What a lovely day today had turned out to be! At one point, checking one of my weather apps, it told me it was still -2C/28F out there, but the “real feel” was 6C/43F!
The outside cats were quite enjoying the sunshine.
One of the things I’d done, once the snow cleared away enough, was move the broken office chairs to the junk pile instead of several feet away, setting them upright again. As expected, the cats are taking advantage of them!
I had to zoom in quite a bit to get these pictures.
The cat in the first picture is one of the more feral ones. It comes to the house regularly, but we cannot approach it. The second picture shows Stinky keeping (her? him?) company on the other chair.
In the afternoon, I headed out with a project in mind, then got these pictures.
The first picture is Sprig. She’s mostly feral, but I was able to stand just a few feet away from her to take the picture. She’s got burrs stuck in her tail, but as soon as I stepped towards her, she ran off. No chance of getting them off for her.
In the second picture, you can see Bug and Fluffy enjoying the exposed straw mulch in the old kitchen garden! That bed is the one sown with beets and tiny bok choi, with transplanted onions that I found while cleaning it out in the fall. You can just see a stick behind Fluffy’s head. That marks the end of a row of beets, so she’s right on top of where they are planted.
I’m going to have to work on keeping that cats off that bed! I’ll be removing the mulch, hopefully tomorrow, and then setting up the vinyl cover sized for this specific raised bed cover. That will keep the cats off for the most part. Once the “greenhouse” is no longer needed, I’ll have to replace the vinyl with netting. I’ll have to find a way to protect the part of the L shaped wattle weave bed that is winter sown, once that mulch is removed, too.
As for my project…
We haven’t seen Slick much at all, and I just can’t figure out how we can possibly trap just her, given how skittish she has become. So I have made an offering to her, in the catio.
I cleared everything out and added fresh straw to the bottom of the catio, as well as some on the remaining hammock. Then I put the big donated cat carrier, with a cat bed in it that I was able to get out of the cat house without lifting the roof, set inside. The carrier is so big, I had to turn it sideways to get it through the door! Then I put the self warming shelter back, on top of some scrap pieces of rigid insulation, along with the food and water bowls. I took the two box nests out completely, along with the blanket that had been in one of them. The blanket went back inside, while the boxes went onto the feeding station under the shrine nearby. Now that enough snow has melted away, we can start leaving food there again, and I put the two bowls inside the boxes for now.
Once the inside was set up again, I used clear repair tape to fix some tears in the vinyl around the catio, caused by the wind. I couldn’t get all of them on the north side, as the bench there is still frozen to the ground and blocking access, but I got the ones on the south side thoroughly covered and reinforced. The tears I couldn’t reach shouldn’t be much of a problem, as they are “sheltered” by the pile of snow at the bench, so there would be very little wind or weather getting through those.
My hope was that Slick would either have her kittens in this shelter within a shelter I have made for her – or bring them there, if she had already had them! I just came back from doing the second feeding of the day and she did show up – still looking pregnant – but wouldn’t even go up onto the cat house roof to eat while I was around. I wish I knew what happened to make her suddenly so nervous.
The catio is one of the places she regularly goes into for food and water, and just hanging out. I’ve seen her using the self warming shelter as well, but the cats jump on top of it, crushing it flat, so she’s not going to have her babies in there. Now that the cat carrier is there, with a soft bed inside, on top of fresh straw, I really hope she will accept it as a safe place to for her babies. That will hopefully give us a better chance of catching her for the rescue, or at least socializing her babies. The only problem I foresee is that, any time she’s been in there and I’ve started to come over with food, she immediately runs away.
I was thinking about how, if she did have her babies in there, we could potentially close the door on the carrier while she’s in it, and then get her to the rescue. Since the carrier could only fit through the door by being turned sideways, we wouldn’t be able to move it if she and her kittens are inside. What we can do, however, is simply pick up the catio and move that, instead, but only if enough snow around it melts away that we have the space to access it and set it down nearby.
As I was still working on taping up the tears on the catio, I saw several cats go in to investigate the new set up. In the second picture of the slideshow above, I was able to get a picture of a cat enjoying the fresh straw on the hammock. I thought it was Pinky at first but, looking at the photo more closely, it might be the cat my daughters have named Bobert.
Staring tomorrow, we’re supposed to alternate in highs of 14C/57F and 12C/54F for the next four days. Thursday, we’re supposed to get rain as the temperature drop, leading to snow on Friday and Saturday, and the highs are supposed to hover at or just above freezing for the rest of April. Even in the first full week of May, we’re supposed to get several days rain during the day, with highs above 10C/50F, and snow overnight! After that, we’re supposed to start getting consistent highs above 20C/68F, and overnight lows staying above freezing.
Winter just does not want to let go, this year!
Well, we’ll see what actually happens when the time comes.
I have been seriously procrastinating with the seedlings in our basement set up. Today, however, my daughter was available to assist, and we got it done!
My daughter took on the job of sifting the rest of the bag of potting soil. She had to start a second bucket for all the sticks she sifted out, as the one I’d been using before was already 3/4 full. While she did that, I worked on making a whole bunch of strips for snail rolls, with a few extra strips, just in case.
Once the soil was sifted, my daughter thoroughly moistened the potting soil with hot water while I cleared all the trays of seedlings, the heat mats and the full spectrum lights. Everything was going to go on the shelf under the shop light. A shelf that sags in the middle. I did try to elevate the trays in the middle, but when I watered the bottoms, it would still all pool towards the middle, so anything on the outsides of the trays would end up with less water available. After some poking around in the old basement, I found a board to set across the top. It’s too short to be able to use heat mats under it, but I decided not to set those up again. Hopefully, they will be okay without them in our basement, where the ambient temperature is at least 5C colder than it should be for seedlings.
Once everything was cleared out and set up, the first things I wanted to “pot up” were the peppers and eggplant. They have been really struggling. Some new seedlings from a second sowing did start to germinate, but even some of those have already withered away.
I bottom watered the tray and had vermiculate on top, but there still ended up some algae growing on the surface. That’s not harmful to the plants, but it does suggest a moisture imbalance.
When it came time to transfer them, my daughter used a large spoon to scoop the seedlings out of the cells while I set them onto one of the strips, flattening out the seed starting mix they were in, then adding the moistened, warm potting soil to fill in gaps.
I had already transferred all the tomatoes, fennel and flower rolls into one metal tray – 8 snail rolls – and had room for two more rolls on there. In the end, there were only 5 surviving Caspar eggplant, and only three Sweet Chocolate peppers. I did have a full row of California Wonder bell peppers, though, and one of the cells had a two seedlings, so that gave us a very large and full snail roll to put into the second metal tray set up under the shop light.
One thing about these thicker snail rolls is that it’s a lot harder to keep the soil in them, while they are being rolled up.
Next was the Golden Boy celery, which has already been “potted up” once. They now needed to be split up into two rolls. We were really surprised by how dry their soil was! For all the regular bottom watering I did, they were large enough that they’d needed more.
The leaves were all tangled up, so it was very careful work to unroll the celery. The soil was very full of roots. Between use, we carefully broke out half the celery and spread them out on a new strip before adding the moistened potting soil to fill the strip. It took both of us to very carefully roll them up without losing too much soil from the bottom. Once that was done, we had the space to finish unrolling the original roll, space out the seedlings and add more soil.
