. 😁 I want to find a similar set of lights I can add to this walker. Especially one as a headlight, if I’m going to be using it while working around the yard in the summer.

I will probably bling the heck out of it, too. To match my sparkly hat collection. 🤣😂

Hey, if you need mobility aids, may as well have fun with them.

Oh, wow! That was fast!

I just got a phone call from the sports injury clinic, regarding the referral from my doctor, sent the day before yesterday. I could have gotten an appointment today, if it didn’t take an hour just to reach the city.

I now have an appointment on Monday afternoon.

I am so looking forward to getting another injection in my left hip. Not sure what treatment will be recommended for my shoulders and knee.

Being broken sucks. It is what it is, though, and we do the best we can!

The Re-Farmer

Happy Mother’s Day!

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Today started out early, as it has been of late. Between how early it gets bright out, and the inside cats deciding it’s feeding time, “sleeping in” is a bit of a pipe dream! 😁

With a daughter on kitten catching duty, feeding the outside cats went rather smoothly. I did notice that Caramel’s three were still together.

That orange kitten is so much bigger than the other two!

While doing the rest of my morning rounds, I made sure to water the covered beds thoroughly, so the moisture would help moderate the temperatures under the plastic somewhat, as the day got hotter.

The “Mr” haskap (the label actually says “Mr. Honeyberry”) is blooming quite nicely.

I even saw a big bumble bee enjoying the flowers!

I looked up the Berry Blue variety that this is, and most pollinator charts don’t include it. However, I found sellers that gave useful information in their descriptions. This variety is apparently a good cross pollinator for all other varieties, and is also self pollinating. It blooms in April-May.

Since the other two look like they won’t even start getting buds until June, this is a really bad combination!

At least we’ll get berries from the one, later in the season!

Once the outside stuff was done, I headed in for a light breakfast, with plans to visit my mother with my brother for Mother’s Day.

After some back and forthing, I ended up leaving later, as the restaurant he planned to pick dinners up from didn’t open until 11. He had to drive past my mother’s place first – and spotted my sister’s car! So that was a surprise. She works late shifts at Walmart and doesn’t typically get home and to bed until about 2am, so we weren’t expecting to see her in the morning.

So plans changed a bit and I met up with both of them at my mother’s, and we had a chance to visit before my brother quickly left to pick up the food he’d ordered. Someone at the restaurant answered the phone before they opened, so it was going to be ready for pick up right when the doors unlocked!

My mother was feeling up to going to church, and services started at 11:30. I had time to quickly go to a bank machine and get some cash, so I had something for the donation basket. My sister belongs to another church, so she left when it was time to walk across the street to my mother’s church. It was slow going for my mother, and she had to stop and rest along the way. With my brother staying close to her, I had a chance to show my sister the damage visible on the truck – I hadn’t realized this was the first time she’s seen our truck! We’ve had it for about 1 1/2 years now.

It was a special Mother’s Day service, so there were some extra prayers for mothers added, and the priest went around and sprinkled holy water on us.

I had to clean my glasses after that! Got “blessed”, right in the face. 😂

My mother was… being my mother. I won’t go into that! She did have a hard time with the new priest, though. He’s from India, has a very strong accent, and speaks faster than she can keep up. Not faster than typical; just too fast for her. Which is unfortunate, because he had a really excellent sermon, talking about his own childhood, and what a hard time he gave his mother! She passed away when he was very young, and that was a struggle for him. With his rather rambunctious youth, he never imagined he would become a priest, but credited where he is today to his mother. He calls her his angel. It was interesting to hear him mention his brother, later in the service, who is also a priest!

After a while, my mother started getting antsy, and even leaned over with her watch, telling me he was really dragging the service on. Which seemed strange to me, because I’m used to services being an hour and, according to her watch, it was only 45 minutes at the time. When the service was winding down, my mother stood up like she was about to leave, then took off as soon as he make the closing blessing, before the final hymn even started. Which meant my brother and I had to rush after her to help with the doors and get her home.

