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Winter still hanging in there, and this and that (semi-political rant at the end – updated)

/ Re-Farmer / 5 Comments

The forecast just keeps changing, with expected warmer temperatures going down and down.

This is what we were at, this morning.

The -22C/-8F isn’t too bad, really. Not for February. That -32C/-26F is the killer, though. As I write this, coming up on 10:30am, the only thing that’s changed is that the wind chill is now -29C/-20F.

Oh, it just changed. The wind chill is -30C/-22F now. 🫤

I did short rounds, this morning.

The yard babies seem to be handling it well. I counted “only” 26 this morning, though.

The Grink (first image) and Fluffy (second image) are pretty calm about being kept in the isolation shelter. Fluffy still keeps out of reach, while The Grink will sniff at my fingers when I reach out to him, but doesn’t allow pets.

I do wish they would both figure out the litter box, though. I can see it’s been used, but someone – I suspect Fluffy – has been using a corner of the cat bed they cuddle up in! As well as the corner behind the water bowl. And the hammock.

It’s a good thing I built the isolation shelter with access in mind, so we’ll be able to clean it in the spring!

The last image is Patience. What a fluffy boy!!!

Today, he was very accepting – even demanding – of pets, but not as much as Collin. I was trying to get a picture of Patience, but Collin kept pushing himself in front, because I was holding my phone instead of petting him!

Patience was not amused.

Looking at the weather, I’m not sure that I’ll make it to Costco today. The driveway never got done yesterday, plus we are expecting “snow showers” – right now, apparently, but our skies are clear, so I’m not sure what that was supposed to be happening. It’s not showing on the weather radar.

Hopefully, this afternoon will be better and we’ll get at least the plow ridge on the driveway done, and I’ll be able to head out, tomorrow. We’ll see.

I debated whether to talk about this here, since this topic is not what this blog is about. It is something that will affect us at some point, and there is a lot of bad information out there right now, so I’m going for it. TDS suffers be warned.

Starting tomorrow, Canadian exports into the US will be hit with a 25% tariff. Our Prime Dictator plans to “retaliate” with 25% tariffs on US imports.

It’s a stupid situation that is going to hurt Canadians far more than the US. The mistake, however, is that people are blaming Trump and calling him a “bully”. This could not be further from the truth.

Canada currently has the most corrupt government in its history, and T2 has been “undiplomatic”, shall we say, towards the US for his entire time in office. Actually, since before then, now that I think about it. He hates the US almost as much as he hates Canada and Canadians. Oh, sure, he’s saying pretty words to the media, trying to portray himself as this great defender of Canada, and how we’re such a great country. We were, until he devastated us on all fronts. He is, if nothing else, a master at gaslighting and manipulation. This is the same guy who frequently insulted Canada and Canadians since before he was installed in office, saying, among other things, that Canada has no culture (except Quebec) and how he plans to replace “old stock Canadians” (a term referring to multi-generational Canadians of European descent), not to mention the many divisive things he said about Canadians during the illegal lockdowns. He would mouth platitudes to Canadians in English, but in French, to the Quebec media, he would say the opposite. Anyone who doesn’t agree with him is a Nazi, a white supremacist, misogynist, anti-science; all the usual insults that have become meaningless, they’ve been used so often.

His constant comments about “misinformation and disinformation” are particularly hypocritical, since he and his party have been the greatest purveyors of both, but they are using this to justify their attempts to be able to censor and control social media (they already control the legacy media in Canada). They were even trying to push through a bill that would make wrong-think a crime. Seriously. It’s like something straight out of The Minority Report. People would literally be charged for things they *might* do, and for expressing their thoughts in private conversations. No one has been more divisive of Canadians than T2 and his illegitimate NDP/Liberal coalition government. He’s the most hated PM in our history, and the only reason he’s still in power is because the NDP and the Bloc keep supporting him.

The reality is, our Prime Dictator has been busily destroying our economy (plus our military and our few functioning institutions) for the past 10 years. In fact, yet another 20% carbon tax is kicking in on April 1. This is on top of several other carbon taxes that have been implemented, plus high inflation due to his printing more and more money. Him complaining about a 25% tariff on Canadian exports is such hypocrisy. Our current high prices, our housing crisis, our border crisis… all of these can be laid at the feet of our corrupt government.

Here’s the thing.

Trump’s condition was for us to secure our border and start pulling our weight with NATO. Both things we should already be doing. He is not making unrealistic demands, here.

The NATO problem predates T2, but can still be laid at the feet of past Liberal governments. The border problem right now is completely the fault of T2. His actions – or lack of them – has made Canada a threat to US security. T2 claims the border is secure. It’s not. In reality, investigation by other countries has found that Canada is basically involved in human trafficking into the US. And, yes, the fentanyl problem is very real. We make that stuff. It does have legitimate medical uses. Lots of it just somehow ends up being smuggled into the US through our porous border.

When it comes to the border, the only demand Canada should be making is for the US to do the same, because we have plenty of illegals, guns and drugs coming in from the US. This could have been a win-win situation that made both our countries stronger. Instead, our Prime Dictator is playing like he’s some sort of hero, claiming to be standing up to a “bully”, with “retaliatory” measures and engaging in a tariff war.