So we now have two snail rolls of celery, to go with four types of tomato, three types of flowers and the Florence fennel.
I considered putting the sad little herbs into a snail roll, too, but decided against it. As for the last surviving luffa, I’m not sure it’s surviving any more! It got pretty buried under the celery leaves. Well, we did get seeds for a different variety with a much, much shorter growing season – short enough we could potentially direct sow them – so if this last one doesn’t make it, we can try the new variety, instead.
Once everything was set up under the shop light, I supported the light while my daughter shortened the chain it’s hanging from, so it wouldn’t be too close to the plants. Especially the celery. The chain on that side was hung even shorter, to give them the space they need.
Which means we now no longer have anything under the grow lights. With the snail rolls, everything fit in the two trays. They got a thorough bottom watering, then a second one when we saw how quickly the water was absorbed. With how dry the celery was, I’ll probably give that tray another watering, later today.
The next batch of seeds are the 4-6 weeks before last frost ones. I don’t have a lot of those, comparatively speaking. There are a LOT that can be started in the 2-4 weeks before last frost category, but a lot of those can actually be direct sown, so I plan to be more selective about it.
Looking at the forecast, we’ve got some more weather whiplash expected. Winter still does not want to let go! Today, we are now expected to reach a high of 15C/59F (it’s 8C/46F as I write this), shortly before noon), but the overnight low is supposed to drop to -7C/19F. At midnight, we’re supposed to start getting snow. Tomorrow we’re supposed to get a mix of snow and rain all day, through to the next morning.
The weather system that’s hitting us is mostly going to pass to the north. They are looking at potentially several inches of new snow. This is actually really good. Everything is still so dry u[ there. Every bit of moisture is needed, so this year’s fire season isn’t as bad as last year. There will be fires. There always are. Between any moisture we get, and the fact that last year’s insane number of fires probably cleared out a lot of deadwood, hopeful this means very fewer fires, and only little ones, this year.
The highs for the next two days are supposed to be -3C/27F. After that, we’re supposed to get back above freezing, and soon reach double digit Celsius highs. Before the end of April, we’re even expecting to reach 20C/68F, and once we’re into May, the long range forecast has us getting as high as 24C/75F It’s the overnight lows that are the thing, though. Last year, May had all sorts of hot days, but the nights remained cold, so the soil never got warm enough for transplants until the middle of June. Even then, it might still have been too cold. Our transplants really struggled last year.
Hopefully, our winter sown beds will do well. After the next couple of days of cold, and any snow we get on the beds melts away, I should be able to remove the mulches on at least some of the beds, so the soil can thaw out faster. I can set the vinyl over the cover in the old kitchen garden to create a little greenhouse. That bed has the beets and tiny bok choy in it, along with the little onions I’d found while preparing the bed for sowing. I have more vinyl I can potentially use on one of the other covers on a 9’x3′ raised bed to create another little greenhouse. Plus, once I can access the main garden area, I have the hoops and 6mm poly I’d ordered and can use to set over one of the other pre-sown beds to speed things up a bit. Or just to warm up one of the other, empty beds, faster. We shall see how things look, once the snow has melted enough to get to them.
For 8 years, I’ve been hearing that old pump going off, never knowing what “normal” sounded like. Just that this one was sounding worse and worse as time went on. Now that it has finally been replaced, it actually feels weird to just barely hear it when it goes off.
The other thing I’m appreciating, in a still stressful way, though, is not having to worry about the truck’s oil pressure sensor triggering alarms. The alternative, until the OEM sensor comes in, is no sensor at all, but I’ve had to drive it with the gauge at 0 before. The check engine light is on now, of course. I’ve driven with that on for quite a while this past winter, until it warmed up enough and it shut off on its own. That was the O2 sensor and likely caused by the polar vortexes that his us freezing something in it.
Still, I’m going to be nervous driving the truck no matter what. We’ve had so many crazy things break down, that’s really to be expected.
Today, however, the dump is open from 9am to1pm, and we were seriously overdue for a dump run. The last time I managed a dump, I ended up needing a tow.
My younger daughter, sweetheart that she is, offered to come with me to keep me company. 😄
We loaded the back of the truck after the morning cat feeding was done. We had so many garbage bags, including from the sun room and the garage, to load, there was room for only one bag of recycling. The recycling can wait. The temperatures are warming up, and the garbage bags no longer freeze in the old kitchen, so they needed to be gone!
When we got to the dump and started making our way to the pit, my daughter got out to walk ahead, looking for anything that might puncture a tire. There was a pick up truck parked on the side, and we hadn’t realized someone was in it! It was one of the staff having his lunch, I think. He could tell what she was doing and I could see he was assuring her it wasn’t necessary. We got a chuckle out of that after she guided me in backing up to the pit and she told me what he’d been saying. He had even asked if we needed a hand unloading!
After we were done and driving out, I stopped at the truck to thank him. I mentioned to him about being paranoid, having gotten a flat after doing a dump run once. He told me that he’s been hearing stories like that from many, many people, so he has been making sure to keep an eye out and to clear in front of the pit if he sees anything that could cause damage. I made sure to tell him how great of a job they’re doing; the place hasn’t looked this good for a long time! I wanted him to know how much it is appreciated.
From there, it was a quick stop at the recycling bins, then then we made our way to the town north of us. I’d brought our files to drop off at the tax preparer. Our taxes are about as simple as can be; the only change this year is that I no longer am going to get the Caregiver Tax Credit, but now qualify for the Disability Tax Credit. We gave up trying to do taxes ourselves; the last time I picked up the software, it had changed so much, I could barely navigate it. I even got another company’s software, and it turned out to be just as useless. My husband has T4A slips – the slips for persons on long term disability. One brandy’s software didn’t even recognize the A, nor could I find where we could claim the Disability Tax Credit and the Caregiver Tax Credits. When it came to claiming my husband’s medical expenses – just his prescriptions, usually – it became impossible. There simply wasn’t any way to input his data accurately. I gave up, took it to a pro, and we’ve been doing that ever since.
After dropping the files off, I asked my daughter if we needed to get anything while in town, and she informed me we were out of milk, so we went to the grocery store.
Good grief.
I got a 4L of 3% milk instead of our usual 2L. A 4L of 3% is usually just over $5. In this town, one brand was over $8, and one was just under. That happened to be the brand we usually get, so we got it again.
We went through the store to see if there was anything else we needed. Most of the prices were just insane. The exception was beef prices. I saw a couple of big beef tenderlions that were just over and just under the $100 range. Those same beef tenderlions cost almost $300 at Costco! Still, it wasn’t something we were ready to get today, and ended up just getting snacks for the ride home. My daughter picked up a package of donuts to share with her sister. I don’t like cake type donuts much, but she said she’s been craving a good donut.
Then she grabbed everything and snuck ahead to pay for it for me! 😄
Later on, she came to me, very disappointed. The donuts turned out to be terrible. The same thing happened the last time we picked up some mini donuts about a month ago. They looked so good, but tasted horrible!
After we got home, I remembered to phone my mother. I usually remember too late in the day to actually make the call.
