my husband is awesome!

What do you mean it’s not even noon yet?

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Well, this has been an unusually busy morning. Maybe busy is the wrong word. Let’s just say, there were a lot more different things that got done in a short time, rather than spread out over the day.

I took quite a few photos I wanted to share, but I am pretty short on storage space in my WordPress account (and I’m not willing to pay through the nose to upgrade my plan, when storage space is the only thing I need!), so I’ve uploaded them to Instagram, instead.

First up, check out these beauties!

The Black Beauty tomato is well named. They are gorgeous, and there are so many of them! Of course, the colour makes them very easy to see, unlike the Roma tomatoes, where the developing tomatoes are the same colour as the plants right now.

Then I spotted this guy on the grape vines.

We’ve figured it out. I’m not finding different Abbott’s Sphinx caterpillars. It’s the same one, in different stages of growth. So it went from that incredible blue, to brown and now brown and green. From the photos I’ve been looking at, I think we might see one more colour change before it starts to cocoon itself.

When feeding the cats this morning, Not-Junk Pile actually let me pet her… sort of. So we gave it a try and got the ear mite medication. It too my daughter and I many attempts to get close to her – she kept moving away, but was hungry enough to keep coming back for the food. Finally, while she was in the kibble house, my daughter was able to duck in and use the syringe to apply the ear might medication to a spot between her shoulders. Unfortunately, there’s no way she would let us rub it in like it’s supposed to, but it’s the best we can do.

We have not been able to re-catch that kitten with the messed up eye. The eye is still open, but the swelling around it is huge, and I don’t think it can see at all out of that eye. From what little I can glimpse between the eyelids, it’s just red flesh.

After we managed to dose the cat, I threw away the syringe and packaging, then went to switch out the memory cards in the trail cams. I was just coming up on the driveway cam, reached into my pocket for a memory card…

And pulled out a syringe package.

So I went back to the garbage can in the sun room and retried the memory cards I threw out with the syringe… 😂 It seems that when I dug around the bottom of my pocket for the syringe cap, I grabbed the memory cards as well. I also had the empty syringe in my hand, so I thought I grabbed the packaging as well.

Oops!

After I was done with my morning rounds, I headed into town to the post office to pick up the other two books my husband got me for my birthday – and was surprised to find another package as well. I was just turning the corner on my way home when I realized that stick on the road was NOT a stick!

I was so excited to see my first garter snake of the year! Well, maybe. I might have seen one other, squished on the road, awhile back, but definitely the first live one. I carefully drove around it, and it didn’t move, so I stopped to take a picture out my window. Then I drove ahead, parked, and got it off the road. I did not want to take a chance that it would stay there and get smushed by the next vehicle! I hope it would cross the rest of the way towards our garden, but it turned around and went the opposite direction. Ah, well. Hopefully, it will make its way to our garden and start feasting on slugs and other critters that might harm our plants!

Once at home, I quite eagerly opened the packages. Here are my new books.

Somehow, I was expecting the books to be much larger, like the first one that came in. 😄

If you look at the contents pages, the first book (which is on the right) is almost entirely dedicated to food. The second book (on the left) adds in a few more topics, but is still largely focused on food.

I look forwards to going through these!!

The next books I want are newer editions of the Back to Basics book we have now. That one covers growing and raising food, butchering, preservation methods and recipes, too, but it starts with things like how to select land to purchase, how to did a well, and even step by step instructions on how to build three different types of houses, including a cordwood house. I’ll be using some of the techniques in there for when we build our outdoor kitchen. It also includes things like joinery, blacksmithing, etc.

We passed on many of our books before we moved, so we need to rebuilt our resource library!

As for the other package, that was like Christmas! A dear friend passed on some items. There’s a whole lot of very old cookbooks that I’m quite excited to see, and even a collection of seeds that belonged to a mutual friend and neighbour. They are all “expired”, but I will try planting them next year, anyhow. The germination rate will be low, but at least a few should still manage.

Well, this took longer to write than usual, because I’ve also been messaging with our mechanic.

He wasn’t sure the van was worth fixing, either. It hasn’t been long enough to rebuilt our credit rating enough, yet, so applying for financing at this point would not be a good idea. Plus, the Caravan we were interested in has sold, anyhow. I mentioned we were planning to replace the van in the fall, anyhow, so spending so much money to fix it just doesn’t make much sense. He ended up offering to buy it for scrap, of that helps us any. I think that’s what we’ll end up doing. We’ll get a few hundred for the van, depending on what the price of scrap metal is right now, and can cancel the insurance. The van cost less than my mothers car to insure, but it’ll still be reducing that cost by almost half. We can put that money towards savings for a down payment, instead.

So I think that’s what we’ll end up doing. Which means a trip into town to remove a few things from the van. Maybe not today, but we’ll see.

I do hate having to rely completely on my mother’s car, but we weren’t driving the van because of the noises it was making, anyhow.

