New Sparrow: updated

May 13, 2018May 14, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

First off, a happy mother’s day to all the moms out there. I hope you had a lovely day of it. My own was nice and quiet, and I am quite delighted with my early mother’s day gift from my husband; an OBD II diagnostic tool that plugs into the van, with readings sent to an app on my phone via Bluetooth.

According to it, the van is doing just great. In the near future, I’ll have to get my daughter to drive, so I can see what readings come up while driving.

My husband knows what makes my heart to pitter patter very well! :-D

We haven’t been seeing any deer lately, again, though the piles of feed I’m leaving out in the evening are gone in the the morning, so they do seem to still be coming out. There is still plenty of scattered grain for the birds, though. Right now, we’re still getting mostly fox sparrows and white throated sparrows, but today we saw a new one.

There were only two of them, so we almost missed them among the other birds.

Next to the white throated sparrow, you can see the bodies are almost identical, until you get to the head, neck and chest. I’m guessing that means it’s also a type of sparrow, but a quick search for sparrows has brought up nothing with a head like that. I’ll have to try looking some more later, but if you happen to know what it is, please feel free to let me know in the comments. :-)

Update: May 14

It looks like the new bird is a Harris’s Sparrow.

The Re-Farmer

Deer Visitors

May 10, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

It was almost too dark to get photos, but I was able to get some of a trio of deer visitors!

When I saw three of them, I thought it might be Mama and the Twins, but once the antler nubs started to show, we could see that her twins were 1 male and 1 female.

Today’s visitors included two young males.

You can see the antler nubs on the two deer feeding in the photo above.

I had put out 8 little piles of seeds this evening, and they moved around a lot, from pile to pile, making it hard to get photos in the failing light. I got a lot of motion shots! :-D

I don’t think I recognize them at all.

While we’re not seeing deer as often anymore, now that the snow is gone (though from the disappearing feed, I’d say they’re coming over throughout the night), the ones we do see are looking rather rough, with all sorts of patches missing in their fur, and looking quite thin, as well. It may be they’re losing their winter coats, but the patches in their fur don’t look like they are from shedding.

They didn’t stay long, nibbling at the piles of seeds while constantly on the alert. After a while, they headed out into the garden area and started grazing by the remains of the wood pile.

With spring finally showing some greenery, any feed we put out is basically a treat. They should be finding plenty of food in the bush, now.

The Re-Farmer

That was quick. Also, deer!

May 8, 2018May 8, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

Early this morning, I saw a pair of deer coming into the feeding area. Unfortunately, because we haven’t had them coming by in the last while, I hadn’t put any feed out the night before, so there wasn’t much there for them. Still, I got a few pictures, even through the reflections in the window. :-)

They are both looking pretty rough around the edges! I do think they’ve been here before.

Notice the little antler buds on the deer in the foreground? :-)

The female has some nicks out of an ear, and it looks like some scarring on her snout, too.

Aside from the missing patches of fur on the male that can be seen in the first photo, he’s looking pretty thin, too!

Just before I went to put more feed out tonight, I spotted a single deer through our bedroom window, making its way through the maple grove to the feeding area. The noise of me going outside would have scared it off, though. I hope it comes back later. :-)

This morning, my husband’s hospital bed was supposed to be delivered between 10 and 11 pm. So this morning, we dismantled our king size bed, which has been resting on a pair of queen box springs until we could get a proper bed frame again. The mattress just got leaned on the wall at first, and the box springs went into the dining room at first. Then I went out to feed the cats.

Beep Beep stood up to say hello! :-D

Then, with the help of one of the girls, the box springs got moved outside, just to lean on a tree until they could be taken to the shed.

The outside cats were very curious about this!

Well, hello, again, Beep Beep!

I had to head out at 11:30. My mother registered her vehicle, effective this morning, so I drove her car out to meet my brother at her place, as a surprise. I was going to accompany them for a medical appointment in the city, which was also a surprise.

It turns out my mother doesn’t like surprises.

Ah, well.

It was a long and draining day for all, but we got the information we needed, then took the time to explain it again to my mother on the way back. My brother, sweetheart that he is, drove me home before driving the 1 1/2 hours back to his place. It was a VERY long day for him!