*sigh*
I asked how she was doing, and she started to complain about being in pain, but when I asked what kind of pain, she just started going on about how she’s been there for three months, and the doctor has never seen her. She told me that when she tells the staff that she wants to see the doctor, they just tell her “he’ll be here tomorrow” or “he’s on holidays”. She’s conflating responses. He was on holidays over Easter, but he’s been back for awhile now. She still claims they’re saying he’s on holidays. I tried to explain again that yes, he has (briefly, to be sure) seen her, but that he’s only there 1 day a week, and it’s to go over the staff reports, not necessarily to see individual people. She cut me off and told me she didn’t care
She did ask me if I’d heard from my sister and my brother. I told her, it’s been a few days since I’ve heard from my sister and got a lecture about how we need to stay in communication. I told her, if we have nothing to say, there’s nothing to say! Then I told her I’d heard from my brother yesterday, and how they’re now in Spain, after walking 190km, with another 90km to go. She told me, she didn’t care about kilometers, and how all she knows is that my brother has basically run away from his responsibilities and is hiding overseas. I told her, they are on a pilgrimage. Following the paths of saints. She brushed that off.
She’s asked what was new with us, so I told her about the well pump. I knew she wouldn’t care, but I figured it would stave off any lectures on why I hadn’t visited her. I told her the pump had stopped working on Sunday, so we had no water, which seemed to confuse her. Then I said we called plumbers, and she started demanding I call a guy she remembers my father hiring in the past that lives not far from us. I said no. I’m going to call a real plumber! Plus, he’s tight with our vandal. The guy actually is a plumber by training, but hasn’t worked as a plumber in years. He’s been on disability for years. I had to cut my mother off from demanding I call him to say, it’s already fixed. We got a plumber in and, thanks to my brother, we already had a pump, so it’s done. We have water again.
Oh, that’s your problem.
…
At that point I told her, don’t ask me what’s new with us, if you don’t care to hear about what’s new. I had to repeat it a few times before she got what I was saying, then tried to blame it on how bad she’s feeling.
She never did tell me exactly how she’s feeling bad, other than generic stuff. She started off talking about pain, but finished by saying she thinks it’s her digestion that’s causing problems.
The real problem is, my mother is someone that is 94 years old, has lived a life of great physical hardship, including surviving starvation and a war, but somehow thinks she would be feeling perfectly healthy – and any doctor that can’t just fix her (without pills, though, because she’s already taking so many and she’s still in pain…) is not a good doctor. I have tried to get her to explain her expectations to me, and she never quite answers.
It was a frustrating call.
She had been about to go for a nap, though, so I didn’t keep her on the phone for too long.
Meanwhile…
It’s been a lovely day, but one where I’ve been fighting sleep all day. I’m just drained. Still, I made sure to do the evening cat feeding, just to get outside and enjoy the sunshine and warmth. We hit 10C/50F today, and it’s been so lovely!
This morning, my daughter had helped me return all the carriers for storage in the sun room, with the doors open so cats can go in and out. After doing the feeding, I got some puppy pads to set inside the carriers in such a way that they would also keep the doors from closing all the way.
That’s little Flopsy on the left. The one on the right is an unsocialized cat we haven’t named. Can’t get close to it, but it is quite content to go into a carrier and use it as a nest!
It was so nice out, I took the time to grab the snow shovel and do some clearing. I shoveled in front of the old kitchen garden retaining wall, clearing more than enough space for the assembled chicken coop. Now that there’s no longer over a foot of snow on the area, the layer of ice left on the grass can melt away and the area will have a chance to dry out faster. We won’t get chicks until the end of May, and they won’t be big enough to go into a coop for weeks later, but the earlier we set up the coop, the better. It will give us time to determine if that area will actually work, or if we need to try somewhere else. We don’t have a lot of level areas, anywhere.
I’m really, really enjoying the warmer weather! At this rate, it won’t be long before I can remove the mulch on the sown garden beds, so the soil can thaw out faster. Not in the main garden area, yet. That’s still completely covered in snow and will take longer, but the slightly higher raised beds in the old kitchen garden and in the east yard are already mostly free of snow.
Looking ahead, we are going to have a few days where the highs will dip below freezing again, but after that we’re supposed to start getting highs above 10C/50F, and overnight lows staying above freezing, regularly.
I can hardly believe April is almost half gone already.
As I was getting my coat to go feed the outside cats, I spotted movement in the distance. I had to zoom in quite a bit to get these shots, so they’re not the best.
Two white tail deer, beyond the outer yard, at the far side of the barn. Soon after, I saw one of them making its way through the outer yard to the driveway, heading for the gate. The deer are very, very active this time of year, and the population looks to be quite high this spring! I haven’t seen so many since we stopped feeding them outside the living room window.
After I did the outside cats’ food and water, I tried for a head count. I think I counted 24 in total. Possibly 25?
Adam was on the cat house roof, where she prefers to eat, and she enthusiastically allowed me to pet her. I was able to feel around her belly. She does not feel pregnant, and I don’t feel any active nips. Given how early I saw she’d gone into heat and the boys going after her, it’s entirely possible she’s had a litter and lost it. I am seeing the other feral females – Slick, Sprout and the white and grey we haven’t named – show up just long enough to eat, and then they disappear.
I managed to get a picture of this beauty, though.
I’m glad we were able to catch her and get her spayed, because she very rarely allows me to touch her. Once I do, she stops and enjoys the pets, but otherwise, she just runs away.
Once the outside stuff was done, I headed out. My first stop was to the post office, then I planned to go to the feed store in my mother’s town, then visit her.
I had asked the owner of the general store if their feed supplier also carried cat food. She looked up their list and they did. That was a while ago, so when I came in to get the mail, I looked through their feed section and saw they had three 18kg (39.68lbs) bags of cat kibble! They were only $45, too. With the other brands we’ve been getting, they are in the $50-$55 range.
We’ve never had this brand before, so I got only one, to try it out. If the cats like it, it would make things much easier to pick them up in our own little hamlet than having to drive to the towns with feed stores. The only thing is that I would have to change how I budget it. Right now, I put the budgeted amount onto a credit card, so that when I buy them I get my cashback or Canadian Tire dollars. The general store doesn’t take credit cards, though. Just cash and debit. So if I’m going to be buying the big bags there more often, I have to make sure NOT to transfer the funds to a credit card.
So after I picked up our mail, I got the one bag of kibble – then picked up a couple of sausages for the Easter baskets. Something else that was on my list for the shopping I planned to do after visiting my mother.
Since I got the test bag of kibble, I skipped the feed store and went straight to my mother’s.
She was in her favourite armchair in the common room when I got there. She was pleasantly surprised to see me, which was nice for a change.
It was a pretty quiet visit. There wasn’t a lot new going on. My mother immediately started complaining, of course, but not as … energetically, shall we say, as usual. Her health isn’t good. She needs sleep. She needs a private room. (I don’t disagree!) Her room mate is terrible. (I’m sure her room mate thinks the same of my mother!) The regular doctor never comes to see her. The other doctors are from the city come in just for a day. I reminded her that she would need to make an appointment for the doctor to actually see her as a patient; otherwise, he’s just doing his rounds before going to his regular patient appointments at the clinic. To which she complained that it’s just about moneymoneymoney. Apparently, doctors shouldn’t get paid? I’m not quite sure what she’s getting at when she says that, but she says it quite often.
Hopefully, she won’t be here for very long, but there’s just no way to know when a bed will open up at the nursing home she wants to be in.
