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

Walkabout – the East yard

April 25, 2018April 25, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I had done a walkabout yesterday, through our East yard, some of the areas just outside the fenced yard, and explored around the old gravel pit and pond. I had my phone with me and took plenty of pictures, but then had technical difficulties uploading them to my desktop. My husband was able to see them fine on his laptop via the USB cable, so the problem had to be with my desktop. This morning, I tried one thing. Usually, I have my USB cable attached to one of the front ports of the tower, but my husband had moved it to one of the back ports, so he could access the front ones for something he was doing. Could that have made the difference?

Turns out, yeah. That seems to have been the problem. I was able to upload the pictures without getting the weird error messages I was getting before.

Unfortunately, in my attempts to access and transfer the photos yesterday, some were lost, while others were corrupted or damaged.

So today, I did the walkabout again, this time using the DSLR (Nikon D80) and an 18-55mm lens.

I ended up taking 308 pictures! :-D And I didn’t even go into the other house in the yard, this time!

Basically, I am documenting the way things are right now, that we will have to deal with as time goes by. Anything outside the house and immediate yard are lower on the priority list, but they will still need to be dealt with, eventually, so I want to maintain a photographic record of it all.

For now, I will just talk about the East side of our yard – and not even all of that.

When I first came out, Nasty Crime Boy was there to greet me, but he did NOT like the noise the DSLR made when I took pictures! :-D

The first area I went to was around the other house in the yard. This house used to be a church rectory, and my dad bought it and moved it when they wanted to build a new one. It was put into our yard temporarily. The plan was that it would be moved to one of the other quarter sections of the farm and be a home for whichever of the boys inherited it that section.

That never happened.

I’ll post about the house itself, another time.

This is next to it.

When my parents’ freezer died, they gave one of my siblings the money to buy a new one, which we are currently using. The old one, for some reason, got dumped in the yard. They took the door off, so nothing could get trapped in it, but that’s it.

I hadn’t realized that even the baskets were in there until I came over to take pictures.

I could do posts of nothing but large household appliances, abandoned in strange places, and have no shortage of material. Especially washers and driers. It’s amazing.

Then I went around the back of the building.

That largish black pipe you see? It’s placed through a hole in a partially boarded up window. That means it was deliberately placed there. I find myself wondering if there is something under the house that is being propped up.

This house had had a full basement in it. Now, the areas with the bricks are what used to be the top of the basement walls, and there is basically a crawl space underneath.

Then there’s this.

A toilet. Just sitting there.

Another rain barrel. I don’t know what the 6 sided plastic thing is. A wire shelf.

Just. There.

Why?

This is some sort of mini garden, near the fire pit. I can see no rhyme or reason to it being there, and can’t figure out what’s in it – that will have to wait until things start to grow. It needs to go. Seeing what’s there will help me decide whether it’ll just be torn up, or if there’s anything in it worth transplanting.

The above picture is of what is directly North of the mystery planting. There used to be a playhouse here, built by my oldest brother. It was basically a shell of a building, with a door and windows in the front. I was too young to remember it being built, but as a child, I helped my late brother, who was just a few years older than me, frame out bunk beds inside it, and we used old couch cushions as the mattresses. In the summer, I would sometimes sleep in there, with a tiny kerosene lamp for light. It was glorious.

I don’t know what happened to the playhouse. For a while, one of my brothers had some bee hives here. Now, there’s nothing. I am thinking this is where we will start a wood pile from what we’re clearing out of the garden now, and what we’ll be clearing out of the trees around the yard. I am looking forward to when we can have the fire pit going in the summer, and have some wiener roasts!

This is the fire pit that’s there now.

Yeah.

Believe it or not, there is a metal ring in there.

It’s not where the fire pit was originally. That was about where I was standing to take the picture. It was made of loosely stacked bricks, on top of an old tree stump that had been cut to ground level. I only discovered the tree stump when I took it upon myself to “rebuild” the fire pit, because the walls were being knocked out of place.

One thing I noticed that you can see in some of the photos, is that this area now seems to be mostly moss! As I was the one who took on the chore of lawn mowing, I know there was no moss at all in there when I was living here. I don’t know when the moss started taking over, but this is not a sign of a healthy lawn!