Well, that got interrupted mid sentence…

It’s decided. We’ll sell the van for scrap. I’ve let him know, and might head over this afternoon to empty it out and do whatever paperwork is needed.

That van had a lot of problems, but considering the circumstances and the mileage, it really did to well for us.

Ah, well. It is what it is!

The Re-Farmer

My new “toy”

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

My awesome, wonderful, lovely husband bought me a new toy that arrived in today’s mail!

Isn’t it beautiful?

I know, shortly after we moved here, I saw a draw knife in one of the sheds. I remember using it when I was a kid, stripping bark off of spruce logs. It was old and rusty when I found it, but I’m pretty sure it was still solid.

Now, I can find no trace of it. It’s just gone. I’m still positive I saw it, though. I just can’t remember where!

So my husband bought me a new one!

It’s really solid and wonderfully sharp. My husband made a quick and dirty leather sheath for the blade. Just a strip of heavy leather wrapped around it with snaps to hold it in place. He says he’ll make me a prettier one, later.

I can’t wait to test it out!

The Re-Farmer

Early arrival; cast iron Dutch oven

/ Re-Farmer / 7 Comments

After all the running around yesterday, I wasn’t expecting to do more of it today!

However, my husband got a notification that a package of his was at the post office. At the same time, he got a call that his Purolator package was at their drop off in the town my mother’s in, because apparently they don’t drop off in the town closer to us.

He knew what the one at the post office was supposed to be, but had no idea what was being shipped by Purolator. We thought it might be the cast iron Dutch oven he ordered for me as an early Mother’s Day gift, but when I double checked, I confirmed it was coming by mail – and was supposed to arrive tomorrow. His expected package was going to be much, much smaller and lighter, too!

When the post office reopened for the afternoon, I headed there first. There turned out to be another package waiting for one of my daughters, plus a large, heavy box!

Not as heavy as I was expecting a cast iron pot to be, though. Plus, it came with a lid lifter that should have made for a longer box.

After loading the boxes up, I then drove to the town to pick up the Purolator package. The drop off was at an auto mechanic’s shop I’d never been to before. After telling the lady at the desk why I was there and showing my ID, she left to get the package.

When is when the most gorgeous, long haired calico came out to follow her until the door closed.

A friendly calico that came over and let me pet it!

I’m a sucker for cats.

The parcel turned out to be a large, flat envelop that weight basically nothing.

It turned out to be the package my husband was expecting at the post office.

So what was in the big box?

Well, it turned out to be my new Dutch oven after all!

So the skinny, virtually weightless package was sent by Purolator, while the big heavy item went by post!

The cats wouldn’t move to let me take pictures. :-D

Of course, everything was immediately covered in cat hair.

While the whole thing turned out to be lighter than I was expecting, my other surprise was how short the lid lifter is. Somehow, even with the photos, I thought it would be much longer. It’ll still make move the lid around much easier, than trying to manage with something else.

You can see the base of the carry bag, which is quite solid, plus it has the extra support from the straps that make the handles, wrapped all the way around.

I do like that lid design.

Do does Cheddar!

Well, one thing about the lid lifter being shorter than expected, is that it fits on the carrier, along with the pot itself.

The set also came with a thank you card, as well as care instructions in several languages.

The other side of the thank you card included the QR code to download the free recipe e-book for the Dutch oven.

Unfortunately, all I got was a message on my phone saying that it couldn’t open that type of link.

So I went to the website to see if I could find it there. While looking around, I did find a link to download a free recipe book, however it was for tortilla recipes. This place makes quite a lot of products, including quite a few for Mexican cooking. It took some searching before I found the Dutch oven we got. I did find their recipes section, and was eventually able to find their recipes for Dutch oven cooking. They also sell enamelled Dutch ovens, too, so the recipes were for both, but at least I found some.

I ended up using their contact form, told them what the issue I was having was, and asked if they could just email the e-book to me. We’ll see how that works out. Of course, it’s easy enough to find recipes for this type of Dutch oven. I recently took advantage of a sale on whole chickens, and I think that would be a great thing to try first. We have time to decide, though. It’s way too windy and muddy to get the fire pit going, for the next few days, at least. Plenty of time to prepare!

Since I was in town anyway, I swung by the grocery store and got a few things for a cookout, including the ingredients for S’mores. We tried making those for the first time, during one of the rare times it was safe to light a fire, a couple of summers ago, and they were quite fun.

This Dutch oven is pre-seasoned, and ready to use immediately. I’ll likely give it at least a hot water rinse, though, before it’s used.

For Real? LOL

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

My older daughter came with me when it was time to pick up her sister from work.  Since UPS hadn’t delivered my birthday present yet, I asked my husband, who had had to lie down again, to be up in case they came while we were gone.  We also made sure the gate wasn’t locked when we left; it was just closed and not even latched.

Along the way, we saw our shaggy friends again.

20180712.bison

I wish you could see the babies better!  They are so adorable.

When we got home, we found this.

20180712,delivery

Yeah.  They just slid? tossed? pushed? it past the gate.