Not being able to hear much of what he was saying didn’t help, I’m sure, but to be completely honest, given some of the things she’d already said to me about this new priest, and some of her other behaviour, it really came down to my mother’s own racism. It’s getting worse as she gets older, unfortunately, as her mental health and cognitive thinking declines. At her age, we really can’t expect any positive changes.

Once we got her home and settled into her favourite chair, my brother went into the kitchen to get the take-out dinners ready. My mother started ordering me to get plates and stuff, but my brother told her, no. There’s simply no room in her 2-step kitchen! He could pass things to me, but anything more then that would just slow things down.

She seemed to get it, but then started ordering us around again, as if the conversation never happened! 😄

We did have a nice lunch together, though, and some time to chat about a few things. My brother had brought brought batteries from home and ended up changing the batteries in her remotes, just in case, so none of the ones I picked up for her yesterday were needed yet.

After everything was cleaned up and we had a good visit, my brother had to head out. I stayed a bit longer, to rub the topical pain reliever on my mother’s back and hips – this time with her sitting in her chair and leaning against the table, rather than lying on her side in bed, making it much easier to get the areas that bother her the most. She told me that, after I’d applied it to her back yesterday, it helped her so much and she slept really well. She also has her hot water bottle, which she finds helps a lot, too. So she was more than happy with getting another “treatment”! Her home care aids do have applying this on her care sheet now, but my mother has been doing it herself before she gets dressed, so it’s done before they get there. She can’t do her whole lower back, though. She doesn’t like the idea of the home care workers touching, though. Hopefully, she’ll have at least some home care workers she trusts enough to do it, because it really does help her a lot!

By the time I got home, it was getting close to feeding time for the outside cats. I started doing for the cat house to get the container from inside the entry, when I disturbed a domestic scene!

This mama was nursing both Eyelet and Grommet, but Grommet ran off (you can see him in the next image above). I tried to not come too close, but it was still too much for him. I had to go where he was to get the food container, though, so he went hiding under the cat house, instead.

Poirot, meanwhile, had left the sun room, so I could see her babies while setting her own food dish in front of the carrier.

Seeing the adult cats splayed all over the yard in the heat is funny enough. Seeing Poirot’s babies splayed out is just adorable!

Once the food was out, I wanted to top up the water bowls, and cool down the portable greenhouse – the thermometer needle was as far as it could go, even with the doorway tied wide open. If the numbers on the dial went that far, it would have read above 60C/140F!

The water in the hose was scalding hot, so I used that to refill the garbage can heat sink until it was cold again. Then I misted all the plant containers, and even the roof and walls. By the time I was done, the thermometer was down to 50C/122F

As I went to refill the bowl in the water bowl shelter, I spotted two little faces peeking at me through the cat house entry.

I wasn’t fast enough to get the orange tabby.

This little tabby stayed and watched me, and I was even able to pick it up and snuggle it!

Grommet, meanwhile, was in the gap under the entry watching me, and started hissing and spitting before ducking further under.

Caramel’s babies need names. There’s the tortie, the tabby and the ginger. Since we already have Butterscotch inside (and is probably a great-great-grandma to them!), and Caramel is their mom, maybe these ones will stay on the sweets theme?

Something to think about.

Tonight’s low is supposed to be 13C/55F, so I’m going to be leaving the door to the portable greenhouse tied open for the night. Meanwhile, Friday’s low has changed again, and is now expected to drop to -1C/30F – this after a heat wave over the next few days with highs reaching above 30C/86F! So no chance of transplanting anything quite yet. Any transplants would just get baked, then frozen, within a week! Tomorrow morning, though, I’m hoping to get some beds ready and planted with things that can handle both the heat and the cold. The summer squash bed looks like a total loss and, since it already has netting over it, I figure that’s a good place to plant potatoes.

For the rest of today, though, I’m taking a Sunday – and Mother’s Day – break.

For the moms out there, Happy Mother’s Day!

The Re-Farmer

Happy Mother’s Day!

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My darling daughters have treated me to Chinese food today!