While I was gone, much to my surprise, someone from the electric company came out to check the power lines! I was told they’d have someone out within 2 weeks. I wasn’t expecting someone the very next day! :-D I will have to phone them again to find out what their assessment was, since not a lot of information was shared while the guy was here and my daughters were buy hauling box springs to the shed and cleaning up the yard.

As for the hospital bed, it did finally get delivered and set up, several hours later than expected. Once that was done, my daughters got the king size mattress out – I have no idea where we’re going to store that thing! – then set up the spare twin bed up for me. I had had other plans for it – plans that can’t be done with the king size bed – but… oh, well. Thankfully, the master bedroom is quite big, and there’s more than enough room. I hope it works out better for my husband. At least he won’t be losing his balance trying to get in and out of bed anymore, since he can adjust the height to exactly where he needs it.

All in all, I’m really happy about how quick things got followed through on, both for the bed, and with the electric company.

The Re-Farmer

The Return of the Deer

May 3, 2018May 3, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

It’s been a while since I got deer pictures!

Some days, we’ve seen none at all. A couple of times, I’ve seen a lone deer in the evening, slow to come over, quick to run away. My husband sometimes sees them around dawn, but none have been coming over during the day, and none of the regulars.

Tonight, however, we had visitors!

I spotted them as I went into the living room, coming in from the opposite direction we usually see them. Two smaller deer in front, and a larger one somewhat behind. Unfortunately, my coming into the living room startled them, and they ran off – the two smaller deer one way, the larger one the other.

The smaller ones didn’t go far, though. I managed to position myself and the camera as they slowly came in. Eventually, I could see the third one, going into the spruces from the other side of the pallet pile, then making it’s way through the trees to the garden area, before finally coming around from the other side.

The first of the little ones was looking very rough!

Aside from the burrs, there appear to be missing patches of fur, and it looks like his ribs are sticking out!

Notice the antler nubs?

The second deer made its way over, and in this picture, is watching the third deer going through the trees.

The male doesn’t look as beat up on this side!

The third deer came around and they fed for a while, but they were very nervous and kept looking out way, as well as at what I figure were cats around behind the house. Unfortunately, with our light on, there was nothing to hid our own movements. My husband moved an arm to pick up his water bottle, and off they ran!

Once again, though, they did not go far. I could see them grazing on the far side of the wood pile and…

Was that a fourth deer?

Sure enough, it was.

After a while, all four of them came over to feed. By this time, it was too dark for photos, but I could still see them fairly well. There was something familiar about the battered face of the fourth one.

It wasn’t until I uploaded the pictures that I was able to confirm that yes, these are deer we’ve had before!

There’s the little one with the scars on either side of its snout. The fourth one, with the battered face, is the one I’d identified as her mother, the last time they were here.

I’m happy that they came back, though they do look the worse for wear!

Though I’d put plenty of feed out in the morning, the birds had been at it all day, so there wasn’t a lot left by evening. Since the deer are coming very early in the morning, and in the evening (if they come at all), we’ve decided we will start leaving more feed out in the evening, instead of the morning. That way, the evening visitors will get feed, but there should still be plenty in the morning, since the birds won’t be eating it during the night.

So after the deer left, but before it got too dark, I went to put out a bucket of feed. As I was coming around the house, I was startled by the weird, loud, breathy cough, and the sound of hooves. All for of them had been in the garden area!

As they ran off in opposite directions again, and this is clearly a family group, I expect they’ll make their way back to join each other. Maybe even back to the fresh feed I just left out! :-)

The Re-Farmer

A Day for the Birds

April 30, 2018April 30, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

With the fires in the area, it’s no surprise that we aren’t seeing any deer, at all. It has, however, been a day full of birds outside our window.

Mr. Blue Jay allowed me to take his photograph today, though they certainly did make me work for a good shot!

In amongst the masses of bark eyed juncos, this bird went off into the flower garden and started digging like mad into the dried leaves.

I’ve had two strong suggestions as to what this bird is. Either a fox sparrow, or a type of thrush. I spent some time looking and comparing photos online to ones I’d taken myself.

Bird identification sites often have really unhelpful photos, I’ve come to notice.

Ultimately, it was the markings on the head that made the ID for me. These are fox sparrows, of the “red” variety.

Speaking of red.

I had taken so many pictures of these red birds before the snow fell, but it never occurred to me to try and identify them. I think I may have just lumped them in as another type of bird in my mind. While looking up local bird species online, however, I found photos of these guys, and it turns out they are purple finches. In the above photo, you see both the bright red males, and the less showy females.

