outside cats

One more day

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One more day of stocking up type shopping. Nothing like that least two trips, though, so I didn’t bother getting any photos.

I did get a photo of this handsome fellow.

Last night, we got more of the bitter temperatures we were supposed to be past by now. When I looked during the night, we had hit our predicted low of -25C/-13F, with a wind chill of -33C/-27F Today, however, we reached -9C/16F – at least, that’s what the display on my truck showed me. Inside the sun room was at least 10C/50F. You’d think the cats would be hanging out in that, but they were running around outside in the sunshine. I guess with that winter fur, it might actually have been too warm for them in the sun room!

Oh, and Happy First Meteorological day of spring! 😄

Today, we had one shopping stop planned, but made extra ones, too.

The first unplanned stop was to a Dollarama sharing a parking lot with the Walmart in the nearer city. I’m still checking to see what garden supplies they’re getting in, as I’m wanting to pick up the larger plant stakes I’ve found so very useful. They didn’t have then yet, but I did pick up a couple of shallow trays that we use for the inside cats’ cat soup, as we’re down a couple. One, because the cats manage to break it. Another because it now has the new water fountain taped to it, to keep the cats from spilling all over the floor. The water fountain is also taped closed because Ghosty like to tear to top off and start splashing around inside!

When we’d gone to a Dollarama in the city, I’d picked up their last 4 bowls in a particular pattern. The bowls are more like what I grew up knowing as pulmisek. I don’t know if there’s an English name for it, but it basically means “half dish” because it’s half way between a bowl and a dinner plate in side and shape. Anyhow, today, I spotted the same pattern in side plates – something else we’ve been losing to breakage – and my daughter spotted more in dinner plates. They had lots, too. So we got four of each. With the bowls we already have, we now have four 3 pc place settings in this pattern, all for much less than buying a new set of dishes would have cost. I’m quite happy with them.

Our planned stop was to the Walmart. There, we finally found the new toilet brush and toilet roll holder we didn’t get at our last Walmart trip, this time making sure they had their bar codes! An extra purchase was a case of New England clam chowder. Locally, they cost a bit under, or a bit over, $4 a can, depending on what store we go to. Walmart is usually $2.97 a can, so we do tend to buy it there when we want a treat. Today, they were on sale for $1.88 a can. Then there were a few little things my husband requested.

Another thing we got was 10 little cans of Fancy Feast cat food. These, I will be keeping in my room so that I can give them to our elderly Freya, who seems to be having trouble even with softened kibble at times. The grand old lady deserves to be pampered! When I kick all the cats out of my room, except Butterscotch and Freya, in the morning so Butterscotch can use the litter, eat and drink without being harassed by other cats, I can also give them their special breakfast. Butterscotch is also getting on in years, though she is certainly more spry than Freya, so she will get her share, too.

After we were done at the Walmart, I decided to go to the Canadian Tire across the street, for our second unplanned stop. I wanted to look at countertop ovens and microwaves. Our microwave’s fan stopped working, so it’s no longer safe to use. We only used it to reheat things, sometimes make the occasional mug cake or, rarer still, thaw or melt things.

My daughter and I looked through the section and weighed the pros and cons for the ones that met our needs, and was more affordable. Some of these get really expensive!

In the end, we decided to get the Black & Decker countertop convection oven (not an affiliate link). With the various functions, we will probably use it more than we ever used the microwave. Most toaster ovens/countertop ovens have doors that swing down from the top. This one has French doors that open to the sides – something we felt would work better, since it will be sitting on the one counter in the kitchen the cats are allowed on, because they can look out the window. The real deciding factor, however is that it is an oven that my husband can use. He can’t bend over to take things in and out of the regular oven. This will give him a bit more independence, as he’ll be able to prepare some of his own food.

It did price out at the upper limit was what I was willing to pay, but since I found myself with a Canadian Tire Mastercard, I’ve been using it strategically. In this case, I took the financing they offer on purchase totals of over $150 before taxes. Which means the amount will be divided into 12 equal payments, with 0% interest. I could have used my accumulated Canadian Tire dollars, too, but I’m saving those up to cover planned future purchases.

In the end, it turned out to be a very productive trip. The only down side is that we ended up missing my brother and his wife. They’d gone out to the farm so my brother could get his truck running for a while. He wasn’t able to actually move it – there’s too much snow and ice around it – but that was okay. While there, he also checked on the septic ejector to make sure everything still looked good, even though we’re not hooked up to it right now. They were done and gone shortly after we started for home. They did have time to stop and visit my mother, though, and bring her a dinner from a local restaurant. She did get her Meals on Wheels today, but the less she has to prepare for herself, the better. I look forward to hearing in more detail, how the visit went. Hopefully, well, but my mother has a tendency to be remarkably cruel to my brother and have no awareness of the pain she is causing him. The last time the subject of my brother came up with me, she would just suddenly start going on about how he never visits and never calls – and then started going on about how he wants all her money. ??? The only person who is after her money (not that she has much) is our vandal, who believes she has millions squirreled away somewhere.

It makes for some very difficult visits, at times. I just hope she was having one of her good days!

I’m happy to say that today was a good day for me, at least, but I sure an looking forward to having a couple of days of not having to go anywhere!

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties, and diverting the diverter

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We’re a bit cooler this morning, though we were above freezing for most of the night. As I write this, we’ve continued to cool down to -9C/16F, though our high of the day is expected to be -4C/25F. We’re expected to get a bit of snow in the afternoon. Tomorrow is supposed to have a high of -11C/12F, and then we’re supposed to start warming up again.

All in all, some excellent February temperatures, making my morning rounds much more pleasant!

Pleasant for the yard cats, too.

After topping up the heated water bowl, Kohl came over, wanting pets. Once I started petting her, the tabby pushed his way through, then Stinky jumped through the window and pushed them both away!

It’s not easy to pet three cats with one hand, at the same time. 😄

Sadly, I could not get close to this one, for pets.

This little… dude? … was tucked under a chair we keep by the door. I like to leave some food for the shier cats on the landing under our door, where they can be on the mat to eat, rather than the cold concrete.

I want to snuggle that baby.

I didn’t get snuggles, but I did get to pet this lady!

Adam allowed pets!!

Only because she was eating on the cat house roof. I still can’t walk up to her, though once in a rare while, if she’s loafed in one of the platform beds in the sun room, she does let me come close enough to pet her. Very rarely.

As things have warmed up, the excess kibble that was in all the trays is finally being eaten. On the cat house roof, an insane amount of kibble was uncovered as the snow melted. The kibble was softened by the melting snow, then froze solid, so they can’t eat it. It seems strange to be dumping fresh, not-frozen kibble on the cat house roof when there are literally piles of kibble on either side!

Today, I continued something I started yesterday. Before we headed to the city, I started getting the large, flexible hose my brother brought for the emergency diverter. When he’s used the emergency diverter before, this was the hose he used to divert the greywater into the trees. That was in the summer, though.

This winter, he had found a couple of length of 4″ PVC pipe that was set up instead. It works great, but the effluent isn’t being drained very far from the house. The slope of the land has it draining towards a corner of the old kitchen garden’s retaining wall. With the frozen ground, it spreads pretty far, so there’s quite a lot of ice building up under the snow.

The 6″ flexible pipe was already brought out and half buried in the snow. With the sunny warm days we’ve been having the black plastic didn’t take long to get exposed.

Yesterday, I shoveled out a trench in the snow along the pipe, so that I could pull the whole thing closer to the rigid pipe the diverter is draining through. The flexible pipe would later be laid out in the trench, after it was attached to the end of the rigid pipe, but not quite yet.

The closer I got to the house, the more I had to use the ice chipper to break up the ice that had built up under the snow as best I could. With the melting and thawing we’ve had lately, the snow has a thick, hard crust on top. I used that to build a sort of wall to one side, so that the next time the pump started running, more grey water would go towards the trench and thaw out the ice a bit, before it melted through the wall of snow and drained towards the corner of the garden again. With the snow dug out to ground level for most of the trench, it would also thaw out faster once we got any sunshine.