I am thinking we should move the fire pit back to where it was, and farther away from those trees in the background.

We will first have to trim away the a dead branch overhanging it, from one of the maples in the area. There are a lot of dead branches that will need to be dealt with.

Eventually, I want to build a cinder block cooking pit in the area, but that’s a few years into the future.

This old log cabin is near the fire pit area. (note the amount moss in the foreground! That used to be all grass) From what I’ve been told, the family that owned this area before my family bought it – the ones who built the original log portion of the house we’re living in now – had built this and lived in it.

I am hoping we can salvage it. The one side wall has logs that are sagging in the middle, which may be a problem, but the rest of the walls seem sound. The roof is almost completely collapsed, and it’s filled with junk – including large household appliances, of course. At some point, I want to hire someone to empty it, including the remains of the roof, and haul it all away. Then we can see what can be done with the remains.

There is one thing about it that has me wondering.

See that tree at the corner?

When I was growing up here, there was a gooseberry bush growing there. I used to love picking and eating the berries right off the bush. I don’t know that anything else was ever done with the berries. Which might have something to do with why, years after I moved away, I came back to discover it was gone. In its place were a couple of spruce trees.

Now, the spruces are gone, and there is this tree.

I don’t know if it was planted, or if it seeded itself, but it’s going to have to go, along with the other trees that are growing too close to the building.

I am seeing this all over the place; trees were allowed to grow right next to buildings. No one bothered to cut them away. Did no one consider how much damage they can do to buildings? Did they not think of it? Or did they just not care?

So much of what I’m finding around here smacks of “no one cared.” I’m not talking about things that were left as they were, as my parents aged and weren’t able to take care of things themselves, either. It’s really quite disheartening.

Well, that’s part of our East yard. I’m expecting that, this year, we’ll be able to do some clean up and improvements in this area. At least the smaller stuff. The big stuff will have to wait, as they will require hiring people, and fixing up the main house is the financial priority. Still, we should be able to get the East yard to the point that we can use it and enjoy evenings around the fire.

Well. Maybe. That will depend on how bad the mosquitoes are this year!

The Re-Farmer

Birds, Birds, Birds!

April 22, 2018April 22, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 6 Comments

Well, today has definitely been a day of the birds!

From what I’ve been able to find, the “new” birds are dark eyed juncos. They would be returning from overwintering elsewhere. There were only a few yesterday, but today, there was tonnes! I now realize that we did see them last year. I had just not been able to look at them so closely at the time. But I definitely remember seeing this…

(I don’t know why the video quality is so bad after uploading it to YouTube!)

There were masses of juncos and redpolls swooping in and out, with many, many bounces off the windows. Even the dining room window was getting hits.

We are starting to see a lot more of the male redpolls now, too.

Of course, all that activity attracted a watcher…

Trüllbus wasn’t able to do much more than watch from the lilac bush, though! LOL

Love how my daughter caught this redpoll, peeking at her through the twigs. He looks angry! :-D

From what I could find, there is quite a variety of juncos, but it does look like these are dark eye juncos, and the lighter coloured ones are the females. The one in the photo above would be a male.

At one point, as I stood near the window, something startled them and the whole flock took off. Three or four of them bounced off the window, right in front of me. After they were gone, I realized that one had been left behind.

At first, from inside the house, I wasn’t even sure if was a bird or if it was some darker foliage. After a while, though, I could see the beak. Ever so slowly, the beak opened, and stayed open. Eventually, I decided to go out and check on it. When I got close, it was aware enough to watch me, and even start to move a bit. I was able to pick it up, though, and then it flew away from my hand. No injuries.

Besides the birds, some deer did make a showing when my husband was up bright and early, but I have not seen any since. I’m hoping some will show up this evening.

The Re-Farmer

Almost checked off the list (plus critter pictures!)

April 18, 2018April 18, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

The goal for today: get my younger daughter’s learner’s license transferred to our new province.