As I was zooming in to get photos of what I though might have been the thrush/fox sparrow I wanted to identify, the bird turned and I realized I was looking at a new visitor!

This is a male white throated sparrow. Love that distinctive patterning on the head. It made it much easier to identify it, though it wasn’t any easier to find online. My bird book doesn’t have it at all, though it does have several other types of sparrows.

Just look at the face! :-D

Looks like some females were in the crowd, too.

Weather willing, I will soon be raking near this area, to get some of the leaves out of the flower bed and clean up dead branches. We are finally starting to see some green forcing its way through the dead leaves. Not too much longer, and we’ll be able to start trying to identify the plants around here, as well as the birds! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Blue for You

April 28, 2018April 28, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Alas, no pictures of deer today. I did see one cautiously making its way towards the house, just a few minutes ago, but it saw me move in the window and dashed right off.

Sadness.

I did, however, manage to get a photo of a blue jay today. For the past few weeks, even if I’ve been at the window, watching them for a while, the moment I get behind the camera, they all fly off!

This morning, I managed to get just one decent picture, through the sun reflected on the window.

I love how they collect so many seeds in their beaks like that, before flying off.

It was a fairly quite day today. We’re still in recovery mode and pretty low on energy. My younger daughter and I made a run to the dump with our garbage and recycling, before heading to town to find a new handle for our garage door. In the process, I remembered to pick up some chain and a carabiner to replace the heavy duty wire that’s been used to hold our main gate steady. It has a sliding bar across the top to close it. I’m not sure why it also needed the wire to hold it closed, and one of these days, I’ll remember to ask a sibling about it. :-D The chain and carabiner will be much easier to handle than twisting and untwisting the wire every time. It’ll look better, too! Plus, we’ll have the ability to add a lock as well, if we ever need to. Sadly, there have always been people who seek out solitary farms as targets for theft and vandalism. At best, the RCMP are at least half an hour away, and that assumes they can even find any individual farm. My oldest brother and I are already talking about adding a security camera on the garage, which would catch anyone coming in or out of the driveway, and another on the house itself.

Such is life, even in the sticks!

My daughter and I went to two different hardware stores, looking for a garage door handle. Both stores had only one option available! They were even the same brand and style. On the plus side, the second place we went to had a much, much better price.

On the down side, while driving to town, I went into a coughing fit so bad, I had to pull over and get her to drive the rest of the way.

It’s so nice having another driver available!

This cold has really done a number on my chronic cough. :-(

We had some other things happen that were polar opposites. Such as my husband’s disability payment coming in early (they do that every now and then!) on the plus side, then getting a call from the tax preparer and finding out he’s now owing $3000 instead of the $1300 that came up when we tried using Turbotax at home. I don’t understand how he can owe anything. He’s supposed to be paid back taxes, retroactively, from two years ago! And here we thought getting our taxes professionally done would mean it would be better, not worse. On top of that, it’s going to cost us almost $70 in fees.

*sigh*

This has happened every time we’ve moved back to this province, no matter how late in the year we’ve returned. We would be expecting a return, only to end up owing thousands. This time, though, I am sure that has to be some kind of mistake.

Living here was supposed to save us money. Instead, it’s been unexpected expenses, one right after the other!

Ah, well. We’ll figure it out in good time.

The Re-Farmer

That Circle of Life thing… and I hate shopping

April 27, 2018April 27, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

For the past while, we’ve had a huge drop in deer visits. I didn’t see any yesterday, until quite late, when one showed up, then ran off when it saw me in the window. Pretty sure it was a new one, since our regulars are no longer bothered by seeing us.

We are certainly getting plenty of birds, though, including this new one that I’ve been trying to identify.

There were two or three of them among the dark eyed juncos and the male redpolls that were also in the feeding station. Looking through my bird book, its body looks similar to a Brown Thrasher, but the eye and beak are totally different. Another closer match is the Fox Sparrow, but according to the book, we’re not really in their territory. They might be passing through during migration, if that’s what they are.

If anyone reading this knows what they are, please let me know in the comments! Thanks. :-)

As I was taking pictures of the new birds, there was a sudden whoosh of movement and all the birds flew off.

Well, almost all.