That is how I left it, so nature could do its thing for me, until this morning.

The main thing about the flexible hose is that water might puddle in parts of it and freeze it closed. It needed to have support where it joined with the rigid pipe, in particular. So this morning, I dragged out a board from the garage. It had been uncovered among the stuff in the barn, while my brother was bringing his own stuff in, and I snagged it to use somehow in the summer.

Well, I have a use for it now.

After using the ice chipper a bit more – yes, the effluent did actually soften and thaw things about a bit, before melting through the snow all, so that actually worked – I set up the board.

Originally, I was going to set it up in front of the end of the rigid pipe and support it with a brick at that end, to form a sort of ramp for the flexible pipe. To put the flexible pipe on, though, I had to push back the insulation I’d wrapped around the end, where it rested atop another brick to keep it off the ground. In the end, I was able to put the board under the brick that was already there, and maintain the slope of the rigid pipe.

In the first picture, you can see how the board is set up now. The flexible pipe fits nicely over the 4″ pipe, and I’ve got a foot or so of the rigid pipe in there. I pushed the flexible pipe up to where I’d pushed back the wrapped insulation, which will cover what little gap there is. I ended up setting the brick i no longer needed against one side, to hold it in place, as the direction changes slightly.

You can see Syndol was quite interested in what I was doing! Out of frame, on the other side, Judgement was also watching… and judging!

The second image shows the pipe running down the trench in the snow.

I will leave it like this for now, to allow the relatively warm water to flow through it a few times, and for any sun we get (no sun likely, today!) to warm up the black plastic. In a day or two, I will work my way along the flexible pipe to straighten it out more, if necessary, and move snow against it to hold it in place. The very end is a bit of a potential problem, as it has a bit of a curl to it that I can’t do anything about. Of course, it curls upwards. There’s no way to shift the pipe around to have it curl down, instead. The pipe is just too stiff with cold and won’t straighten out, and I don’t want to crack it, trying. We’ll just have to keep a close eye on it. With temperatures now warming up as we head towards spring, there is very little concern that it would freeze closed completely. Any ice that does form would likely be melted away by the next flow was water.

The pump hasn’t been triggered since before the flexible hose has been added, so I likely won’t be able to see how it’s working for some time. The handy thing is that I will be able to see the end of the flexible pipe easily from my window.

I don’t foresee any problems and, now that I’ve diverted the diverter, it will be good to have the effluent get drained so much further from the house.

The Re-Farmer

Feeling so good!

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Yesterday, I found myself falling asleep at my desk by 6pm. Eventually, I succumbed and simply went to bed shortly after 7.

I slept for more than 10 hours!

Okay, not a solid 10 hours. I do tend to toss and turn, there are cat interruptions and bathroom breaks, but overall, I did manage to get a very long, solid night of sleep out of it!

It could very well have been a relief response, now that we’ve got the septic running again and we can use our plumbing again!

When I headed out this morning, to do my morning rounds, it was about 3C/37F, and actually what will be the warmest part of the day. Apparently, we hit 5C/41F at some point of the night! We are now slowly cooling down slightly until tomorrow, when we are supposed to reach a high of 2C/36F.

With temperatures like this, I took the time to soak the kibble and lysine mix for the outside cats with hot water, as a treat. From what I could see when I got out, they have been spending more time outside than in the sun room. Much of the kibble I left in the sun room last night was still there this morning, but kibble trays outside are looking much emptier.

The cats were everywhere, and I even had several while I was doing my rounds.

It felt good to be doing my full rounds, too!

I even had Stinky (top), Syndol (middle) and Magda (bottom) follow me to the sign cam. I had to carry Magda around, as much as she would let me, so I wouldn’t step on her as she ran around my feet.

When I checked the gate cam files later on, there were quite a lot more files than I expected. It turned out, our gate was very busy during the night, with groups of cats going back and forth!

Those reflective collars work very well. Even with the long haired cats, I could see them glowing in the infrared light.

These milder temperatures feel sooooo good after the last couple of polar vortexes! Things are melting all over the place. From the road reports I’ve seen, the highways are wet, but not icy, and we should stay that way for a while. Which is good because, starting tomorrow, we’re going to be doing a LOT of driving!

In other things, I’m happy to say everything is still working at it should, with the septic pump. My daughter had left one of the blower vans running after she washed and disinfected the floor around the pump. It’s all dry now, so I shut that off. We’d changed out the filter basket while working on the pump yesterday and, after giving it a general scrub down, I left it to soak in a bucket with detergent in it overnight. I took the time to finish scrubbing it clean, as well as washing the rag I use to wipe down the hose when I do drain maintenance that was also soaking overnight. All the water I was using was just enough to trigger the septic pump while I was down there, so I got to see how well it was working.

I am so glad for that filter. If we were not able to actually see the water flow, we would have no idea if there was an issue of the water no longer flowing. All we would know is that the pump was running and not stopping, and we’d have to go outside and open up the septic tank to see if the grey water side was drained or not. Or go to the ejector out by the barn to see if anything was flowing there. Can you imagine having to do that over and over, while working on the pump and testing it out? That would be ridiculous in the summer, never mind in the winter! Considering how many problems we’ve had with the septic system since moving here, that one simple thing has been a life saver!

As it is, I could sit there and watch how the water was flowing through the filter, and everything looked just fine. Since it is just pumping out into the yard, via the emergency diverter, and not 300′ feet away towards the barn, it also finished pumping really fast!

We still aren’t running the washing machine drain into the plumbing yet, though. I want to give the pipe a few more cleanouts, until we can no longer hear it backing up when we drain the kitchen sink. With how much warmer it’s going to be today, we’ll run the hose out the front door window again and do a whole lot of laundry!

I never imagined I would be so excited over being able to do laundry. Or flush a toilet. Or wash dishes. And I grew up without running water or an indoor bathroom for part of my childhood!

Ah, the things we learn to appreciate! 😄

The Re-Farmer

Well, that didn’t turn out as planned

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We’re looking at a gorgeous day today. Bright and sunny, with an expected high of -5C/23F. Which we are as I write this, shortly past 2pm, with a “feels like” of -1C/30F

My one outing planned for the day was a trip to the dump, which is open long hours on Saturdays. I was up at my usual time, which is when all the cats seem to want to use all the litter boxes at the same time, and start getting antsy for the kibble. I topped up their bowls and closed up my door so Butterscotch could use the litter without being harassed by other cats, then tried to get a bit more sleep before heading outside to feed the yard cats, then load the truck.

Butterscotch, however, decided she really liked having the room to herself (Freya was there, but she just chills on my bed after she’s dong eating) and was racing all over, before finally settling down on the cat shelf by the ceiling.

She may have settled, but quite did not happen. Instead, I got a phone call.

It was home care, letting me know there wasn’t anyone available to do my mother’s med assist this morning.

So I quickly got up, updated the family, then called my mother to let her know there was no one available this morning, and that I would be there within the hour.

My mother is convinced that no one is showing up because they want to “fix her” – meaning, keep her from getting care and med assists, so that she would die. I told her, they are short staffed. They’re always shorted staffed. There could be many reasons no one was available.

She refuses to believe that. 🫤

After reassuring her that I would be there to give her her pills, I took care of the outside cats then headed out.

The outside cats were loving the relatively mild morning! Rolando Moon (in the second photo) was just rolling in the snow.

I noticed something about the kids in the isolation shelter, though.

One was missing!

No Grink!

I eventually found him, eating in the kibble house. It’s the first time I’ve seen him out of the isolation shelter in weeks!

Anyhow…

I had reached my mother’s town and was about to turn down her street when my phone started ringing. I don’t have hands free, so I left it to ring, but I immediately thought that it was home care again. As I got to her building and parked in my usual spot, there was one other vehicle there. Again, I felt sure this was home care, and that they’d found someone to do my mother’s meds.