Birth certificate: check
Health care card: check
Something with physical address on it: ______

It was the third item that was the stickler for us. Usually, it would be something like a utility bill, but she has none in her name.

So that meant a trip to the bank. She had updated her information online, but it only had space for her to add our box number – the mailing address. There were other things, like her employment status, that it didn’t have the option for her to change.

The nearest branch of her bank is in the town my mother lives in, which is a 20 minute drive away.

No worries. We could get the letter she needed, like the one I got from my branch in the nearer town, and get her driver’s license transferred there.

When we got there, I showed the lone teller the letter I got as an example of what we needed.

Turns out, she couldn’t write up a letter like that, and her manager wasn’t in. She could, however, update my daughter’s information and print out a statement.

It took several attempts before she could get a printout that included both the mailing address (which was part of the basic information) and our physical address (which had to be input somewhere else and was not normally included in any printouts). It was part of the paperwork needed for direct deposits, so when my daughter is finally able to go job hunting and gets a job, she’ll have that on hand.

Great! It took a while, but it was done.

Next: finding a place where we could transfer her license.

We couldn’t find one.

I realize this is a small town, but you’d think they’d have a public insurance broker somewhere. Maybe they do, but just not in the business area? There isn’t much else to the town for us to have explored.

We did go to a department store in hopes of finding some underwear for my husband, that didn’t cost $15 for one pair! We did find some – three for $15 – but none in his size!

Who knew it would be so difficult just to buy some gitch?

So getting her license transferred meant driving another half hour to the town we usually go to. No worries. It’s a pleasant drive with pleasant company.

Besides, the staff over there knows us pretty well by now!

My daughter had everything she needed and a file was started. She’s never had a license in this province, since she was 9 when we left it, so that actually made it easier.

The hang up?

She doesn’t have a full license.

To get a learners license in this province, she will need to write the knowledge test again.

Which isn’t done in this town anymore. We’d have to go to another town that’s about a half hour’s drive north of our place, or a small city that’s about an hour’s drive away from home.

The main difference is that the small city has places where we can combine errands and do some shopping.

We have an appointment booked for next week, when the CPP Disability comes in. That way, my daughter has time to go online and study a bit, in case there are differences between provinces, and we’ll have money for gas and groceries.

At least this is the only delay. Everything else is just fine, and the paperwork she printed out for us has the file number she’ll need, and we can finish processing for her temporary license in the same place as where she needs to take the written test (assuming she passes, which I have no concerns about).

Meanwhile, they had to keep her old learners license. Because we’re past the 90 days, she’s not allowed to drive, anyhow.

At least it should be easier for my older daughter. Hers is just a photo ID, not a driver’s license.

Little by little, it’s getting done.

The Re-Farmer

Cats, cats, cats!

April 17, 2018April 17, 2018 / Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Definitely not feeling well today.

Woke up and discovered I’d lost most of my voice, and what speaking I could still do had me sounding like Barry White.

It was a beautiful day, though. My husband actually made it outside. Not only that, but he was able to walk to the end of the driveway and back. Twice!

Okay, that second time was pushing it a bit, and he did have to stop and sit in his walker a couple of times, but it’s the first time he’s been out of the house, aside from doctor’s appointments, in months.

While out, I took a look at the area in front of the shed where we are storing my mother’s stuff. Right around it, things are clear of snow and dry, but there is a large area of water and ice that I’d have to drive through to get to it. We probably could still do it, but I’d rather not deal with all that water while hauling household goods. I’ll check it again in a few days.

Not feeling well meant getting some quality time catching up on projects – I finished a rope basket I was making and got it blocking, along with another basket I’d made a while back, with a lid. I’m testing out a stiffening method that uses Epsom salts.

Blocking 3 dimensional objects is definitely a challenge. The round basket and its lid have a forest of bamboo skewers sticking out of it!

I also got a couple of beaded bracelets done. Need to get my Etsy shop going again, and new inventory is always a good thing.

Which all meant I was near the living room window for much of the day, and finally got photos. Along with the deer, I got cats, cats and more cats!

And a story, in pictures.

Nasty Crime Boy: So there I am, munching on a rodent, minding my own business…

Nasty Crime Boy: … when suddenly BAM!!! I get attacked! Like, out of the blue, Man!