What a beautiful hawk! I barely managed to tilt the tripod over to snap a few quick pictures before it flew off, with its meal, into the trees. Much to my surprise, the pictures all turned out, but only a couple caught the hawk’s face as it looked over before flying off.

This is one of the things we have to consider, if we do get chickens.

Later on, I went to tell my older daughter, who was upstairs, about the hawk. She hadn’t seen the hawk, but she did see the fallout, as panicked birds suddenly flew up, including one that smacked right into the window near her.

She went out onto the roof and moved it, so it could fly off when it regained consciousness.

Except, it didn’t. It hit the window hard enough to kill itself. It looked like one of the new birds, too. :-(

Wow.

This all happened in the mid morning or so. Shortly before noon, my younger daughter and I headed out to the city – our first trip to the city since all that work was done on the van – for a much needed Costco trip.

Just to jump ahead a bit, the van ran beautifully. Also, I didn’t get a call back from the garage about those parts they’d ordered for me. I’m not sure how I would have handled such a call, now that the work they wanted to do turns out to not be needed at all. Aside from not bringing the van in, of course.

I had hoped, even though it’s a Friday, going to Costco in the early afternoon would mean missing out on the crowds.

Maybe we did, but it was still insanely busy.

We didn’t go to the closer one, which is smaller, has a ridiculously horrible parking situation, and where the pharmacy staff were such a problem. Instead, we went to one that was not only larger, but also near a whole lot of other shopping.

Along with our usual bulk grocery shopping, I had one goal in mind. To get more undies for my husband. We’re in the city. That shouldn’t be a problem, right?

Well, it turns out that Costco didn’t carry any in his size. They do in clothing, just not in underwear. Which makes no sense.

So after we finished at Costco, with all its joyous moments (seriously; what is it about people who saunter to a stop, blocking the entire isle, and just stand there, staring into space? This happened several times, all different people!), we figured we’d just go to that mall up the block. They had a Marshals there. Marshals has clothes, right?

We’ve never actually been to a Marshals before.

It turned out to be kinda like a crappy Winners. We found the teeny, tiny men’s underwear section, half of which was shirts, and it was such a disaster, I could barely find anything at all, never mind the size and style I wanted. There was only one brand, too – an expensive one, of course.

But we’re in a mall, right? There’s lots of other stores we can try, right?

I found a map and… it wasn’t very encouraging. Still, there were several possibilities among the athletic stores.

We went to about 4 or 5 different shops. Any that did have men’s underwear had hardly anything at all, none in the style I was looking for, and certainly not the size.

What the heck?

As we were leaving the mall, my daughter pointed out that there was a Winners across the road. So that’s where we tried next.

It was better than the Marshals, at least. The shelves were better organized, but again, there was only one tiny display for the men’s section, and nothing in the size we were after.

I checked on my phone and found the nearest Walmart. I figured that would be our last stop. Even if we didn’t find the style I was after, if I could only find the size, that would be great.

Walmart, at least, has a nice, big section for men’s underclothes – but still a tiny clothing section.

Men, you guys are really short changed in the clothing department! Sheesh!

We found several brands in the style we wanted. Yay, right?

Nope.

There was a lot out of stock, so my daughter and I kept hunting for the right size, somewhere. After a while, I stopped looking at what was there and started looking at the labels in front of the hooks.

It turned out they weren’t just out of stock. They didn’t even CARRY the size we needed. In any brand, or any style!

What the heck??? He wears a common size. Why don’t they have it?

This was supposed to be our last stop, but we had noticed further down the parking lot, a Marks.

One more try…

Sure enough, we actually found both the style and size we were after!!! Finally! So I bought as many packages as I could afford without messing up our budget.

When we got to the counter, me looking a little wild eyed by now, the cashier asked us if we’d found everything we were looking for.

I told her that yes, we did, and that they were the ONLY ones to have what we were looking for. She looked completely surprised. Not even Walmart, she asked? Nope. Nothing in this size. That is so strange, she tells me.

It’s their most popular size.

Which doesn’t surprise me in the least. So why don’t other places even HAVE the size at all?

Who know buying underwear would be so difficult?

By the time that was done, we were both exhausted and more than ready to go home.

I really, really dislike shopping.

After we got home and unloaded, it occurred to me that none of us had the energy to cook supper. My older daughter is sick, my younger daughter is also getting sick, and just unloading the van was more than enough to remind me that I’m certainly not yet recovered from this stupid cold.