After I parked, I checked my phone but did not recognize the number. I was about to listen to the voice mail message when a woman with a clip board came out from the car.

Yup. She was from home care, and she had just called me, hoping to catch me before I left, to say my mother’s med assist was done. We have never met in person before, but she said that when she saw my truck turn onto the road, she just knew it was me!

She updated me on how things went with my mother. The person who was scheduled to visit my mother this morning had called in sick. The person I was talking to was the weekend schedule coordinator, and she had tried to find another home care worker to visit my mom. Unfortunately, none of them would have had the combination for the lock box in their sheets, so she did it herself! She said she would be back to see my mother again, for her other med assists.

Since I was there anyhow, I went in to see how my mother was doing.

She was complaining, so she was doing well. 😄

She was making a big deal over my having to drive all that way, and how it was such a bother, etc. etc. I told her, this is my job, and I’m happy to do it! Moving out here was not just about taking care of the property, but to be close enough to help her when she needed it, since my other siblings live so much further, and have jobs. Mostly, though, she was demanding my brother come out at the drop of a hat, even though he lived the furthest. Especially after the title of the property was turned over to him, so that it would no longer be in the will, due to the antics of our vandal. If it were my brother who had driven all this way out, she wouldn’t have had any such feelings. If anything, she would complain that he didn’t do enough. Which is how she behaved before we moved out here, and he did come out more often.

While I was talking to her, I noticed her pulse oximeter was still on her table. I’m actually surprised she hadn’t hidden it away. So I got her to sit back and relax while I set it up.

Her heart rate and O2 levels are better than mine!

Then I asked her if there was anything I could help her with, such as getting dressed for the day or empty her commode. She said no, but that’s when I found out her morning visits have not been going this. They were supposed to be scheduled extra time for this, and it sounds like this hasn’t happened.

I’m going to have to call the case coordinator back and bring that up. I’m also going to have to bring up another issue…

As my mother was griping about home care not making it in (no sympathy at all that someone had called in sick, nor appreciation that someone else went out of her way to get to my mother and give her her med assist) and it’s such a bother for me to drive aaaaalllll that way (which is about half the distance my sister would have had to drive, and a quarter of the distance my brother would have had to drive, though neither of them were available)…

It came down to her meds being in a lock box, but if there is an “emergency” like this, she could just take her pills herself…

…

… as she indicated to the top of her fridge, where there is a pharmacy bag with her unopened bubble packs.

The only bubble pack in the lock box is the one that home care aids are actively using, along with their duotang of forms they initial every time they do her meds, and her inhaler.

I suppose it would be a tight fit, but doctor’s orders are, my mother does not have access to her meds, because she messes with them.

I didn’t do anything about it at the time, as it would have brought about a rage reaction, but I did tell her this was not a good thing – and that her continuing to rail about how her medications shouldn’t be in a box, and to leave them on the fridge, and don’t tell anyone they’re up there – we all examples of why she needs to have her medications in a lock box to begin with!

I’ve already updated my brother on that, but will also be talking to the case coordinator about it. It might be having all 4 weeks of bubble packs in the lock box made things a bit tight, but when my brother and his wife brought the new, bigger lock box, everything fit in there just fine. They should never have been taken out. The home care workers had been putting them on the fridge, out of my mother’s reach, before we got the lock box, but apparently, my mother can reach them. If nothing else, she could use her cane to simply knock the bag down.

So… that was a thing.

I asked my mother if there was anything else I could do, and she remembered a couple of things we forgot to put on her shopping list yesterday. So I went to the grocery store to get those for her, as well as a sandwich and a drink for myself. I hadn’t had breakfast yet and was starting to feel ill and dizzy.

That done, and once I was sure nothing else was needed, I headed to the gas station to top up the tank again. Before heading home, I updated the family, adding that I would back the truck up to the house so we could load it for the dump run.

It’s been a while since we’ve done a dump run – there was no way I was going to do it while we were being hit with the worst of the last polar vortex – so there was quite a bit. She moved the bags into the sun room for me, then I took them to the truck. She can only use one arm for this, since her ganglion is still really painful. Once the regular garbage and recycling was loaded, we had the very careful job of loading the bags from the honeypot. It’s been warm enough, only one of them was partially frozen. Even with using the stove pellets to absorb liquid, some of them definitely got extra care in loading! With four adults, with always at least one person having digestive issues, it seems, we’ve had to change the bags out quite a bit!

Double bagged, of course.

Once loaded, it was a quick run to the dump and then home. Before I left, though, I had a quick talk with my daughter.

Last night, my husband brought up the idea of going to town to a restaurant, just to have somewhere to use a real toilet again, instead of the honeypot. He would have done right then and there, if it hadn’t already been too late in the day for such a trip. I did, however, go through the budget and crunched some numbers, and found that we could manage it.

So I asked her to bring up with my husband and her sister (who was in bed after her night’s work) about this being an option.

When I got back, we were talking about my taking my husband and younger daughter out for a lunch, then taking my older daughter out for supper, after she’d had her full day’s sleep. My husband, however, had a really bad pain night and was simply not up to it an outing, and asked us to bring something home for him, instead.

So my daughter and I headed out and chose to go to a newer restaurant in town, that is associated with a brewing company. The city we lived in before we moved out here had a HUGE craft brewing community, and my daughters enjoy good beer, so we used to go to these whenever we could. I don’t like beer, myself, but I was willing to taste test theirs. 😄 This is the first time we’ve got to a restaurant/craft brewer since moving out here, so… more than 7 years.

We ended up both getting bison burgers (both skipping the jalapeno and I skipped the tomato). My daughter upgraded to a poutine with hers, while I got the coleslaw instead of regular fried. The burger was really good – and very messy! My daughter really liked her poutine, too. My coleslaw was surprisingly bland, though. It wasn’t bad, by any means. Just not what I expected. Both our meals also came with a couple of spears of pickles, with the cucumbers pickled in their own signature beer brine. My daughter also got a pint of one of their signature brews, which she quite enjoyed.

Once we were done there, we stopped at the DQ to pick up a meal for my husband, then headed home.

For now, I’ve got a bit of a break. I’ll be heading outside again to do the evening kibble and warm water soon. It’s so night out, I might not even bother putting on a jacket! I certainly didn’t wear my down filled parka today.

Then, I intend to wrangle my older daughter out of the house for supper. Knowing her, she will try to refuse. She has barely left the house – even to just go outside in the yard – in years. A down side to living in the boonies. Her work is all digital, so she doesn’t have to go anywhere, and since she works nights and sleeps days, she’s not around to go on trips into town or whatever.

What I really want to do right now, though, is go to bed! I got very little sleep last night, my attempt at sleeping in failed, and instead of just one outing today, I have had three, with one more in the works.

I guess it’s a perk that, with all this extra running around, I get to use public washrooms and eat food other people cooked but, to be honest, I would be just fine staying home. I do want the rest of the family to be able to get out, though. I really wanted to get my husband out. It’s been a rare thing for him to have an outing that doesn’t involve medical appointments!

I really, really hope my brother can get that pump working again, tomorrow. This is the longest we’ve had to use the honeypot, do sponge bathing, etc. yet, and we’ve had all sorts of plumbing problems since moving out here. At least we do have access to hot and cold running water. We just can’t let it go down the drain to the septic tank in any usual amounts.

Ah, well. It is what it is!

The Re-Farmer

Some good news, at least

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Oh, what a lovely day we are having today!

It’s bright and sunny, and we have reached a high of -16C/-3F, which feels so incredibly warm right now! The wind chill -20C/-4F, but comes from a direction we are sheltered from, so we’re actually feeling warmer, not colder, in the sun. Technically, we are still under an ongoing extreme cold weather warning, but looking at the weather map, we are just on the edge of the area covered by the warning. A reserve some distance to the north of us is no longer under the weather warning area, and they are warmer than we are right now.