I remembered to ask if our vandal had shown up again, after his big act with his wife pushing him in with a borrowed wheelchair, then storming out when she refused to pay for his funeral. She said no, he hasn’t. I was not surprised. I told her, I knew there was a reason he was visiting so often. He wanted something from her. Now we know what it was. She started going on about how he’s wealthy, he has his farm. I told her, that’s not cash in the bank. He would have to sell it. Her response was, what else is he going to do with it? His wife isn’t going to farm it, and they have no kids. I told her, he doesn’t have to. He’s got so many vehicles and equipment scattered all over his property. Stuff he can’t use anymore. He could sell just a couple of things and more than cover the cost of his own funeral. That reminded her of the thousands of dollars she’d given him for the huge garage he had built to store his equipment in. All I know is, his vehicles and equipment are still all scattered all over his yard, fully visible from the road as I drive by, except for the Bobcat he stole from my mother, so who knows what all he’s got stored in there. My mother got the point, though; there is no reason for him to be going to her for money to pay for his own funeral. Which could be years from now, for all I know, based on how he appears the few times I’ve seen him since his diagnosis.
Overall, it was a good and relaxed visit. I stayed until her lunch tray was brought over – a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup and crackers, a pickled blend of legumes I recognize from Costco that is quite good, and canned fruit for desert. Her insulated tea cup was just hot water – at her request – to mix in with the glass of milk. One of her favourite things to drink. I stayed long enough to help her get set up and everything was in reach before saying my goodbyes.
From there, it was off to our regular local grocery store – and extra drive, but the difference in prices between that town and my mother’s made it worth it.
Once there, I got the last few things for the Easter baskets, including an extra flat of eggs. I’d asked my daughters to hard boil some eggs for me to start pickling after I got home. They ended up doing a flat and a half – roughly 45 eggs. The extras and the uglies would be used for egg salad. I got a paska for my mother, though it’s huge for a one person basket. Since she no longer has her own kitchen or utensils, my plan is to have everything for her basket all cut up and ready to eat without needing anything else. Plus, she could share the contents, if she finds it too much. We aren’t fans of paska ourselves, so I got a lovely fresh flax seed loaf for our own basket.
The shopping done, my only planned outing over the next while is to visit my mother and bring her the basket on either Saturday or Sunday.
I’m thinking Saturday.
There’s a reason for that.
The truck.
The truck has been running well. The stock up shopping trips have been fine. I have, of course, still been constantly checking the gauges. With the troubles we’ve been having for the past couple of years, I just can’t help myself.
Which is why I noticed something had changed.
The oil pressure gauge.
When we had the leaking seal replaced again, on warranty, and the oil sensor replaced, I got an oil change done at the same time. According to the mileage, we have a couple thousand kilometers before it needs to be changed again – which is about a month’s worth of driving, in the summer. Two months, in the winter.
After all that, the pressure gauge was right back where it was supposed to be and staying within a typical range.
As we were coming home from the Costco trip, though, it started to read on the low side of normal. Technically still okay, but at one point, it was pretty much on the line for low pressure.
It was reading normal again when I started out today, but when I got to the grocery store from my mother’s, the gauge had dropped down to the line again.
While I was on my way home, I kept checking it, and sure enough, it kept slowly dropping. As I was pulling into our driveway, it was touching the line again.
*sigh*
One thing I can say, though; the warranty differential is working fine. The 2 wheel and 4 wheel drive setting has been on auto, and it has had no problem kicking into 4 wheel drive as needed. Today got so warm, the hard packed snow under the tire tracks in our driveway started to soften and the truck starting to sink as I was driving, but I was able to get through with no problem! No getting stuck in our own driveway again!
We’ve been parking the truck in the yard for the past while, since my brother’s truck was half in our garage (as far as it could go without hitting the top of the door frame). My brother had phoned this morning and he suggested I just back it up into the lane towards the barn and leave it there, so we could park our own truck in the garage. So after the shopping was unloaded and I did an early feeding of the outside cats (they like the new kibble!), I moved his truck out.
His truck was having issues with sinking through the formerly hard packed snow, but it got through fine as well.
Driving our own truck into the garage, the oil gauge didn’t have a chance to drop like it did while driving, but it also never got to where it normally is.
The boxes for our chicken coop are still stored at the far end of the garage, so we can’t pull all the way in. Not a problem, since it means I had space to get out the step stool and check the oil levels.
It was low.
I had one last bottle of oil left, 3/4 full, and used that. The level seemed okay after that, but I’m never confident in what I’m seeing on the dip stick. The colour of the oil and the colour of the dip stick is pretty much the same, and the metal is always shiny, even after wiping it clean.
*sigh*
I made a point of checking, and there is no sign of an oil leak, but then I’ve never seen evidence of an oil leak even when it turned out to be leaking really badly, because of where the leak was. The only times I thought I did, it turned out to be from the differential, not engine oil.
Once I was settled inside, I called the garage. The owner answered. I made sure to first let him know that the warranty differential replacement has been doing fine, then explained about the oil pressure and being low on oil again. I mentioned, I’ve got a lot of driving to do in the next while!
He asked me if I could come in on Tuesday afternoon, so they can check it out. They are closed tomorrow and on Easter Monday, of course, so I was very happy that he could book me in so quickly.
For now, it should be fine for me to drive to my mother’s. I’ll do it on Saturday, when things are open, so I can pick up some extra oil to keep in the truck, now that I’ve just used the last of my stash.
This is getting so insane. I’ve either got another leak somewhere, or the truck is simply burning a lot of oil. Which I would expect to see evidence of in my exhaust, and I haven’t.
I just don’t get it.
I am so tired of vehicle troubles!
I can’t even say it’s been this particular truck, since the last two vehicles we’ve owned have also had weird problems. As my daughter told me during our Costco shop, and I was commenting about my own paranoia about the truck; with all the stuff that’s been going on, I have reason to be!!
Hopefully, it’s something minor that they can find and fix easily and quickly.
Hopefully.
On a completely different note, once I had my appointment made, I got to check out what I got in the mail.
The padded envelope had been opened, and the box it was in was crushed. That would have been customs. At least the thermometer itself was not damaged!
Once things thaw out, I want to use it in various beds to see how different the soil temperature is in, say, the high raised bed compared to the low raised beds. It might help explain why I had issues with my beans, melons, tomatoes and squash last summer.
That all settled, the last goal of the day was to make three different types of brine to pickle eggs in, and start peeling the eggs that were hard boiled last night. I made beet, soy and turmeric brines, using the simplest recipes I could find online, so I had three little pots going at once. Then my younger daughter and I started peeling eggs.
It was a disaster.
The shells just did not want to separate from the eggs!
Now, it we were just making egg salad, I wouldn’t have cared, but I was after the most perfect eggs to brine and use in our Easter baskets, and we just weren’t getting any at all. After about a dozen eggs, I called a stop to trying.
Thankfully, I got a extra flat of eggs at the grocery store today.
The ugly eggs didn’t go to waste, though; they got eaten pretty much immediately. 😄
Meanwhile, I started on another batch to hard boil, using tips I’ve tried in the past, all combined.
It worked.
First, fill the pot with water and generous amount of baking soda, then bring it to a boil. The eggs were brought out of the fridge to warm up. Room temperature would have been ideal, but I at least didn’t want to have cold shells cracking on contact with boiling water.