Seriously?  Could they not figure out how to open it?  Or did they just decide not to come in?  I mean, I know UPS will leave packages at doors when no one was home, but this isn’t even anywhere near the house!

But you know what?  I don’t care.  IT’S FINALLY HERE!!

*doing the happy dance*

20180712.delivery

There she is!  My new toy!

Yes, I made sure to read the instructions first.

Then I went and took down part of that big branch that was hanging off a tree behind the storage house.  I couldn’t get all of it; the pole isn’t anywhere near long enough for that, but at least I won’t be having to push past the hanging branches when I mow through there.

Then I went around different areas, taking down some branches with the extended pole, then converting back to chain saw mode and starting on some trees and stumps.  I got a couple of larger dead tree trunks down, which required some careful maneuvering with a blade that’s only 8 inches long.  Then I started cutting some of the tall stumps I’d left behind to ground level.  Turned on its side, it can cut quite close to the ground, which I really appreciate!

I even got the smaller of the two dead spruce trees that had been covered with vines down.  Not to ground level, as it is too wide at the base, and the second tree will have to wait for a full size chain saw.

Unfortunately, I’m already out of bar and chain oil.

I expected it to be used up quickly after the first fill, since it’s a first use and the whole thing would have been bone dry.  However, I also did a dumb.  I refilled it once, noticing it was already completely empty (there is a window on the side where you can see the oil level).  Shortly after, I noticed it was getting low again, so I added more.  After topping up the oil, I put the bottle away, came back, used the saw once to cut a skinny tree stump to ground level, and suddenly realized I hadn’t put the oil cap back on.

I just just poured all the out out by accident.

I used the last of my oil to refill it, but it was only a small bottle (which you can see in the photo), so there wasn’t enough left to completely fill it.  I was able to finish cutting flat as many stumps as I could for now.  There are some older ones from trees cut down before we moved here that are higher, but also too thick for my little blade.

I am so happy with this thing!  I can hardly wait to get into the last section of the spruce grove.  I already went through it yesterday evening, taking out the dead branches that were already on the ground.

I just have to pick some more bar and chain oil, first!

:-D

The Re-Farmer

So Excited

/ Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

My husband is awesome.

Amazing.

Kind, loving, fantastic, thoughtful, romantic.

He knows what makes my heart go pitter patter!

He got me an early birthday gift.   Kinda.  It’s not in yet.

Today included a late in the day trip to the city.  I was going to wait until after Canada Day to do the non-Costco grocery shopping, but I’ve learned there is a 24 hr Walmart in the city (except on Sundays; they close at 6pm on Sundays) and I have a planned trip there later in the month, so I figured now would be a good time to make sure I know the route, get the things I need, and still manage to miss out on the holiday weekend crowds.

There also happens to be a Home Depot basically across the street from it.

So after going online and narrowing down my birthday gift to 2 versions, my older daughter and I went into the city to look at them in the store and make a final decision.

After checking out various areas, we never found any version of it.

Eventually, I found a staff member at one of the computer terminals, talking to a customer on the phone, so I waited until she was done, then asked her about it.  She looked it up on the computer and…

… it’s only available through online ordering.

*sigh*

But, she tells me, there’s free shipping.  Delivery or pick up.

I mentioned we lived an hour’s drive north of the city, so I wouldn’t want to make another trip if I could avoid it.  Would they send it to the post office?  She wasn’t sure.

In the end, I decided to order it (she let me use the store’s computer until it got to the part where it needed her associate’s number! :-D ), plugged in our address and…

… does not accept box numbers.

Okay.  I took that out and left just our physical address.

Much to my amazement, it accepted everything.  At the end, it said that I would be notified by email when the order was ready to ship, and that I wouldn’t be billed until it was ready for shipping.

Cool.

We finish up, I thanked the poor, overwhelmed staff member profusely (SO many people came to her while I was inputting our info!), then walked away, looking around for my daughter.

I happened to have my phone out, so I saw right away when I got a notification from my banking software, informing me that my purchase just went through.

Looks like it’s in stock and ready for shipping!

If they really will deliver right to our home in the sticks, I foresee many more online purchases in the future!

Meanwhile, this is what I’m getting. 2018.birthday.gift

It’s a telescoping pole chain saw that converts to a regular chain saw.

*swoon*

I was really torn.  This version has an 8 inch blade and is only 6 amps, but the pole can be removed completely, and convert to a little electric chainsaw.  The other one I was looking at had a 10 inch blade, 8 amps, and you could pivot the blade head for angled cutting.

Both types extend to 15 feet.  Both are electric.  The one with the 10 inch blade was more expensive, of course.

In the end, I felt the ability to convert to a small chainsaw would be more useful than the extra blade length and power, or the ability to angle the blade head.  We have been intending to get one of the multiple chainsaws in our garage fixed, and we will still do that, but this way it’s not as much of a priority.  I might get one of the push mowers fixed right away, instead.

I can hardly wait for it to come in!!

<3 Did I mention my husband is awesome? <3

The Re-Farmer