Since my daughter can now legally drive, I asked if she was up to a trip into town, so we could get some take-out. Thankfully, she was. So off we went to the van and…

When she tried to open the garage door, the handle came off.

Talking to my oldest brother not long ago, I mentioned this. He told me that thing has needed replacing for probably 15 years. It just never got done. It was on our list of things to fix sooner rather than later. Well, it just got bumped up higher on the list. :-D

My daughter had to go into the garage from the back door (which is used so rarely, it has self-seeded trees growing in front of it) and open it from the inside. The bar that runs through the hole to the handle is still there, and I couldn’t find any pieces that fell off onto the ground, so I’m actually not sure why the handle hadn’t fallen off sooner! :-D

I was just informed that we had deer outside our living room window again. A group of four. It’s almost completely dark at the moment, but still enough light for us to see them. And for them to see us. And hear us. Even the creaking of the floor had their ears going in all directions, and they could hear my daughter cough! As I was at the window, one was watching me until I shifted slightly, and off it ran, startling the others away.

So we will stay away from the window for a while, in hopes they come back.

Looks like we’ll be going into town again tomorrow, even if it’s just to pick up a new handle for the garage door! :-D

The Re-Farmer

One more thing, off the list

April 26, 2018April 26, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

This morning, I took my younger daughter for her knowledge test to transfer her driver’s license to this province.

Butterscotch, in command of the deer feeding station.

To recap: she did not have a full license; just the learner’s license. She never had a chance to take her road test. When she tried to transfer her license, once they saw it was a learners, she was told she had to take the written test to get a new license for this province. Then, because we are past the 90 day grace period, they kept her license, because she cannot legally drive in this province with it.

After doing the online practice tests, my daughter was quite worried about this. So many of the questions were unrelated to the rules of the road, or phrased so badly and without context, it was difficult to understand what was actually being asked.

We ended up leaving more than an hour early – and she was still worried about being late! Ah, a daughter after my own heart. :-D On the way, we stopped in the town my mother lives in to fill the gas tank. This is the gas station we’d stopped at when we were bleeding coolant, and one of our regular gas jockeys had crawled under and found the broken pipe. Well, he was there this morning. When he saw us, he came over and asked how things went, so I entertained him with the story. Turns out he was all worried about us, and was so happy to find out everything turned out okay!

One, lone dark eyed junco, just chillin’

I really like this gas station. They have such great people working there. Plus, they have this section of home baked goodies that no one else has, because they’re baked by one of the gas jockeys! :-D It’s become a bit of a ritual, that when we stop there for gas, I pick up some cookies (they are sold in twos) or a piece of Nanaimo bar as a special treat.

The city we went to is roughly an hour’s drive, and we’d left so early that, even with the stop for gas, we were an hour early. Which worked out, because neither of us had had breakfast, plus it gave us the chance to find the place, first. Which turned out to be incredibly easy to find. We were told to arrive about 15 minutes early, so that’s what we did.

When my daughter got called up, she had all her paperwork from the broker that started her file for her, ready to go. The lady helping her just had to look up the file and continue the process. She was really great about explaining the exam process, and how my daughter needed to get a minimum of 24 out of 30 questions correct, and so on. Then she took my daughter to the testing computer. The questions turned out to be MUCH more realistic than in the online practice tests. They actually made sense, and were about the rules of the road.

She did 24 questions, then the test shut down, because she’d got them all correct. So she got 100% on her knowledge test. Awesome!

Then she had to do the eye test, were we discovered that she does NOT need her glasses to drive. She will use them, because she prefers to (she gets headaches from eye strain if she doesn’t), but there will be no restriction on her license. Cool!

The Mothman makes an appearance!

When the final processing for her license was started, we hit a problem.

The system was asking for her to turn over her current license.

Which had already been taken.

It turns out, they shouldn’t have done that. While my daughter could not legally drive here with it, it was still a valid license. She could still use it in our previous province, plus it was her valid photo ID, until 2022.

Not only that, but when her license was scanned, they only scanned one side. So even though the person helping us could find the scanned image on file, she had only the front information, not the back.

Now, the only reason this was an issue was a matter of credit for time driving. If they could use her current license, she could go for her road test at any time, because she’s been driving on her learner’s license for more than 5 years. If, however, they couldn’t use it, she would not be able to take her road test for at least 9 months.