Nasty Crime Boy: And then he was gone, just like that. And I was like… whoa. What just happened, Man?

Squishum: I know nothing.

Squishum: The leaf! I caught it! I have vanquished mine enemy! Bwahahahaha!!

Trüllbus the Crime Eater: I am not associated with those guys over there. I just want my sun spot.

The Hand disapproves.

The Re-Farmer

Rough

April 16, 2018April 16, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Rough night. Rough day. Ugh.

I didn’t get a single photo of the critters out the window today. In fact, it’s almost 9pm, and I still haven’t had my first cup of tea!

I did get a photo last night to share with you. Nasty Crime Boy came to the window upstairs for attention again. :-D

“Touch me, now. Don’t touch me or I’ll scratch you. Touch me, I said. No! I’ll scratch you! Touch me. I batt at thee!!!”

He didn’t really let my daughter pet him. He kept batting at her hand while still wanting her to reach out to him. Too funny!

I ended up awake until about 5am, unable to sleep. My chronic cough is tickling again, and I spent much of the night listening to my trachea squeaking. Inhale. Exhale. squeeeeeeeeaaaaakkkk. Inhale. Exhale. squeeeeeeeeaaaaaakkkkkkk. Inhale. Exhale. squeeeeeeaaaaakkkkk. All night.

Then I woke up to this, over my head.

Good Morning.

It was another really bad pain day for my husband, too. He’s have a very rough time right now. :-( I did make it into town to pick up prescription refills for him. Then I tried to stop at the department store to see if I could find him some new undies. There is one basic store in town, with clothing, shoes and accessories. There are a couple other stores that have clothing, but that’s not their main thing, and one of them caters more to the touristy, trendy stuff.

I just about choked when I found the men’s underwear. A single pair of briefs in his size cost $15.

We’re talking your basic gitch, here. Not some name brand, fancy-shmancy stuff. The next size up cost $17.

For one. Just one.

We walked around the store some more and saw things like an ordinary t-shirt – something I’d expect to find at Walmart or the like – for $50. Even the higher quality T’s in Walmart cost less than $10.

I realize that it costs more to run a business in smaller towns, where it takes more resources just to GET inventory, but this is ridiculous, even for here. My daughter and I wondered how anyone could afford to shop there, and how they stayed in business. Then we realized that some people might not have any other choice. Which is a rather depressing thought.

We tried going to a discount, kinda-like-a-dollar-store-but-not, store, thanks to my daughter remembering that they had clothes, too, and while they had better prices (we could get 3 pairs for $15), they didn’t have the size I needed.

So that’s going to have to wait until the end of the month, when we can finally get to the city to shop.

After we got home, I had to lie down for a much needed nap. Which is really going to mess me up for tonight, but I just couldn’t stay awake. Still ended up lying there, listening to my squeaky breathing, but I was tired enough to fall asleep.

So our daughters took care of things around the house, and my younger daughter even had a chance to block a project she recently finished.

Beautiful, but frustrating. She has made several lacy projects from this one crochet pattern book, and they’ve all turned out about 1/3 of what the finished size should be. My daughter does stitch more tightly than I do, but she also checks her gauge, and so on. Her stitching is meticulous and the stitches are always perfectly formed. It doesn’t seem to make a difference. Instead of a full sized shawl big enough to tie in front, she has a baby shawl that, before blocking, looked too small to even be a cowl or kerchief. It would have been the right size for her sister’s 18″ Josephina doll.

Blocking is making a big difference, but it’s still a fraction of the size it’s supposed to be. This particular piece is made in three sections; the 2 side triangles, then the middle strip, which is then used to join the side triangles together. That middle strip is actually about the size it should be, so it’s not just a matter of her stitch tension.

She plans to try again, using a larger hook and thicker yarn.