The thermometer in the sun room was reading 5C/41F when I did the evening cat feeding. The outside cats were very active and enjoying the warmth and sun.

Meanwhile…

I got the truck to the garage so they could check the tire. It seemed like it was still holding air, but I needed to make sure there was no leak or damage anywhere. I had a general drop off time, not an appointment, so I after I handed over the keys , I got a very loose time frame.

While there, I checked my numbers and asked if I could move the oil change/engine flush/senor replacement up to early next week. I’d really prefer to have that done before I have all our city driving to do at the end of the month, and decided it was worth putting on my credit card. So that got switched to the 25th. The 26th is when we do our first stock up shopping trip, so that works out.

That done, I headed over to the DQ several blocks away. I just needed someplace where I could sit for about an hour. While placing my order, the guy behind the counter asked how I was doing. As we chatted, he commented that I was looking tired. I told him, I’d just dropped my truck off at the garage and… well… I was having “a day”.

The guy was so sweet about it, I got table side service, even for my drink, which I normally would have been given a cup to fill myself at the dining room fountain.

I took a loooong time, eating my onion rings and nursing my drink, which worked out for the better. My husband messaged me saying he’d just ordered a refill on a “take as needed” prescription for delivery tomorrow, unless I could pick it up. The pharmacy is about a block away from the DQ, so I headed over to get it. I went to the drop off counter, first, to see if it still needed to be filled. The pharmacist saw me, recognized me and came over – she had literally just finished getting it in the bag to set aside for delivery tomorrow, so she brought it right to me, instead. Perfect timing!

From there, it was back to the garage, where I found the truck in the bay. I asked about it and was told they hadn’t looked at it yet. He was just about to text me – there was no note on which tire it was, and he sees so many, he couldn’t remember which one they’d worked on. So I told him, and one of his mechanics took it off to check it, pretty much right away.

After a few minutes, he asked me if I’d filled it before coming over. I said I’d filled it yesterday. He told me, it was at 45 psi – right where I’d pumped it to. They could find no leak.

As we were talking, I told him of my concern that I might have driven over something, mentioning that a bin with light bulbs had been knocked over not long ago. I was pretty sure I’d swept up all the glass, but it’s entirely possible I missed some. So they understood my concern! There was no sign of damage anywhere.

I asked him why it would have been down to 30psi after several days, and his response was “… -45?” 😂 So basically, the tire was nice and warm when they replace the sensor and leaking valve, then came home to polar vortex temperatures, and the seal didn’t hold. Once I filled it again – in the cold – the seal held.

So that was a relief. I wasn’t charged for anything, either. I expect to at least be charged for their time, since they had to take the tire off and use their equipment to check it, but nope. No charge. That was very appreciated!

From there, I went to the grocery store across the street. I had three water jugs to refill. With the septic pump not draining again, my daughter also sent funds so I could pick up food that we could prepare while getting as few dishes dirty as possible!

I ended up getting more sandwich fixings (I use paper towel instead of a plate) and 4 different large fresh deli pizzas; one for each of us.

Plus more eggs. Because we can never have too many eggs!

We really need chickens. 😄

I know that in the US, with millions of laying hens being slaughtered due to “bird flu”, so prices have gone insane. For comparison, I got two 18’s on sale at $5.99 each. A flat of thirty was just over $10, so I was paying less per egg by buying the two cartons instead of my usual flat. At the current exchange rate, Cdn$5.99 is US$4.21 for 18 eggs. I believe the regular price was $7.99 (the sale sticker covered the regular price, so I’m going by memory), which is US$5.62, as of today.

That done, I got some gas ($1.569/L) before heading home.

After the truck was unloaded, since I was dressed for the outdoors anyhow, I went ahead and gave the outside cats their evening feeding a bit early. They did still have some food, but their water bowls were almost empty! The isolation shelter had no food or water left at all. After giving them their food and water in there, I counted 8 cats crowded into the upper level – and that was after a few had run out earlier!

I swear, The Grink has not left the isolation shelter at all, since the ramp door was opened.

Most of the cats were absolutely everywhere. They are so loving the warmer weather!

This is Stinky, wanting to reach out to my phone, and Magda. I got to cuddle Magda before Stinky forced his way in!

Judgement is down at the bottom, judging us all!

I need to remember. Magda has the white spikey triangle on her forehead and spots on her back. The other cat that has a white spikey triangle on HIS forehead does not have those spots on his back. I keep getting those two mixed up.

Anyhow.

After everything was done, I made sure to check on the septic pump again. I primed the filter and turned it on again. The water level dropped, just a bit, but still no inflow. So I primed it again, then took some video to send to my brother when I started it up again. This time, though, I could hear an extra sort of grinding noise, so I didn’t run the pump for long.

My brother is at work, but my SIL let me know that he’d seen my messages, but just couldn’t respond yet.

While I was doing all that, my daughter started heating up the pizzas for our supper. The instructions said to bake them right on the oven rack, which sounds like a recipe for disaster. Instead, she made sure to use parchment paper so as not to dirty the baking trays, which could then be used to transfer the pizzas to dinner plates to keep them clean, too. Of course, a large each is too much for one meal, so the parchment paper could be used to transfer what was left back onto a baking sheet to go back into the oven for later.

The less dishes we dirty, the less we need to wash in the basin so we can dump the water outside, instead of down the drain.

Oh, my goodness! My husband just sent me a photo I have to share!

Syndol was all over the bathroom window, wanting in!

He is probably the most socialized of all the yard cats and loves attention. He’s such a stunner, too!

Unfortunately, he would not be considered adoptable, as he has respiratory issues. It doesn’t slow him down in any way, but when rescues bring cats to the vets for treatment before adoption, they are typically told to have the cats put down, instead. It’s hard enough to adopt out “perfect” cats. Harder still, to adopt “imperfect” cats. The Cat Lady tried a few times, with people saying they were fully aware of the health issues and that they were ready and able to accommodate them, only for them to end up returning the cats to the rescue because their vets told them to put the cats down. At least three of the cats from our place got adopted out multiple times and returned before the Cat Lady and her family simply took them in themselves, permanently. They have several others that have even more severe health issues.

Anyhow.

So this is where we are at now. We have good news with the tire, and got a few things done during this much, much warmer day.

We shall see what my brother has to say about the septic pump and what he thinks is going on, there. Aside from checking on the pump, I’ve also been checking the floor drain. We are only using the water to wash our hands in the bathroom, which should have almost no affect on the level in the septic tank, but it things to go crazy somewhere, we would see back flow into that floor drain before we see it anywhere else. There has been moisture in there since the last time I used the hose to clear the pipe to the tank, and I’m starting to see roots growing in it! I’ll have to clear it again, soon – but not until after we solve the problem with the pump and can drain the tank again!

Have I mentioned how tired I am with the plumbing in this place?

Just a few times by now, I’m sure. 😉😉

The Re-Farmer

Isn’t it supposed to get warmer?

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I checked the temperatures during the night, shortly after 2am, where we were at -29C/-20F, with a wind chill of -43C/-45F

I checked again shortly after 7am – when I would normally be getting ready to go outside to feed the cats and do my rounds.

It was -31C/-24F, with a wind chill of -42C/-44F

I checked again about half our later, and the temperature was the same, but the wind chill was back to -43C/-45F

Okay. I’ll just wait for things to warm up a bit before I feed the outside cats. They wouldn’t want to be running around in these temperatures, anyhow.

More than an hour later, and the temperatures hadn’t changed.

So I went and gave the outside cats their not-frozen kibble and warm water, and basically skipped my usual rounds entirely.