Once the water was boiling, I used a wire basket type scoop – I don’t know the name of it – to lower the eggs into the boiling water in batched. I got 24 eggs into the pot. One did crack, but nothing leaked out of it.
I set the timer for 10 minutes, but it took a while for the water to go from a simmer to a full boil again, so it was really more like 7 minutes at a boil. When the time went off, I shut off the heat, but didn’t take them out right away, just in case. Then I transferred them to a bowl of cold water and left them there for another 10 minutes.
Every single egg peeled perfectly.
All 24 eggs.
Perfect. Including the one that cracked!
I was hoping to just have 6 eggs per jar or brine, but I was able to do 8 in each!
Gotta make sure to pass on the method to the girls. My younger daughter was pretty upset that the first batch wouldn’t peel and felt she had done something wrong. It’s not a problem, though. We’ll just have lots of eggs ready for snacking!
Tomorrow, we need to dig out a couple of baskets from storage, and I need to figure out how to do my mother’s basket, if I’m going to have everything pre-cut up for her. Normally, the baskets would get blessed on Saturday, then enjoyed on Easter morning, but I have not been able to find any times for basket blessing. I know it’s being done; just not which church or what time. For quite a few years now, we’ve just blessed them ourselves. I’ll take the chance to visit my mother on Saturday with her basket and get a bit of a visit in.
Then not go anywhere again until it’s time to take the truck in to the garage to get checked!
I ended up outside for about four hours, digging paths in the snow – and I’m not done!
The priority was to get the fire pit area cleared. That has been drifted over for at least a couple of months now. I got the easy paths done first, though, like the path to the litter compost area. On that side, there was one path that got drifted over that I hadn’t gotten to previously, and I needed to use the ice scraper tool to break up the packed snow to get it clear. The rest of the most used paths only needed minor clearing.
The first section of the path to the fire pit area was brutal. I didn’t even try to re-dig the original path from before. That’s where, in the video, you can see a dark trail from dirty little cat feet. Normally, I’d clear the cat path to where they get under the storage house, with a branch off towards the fire pit. That cat path was too hard packed, so I cleared a new path next to it, until I reached where the old path branched off.
Even working off to one side, the snow was so hard packed, even the blade from the ice scraper had difficulty cutting through. I probably spent as much time on that one short section as I did the rest of the path to the fire pit area. If I had tried to use little Spewie to try and clear it, it would have broken. I’m pretty sure even my brother’s gas powered snow blower would have broken, trying to get through there!
Speaking of which, my brother came out today. Along with stuff he needed to do in their storage, he got his own truck set up. He used the snow blower in the outer yard and driveway as well, and moved his truck to our garage, where it can partially fit through the door. The cap on the box of his truck is too high to drive all the way in. He made sure it was all prepared so we can use it, if we have to.
He is convinced something is going to happen to prevent our truck from being ready in a few days, or it’s going to break down again, and we’re going to need to use his truck.
I really don’t want to use his truck! I appreciate the offer, for sure, but it’s a bigger truck, a rear wheel drive and basically a one wheel drive. It’s done very well for them, and I am incredibly grateful the option is there, but I really, really would rather not have to use it!
While I was digging one of the last sections of path, my brother came over to get me and show me the truck. He had it part way in the garage, and had set up a large board across the floor, in front of the tires, to make sure it didn’t go past that point. Otherwise, the top of the box cap would hit the top of the garage door frame! He had me start it and back it out, and walked me through various things on it. This truck as two gas tanks; something we’ve never had. As old as it is, it has lower mileage than our truck! He had some things he wanted to take out of the back, so after going over it with me, he took care of that, then drove it back in position party way into the garage while I went back to shoveling.
I was near finished shoveling when he came over again. He wanted to take pictures of section of the drain pipe from the kitchen, across to the bathroom. Under the bathroom, with the maze of pipe joins, the main drain changes size twice before the final length of 3″ pipe that runs to the septic tank. He is thinking of replacing the pipe from under the kitchen to under the bathtub with 3″ pipe, so that it can handle the volume of water from when the washing machine drains. The washing machine’s pump drains it faster than the water can go through the 1 1/4″ pipe. The problem is, there not a lot of room to put a 3″ pipe through!
I told him about how I’d run the drain auger through three times, after the plumber last got it unblocked for us. Not even the commercial drain auger can get the inside of the pipes completely clear from decades of grease and grime from the kitchen sink, and the sink that used to be set up where the washing machine is now.
I’ve picked up a brush set that’s designed to clean pellet stove pipes or dryer vents. It has two brush sizes, one of which will fit inside this pipe, and it can reach up to 30 feet. It’s about 20 feet to the corner under the bathroom. I think that if I can scrub out the inside of the pipe, that would solve the problem, and we can have the washing machine drain to the septic tank instead of out the window in the main door! I haven’t done it yet because it would be a very messy job that I would need to prepare for. Just running the auger through was messy and disgusting enough! Until it’s done, though, we don’t even dare try testing it again. The last time we did, even after the blockage was cleared by the plumber, we ended up flooding the entryway again. The water just couldn’t drain through the pipe fast enough.
That done, it was back outside. My brother had a few last things to do before leaving, and I did a bit more clean up around the paths before starting to put things away. I dug out fire wood that had been partially buried in snow, and left it out in the sun to melt a bit before having a cookout tomorrow. March is a birthday month and we always celebrate on a weekend near the birth date, usually with a special take out meal (going to a restaurant is no longer an option). Obviously, we can’t do that this month, but I still want to do something special, so we’ll be having a cookout, instead!
Before putting everything away, I finally took the snow off the cat shelter roofs. I’d been leaving the snow as an extra layer of insulation, but we don’t really need that anymore. Now, I want the sun to actually warm up the shingles and metal roof panels and melt away any remaining build up of ice and snow.
By the time I got in, I was pretty wasted. My daughters have basically taken over the other jobs I normally would have done, and made sure I got fed! 😄
Tonight, I’m thinking to prep some things in advance for the cookout before heading to bed. I’m still deciding on what that might be.
Meanwhile, I still need to dig out one more path. With the cookout planned for tomorrow, I might leave that for Monday. We’ll see. I definitely want to get it done before the first day of spring, though, as I plan to do my first “garden tour” video of the year. 😄 It won’t be the first time I did one with everything covered in snow!
For the gardeners out there – especially those who are still buried in snow, like I am – Gardening in Canada just came out with a new video on winter sowing.
The temperature fluctuations are so very typical for our region – and she’s farther north than we are!
We tried the winter sowing in jugs a few years ago, and it was a complete failure. This video covers a few of the reasons why. In our case, that year, they basically just froze, thanks to those fluctuations. That is why I tried the in ground winter sowing – sowing in the fall, before the ground froze, and mulching heavily. As an experiment, it worked quite well last year (not counting the beds destroyed by cats). These beds are now covered in deep snow, so they are well insulated from any temperature fluctuations. In the spring, once things warm up enough, I’ll remove the mulch so the ground can thaw out faster. Mulch will be returned once any seedlings are large enough.
Would I try this type of winter sowing again? Possibly, but unlikely. Perhaps a few years from now, we might have a better set up, and catch the right conditions. Hopefully, our direct sown beds will do well this year, too, because doing it that way is a real game changer.