They got enough to last us a couple of days, at least! We can’t order often, so when we do, we order a lot!

The Chinese restaurant we order from is right next to the lake, which is still covered with ice. What a refreshing breeze coming off the lake! Here, we are at 24C/75F, and tomorrow is supposed to be even hotter. So I really, really appreciate that we don’t need to do any cooking for a couple of days!

There is only one downside for today. I had some friends let me know that the thief that stole my personal Facebook account is at it again. The first scam they tried was to give away a PS5 in revenge for a cheating boyfriend. Today, they used the same pictures, but claimed it was meant for “my” newly deceased son. Of course, I have no son, and most people on my friends list would know that. But some whom I only know online through mutual interests might not. The first friend that let me know about it reported my old account as hacked (again!), and left a comment telling people my account was hacked and recommending unfriending me from that account. Since then, I’ve had another friend let me know about the scam post, which was at least flagged as false information by FB, but there’s nothing to show that there are any comments, so the first friend’s comment likely got removed, and I imagine she’s been blocked as well.

Some people are just slime.

But, I will not let that ruin my mother’s day!

Excuse me while I enjoy some delicious Chinese food!

The Re-Farmer

An awesome Mother’s Day, pancake cat, soil comparisons and pretty things. :-)

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I had a rather amusing start to the morning!

While heading out to feed the outside cats, I heard a noise from an unusual direction.

I had startled Nicky the Nose on the sun room roof!

I always get a giggle out of how he pancakes himself like that when he’s startled. As if he can somehow make himself small. :-D

Our cats never go on the sun room roof, that we’ve seen. They’ll go onto the new part roof, where they can look at the girls through the second floor windows, but it’s quite a leap to go onto the rest of the roof from there. It was a surprise to see Nicky there!

My daughters had a Mother’s Day treat planned out for me. In our tiny little hamlet, we have a small hotel with a bar and itty bitty restaurant. Well, with all the restrictions in place, they’ve had to change things up. About a month ago, the separate bar and restaurant was reworked as a single country style pub, and quickly got a good reputation for their excellent food. It’s a small menu for a small town, but we’re just excited to have options at all.

Of course, the government promptly pulled the rug out from under restaurants again, so they’re limited to take out, only. I guess the government isn’t done killing small businesses, yet. So we wanted to give them some support!

I saw them post a photo on their Facebook page for a platter that is not on their menu, so I had to ask about it. They were able to put together an appetizer platter for us, including deep fried mushrooms, which are also not on the menu yet. It was awesome! Even with 4 of us, by the time we were done, I could only manage one slice of the pizza I got for myself. My daughters ordered their cheeseburger platters, and were thoroughly impressed just by the size. There was enough there for two meals! And yes, they tasted really good, too! It’ll be much nicer to be able to order food from just a few miles away, instead of having to go to another town. Unless we want Chinese food. ;-) I’m glad we were able to order there today. Driving by over the past month, I was always seeing vehicles and people out front and, on nice days, people sitting and eating at the tables outside. Today, with the increased restrictions kicking in at midnight, there was nothing. Just two employees, and me, and I only heard the cook, but never saw him. So we’ll be trying to order food from there as often as our budget allows. Hopefully, lots of other people will be doing the same. Considering how few people live here, that still won’t be much, but it might be enough to keep them going.

In other things…

I had hung on to the soil samples from the tests done in them, and today I finally got some photos before getting rid of them. Here are the jars from the first two tests we did.

The first sample was from the soft soil uncovered when the old wood pile was cleaned up. The water is still very distinctly orange! The second sample is from the new garden soil we purchased.

These are from the third and fourth tests we did. The one that’s more orange and still cloudy is from where we’d planted potatoes using the Ruth Stout method, while the other is from the unamended soil that has never had anything planted there before. I find it interesting to see how clear – or not! – the water became, after letting the samples sit undisturbed for so long.