The thermometer in the sun room, at least, was reading around -15C/5F at the time. Still cold enough that the heated water bowl has frost around the top of the water level, with a layer of ice around one side, and cats had frost on their face fur. I don’t bother to put kibble in most of the trays anymore – the ones I can see they aren’t eating from. Instead, I scatter it in spots on the platform and shelves, under the heat bulb and the couple of trays they do eat from. Even outside, where their kibble trays are over full with frozen kibble, I leave very little fresh kibble, but have instead scooping some of it back into the bowl I used to carry their food. The bowl in the catio gets extra kibble, since it does warm up in there, but it looks like the birds are the ones eating the kibble under the shrine. The isolation shelter, however, gets the rest of the kibble in the bowl, including what I’ve scooped out from the frozen trays. The cats finish that bowl off completely!

Today was our day to do the litters which, with using the stove pellets, gets dumped into a separate compost pile behind the outhouse. This is one of those jobs where the girls do the inside part, and I do the outside part. We waited until past 3 to do it, though! By then, it was -23C/-9F, with a wind chill of -34C/-29F, but it was bright and sunny, which meant the sun room and the isolation shelter where much warmer – and filled with cats!

I got the above photos earlier in the afternoon, though. I was able to get a few shots from the bathroom window, which got their attention, but they didn’t run away. In the first photo, we have Fluffy, who is doing well enough to be on the very top shelf of the shelf against the old kitchen well. Most of the others were crowded in the opposite shelf, against the window, enjoying sun spots.

Instagram cropped the next photo for some reason, even though I set it to “full size”, so you’re not getting the full effect of having those three cats starting at me! It’s the little one in the middle that has me laughing, though. Those eyes!!!

The last photo of the thermometer shows it reading about -5C/23F. That thermometer is on a cold wall mounted about two west facing windows, so it would actually be reading colder than the ambient temperature – and certainly colder than the temperature in the sun spots filled with cats!

Slight interruption while writing this.

Well… not “slight”.

My mother called. As we were talking, it came out that she apparently did not get her second and third med assist visit from home care. It took a bit of questioning to find out this apparently happened on Saturday (today is Monday). According to my mother, then the home care aid that was supposed to show up on Saturday showed up on Sunday, she told my mother she didn’t know my mother was home from the hospital, so that’s why she didn’t show up. Which makes no sense.

There was also a very confusing thing my mother started taking about the medications she was taking in the hospital. After much questioning to figure out what she was talking about (it sounded like she had brought hospital medications home with her), it turns out she “remembers” me packing her medications from home, that she’s brought with her to the initial appointment that had her going to the ER, the day we brought her home. She said, don’t you remember, you put them in the bag, because they didn’t fit in my purse. W

Which did not happen. I’d already taken her partial bubble pack she had in the hospital, then took all her old bubble packs and pills from her place, to the pharmacy the day before she came home. Then, before we came to get her, we were able to pick up her new bubble packs from the pharmacy, with the updated prescriptions.

My mother has no memory of this. She thought her partial bubble pack was in the lock box, to be used so they wouldn’t “go to waste”.

I’ve already called and left a message with home care, explaining what my mother told me about the missed med assist visits. I should get a call back, tomorrow.

My mother, meanwhile, is upset that she can’t get at her own medications to take them herself, if home care doesn’t show up. Yet she clearly doesn’t know what is happening with her medications anymore, if she thinks she still has her old prescription bubble pack being used right now.

I made sure to message all this to my brother. One of his responses was, and they say Mom doesn’t need full time care?

*sigh*

There is a reason we have to have home care visiting my mother for her med assists. Many reasons, really, as well as reasons her medications are now in a lock box.

We really need to figure out what’s going on!

The Re-Farmer

Well, at least the sun is out

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For now.

This is what it was like this morning.

You’d think things would be warming up by sunrise, but nooooo. This has been the coldest part of the day of late. -30C/-22F with a wind chill of -37C/-35F Normally, I would have been heading out at this time, but decided to wait. I knew the outside cats still had plenty of food, even if they don’t like eating frozen kibble, and they would still have water in at least some, if not all, of their heated water bowls.

It says the extreme cold warning is until Monday at 6am. My desktop’s weather app has the warning to 7:01 this evening. I would say my phone’s app is the more accurate one!

As I write this, we are coming up on 11am, and have managed to warm up to -25C/-13F, with a wind chill of -28C/-18F Thankfully, the sky is clear and sunny, so we’ve got some passive solar heat happening in the sun room and the isolation shelter. We’re supposed to get a bit of snow early this evening, though.

The cats – especially the younger ones – have been absolutely thrilled they can go into the isolation shelter again. That top level is just crowded with kitties. I haven’t been able to do a head count, though. It seems to be mostly the more feral ones, and they panic and run away if I get too close. I don’t want them to leave their cuddle pile in the warm shelter, so I stay away, unless I’m actually putting in more food and water. That is the one place where the food bowl is completely empty when I get to it! I might start scooping frozen kibble from the outside bowls and trays to put into there, so it’ll thaw out enough for them to eat it.

Then there are cats like Patience.

Patience definitely looks like he is losing patience with this cold! Of all the cats, though, he probably has the biggest, thickest coat of winter fur of them all. Even more than Adam…

Adam is a physically larger cat than Patience but, with his winter fur, Patience looks bigger than she does!

Adam was sitting loafed like this when I first came out with the kibble. I’ve taken to scattering kibble in various spots on the platform and other raised areas, where I know they will actually eat it before it freezes. I put some right in front of her in the cat bed, and she barely even backed away from the scoop. She didn’t move from this spot until was about to go inside. I started petting Colin, right in front of her. I’d hoped I could sneak a pet while petting Colin, but as he kept pushing closer in front of her, it was just too much, and she finally got up and moved to the other cat bed.

Kohl, meanwhile, still seems to be holding a grudge against me! A trip to the vet and two weeks in isolation – is it a month ago now? – and she still rarely lets me touch her. She does like to eat kibble on this shelf, though, and that was enough for me to get at least a few pets in. Her fur is getting pretty matted. I am hoping we can get her comfortable enough with us again, that we can do something about that. Probably not until spring, though. We don’t want to be combing out her undercoat and cutting away mats, in this cold!

Magda peeking from behind her is so adorable!

When we got Kohl and Cat 1 fixed (yeah… I couldn’t come up with a name), we did not give them collars. They are not yet their adult sizes. Without knowing if we’d be able to handle them again, I didn’t want to take a chance of them growing bigger and the collars starting to bother them. I remember when our elderly Freya first showed up on our balcony in the city. She had a collar, so we assumed she was someone’s pet that was allowed outside. One day, she showed up with the collar gone – and a rather large spot on her neck where the fur was rubbed off, and a wound visible. Thank God it was a breakaway collar! She’d been on her own long enough to outgrow the collar, and it was harming her. I don’t want that to happen to these two.

Kohl might still let me pet her once in a while, but Cat 1 won’t come near us at all anymore. Getting collars on them when they are bigger, so show at a glance that they’ve been fixed, is not going to be easy!

Sadness. 😢

Today, our expected high is -22C/-8F, and our low is expected to be -30C/-22F, and tomorrow is expected to be the same. On Tuesday, we’re supposed to start warming up again. Thankfully, we don’t need to go anywhere. I might head to the post office tomorrow to pick up some parcels, but there is nothing essential in, so I will probably just wait until Tuesday afternoon!

I am definitely in the mood to hibernate as much as possible!

The Re-Farmer

Plugging away

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Today we got to stay home, with no errands to run. Technically, we should have done a dump run, but that can wait until things warm up a bit.