Now, Canada and the US already have tariffs on things we import from each other. That’s not new. We’ve also had tariff wars before. The softwood lumber tariff war being one I particularly remember. Again. Not new.

What is new is that we have a Prime Dictator that should have been turfed back in 2016, when Elections Canada found that the results of the 2015 election has been influenced by registered third parties (legal) funded by foreign interests (illegal). The last election – the one called early during the illegal lockdowns – was also found to have been influenced by the CCP. He should have been turfed many times over the past decade.

Oh, and for all the talk, no, T2 did NOT resign. He stated his intention to resign once a new Liberal leader is selected, then got the Governor General (who is supposed to be neutral and represent the Crown, but is one of T2’s cronies, just like the House speaker) to shut Parliament down.

In Canada, we don’t vote directly for our Prime Minister. During federal elections, we have elections in 338 ridings across the country, for individual MPs (Members of Parliament). The party with the most MPs elected wins, and the party leader then becomes the Prime Minister. The party with the next highest number of MPs elected becomes the Official Opposition.

The Prime Minister, however, must also be an MP. If they didn’t win their own riding, someone in that party who did win can step down and the leader would move to that riding and become the MP there. So there is no reason for Parliament to be shut down during the Liberal leadership race.

Right now, the Liberals are setting up a guy named Carney to be the next leader. This is someone who holds three passports and hasn’t even lived in Canada for the past decade or so, but has been busy ruining the UK economy. So he’s not an MP and barely a Canadian. Should he be installed, I suppose some legitimately elected MP would just step down so he could have that seat, instead.

With Parliament shut down, T2 has more power than ever, and can rule by the equivalent of executive orders, with zero checks and balances. Shutting down parliament meant avoiding another non-confidence vote which the NDP said they would vote in favour of this time (they kept T2 in power the last couple of times by voting against it, even when the motion used NDP leader Singh’s own words). There’s a court challenge going through now, because the shut down did not meet requirements, but who knows if that will even rule in time to make any difference.

Meanwhile, they are now using the tariff war to try and prevent another election. The NDP are already backtracking and saying they will likely vote to prevent an election, once parliament resumes. Whoever gets installed as the next PM can use the tariff war to not only prevent a vote of non-confidence from succeeding, but could delay the regular election. That would be happening this coming October, but could be delayed to September, 2026, because of the early election called during the illegal lockdowns. Our elections are supposed to happen every 4 years, but can be delayed to a maximum of 5 years from the last election.

So what does this mean?

Well, for people like us, it means prices will go up. Again. Not just because of the retaliatory tariffs T2 will be imposing – those will hurt us far more than it will hurt the US – but because we’re going to be slammed with another 20% carbon tax on top of everything else.

All because our Prime Dictator refuses to do his job and secure the border. Trump is not the “bully” here. Our own government has brought this on us, and is now making it even worse. The real question should be, why is T2 refusing to secure the border?

Being on a fixed income, this is probably going to hurt us a lot. Canada hasn’t been “open for business” for many decades, and is over reliant on the US as a trading partner. The US will be mildly inconvenienced.

There are, of course, increased calls to “buy local” and “buy Canadian”, which we should have already been doing. It’s hilarious to see the side that argued against Canadian self reliance to now play the hero by saying we could support Canadian businesses. We don’t actually make all that much. Most of our manufacturing has moved to other countries because our government makes it almost impossible to do business here in Canada. Canada could be the most productive and prosperous country in the world, but our own governments have prevented that. Instead, we are almost entirely dependent on the US.

As for the whole “51st state” thing, that is actually something a LOT of Canadians have wanted for many decades. More so now that we haven’t been able to get rid of our corrupt government. Canadians who haven’t had their head in the ground for the past 10 years aren’t angry at Trump. They are angry at our own federal government. Our own government brought this on us, and are now making it worse.

The tariffs are supposed to kick in on the 4th. Tomorrow. That shouldn’t affect prices on inventory already in the country; just on newly imported goods. However it’s entirely possible that the next time I get to Costco, the prices will have already increased again. I imagine places like Costco would be absolutely insane with panic buying right now.

What we really need is a new federal government, but the chances of finally having an election are very low.

It should be interesting to see how things look, the next time I go a stock up shopping post.

The Re-Farmer

Update: well, we have a reprieve. Our Prime Dictator has suddenly decided to do his job with the border. He said he will secure the border and designate a “fentanyl czar”, so the tariffs will be postponed for 30 days. Which is wise, since T2 has a habit of making grand promises and not following through with them.

He didn’t have to think hard to come up with a border plan, since it’s almost identical to what Premier Danielle Smith proposed a while ago. That would be the Premier of Alberta, the province T2 and all the other premiers were ready to throw under the bus. The one they insulted repeatedly as being un-Canadian for not being part of “Team Canada” (ha! What a misnomer) and throwing her own province under the bus.

Going back to the “51st state” thing, I found it interesting to learn today that 60% of Canadians polled by a neutral pollster actually said that’s what they wanted. Not because they hate Canada, but because they hate what T2 and his government has done to it.