The woman helping us called the broker where we’d started the process, to find out if they still had the license, but the person who started the file wasn’t available. After some discussion, they figured it got sent away already to the department all returned licenses go to. So she phoned there.

The license had arrived there, just yesterday!

Which meant they could scan both sides of the old license for the file. The woman helping us, meanwhile, used a copy of the scanned front of the license already on file, just to be extra sure – and my daughter got a copy for her own files, too, just as I did with mine.

Because of when her birthday is, though, when she gets her plastic copy, it’ll only be valid until the end of August. Which meant it cost less to process her license, since they only charged for the shorter time.

Cool.

As we were doing this, I told the woman helping us that I had some ID related questions for after it was all done. I had shared some of the issues I’d had with getting my license during conversation. When my daughter got her temporary license, I told the woman helping us about my husband’s attempt to get his license.

As soon as I said that his ID didn’t match his birth certificate, she knew exactly what was coming; he was told to get a legal name change.

Yup.

I brought up how this didn’t make any sense. He’s already using his legal name. It’s on his birth certificate. Everything he’s got – save his old license in this province, for some reason – has the name he uses. Even the Department of National Defense and the Government of Canada is good with the name he uses.

As we were talking, a guy came over and asked if he could join in, and he was able to give us more information. What it comes down to is, it’s up to the Identity Unit. Whatever they say, everyone else’s hands are tied, and they are basically the overseers of identity in this province. We talked about the issues of identity theft and security, which I totally get, but it still doesn’t make sense to demand that my husband change his legal name to… his legal name.

At one point, he asked why my husband wasn’t interesting in doing the legal name change, and my response was basically, why should he have to go through all that process, when he’s already using his legal name. In the conversation, I used as an example how it’s not like my sister, whose legal name is one thing, but the name she uses is completely different. It’s not entirely even an English version of her birth name, since there really isn’t any English equivalent. This is his legal name that is on his birth certificate. Every other place has been fine with using his second name. He has always used this name. Sure, they can understandably change things now, but why should he essentially be retroactively held to these requirements? It’s still his legal name.

Well, it turns out this guy completely understood not wanting to go the legal name change route. He’s newly married, and his wife is in the process of legally changing to her married name. The whole thing costs about $200, there are many hoops to jump, and one of those hoops is to go to the RCMP and get fingerprinted.

With the amount of pain my husband is in, that kind of running around is asking way too much.

In the end, he suggested we try calling the Ombudsman, explaining the situation, and asking for an exemption. We even got the name and phone number.

I really, really hope this works out, because this whole thing is completely ridiculous.

They were both extremely helpful and awesome, and I’m so glad I asked them about it.

Before we left, we paused to use the bathroom before I left. When I came out and my daughter took her turn, the woman that had been helping us asked, was my sister in law’s last name XXX? Why yes, it is, except she’s my sister, not my sister in law.

When I had used my sister’s names as an example, and she started talking about the names issue with a co-worker, it occurred to her that she knew someone by that name – and it’s a very uncommon name. So she figured she’s ask me when I came out of the washroom. It turns out that, not only does she know my sister, but they are cousins, by marriage!

That was so funny! I ended up staying and chatting with her for a while, with my daughter joining us as I told her about our move back to the farm and all the “fun” it’s been, dealing with my parents’ things, the state of the house, and all the interesting things we’ve been discovering. That led us to talking about how, especially in our parents’ generation, there was such an insistence of doing everything themselves, instead of paying someone else to do it, even when in the long term, it would be cheaper to pay someone else to do it! Or to buy new instead of second hand, etc. She knew first hand what it was like! :-D

It wasn’t until we were walking to the van and my daughter asked about it that I realized she’s missed the part about how this woman was related to her aunt. Ah, what a small world it is!

Trüllbus the Crime Eater, coming through!

After we finished there, my daughter and I headed to the nearby Walmart. Our monthly shopping plans have had to change, with my husband’s newest medical appointment, so we did most of our non-Costco monthly shopping today. Normally, we’d wait until the last business day of the month, when his disability payment comes in, but today is when the much smaller CPP Disability comes in. It’s enough to do the monthly grocery shopping, at least. Plus, I really wanted to finally pick up some new underwear for him, what with either not being able to find his size in the style he wanted, or only being able to find them at $15 for a single pair, with only one lower end brand available.