We actually reached a high of -19C/-2F, with a “real feel” of -15C/5F, which was nice for a change. Even when we did have wind chills of -25C/-13F, it was from a direction we were sheltered from. It was also bright and sunny, so we took advantage of it to run the house out the storm door window and do several loads of laundry. We didn’t get it all done before the hose had to be brought back in before it froze, even though we now do laundry using warm or hot water. We used to only do cold water washes, but this way, there’s less chance of the hose freezing. We are back under an extreme cold warning, and tomorrow the high will be lower than today, but it should be okay to run the hose out again for more laundry. We have extra bedding to do, after a cat threw up on my daughters bed. *sigh*

Speaking of cats…

I caught a photo of this bunch, all huddled together, this morning, when it was still pretty brutal out there. The sun room was significantly warmer, but from what I could see on the critter cam, they weren’t really using it. When I first came out this morning, though, I found a bunch of them cuddled together in the cat cage, under the platform. The platform hides most of the cat cage from the camera’s view, so I never saw them in there. I would be able to see if they jump in and out of the opening, though.

As I was going in and out today, to make sure the hose from the laundry was fully drained, I saw a crowd of cats mashed together in the top of the isolation shelter. I couldn’t get close for a photo, though, as the more feral ones would panic and run out of the shelter. I’m also seeing several faces peering at me through the cat house window, so at least a few of them are using that to keep warm, too.

In between such mundane household tasks, I have been working to free up storage space here on the blog. I really don’t want to move to another platform, if I can avoid it, but we simply can’t afford WordPress’ prices for extra storage. After trying a number of things, I ended up simply deleting old posts. For a very long time, I was doing Photo of the Day posts, every day, as well as Critter of the Day posts – sometimes both in one day. A lot of these were just a single photo with a brief comment on them. Others had several photos or slideshows, also with brief comments.

A few of them were also full blog posts. Those ones, I kept. The rest, I have been slowly going through. WordPress made changes in their system since I last did this, that has made it easier for me to find the posts in the first place (you’d be amazed how many unrelated posts would show up when I used the search term “photo of the day”, which was part of the titles), and work with them. It’s also been easier to find the related images in the media tab. So I’ve been going through the list of posts, opening to view the posts, one at a time, so I wouldn’t lose track. Once the post was open, I’d open the image (or images) in another tab, so I could copy and past the file name from the URL. I had the media storage in another tab, and I’d do a search for the image. Then it was, delete the image, delete the post, close the extra tabs, then do it again.

It was a real trip through memory lane, doing this. These were mostly photos of deer and birds, but also yard cats. Some of them were adopted out, some are now indoors, and a few have either passed away, or have disappeared. While I have all of these images stored on external hard drives, I did end up saving a few onto my computer and sharing the memories with the family. Seeing old photos of tiny Dave and little Cheddar, snuggling with Fenrir – who was still bigger than them at the time – was rather heartwarming. David was not fluffy yet, and both of them are at least double Fenrir’s size now!

The frustrating thing about this is, I’d gone through these posts before, back when we first realized that posting full size, high resolution photos on the blog was not a good idea! I’d gone through and resized those huge images, or got rid of them entirely, depending on what sort of post they were in.

When it came to our photo of the day posts, though, had I started cropping and resizing all of them, even adding borders and the blog’s URL onto them. These images do not have large file sizes. That’s why I left them, even as I’d deleted others with much larger file size images. There are just so many of them!

Which means that I’ve deleted dozens of photos and old posts, and have only managed to get my storage to 98.4% full, instead of 99.2%. That 99.2% was more of an “accident”. Thanks to 53old’s suggestion, I found that WP’s photo editor now allows images to be scaled down. I could use that to resize the images, and could even see how much smaller the file size was, as a result. Very hand, quick and easy!

Yet, the percentage of used up storage space went up, not down!

It seems that WP changed this function at some point, from a one and done sort of thing, to being able to revert the image back to original size later on. Which means that, while the scaled down image might be faster loading when the page is opened, the full size file was still stored within the system. So instead of just resizing a photo, I was essentially turning one file into two files, with the full size file “hidden” from view, but still in the system – and taking up storage space.

I went back to the ones I’d scaled down this morning and reverted them to their original sized, and got back the space.

So in order to reclaim more storage space on this blog, I’m going to have to keep plugging away at these old posts. They don’t get any views anymore; I’m currently working on 2019, so they’re all older. But gosh, I put a lot of work into those images, and I was posting them because I wanted to share some really nice photos!

It’s awfully tedious, but still preferable to moving the entire blog to a new platform. I will still have to store new photos somewhere else, like on Instagram, to embed them into posts. Thanks to a suggestion, I might be able to store them somewhere else and embed them into my posts so that people not on Instagram won’t have problems seeing them. I’ll look into doing that later on, though, after I’ve freed up a bit more space here. I need to have at least a bit more wiggle room in there!

I guess that’s my project for the weekend. The temperatures will be dropping; the extreme cold warning is back and continuing for a couple more days. We don’t have any appointments until the 20th, and it’s supposed to start warming up again around the 18th, so that should work out. About the only thing we’ll need to go out for between now and then is to get the mail and make a trip into town for little things, like refilling our water jugs. Possibly a grocery shopping trip for my mother as well. No big trips to the city or anything like that until the end of the month.

Next winter, I want to really work on finding ways to NOT have a lot of appointments in January and February. There isn’t anything we can do about stuff like my mother suddenly going to the ER and staying in the hospital for 2 weeks, but we can try to book medical appointments – for humans or felines! – outside of the two coldest, most miserable months of the year!

Of course, I’ve been saying that pretty much since our first two winters out here, where we found ourselves actually unable to go anywhere at all, either because the vehicles froze, or we were snowed in.

It hasn’t really worked out that way but, for all my whining, at least the winters have not been as bad since then! There is at least that, and replacing the van with our current truck, to be thankful for!

I’ll take what I can get!

The Re-Farmer

What a day! Glad to be home

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Well, this morning sure started out bitterly cold!

The -34C/-29F is bad enough, but a wind chill of -41C/-42F just kills it.

The next image in the slideshow above is how I feel right now.

I waited until past 8am to do the outside cat stuff. It only warmed up a couple of degrees, but even that makes a different. I also made sure to open the gate and run the truck for a while. When using the remote car starter, it shuts itself off after 15 minutes, which is very handy.

The sun room was much warmer, of course, but the wall thermometer was still reading -20C/-4F. That would be colder than the ambient temperature, given its location, but the rest of the room wouldn’t be all that much different. I’ve started to scatter kibble on their beds and the self warming blanket on the platform, as well as other areas they like to hang out, just so they don’t have to go far to eat. There is a ridiculous amount of kibble left in their various bowls and trays, but it’s frozen, so they avoid eating it.

My daughter and I were planning to stop at Walmart before going to the vet, so were quite early to get Fluffy into a carrier.

She did not cooperate.

My daughter had the carrier open at one of the sliding windows, while I was at the other. We keep a broom outside the main doors to sweep the sidewalks in summer, and I ended up using that to be able to reach her and try to push her towards the opening.

She did not cooperate.

The main thing was to make sure she didn’t jump down to the lower level, which she thankfully seemed to be trying to avoid all on her own. In the end, as she repeatedly jumped onto the hammock, next to the window I was at, I was able to reach in and grab her, and eventually pull her out. My daughter dashed over with the carrier, and we finally got her in.

It’s a very good thing I was wearing bite proof gloves, or I would have been bleeding all over the place!

We had put a small bowl with half a can of wet cat food in the carrier already, so my daughter quickly went to the truck while I put away the empty tin (The Grink got the other half of the tin to himself!) inside. I also made sure to set up the wind breaker box over the open ramp door. The Grink was free to leave, if he wanted, and other cats were free to go in.

That done, we were off, about half an hour earlier than originally planned. Which is fine. Better early, than late! We also made sure to leave the gate open when we left, as we had a prescription delivery coming later on.

Boy, did leaving early turn out to be the right thing.

When we got to the city the vet is in and parked at the Walmart, I went to get my purse…

That’s when I realized I never brought it with me. With all the fussing with the cat and getting things set up, I forgot to grab it when I went back inside to put away the empty cat food tin.