Currently, I haven’t even tried to get at any of the garden beds, as that would require a fair bit of digging. The rectangular bed in the old kitchen garden has our cover with the strongest wire on it. I have a vinyl cover that fits over it. I used it last year to great greenhouse conditions, and I plan to do that again, once we can get access into that garden again.
Such are my thoughts this morning, as we have gone from 3 or 4C/37-39F yesterday, so a current temperature of -15C/5F, with a wind chill of -24C/-11F as I write this. Our high of the day is supposed to be -11C/12F. We’ll be warming up again over the next few days, then back down again. We’re not expected to see highs about freezing until 10 days from now, but of course, those longer range forecasts are constantly changing. Still, by the second half of March, we should start to more consistently see highs above freezing.
Today, I think I will putter around in the basement with our seedling set up. I need to “pot up” the snail rolls of onions, and make space for my next round of seed starts. I think I might end up doing more snail rolls. I didn’t plan to, but I think those might be easier to protect from the mice or whatever that’s been eating my pepper seedlings. I’ve resown new seeds in the now empty cells. Hopefully, they’ll take but, if not, I still have enough seeds left and they have a short enough growing season that I can try direct sowing in the spring. Hopefully, it won’t come to that. Meanwhile, the next seeds to be started indoors can wait a bit longer, though I can do some, like flowers, earlier if I want. I hope to interplant with more flowers this year, including the memorial aster seeds I collected in the fall.
With so much snow on the ground, yet spring just around the corner (we’re almost half way through March already!!!), a bit of garden therapy will be good for the soul.
Well, it’s done. The truck has been towed to the garage.
My BIL, sweetheart that he is, skipped the lunch my sister, who was going to work later, was making so he could come out and find me before the tow truck reached me.
Thankfully, I was able to pull over next to a very large and open company driveway, making me both easy to find, and easy to get to, while on the side of a busy highway.
The tow truck actually arrived later than expected. He had a call ahead of me that only needed a winch, but ended up pulling two people out of the ditch before getting to me.
My BIL, meanwhile, had already arrived and we were sitting in the company driveway, talking, when the tow truck arrived. The tow truck was not only from our regular garage, but the driver was the owner/our mechanic’s brother! That gave me the opportunity to describe exactly what happened, knowing our mechanic would actually get the information.
The truck had been running so well. Since I’d gone to church in town first, which is right on the highway that goes to the city my mother is in, I took that route through all the little towns along the lake again. I had the radio on when I started hearing/feeling like something was rubbing on a tire. This continued for maybe a couple of minutes before it felt like something dropped. Suddenly, the tire was shuddering, like something was caught up in it.
Of course, I pulled over right away, got out and checked.
I could see nothing. I even popped the hood and tried to look from above. Nothing.
I got back in the truck and started to move, but the shuddering was immediate. I stopped after less than 5 feet, I’m sure.
From there I contacted my family and even sent a quick message to my brother (he’s out of the country still) before contacting CAA. I phoned directly rather than using the app, because I’ve never quite managed to get the app set up and working, and I don’t know what’s wrong. The last time I tried, I was at home and ended up using my desktop, instead. Not an option this time!
So I phoned and started going through the automated system, which uses voice responses to questions. That worked fine as long as it was yes/no questions, or when I said I needed a tow, but then it asked what was wrong. I didn’t know what was wrong, so I said, I don’t know, something is wrong with my tire.
It decided I had a flat tire and asked if that was correct. I said no. It tried again and I tried to answer a different way. It still thought I had a flat tire. Finally, I pressed 0, hoping that it would get me to a human. It recognized that I wanted to talk to a person but then said the automated system would likely be faster and started over again in asking what was wrong with my vehicle.
*sigh*
After a while it gave up and sent me to a real human being.
… and put me on hold.
Thankfully, I was the “next caller” and didn’t have to wait too long.
It was a bit confusing in trying to say where I was. Thankfully, I was next to a company driveway that had all sorts of signs and their physical address number right next to me. What I wasn’t sure of was whether the highway had a different name while in town. I also wasn’t sure if I’d crossed the border from one town to the next, as these two towns are butted right up against each other. Still, we got it figured out.
The tow was arranged to take the truck to our regular garage, and I soon had a call from the towing company. I had to laugh when I saw the name of our garage on the call display. I had seen new signs at the garage showing that they did towing now, but I didn’t realize they did CAA calls, too. On confirming the company driveway I was next to, the drive knew exactly where I was.
After that, I just had to wait. When my BIL arrived, he pulled into the company driveway, and I didn’t even recognize his truck – he’s gone through at least two since I last saw what truck they had. I think the last one I saw was an F250. This one’s an F150.
He has a very nice truck – very new looking truck, even though it’s a 2008.
Since I was on the side of the highway, we sat in his truck to talk. I told him about what happened, and he was aware that we’ve had other issues, too. He started telling me about his truck and work he had done on it – including getting a new engine, because apparently it was easier and cheaper than the fix needed. So the engine has 30,000 km less on it than the rest of the truck does. I’m amazed he found a 2008 truck with only 30K on it! It’s got 170K on it now, which is about 100K less than our truck had when we bought it.
Oh, and he was planning to sell it in the summer.
!!!
I asked what he was looking to sell it for, and he said about $5000
…
We might actually be able to come up with that before the summer.
When the tow truck showed up, I went out to talk to the driver and explained what happened, as far as I could tell. He said it was good that I didn’t try to keep driving it, just in case. I told him, there was no way I was going to keep driving with what it was doing!
He also told me it was a good thing I had CAA. The tow would have cost $200, without it!
Today is Sunday, so the garage is closed, but tomorrow is a holiday. That means Tuesday will be the earliest anyone can look at it. I mentioned I was just there on Thursday! They didn’t see anything wrong while working on the differential. I’m at a complete loss. My BIL thinks it might be the transmission. If it’s something big like that, it might not be worth fixing. *sigh*
After that, the tow truck driver didn’t need anything more from me, so my BIL and I headed out. The tow truck was blocking my BIL’s truck, but that nice big commercial driveway had plenty of room for my BIL to move around and back out.
It was a very lovely ride, I must say. As we were talking, he told me about some other things he was planning to sell before selling the truck. I told him, if we can come up with the money, I’ll buy it!
We just need to keep this truck running for a few more months. Assuming whatever broke isn’t too expensive to repair in the first place.
After I got home, I mentioned to my brother that our BIL was planning to sell his truck in the summer, and my brother suggested that if we can buy that, we could possibly sell this truck on consignment. We still have lmoast 3 years to pay it off, but might be able to get a decent return on it to take care of that. At least partially.
I don’t think I’ll be getting that large greenhouse with my tax return, after all. 😄 That’s okay. I should still be able to something. Just not a hard sided one.
…
Had a break from writing this to talk to my daughters. My younger daughter was asking me about the chicken coop we got and I mentioned that’s one of the reasons I wanted to get a greenhouse or polytunnel – something to overwinter the chickens in, coop and all. We were looking at some of the designs I was finding on Amazon – risky to purchase from there, and a lot of them have very mixed reviews. They are far more affordable, though. Especially the polytunnels. It’s cheaper to buy a full kit than the materials we’d need to build one, if we could even find some of the materials needed in the first place. On seeing the prices, my daughter thought they were something that, between us, we could manage to afford.
In the end, though, a lot depends on what happens with the truck. I pray whatever broke on it will be a relatively cheap fix!