For now, it’s getting late, but I’m going to have at least one cup of tea before bed, dangit! :-D

The Re-Farmer

A Day of Rest – and critters

April 15, 2018April 15, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Today was a day of rest from things like breaking down that wood pile in the garden. Unfortunately, it was also another bad pain day for my husband. With the weather getting warmer, he’s itching to get outside for a bit of a walk, but it’s not been working out lately. :-(

The outside cats were out in full force when I fed them this morning. All the regulars were out. Even The Hand came out, though she was still very stand-offish.

Yes, there are actually two food bowls with food in them. They just like to all be around one, I guess! :-D

My going back and forth to put away the bowl I use for the cat food, then getting the deer feed, was too much for her, though. She still didn’t go far, and watched me closely. Can you see her?

“You can’t see me!”

I look forward to when she is comfortable enough to at least not run away from the food when we’re around.

Butterscotch, on the other hand, has no such qualms.

“MY FACE! TOUCH IT! NOW!”

When she wants pets, she does get rather insistent!

Myself, I didn’t see a single deer, though they did come by. One, I just missed. Hungry Girl had been outside the window, while three squirrels were busily chasing each other through the branches, when Beep Beep suddenly made a flying leap into a tree after them, startling her away! :-D My daughter did manage to get a couple of photos first, though.

“Yo!”

I did notice a group of blue jays at the seeds and went over to get pictures, only to have them fly off into the trees. They used to stay when I went to the window, but now they don’t. I think something in the light has changed as spring progresses, and now they can see more movement through the reflections on the glass.

This was the best I could manage!

So uncooperative! :-D

My younger daughter and I got to take advantage of today being Community Day in Pokemon Go and went into town to play the game. That was enjoyable few hours together. :-)

Then we got home, and found this.

“I will haunt you in your dreams.”

Waiting for us.

Turns out my older daughter found it hidden away in the yard and left it for us to find.

It’s still there.

:-D

The Re-Farmer

No Deer Today!

April 14, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I saw only one deer today, and it took off before I had a chance to take it’s photo.

Sadness.

Today was a day I ended up spending mostly on the computer, though I did manage some time outside enjoying some manual labour, working clearing up the pile of wood in the garden. It seems we can only go so far, then have to pause for the day, so that newly uncovered ice and snow can thaw, and we can get more out.

I do, however, still have some critter pictures for you to enjoy.

First up, this dapper little gentleman.

Oh, those adorable little hands!

Then I found these pictures on the card, that my daughter took. Too funny!

What, after I’ve posted these, and now that it’s getting too dark, a whole herd of deer will show up. :-D

The Re-Farmer

Day of the Cats

April 10, 2018April 10, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Today, outside our window, it was cats, cats, cats!

I got to see Beep Beep trying for a bird. She did not succeed. Nor did the several of them that were interested in the very noisy squirrel! :-D

We got a couple of pictures of Nasty Crime Boy enjoying a nap in his favorite place, while Rolando Moon was on her favorite place on the ~~junk~~ pallet pile. Beep Beep and Butterscotch came to play, Trülbus made faces at us, while Squishum got rude and turned her back on us! Only The Hand neglected to make an appearance – at least when we were there to see.

:-D

The Re-Farmer

Daily Critters

April 9, 2018 / Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I missed any deer activity we had this morning, just from being busy elsewhere in the house, but I did catch some lovely kitties!

When I fed the cats this morning, The Hand didn’t show up until after I’d gone to feed the deer, then ran off when tried to skirt around them to get to the sun room door and return the feed bucket.

I saw her later on, though, and got a few good photos.

Then she saw me in the window, jumped down and hid behind the cross!

It wasn’t until then that I noticed there was another cat, just sitting like a loaf.

Beep Beep is remarkably camouflaged for this time of year! All those browns and grey match her fur very well.

For a while, I thought I’d missed seeing the deer entirely, but then a loan deer showed up. It turned out to be Barbecue, with Hungry Girl coming soon after. Then, shortly after they left, Detail and her boy came by.

Those nubbins are getting big!

That’s some tasty treats! :-D

After a while, the two of them sauntered off down the well worn path through our garden area towards the road. Nubbins did turn around and come back on his own. He kept looking back for his mom, but I could see her continuing on towards the road, and he finally turned back and followed her.

He’s not quite ready to stay here on his own!

The Re-Farmer

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