Not only had I just driven without my license, but I couldn’t buy anything and, if the vet bill was over the rescue’s budgeted amount, I wouldn’t be able to pay the balance. I would need to go home, but it’s an hour’s drive, and we wouldn’t be back in time for the appointment – not that we wanted to inflict that much more driving on an already stressed cat! My daughter had the carrier on her lap, and Fluffy was completely silent for the entire drive, huddled into the back of the carrier, right on top of her bowl of food.

So we drove to the vet. After going inside and explaining the situation, my daughter went in with Fluffy and stayed with her, while I headed home. My daughter messaged the family for me, to let them know what was going on. Once home, I just ran in, grabbed my purse, and left, pausing only to message the family to let them know I was leaving home again.

By the time I got back to the vet, Fluffy had been seen and they were back in the waiting room. Forgetting my purse added an extra 2 hours of driving time to my day! It probably cost us about $50 in gas, too. *sigh*

Fluffy was actually much calmer at the clinic, and they were able to handle her. They knew about the trouble we had to get her in and, if they needed to, they did have permission to sedate her, if necessary. Thankfully, they did not.

There were still signs of infection in her ear, so she got another injection of slow release antibiotic. The vet knew this was a yard cat, and was concerned that she would be let out to fend for herself in these extreme cold temperatures when we brought her home. My daughter reassured her, telling her about the isolation shelter, with its heat lamp, food bowl and heated water bowl, that all the cats would not have access to, the sun room set up, the kibble and water bowl shelters, and the heated cat house. Fluffy would have many places to stay warm and fed!

When I got there, my daughter left Fluffy with me while she used the facilities, giving me a chance to talk to the vet at the receptionists desk, too. The visit turned out to be under budget, which the Cat Lady will be happy about. The vet asked if we could watch for Fluffy scratching at her ear and stuff like that. We hadn’t even seen her doing that before her spay, but we’ll do our best.

Before going to the truck, I remembered to get a picture.

She was not at all happy to see me through the door of the carrier! Definitely holding a grudge. 😄

Once Fluffy and her carrier were settled on my daughter’s lap in the truck again, it was back to the Walmart – for real this time.

I got quite a few things, but my older daughter had sent funds for it, so it didn’t come out of budget, which was nice. I had to go to the customer service to take care of being charged for 8 instead of 6 items, which took only moments.

Once the shopping was done, I went to the McRaunchies in the Walmart to pick up lunch for my daughter and I to eat on the drive home. I was able to get a single burger patty for Fluffy, too, just as a treat, since she didn’t eat any of the wet cat food in the carrier with her. Their patties are 100% beef, so I knew it would be safe for her. I was rather shocked when I looked at the bill later and saw that a single 1/4 burger patty cost $2.10! Considering they packed it in a breakfast tray with lid, and even included a knife and fork, though, I guess we did get our money’s worth for it!

Once everything was put away in the truck, I cut up the burger patty and put it into the deeper lid of the tray, which my daughter put into the carrier with Fluffy.

She was not impressed.

Then, because my daughter was stuck holding the carrier, I helped her get set up with her lunch before we left.

Fluffy made no attempt to eat anything, though she did make her way to the door while we were driving, and try to get out. In the end, she jammed herself against the back end of the carrier and stayed there for the rest of the trip.

Once at home, I drove up to the house and my daughter took the carrier into the sun room before opening it. Then we unloaded the truck and she parked it, so I never saw how Fluffy behaved once she was free to leave the carrier. Later on, though, I looked out the bathroom window and found one cat half in the carrier, eating, while three or for more were prowling all around it!

When I came out later to do their evening food and water, I took the carrier into the house. While going to the various places to distribute the kibble and top up their water, I did see Fluffy, once. She was coming towards the cat house, saw me, then ran back to the storage house, to disappear under it.

She is most definitely still holding a grudge against me!

Meanwhile…

… Midnight has rediscovered the isolation shelter and was willing to go in long enough to eat.

I don’t think The Grink ever left.

I don’t think The Grink has any plans to leave!

Another cat had run out when I came close, but that fluff ball is the same one that had frost on his fur (my daughters think it’s a he). As I opened the windows to put in food or top up the water bowl, it didn’t leave that spot!

If you click through to the next photo, you’ll see that Midnight was replaced with a young tabby. I believe this is the one that was sick for a while, and we tended to him as best we could. If this is the same one, he is fully recovered, and even allows pets, while he is eating.

The three cats in this second photo are all about the same age.

So that is done! Thanks go my being a good and forgetting my purse, things didn’t quite go as planned, but I’m so glad my daughter was able to come with me. Her being able to stay at the clinic with Fluffy while I drove home and back was a huge help!

Meanwhile, I’ve updated the Cat Lady on how things went. She and her family were travelling today, so we were not able to connect at the vet clinic, as we usually do.

Tomorrow, I get to stay home. The only appointment I have is by telephone, with my mother’s doctor. We’re still under an ongoing extreme cold warning – the warning period has been adjusted again, and they are now saying the warning is until 7:18am. We’re supposed to drop to -32C/-25F around that time, and we’re still looking at wind chills in the -40C/F range.

Oooo… I’m just looking at my calendar. Since we have rescheduled my mother’s eye clinic appointment to next month, I don’t actually have anything scheduled for a week! I’m still likely to go out at some point. I’m sure my mother will need more groceries or something like that, but nothing that involved hours of driving! The long range forecast is still teasing with temperatures above freezing in the last week of February, which is when we’ll be doing our stock up shopping, working around another medical appointment for my daughter, this time in the town to the north of us. A good time to stock up on the 40 pound bags of kibble the cats like better!

I completely forgot. We’ve got a long weekend coming up. This coming month is a statutory holiday across Canada, but has different names in different provinces. Most have Family Day, but it’s also Islander Day (PEI), Louis Riel Day (Manitoba) and Nova Scotia Heritage Day (Nova Scotia…. of course). The Yukon has their Yukon Heritage Day the following Friday.

For us, it will be just another day.

Me, I just want to stay home until it gets warm again – and by “gets warm”, I’ll be happy with it just being on the warm side of -20C/-4F overnight!

The Re-Farmer

Home again

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Well, I’m certainly glad I got the truck in, even with the bitter cold!

As I write this, we are at -23C/-9F but it’s sunny enough that, instead of a wind chill, our “feels like” is -21C/-6F Which actually feels balmy, compared to this morning!

When I got home, I found this fluffball enjoying the sun.

I was actually able to pet this one, this morning. He (she?) was in a cat bed in the sun room, back towards me, so I snuck up and started giving shoulder rubs. S/he turned to look at me, but I think was just too cold to run away. There was frost on its face fur!

I can see why the vets would think our current crop of fluffy cats are Norwegian Forest Cats! We just thought of them as long haired tabbies.

Anyhow.

I headed out later than I normally would have – making sure to give the truck time to warm up! – as I wanted to go to the post office. The store it’s in closes at noon today, so if I didn’t pick it up this morning, it would have to wait until tomorrow, and we’re going to have a cat in the truck, tomorrow.

The store opens at 9 and drop off time at the garage was at 9:30. It typically takes half an hour to get to town, so I sent a quick message saying I might be late. Much to my surprise, I was actually 10 minutes early! No slow vehicles to get stuck behind, no road conditions to slow me down, it was a perfect drive in! I hadn’t realized how rare that is, considering what I’ve become used to, lately.

While dropping off the keys, we went over what was being done. He had me for fixing a slow leak, and I said the valve would need replacing. It’s been a long time since they checked the valves for leaks, plus my tires have been rotated since then, so he was going to check the whole tire, anyhow. I remembered to ask if he could check the oil level, too. It’s been so cold, I haven’t done it in a while. I was also down to have the passenger side windshield piper replaced. I forgot to tear off the loose bit, so the entire drive to town, I was hearing the flappityflappity sound of the loose piece hitting the truck in the wind. 😄

My plan had been to go to the motel next door, where there is a Chinese restaurant, to have breakfast and wait – it was only expected to be an hour – then pick up a few things at the grocery store after getting the truck back. Walking to the main doors of the hotel, however, I found the doors locked. It was still too early!