Later this afternoon, my daughters and I went out to do some watering, and to plant onion sets in the last of the beds in the old garden area. The 2 bags of shallots had only a dozen sets each, so they were planted in one row along one side, while the yellow onions were planted in a three row grid on the other. Later next week, kohlrabi will be planted in between the two. Besides that, there’s still half a bed left that will be planted with carrots. Aside from successive sowing the spinach, that will be it for those beds.

There were still maybe a dozen onion sets left over, so I’m thinking of interplanting them with the beets that will be planted near the garlic beds. Hopefully, they will help deter deer from going after the beet greens. If all goes well, that will be completed tomorrow.

Before heading back indoors and out of the high winds we were having, the girls and I checked on the flowers we’d planted in the fall.

We’re finding more and more of the teeny, tiny crocuses blooming! I know these are not large flowers, but I didn’t expect them to be this minuscule! I suspect, after they’ve had a year to establish themselves, they will come up a bit larger, next year.

I then spent some time tending the seed starts in the sun room. The gourd pots got moved to the sun room awhile ago, but there is still nothing of the Ozark Nest Egg, Thai Edible Bottle gourd, and birdhouse gourds. I am hoping it’s just because they take so long to germinate normally. I probably should have started them earlier. It’s the squash and melons that I’m eyeballing more. They haven’t been in the sun room long, but I was hoping the increased warmth would help. I’m happy to say that I did see a couple of seedlings trying to push their way through, but most show no sign of any germination. I keep second guessing myself about what we used to plant them in and all the things we did differently this year, thinking that maybe I’ve gone and killed them off somehow. :-/ It’s still just under a month before we can transplant anything outside, so there’s lots of time yet for them to germinate.

At least, that’s what I keep telling myself!

Oy. Today has been a really bad day for internet connectivity – as happens every time we have high winds. This post took forever to get done! Time to stop trying to do internet things for a while.

Hmm… I still have lots of my Mother’s Day pizza left. Maybe a late snack is in order? :-D

The Re-Farmer

Early Mother’s Day

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My morning rounds includes checking the various growing things, and I finally got a decent photo of my daughter’s tulips emerging!

The leaf mulch has made it hard to see them in photos, but at this angle, you can see quite a few! There are more, out of frame. We’re so happy they survived their first winter! :-)

This morning, I headed out to be part of a surprise for my mother. My older brother was able to acquire a nice scooter, and he wanted to bring it over for her to see and try driving. While getting her to test drive it, he was going to get her to a nearby park, where we siblings were planning to surprise her with a picnic lunch together.

The problem was, we weren’t sure where the picnic tables were, so we weren’t quite sure exactly where to meet. We also weren’t sure the park was officially open for the season, yet. People could walk in any time, of course, but the entry gates get closed to traffic in the off season. So I left early to check it out.

I think we timed it just right. Not only were the gates open, but there was a crew of people doing all sorts of maintenance and clean up started. I was so focused on looking at where the picnic benches were, I didn’t realize I drove right past my brother! He’d had the same idea I had, and come early to scope the area.

There were quite a few clusters of picnic tables, including a whole bunch under a shelter. There was one that was closest to the entry that we considered moving closer to some buildings, because of the wind. As we walked around, though, we realized there would be no point. The wind was swirling in all directions. There was no shelter from it, anywhere! It was a warm enough day, but we knew the wind would be an issue, so my brother was going to make sure my mother dressed warmly.

My mother loves her fried chicken, so my contribution for the day was picking some up. We were so early, though, I had time to play some Pokemon Go, first! :-D I didn’t want to get it too early, even though I had an insulated bag to keep it hot. I still ended up back at the park early. Which worked out okay, because I soon saw my brother and mother making their way down the road. It was fun to sneak around the building and wait for the opportune moment to step out and surprise her! :-D

My mother, being my mother, was determined to be miserable. She makes a big deal about not liking surprises (except for those times when she tells us how much she likes surprises…), so she was already giving my brother a hard time. She refused to get a warmer coat or a hat, and wouldn’t even put on shoes; she was wearing house slippers! Then she saw me, and that was another surprise she didn’t like. :-D But then we got to the picnic table and I started setting food out. It turned out she hadn’t had lunch yet, and … well … there as fried chicken and wedges to be had! :-D My sister had the day off, so she was able to join us, so that was one more surprise for my mother. By then she was eating, so she skipped being miserable. ;-) Among the things my sister brought was a big thermos of hot tea, and today was certainly a day for it! I’m glad I had my picnic backpack; not only did we have real plates and cutlery, but I had room for actual cups. If we’d gone the disposable route, everything would have blown away!