The first couple of pictures were taken after I topped up the food and water in the isolation shelter. The last two were taken as I went by on my way back into the house, and spotted a crowd watching me. At that point, I counted 10 cats and kittens watching me – then spotted Midnight in the lower level! It’s amazing how many are willing to hang out together in the isolation shelter at the same time. I’m so glad it has worked out!
I’m definitely chafing. Winter is dragging on, but the weather is really mild right now. I want to be outside, working!
I’ve been looking at greenhouse kits on Amazon. Not just smaller ones to replace the portable one with the destroyed cover, but hard sided ones that would fit right in among the 18′ x 4′ raised beds we’re building up in the main garden area. Ones with walls the cats and wind can’t destroy, to garden in in the summer and keep chickens in over the winter.
Maybe if we combine our tax returns, we could get one! 😄
Normally, he runs away, even if I come closer while he is easing, but today I managed to skritch his shoulders and neck. Not only did he not run away, but he even leaned into my hand!
Once he was away from the food bowls, though, that was it. I couldn’t get near him anymore.
You may notice his fur is decorated in the above picture. He has hoar frost raining down on him from the rose bush above him. We had thick fog roll in last night, and it was still very much there this morning.
The first item on the outings list today was to drop the truck off at the garage to get that differential leak fixed. My daughter and I headed out early, which was good, because we had to take it pretty slow in places. The closer we got to town – and the lake beyond it – the thicker the fog got. Still, we arrived over half an hour early for the drop off time. Which was okay, since I only needed to leave the key. While doing that, I let him know that, after moving the truck, I did see signs of fluid under it – it was definitely a very small leak, but still needs fixing! I also let him know that the check engine light had turned off on its own, and that the oil pressure gauge is where it should be, thanks to the last fix done.
From there, my daughter and I walked to the hospital. My sister had visited my mother in the transitional care unit (TCU), which is very close to where she lives, yesterday and let me know that some clothing items that had gone into the laundry were forgotten. While I asked about that, I also asked about the photo of our vandal. They had to contact someone that could pull my mother’s file to find out. While waiting for that, the person that checked housekeeping came back and there was no sign of anything that was my mother’s. Housekeeping may not have been done with it. We went to where we could meet the guy about the files. Sure enough, the photos were still in the file, in the large envelope my brother brought them in.
After explaining about the photos, and mentioning that we were going to be seeing my mother today, he gave me the envelope to take with us and deliver to the nursing station at the TCU. Then we went back to the nursing station about the clothing items. They would look into it some more, and got my contact information to call me later.
Since I had the photos, my daughter and I first walked back to the garage so we could leave it in the truck. It was still parked outside, so I put it in the basket of my mother’s walker, which was in the back of the truck cab. The wheelchair had to go into the box.
That dropped off, my daughter and I headed out to find somewhere we could have breakfast, and take our time about it.
Using the button to cross the highway wasn’t going to be an option! It’s only for an audible notification that the walk light was on, though.
There aren’t a lot of restaurants open that early in the day in this town, so our options were limited. The place we went to was at the other end of town (okay, that’s just 6 blocks or so. 😄). We were both quite famished by then! We both ended up ordering the largest breakfast platters they had. I’m glad we did, because that ended up having to last us until supper!
We took our time about it, but we were still waiting on a 2 hour job, so it wasn’t that long before we headed out.
[Edit: I forgot to mention. While we were having breakfast, the hospital called me about my mother’s missing clothing. They couldn’t find them, nor did they expect to find them. Most of the laundry goes to the city for washing. My mother’s items were not labelled with her name. The folks sorting through in the city wouldn’t know where they would have to go, and they would probably not even made it back to town!]
Since we were so close to the lake, we popped over to see how it looked.
The fog was still pretty heavy. What you can just barely see in the photo is an ice fishing village, and an ice road leading to it.
From there, we stopped at a general store that my daughter wanted to go to. They are the only place that carries a particular brand of imported wool yarn. She’s bought some before and used them to knit herself a pair of socks. They turned out to be the best pair of socks she’s ever had, and actually keep her feet dry. She got herself enough yarn to knit herself two more pairs!
When we were done there, we crossed the street to check out the dollar store. There wasn’t anything we actually needed there, but I like to keep an eye out for some things.
We never finished going through the store before I got a text from the garage. The truck was done! Somewhat faster than I expected, but they must have been able to get it in almost right after we dropped off the envelope from the hospital. So we quickly picked up a couple of energy drinks for the road and made the walk back.
Unfortunately, by this time, my daughter and I were both limping pretty badly! My daughter hurt her leg getting her old computer chair down the stairs not long ago, and had been caning it for the past few days. She was feeling better today, but after the walking we’d already done, to and from the hospital, then across town, she was actually having a harder time than I was with my left hip giving out. What a sight we must have been!
Once we got to the garage and saw the truck parked in the lot, my daughter went straight to it to sit down while I went in to take care of the bill. $280 and change. *sigh* Still, better to get the leak fixed than push our luck with it!
From there, we were going to the nearer city, to see my mother. Normally, I would have popped over to another highway, rather than go straight from town, so as to avoid driving through several small lakeside towns. In the end, I decided the extra miles weren’t worth it, and we headed straight out.
I’m glad we did.
We made our way through the row of towns and had just reached an area of open highway when my daughter started feeling sick. Eating does that do her. Just, general eating. She’s never been able to pin down exactly what is making her ill. It did mean we had to find a gas station urgently! If we had been on the other highway, there would have been nothing available. On this route, there actually is a single gas station along the way. Thankfully, we made it.
We didn’t need to get any gas, but I did want to “pay” for our use of the bathroom, so I went looking for some snacks. The convenience store with this particular gas station is more like a smallish grocery store, and very well stocked! They even had a large display of baked goods from a bakery in the town north of us that is really well known. People from the city go out of their way to get their bread. I ended up getting a couple of Whoopie Pies for us (not that my daughter would be up to eating anything again for some time!). I had mine while waiting for my daughter to join me in the truck again. I’ve had Whoopie Pies before, and they’re usually rather dry and fairly hard. The cake portions were so incredibly soft and fresh, I had a hard time unwrapping it without crushing or tearing it! It was absolutely awesome.
From there, we continued on to visit my mother. I knew the TCU was in the “old hospital”, and I’ve driven past it many times.
I was wrong.
When we got to the area, the first problem was finding a way to get in. There were a number of buildings but, as we read the signage, going from one area to another, we couldn’t find anything. We did find that one of the buildings is a mental health hospital. My mother actually spent some time there, years before I was born. She still speaks highly of how pleasant her stay was, and how well they took care of her.
In the end, I found a plowed out space I could pull over and tried looking up the address for this unit. I found their web page – but there was no address! My brother did send me a phone number, though – not the same one that was on the web page! – so I tried that.
It took a bit to try and describe where we were to the person who answered before she could give us directions.
We had driven right past the place. I had no idea that that complex was the old hospital, not where I had always thought it was at!
Then we had to try and find the right door to go in.
I drove around in circled and back tracked before we finally decided to park near the entrance to what turned out to be an urgent care clinic. Only then did we pass the sign for the TCU.
It had been blocked by a truck. An 18 wheeler, unloading a semi size trailer box. Completely blocking the lane to where the TCU entrance was.