While the walk was only about a minute, maybe two, I was already feeling the cold, so I went across the street to the grocery store. There was no way I was going to walk into the downtown area to try and find someplace open I could stay at. I knew the closest one didn’t open until 10, anyhow.

I didn’t have much to pick up, but I took my time about it. The deli had hot breakfast sandwiches available, so I picked up a couple of those for breakfast. They were wrapped and the stickers had a price, but nothing about what kind they were. I thought they might be breakfast bagels, but they turned out to be sausage and egg on an English muffin. They were quite good, too. Just on the small side. 😁 A heartier breakfast would have been preferred, in this cold! I ended up eating in the grocery store vestibule, because there was nowhere else indoors available. I also ended up getting a couple of soft sided grocery bags, one insulated, one not, since all of mine where in the truck. I’d picked up another whole chicken for the freezer – they are still on sale, with even the heaviest chickens in the $10 range. According to my receipt, I saved $7.85 by weight. They still had the 5 count bags of avocados available and on sale. They were already down to $4.99, when they are usually around $7.99, but my loyalty card brought it down to $2.99. We still have some at home, so I only got one bag.

After taking my time to get everything, then taking my time to eat my breakfast sandwiches, I finally headed back to the garage across the street. It was already noticeably warmer by then, too. It was only a couple of degrees warmer, but enough to really feel the difference.

The truck hadn’t been taken in, yet. A delivery truck had come in, and the trailer was long enough to block both bay doors. They were done unloading, though. I went in to get my key, so I could put the groceries in the truck, but the mechanic already had it. He just to move a couple of small vehicles (including the most adorable import trucks; I believe they are common in Europe, but they are rare, here) out of the bay once the trailer was moved, then he could bring my truck in. That gave me time to put my bags in the truck. He’d asked me to start the engine for him if I could, but he was done before I was!

With the truck going in about half an hour late, that meant I still had an hour or so to kill. Not that I was in any hurry, but there just aren’t a lot of options for places to go and just hang out, in the winter. It was late enough that I knew the DQ would be open, and they were pretty close, so that’s where I went. I was their first order of the day, and still the only customer, by the time I left! Which was good for me; I got to miss the lunch crowd.

When I meandered my way back to the garage, I saw the company truck was gone, so it was just the mechanic. The truck’s tire was still off and waiting.

He confirmed that it was the valve that was leaking, however they found that the sensor’s battery was simply dead. Considering it would be 14 years old, that’s not too unexpected!

So I waited in their office for the owner to come back. I had two options for the fix. I could get the valve replaced with a valve and no sensor. That would be cheaper, but I would have the warning light on my console display all the time. Or I could get the valve and sensor replaced. Which is what I was budgeted for, anyhow.

He told me he’d checked all the tires, and got zero readings. None of the sensors are working anymore! I know at least one was working, last summer, as we got a low tire warning. That was what got us looking for the problem in the first place, and where we found that three out of four valves had slow leaks. Two were barely noticeable, while one – the one getting fixed today – was leaking more. He suggested we get the others replaced, as we can afford it, which is what I was already planning to do.

So the sensor got replaced and programmed. If you click through to the next image in the Instagram slide show, above, you’ll see our bill.

Oh! Instagram cut it off! I had set it to full size. Crud.

For all but the oil, the .99 was cut off the prices. I’m glad I got the wiper done here. It turns out he can get them at discounted prices. If I’d gone to Canadian Tire, which I might have been able to do tomorrow, the same blade would have cost closer to $50. He also topped up my oil with half a liter, which was nice. The synthetic oil for our truck is quite expensive, so paying for just half a liter is fine by me! The truck will be back next month for an oil change, after getting the engine cleaned and the oil sensor replaced. Hopefully, that will get all residual moisture out of the system, and we will no longer have issues with it.

Anyhow, the grand total came out to $149 and change. Lower than I had budgeted for, which is nice.

What was also nice was seeing that he didn’t charge me for labour!

That done, I just made a stop to fill the tank (I was just under 3/4 tank, and it cost almost $62 to fill, at $1.569/L), then headed home.

Along with the adorable fluffy baby in the first photo, I saw many other cats going in and out of the garage! That always makes me nervous, as I drive in.

I also spotted these two.

It looks like I caught The Grink while he was winking!

The sunshine through those windows would be making it extra cozy in there. For all that there is a 250w heat lamp aimed towards the back, I’ve been finding frozen remains of wet cat food in their bowl! The bowl isn’t directly in front of the heat lamp, but it is right next to the bed they are in. Even the spoonful I put on the shelf above had been mostly frozen.

Gosh, I wish Fluffy would let us handle her! She needs pets. And hugs. And cuddles. So does The Grink! We haven’t even been able to touch her (or him), never mind check her incision.

Midnight was hanging around when I came by, but not close enough that I could see his shaved spot. 😄 It’s too bad he got out of the isolation shelter, but at least it was him, and not her. Neuters are far less of a concern. I was happy to see he still has his collar, too.

So the tire is now done, and the oil is topped up. We are good to go for tomorrow’s trip to the vet! The isolation shelter will be opened up again, and the other cats will be able to snuggle up in there again. Considering I regularly counted as many as 15 cats in the upper level at once, I’d say that might explain why I’m seeing so many cats in the rafters of the garage lately!

In other things, after I got home, I made sure to call the eye clinic in the city. My mother’s appointment was for next week, but she really balked at going. Which I totally understand. She is still recovering from her edema, so the more time she has on her water pills, before a long drive like this, the better. That got rescheduled to a month from now.

The weird thing was getting a call from home care. They wanted to confirm the lock box code, which surprised me. Did my mother not get her morning meds? Apparently she did, so… why confirm the code? The other concern was that my mother’s inhaler wasn’t in the box. My mother had brought the one from the hospital home in her purse, so it wasn’t with the bubble packs. The new inhaler, still in its box, probably was. We’re not as concerned about the inhaler as with my mother messing with her medications – the new lock box came in yesterday, so last night, my brother and his wife drove out to set it up for her. My mother tried to insist, she can manage her medications herself, but my brother just told her, doctor’s orders. In fact, if they had known she would be without a lock box when she got home, because the first one was too small for her bubble packs, they would not have discharged her.

The weird part was when the home care lady tried to confirm a code for a lock box I knew nothing about. When I expressed my confusion, she asked, isn’t there a lock box for the building?

Now, I know they have a lock box for the fire department/first responders, right at the main entrance, but a medical lock box for the building? I’ve never heard of one!

I did have to ask if my mother actually got her medications this morning, if there was doubt about the code on the new lock box. Now that I think about it, the lock box was set up before my mother’s last med assist of the day, so if there was an issue, it would have first happened last night, and I would have gotten a call then. As far as she could see from the files, my mother did get her medications. It was just the inhaler that was of concern, because it was not in the lock box. In the end, it was decided the inhaler would be kept in the lock box, too, just for consistency.

At least that is taken care of!

Meanwhile, I’m glad to be home and no longer having to drive anywhere until tomorrow. I was hearing weather reports on the radio while I was driving. The entire province is still under an ongoing extreme cold warning, with some places expecting wind chills of -43C/-45F – all well to the south of us, though. According to my weather app, our region’s cold warning is expected to end at 8:18pm this evening.

How strangely specific.

Our overnight lows are still expected to reach below -30C/-22F, so I’m guessing that means the wind chills in our area are no longer expected to reach the -40C/F range.

I probably sound like a broken record by now, but I am so done with winter right now.

We are still at our high of the day (-21C/-6F). At least the sun room thermometer was reading 0C/32F when I checked a little while ago. It may not be the most effective sun room, but it’s enough to have some decent passive solar heat, even on days like today!

*sigh*

Time to go feed and water the outside cats, before the temperature starts dropping again.

The Re-Farmer