We managed to have an excellent picnic outside, even with the wind. Plus, we brought enough food that my mother would have enough for another meal or two. :-)

As for the scooter, because my mother has been waffling back and forth between wanting one, because her knees are hurting so much, and not wanting one, because apparently, someone has told her it would be too much for her to take care of (apparently, plugging in the charger would be more than she can handle?) and too much responsibility. So my brother made sure to tell her that it was his, he was not leaving it for her, but he wanted her to try it out and think about it. If she does decide she wants one, it would mean getting rid of her couch (which she doesn’t use, anyhow), and probably at least one shelf. Her apartment is very tiny, and she would need to be able to turn around with it in her living room. I know quite a lot of people who use motorized wheelchairs or scooters, and they tend to have very little furniture, so they had room to maneuver – and they had much larger apartments than my mother’s! She wouldn’t miss the couch, but she does love her little tchotchke!! And not-so-little ones. I forget. She’s even got a garden statue of an angel in her living room, and that thing’s pretty darn big!

But now that she’s had a chance to drive this one around a little, she can think about it, and decide what is more important to her; maintaining independence as her knees get worse, or her bulky furniture and bric-a-brac.

I do think she’ll eventually agree to taking it. Especially as we assure her that she just needs to plug it in to charge the battery; any other maintenance is stuff my siblings and I can take care of, for her. It’s not something to load up like her walker (I have ramps and can load it into my van, but it’s very hard for her to get in and out of it), but it’ll let her make runs to the shops in town as needed.

We shall see.

I’m glad we were able to get together today. Our province has decided to lock down even harder again, starting tonight at midnight. I’m not entirely sure why, but we were already listed as “critical” (even as our Schrodinger’s Virus numbers, which were never all that high to begin with, continue to go down as the season progresses). Not sure what word they’ve come up with to be scarier than “critical”. Anyhow, it was already illegal for more than one person visiting at a time – and even then, only because my mother lives alone, so she has an exemption. That was why we met at a park, though my mother’s apartment is so small, we couldn’t have all fit comfortably in there, anyhow. More than a few people have noticed that these intensified lock downs and restrictions happen right before every special date or holiday, regardless of what the actual data is, or that the lock downs themselves have been completely ineffective. I’m quite content to be a hermit, but for people like my mother, who thrives on social interaction, it’s making life more … well, like no life at all. Today’s visit will, I hope, provide a bit of relief from the malaise I’ve been seeing in her lately. She tried to be critical and miserable about the surprise, but I could see that she was really enjoying herself – even with the wind!

When I got home, it was early enough that I considered getting some more gardening in, but not only was it still quite windy, the girls convinced me to back off a bit. It’s a good thing I’ve got them watching out for me, because I have a terrible habit of overdoing things, then ending up out of commission for several days. :-D

So I made mocha chocolate truffles, instead. Not the best I’ve ever made, but good enough to satisfy a craving! I did accidentally make a double recipe, though. The recipe I was found called for 1/2 pound of one type of chocolate, and 1/2 pound of another. I didn’t have fancy chocolate, but I did have lots of chocolate chips that were suitable, so I broke out the scale. It’s in metric, and 1 pound total of chocolate is 2.2 kg, so I started weighing it out. It was an awful lot of chocolate, so I decided to do a half recipe. It wasn’t until I’d poured the hot cream into the chocolate to melt it that I realized I had it backwards. 1 kg is 2.2 pounds, not the other way around! I’d weighed out 1.1 kg.

Oops.

Thankfully, part of the reason I was making it was to use up the cream before it expired, so I just doubled the rest of the ingredients.

It worked. :-D

The Re-Farmer