So, for now, our prices should stay roughly the same. At least until the new 20% carbon tax kicks in, in April.

Unless, by some good fortune, Liberals finally get turfed before then. If we are allowed an election, I fully expect more shenanigans, so who knows.

At times like this, I am so glad we live in the boonies. We’re not as self sufficient as I wanted to be, by this point, but at least we’re not as dependent as we would have been, if we were still in the city.

So glad…

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

… that I convinced my mother to do her errands yesterday, and not today.

The high for today was forecast to be -4C/25F – with a blizzard warning. During the night, I’d checked the weather and we had actually reached -1C/30F at 4am.

It has been dropping steadily, since then.

Temperature-wise, we’re still at a mild -11C/12F as I write this. The wind chill, however is -32C/-26F

This is what it was like when I did my short rounds this morning. (scroll through the slideshow to see a brief video)

The usual bunch is warm and cozy in the isolation shelter. In the next image, the older and more feral cats were taking shelter in various places. The water bowl shelter is more sheltered from the wind than the kibble shelter, though under the kibble shelter, which has a sheet of rigid foam insulation on the ground, plus another under the shelter floor, was a popular spot. The plastic wrapped catio was also being used, as well as the old dog house. When we get a chance, we need to open the roof and check on the heat bulb in there, as I don’t think it’s working anymore. Usually, there is melted snow on the roof above where the bulb is, and there isn’t any, even when we had the warmer days.

The sun room, however, is a very busy place. Looking out the bathroom window, not long ago, I counted 21 cats that I could see. There may have been more in corners we can’t see through the window. The thermometer on the wall was reading 0C/32F, which is likely reading on the cold side, as it’s on an exterior wall and between windows, one of which is a single pane instead of double pain.

In the video, you get some idea of how windy it was, in general. I wasn’t able to catch some of the more severe gusts, and wasn’t about to hang out outside for it! We were getting warnings of 70km/43m winds, with gusts up to 100km/62m As I write this, however were are down to 42km/26m winds.

When I got inside and started checking my local groups on FB, I found it had just exploded with posts from people describing terrible road conditions, and telling people to please stay home. Some had just arrived at their destinations. At least one described starting out, then turning around and going home, because they simply couldn’t see the road.

Soon after, one of the weather groups started posting about highway closures. Some, just sections were closed, but one highway was closed entirely.

For us, we are pretty sheltered from the winds coming from the north-northwest, and we didn’t get a lot of snow. Our odd climate bubble seems to have protected us again. We still have high winds, of course, and I even saw the sun come out briefly, a few minutes ago.

As always, when we have high winds, we are watching the trees. Especially the spruce grove, with all those dead trees. With the wind direction, though, if any do come down, they will fall away from the house. There’s really just one that is a threat to the house itself.

If my mother had gotten me to come today to help with her shopping, as she had wanted to originally, I would have had to cancel, and she would have been stuck. She is just a couple of blocks from the grocery store, though, and they do deliver, so she would have been okay for food. The pharmacy only delivers medications, though, so she could not have gotten her shopping there.

Speaking of which, I’m glad my husband’s prescription refills were delivered yesterday, too!

So we get to stay home and hibernate for the next few days. The temperatures will continue to drop, but will start warming up again next week – just in time for my daughter’s follow up doctor’s appointment!

In other things…

Yesterday morning, I’d poured more of the calcium chloride into the ejector’s venturi pipe, as my brother requested. It never filled, which means it was draining at the bottom. The level in the stack pipe did rise, but not very much. In talking to him about it, we figured that, if everything was thawed out, the fluid could possibly back up into the main pipe to the house.

Yesterday evening, after I got home from doing my mother’s shopping, I went into the basement.

I found a puddle of water on the floor, near the septic pump.

This was good news!

I checked around the pump itself, of course. The pipes and connectors were all dry. The puddle had already started to dry, so it had been there for some hours, and the only other place I found moisture was under the pump itself.

Directly under the loose and open outflow pipe to the ejector.

I found a container that I could fit under it, even though it is unlikely to happen again, but this was a really positive thing. It means that the ejector is now completely thawed out, and the the main pipe to the house is clear. The pipe itself has a slope to it, so it would always drain away from the house. Pouring in the ice melter was just enough to push the water that would always be in the pipe, back up into the basement a bit.

Which means we could set the pump up to the ejector again!

My brother was talking about coming out this weekend to do that, weather willing.

Today, I told him, don’t even think about it! We can stay with the emergency diverter for another week. Next weekend is supposed to be much better. Thankfully, he is able to work from home today, too, so no commuting in this storm! They got hit harder than we did.

Wow. I was just going over this post, looking for typos, when my phone started screaming at me. Our province just issued an emergency alert for hazardous road conditions, high winds and blizzard like conditions. They are asking people in the south or our province to avoid driving, conditions are worsening, visibility is near zero, and multiple highways are closed.

We are further north than the warning area, though.

Not that we’re about to go anywhere, anyhow!

I am so glad for that!

The Re-Farmer