Amazingly, not even the Walmart had his style in his size. There were 4 or 5 different brands, and NONE of them had it. In fact, they only seemed to have them in two sizes; small and medium. What the heck? Is there some sort of embargo on briefs going on I don’t know about? I finally got a package of 4 in the closest to the style he wanted I could find (at least the price was good!), but I can’t believe I still couldn’t even find what he wanted at a WALMART, in a city! Yeah, it’s a small city, but still… Sheesh!

Since we were there anyways, we paused to look at some of the summer stuff that’s out now. It occurred to me that I have yet to see a garden hose anywhere around here. I still want to check the garden shed, but there is no way my dad didn’t have garden hoses! If they’re not in the garden shed, then they found some legs and walked away. Along with too many other things around here. :-(

We’re also interested in getting a weed whacker – preferably an electric one – so we priced those out, too. Pretty reasonable. We are also looking to get a battery operated chain saw, though not at Walmart. We’ve got at least 4 chain saws in the garage and, as far as I know, none of them work. One could probably be considered an antique! I have no interest in hauling around jerry cans of fuel anymore, and the modern electric tools are just as powerful as the ones that run on fuel.

So we got the small grocery shopping done, including stocking up on distilled water for my husband’s CPAP. That done, we had one more stop to make; back to the town closest to home to pick up some prescription refills. As my older daughter has caught my cold (I’m still coughing myself, but at least I’m feeling better) and was feeling really awful today, we also made sure to pick up some “medication” for her. At the liquor store, in the form of a nice, spiced whiskey. :-D We rarely drink, so when we do, it’s at least a decent quality! :-D

Hopefully, we’ll all be healthy again soon, and can start manhandling the last of my parents’ stuff we need to move to the shed. The snow is gone and the ground it dry. It’s just that 2 out of 3 of us are too sick to do the physical labour. :-(

While in town, we took the time to play a bit of Pokemon Go, and at one point we were parked next to an arts and crafts store, which is also part of a used book store. I haven’t been there since we last lived in this province, so we decided to take a look.

I don’t know why they advertise as an arts and crafts store. They had basically nothing.

But we did come out with a whole pile of Brother Cadfael books. :-D

After all the running around, we were so glad to finally get home. Now that my daughter has her license, that’s one more thing to strike off the list! Next up is for my older daughter to get her ID transferred.

Little by little, it’s getting done.

The Re-Farmer

Deer family, and what the heck?

April 24, 2018April 24, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

Today has a mixed bag of things to share, some of which will be in other posts – if I can get the pictures off of my phone properly. Something is going wrong there, and it looks like I’ve lost a whole bunch of pictures in the process. Ugh.

My husband had a medical appointment this morning. It was to be a 2 hour interview to assess him and figure out what specialists he will be going to next. Not something for me to be at, so I took advantage of being in town to go to the places I can park and play Pokemon Go. I headed back early, which worked out, as my husband could only handle an hour before he had to cut it short, due to pain. So he’ll be back in a week to finish the assessment.

For the past couple of days, I hadn’t gotten many photos at all. No deer were showing up, except briefly in the wee hours, and even the juncos weren’t around much today. I did get a good photo of a daytime moon, though. This photo is just cropped; no resizing.

I’m pleasantly surprised by the amount of detail that showed up!

My younger daughter found the online practice tests for the knowledge test she needs to take on Thursday to get her learners license in this province. THAT turned out to be… something special.

The first two practice tests were for signs. Some were different from what she saw when she took the test in our previous province, but she could figure them out.

The rules of the road test should have been similar. After all, the rules of the road are largely the same across the country, right?

Well, that wasn’t the issue.

The test itself is bizarre. After being told about it, she and I went online on my computer, so she could show me what she was talking about.

Many of the questions don’t even make sense. The phrasing and terms are also different. For example, one mentioned the legal requirement for an upper stop light, except for vehicles before what year?

Stop light?

They meant brake lights. NO ONE calls them stop lights. Stop lights are what you see at controlled intersections.

Another question: Wearing a seatbelt decreases your chance of being killed by …? And then there are several percentages to choose from.

What rule is in this question? The rule is, we are required to wear seatbelts. Why include what is, essentially, a trivia question in a rules test?

Then there’s this one: A driver supervising another driver in the Learner stage must not have a blood alcohol concentration of greater than…?

Now, I would have expected the answer to be 0. The supervising driver shouldn’t have any alcohol in their system. But no! The answer is .05 Considering that .08 is too drunk to drive, this means, a person with a beginners license can drive with a tipsy supervising driver.

That’s not very encouraging!

Other questions leave us wondering, what is the context? Where is the detail? Because it makes a difference. Like; what direction are you driving in this scenario? And which center line do they mean? Other questions, I kept having to read and re-read the possible answers, just to figure out what they were saying.

And when did the hand positions on the steering wheel change from 10 & 2, to 9 & 3? Also, since when was it legal to change more than one lane at a time?

It’s the lack of context in the questions, and the many questions that have nothing to do with the actual rules of the road that are the most frustrating. Why are they even there?

So that was fun… :-O

This evening, while the light was still good, I took advantage of how dry things are now and walked further afield on the property. I checked out what used to be a gravel pit, but is now a pond; the gravel is all completely grown over. I found numerous things that had me wondering, why anyone went through so much effort to put them there, rather than just taking them to the dump? Some of the old equipment I found brought back fond memories. I checked out some sheds and the barn. Two sheds, I couldn’t even get at. I fought the burs, and the burs won. Laundry is now in progress. :-D

One log shed that I hoped might be salvageable, most definitely isn’t. A couple others still might be. Some other, more modern, sheds are just not worth fixing.

Then there were the piles and piles of … well. Trash. These are things some of my siblings had intended to burn, but they are filled with things that really should NOT be burned at all. We’re just going to have to hire a clean up crew to haul the stuff away. Someone with the right safety gear and equipment to handle the stuff.

I’m hoping, after I post this, I’ll be able to salvage some of the photos I took.

Then, the deer came!

A group of four. Two adult females, and two you males.

I’m pretty sure I worked out which pair belonged to each other.

Here’s one of the mums and her boy. Check out the little antler nubbins! :-D

This mama looks kind of young, too. Unlike the other mama…

… who looks like she’s seen a lot of rough years! Note the mark in her fur that runs up her snout? There’s a matching one, on the other side of her face. Like something had rubbed the fur off.

No where near as dramatic as her boy’s face! It took quite a few photos before I found one where you could really see it.

The fur is just gone in those two spots!

You can’t see them in this photo, but he’s got antler nubbins that are about the same size as the other male.

The four of them stayed for quite a while. Eventually, they made their way to the south yard, through the gate, and disappeared behind the barn.

It was so awesome to see them! I hope they come back.

The Re-Farmer

Stunning!

April 23, 2018April 23, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Earlier today, while in my office, I heard a loud bang on a window somewhere. Going to check, the girls, who were in the kitchen, were also wondering what the noise was. We’ve had many birds hitting our windows lately, and that seemed likely, but never this loud!

So I went outside to check. Sure enough, I found a stunned bird on the ground, outside the dining room window.

When I first picked it up, it was panting and groggy.

After a while, it was doing better, but still stayed in my hand. Happily, it did not seem to be injured.

I waited a while, then put it near a tree branch, but it still stayed in my hand.

So I sat on the steps at our front door (which, I’ve discovered, we cannot open. The inside door opens, but the outside screen door is stuck, as if painted shut. My brother had removed it to fix it, and it had been working fine in the fall!) and waited.

As I sat, Rolando Moon came by, curious, but not curious enough to climb the steps. Instead, she moved to the corner of the house and settled in.

Eventually, the bird flew into one of the bushes.

It still stayed for a while before moving to another branch, then continued to hang out for a while before finally leaving.

As I was still sitting with it, however, I saw out of the corner of my eye, Rolando Moon suddenly spin around, pounce on something, then run off with something in its mouth.

After the bird went into the tree, I went around the house to see, thinking Rolando Moon had maybe caught a rodent.

I was wrong. It was another bird.

I now wonder if there had been a second stunned bird that I did not notice before, because of how close it was to the house.

Now I’m torn between happy that we saved the one bird, but sad that we lots another at the same time.

I had taken a bunch of short videos and have put them together in a playlist.

I hope you enjoy them. :-)

The Re-Farmer

The Re-Farmer

Sometimes, you need to go back, to go forward.

nature photography

New Sparrow: updated

Deer Visitors

That was quick. Also, deer!

The Return of the Deer

A Day for the Birds

Blue for You

That Circle of Life thing… and I hate shopping

One more thing, off the list

Deer family, and what the heck?

Stunning!

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