We got the wheelchair and walker out (with my daughter making sure to grab a cane for herself, too), but when we got to the urgent care clinic, I left my daughter with them to ask someone inside. She was able to give me directions on how to get to the unit through the building, rather than having to go outside and find away around the truck blocking the lane. So I got my daughter, the wheelchair and walker, and we made our way through what turned out to be “authorized personnel only” areas before finally reaching the elevator she told us to look for. It was one of those elevators with doors on each side, and we were going through the staff door to use it!
Finally, we got to the second floor and found signs leading us to the TCU.
The doors, however, are locked. Visitors are to push a button for someone to come and let us in.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the door, we could hear the voice of an elderly man yelling for someone to let him out. Before a staff member opened a different door next to the entry doors, we could hear him pushing and bashing at the door, trying to get out! When the staff member came (there were more people waiting with us to get in by then), and I told her who we were coming to see, she let us in through the staff door! As we made our way around, another staff member opened up a mobile barrier for us to go through. As we came around, we saw the guy we had heard through the door. He was still at the main doors, pushing a walker, and looking very furious about not being able to get out.
There’s a reason these places have lock codes to get in and out!
Once at the nursing station, I brought out the envelope with the photos. I explained to them that my mother doesn’t know that we’re giving these photos, because that would cause issues. Notes were taken as I explained about our vandal’s past abusive behavior towards my mother. They asked if there was a protection order, and I explained that the courts required my mother do that herself, and there’s no way she can physically do that, but her cognitive decline isn’t so far that my brother can do it on her behalf, as her PoA. They completely understood that frustration! I did mention that I’d had to get one against him myself. Then I had to explain why my sister’s picture was in there. They recognized her as having visited yesterday. I explained that, in general, she’s fine, but our vandal has been able to manipulate her into doing things in the past, that she is not understanding my mother’s cognitive issues and resulting self sabotage, and just goes along with things when she shouldn’t. My mother has been able to manipulate her as well.
I so hate having to include my sister as someone that needs to be kept an eye on while visiting my mother!
The likelihood of our vandal showing up is low, but they do have cancer care in the new hospital near by and, from the signs, they have cancer care in this building, too, so it’s possible he might be coming out for treatment and go visit my mother. We’re just assuming my sister is going to tell him where my mother is, and there’s no point in asking her not to tell him that. Not after she went ahead and did it anyhow, before, because my mother convinced her to. She simply doesn’t understand – or doesn’t want to believe – how potentially harmful to my mother that was.
*sigh*
That done, we found out which room my mother was in and headed over with the wheelchair and walker, while they printed out labels to put on them to show that these belonged to my mother.
It’s definitely a step down from where my mother was, in the hospital!
She went from a large, single person room, so a smaller room she shares with someone else. My mother’s bed is by the door, though, so we didn’t have to disturb the other person. She was quite happy to see us – and her own walker and wheelchair! The wheelchair she refused to even sit in, when I brought it over to her place, months ago. 😄
All in all, we had a good visit with her. She’s not really liking the TCU. Lots of noise, she says. Her room mate apparently was walking around all night, then sleeps through the day. Hopefully, my mother won’t be there for long, but every other person in this unit is waiting to be moved somewhere more permanent!
The staff there seem really nice, though, and were already telling me how sweet they found my mother to be. Nice to know she’s on good behaviour! She’ll have her moments, of course, but in a unit like this, that’s something they deal with – and worse – pretty regularly.
I did remind my mother that we are now the ones living the furthest from her, and we don’t go to this city very often, comparatively speaking, so we won’t be visiting as often. She mentioned that my sister lives nearby. I don’t know if that means she’ll visit more often, but we’ll see. Still, if the staff need anything from us, my brother is the first they would call, as PoA, I would be the second, as the one that’s been my mother’s advocate at her medical appointments for the past 7 years. If they can’t reach either of us, then they would call my sister. She asked about when my brother might visit, but he’s out of the country right now. He still manages to keep on top of everything, though!
[Edit: Something else I forgot to mention. I started to tell my mother about her missing clothing, and the hospital not being able to find them. She told me that someone actually delivered them to her, yesterday! It had to have happened after my sister was no longer there. When I was at the hospital this morning, they knew nothing about this!]
After our visit with her was done, we headed out – this time being able to go out the proper entrance and seeing where we can drive in to the right parking lot! The truck that was blocking the lane was gone, too, so that helped.
From there, we stopped at the Canadian Tire, then the Walmart, to do the shopping we would normally have done at the end of January, in the larger city. That will get its own separate post.
While we were at the Walmart, I started getting notifications from the garage security camera, and got to watch as Fed Ex delivered our chicken coop kit!
The shopping was really rough on both my daughter and I, as far as our pain levels went. The store is being renovated, and things we needed were moved to completely different areas we had to hunt for. When it came time to pay, we normally would have gone to the self check out, but they are now a 20 item limit, and we had well over 20 items. There were only two cash desks open.
Of course, we found ourselves at the one where a customer had some sort of issue, and the line just stopped while they waited for someone to come fix it. I ended up having to go over to the McDonalds across from the checkout, just so I could sit down!
The shopping done, we loaded the truck in bright sunshine and melting snow before heading home. We took the same route as before, because we wanted to stop to get gas at the same station we’d stopped at on the way out.
Driving right into a wall of fog!!!
It was heavy fog for most of the drive out, but by the time we reached town and our turn off to home, it was sunny again. Looking at the weather right now, we are still under a heavy fog advisory, with near zero visibility.
Once at home, we backed up to the house to unload the truck. Before moving it to the garage, though, I went to move the chicken coop boxes to the far end of the garage, well away from the door. We won’t be able to park the truck all the way in with them there, but it’s staying warm enough that that’s okay.
All the parts and pieces fit into two large boxes. You can see the design on the packages. The coop has nesting boxes, three at each end, with external doors that drop down for access. Above those doors are smaller doors that can be opened for ventilation, with more doors for ventilation in the front as well. The ramp to the nesting boxes is in the middle, and it has a full size door to access the interior.
I see on potential problem with the coop, though.
It has roosts under the nesting boxes, on either side of the ramp and door (not visible in the diagram). This means no clean up, since they’ll be pooping onto the ground below.
There are no roosts on the second level inside. Which means roosting chickens would be completely exposed to outside temperatures and wind, even though they are sheltered from above.
This is definitely not a coop made for Canadian weather!
One of the things we’re looking to build in the main garden area, though, is some sort of polytunnel type greenhouse. We could fit the entire coup inside for the winter, if necessary.
Until then, we might need to find ways to cover the wire mesh in the chicken run for the night or something like that. We’ll figure that out over the summer. We wouldn’t even be getting chicks until May.
After the boxes were moved, I went to park the truck, but there were cats, all over, under it. I went put kibble out, just to distract them away, but several kept going back under the truck. They were going on the tired, up into the undercarriage, and as soon as I got one out, another would replace it! I’ve never had so many cats so determined to get under the truck like that before!
The truck is still parked in the yard. Hopefully, when I do the morning feeding, they’ll be distracted enough that I can move it!
All in all, it made for quite a long day. Aside from my hips giving me grief, though, I’m feeling a lot better than I expected to. My poor daughter is toast, though. I won’t be surprised as all if she’s back to caning it all day, tomorrow. I’m thankful she was able to come along and help, though.
Next up, the stock up shopping post that should have been done two weeks ago!
I’m glad I didn’t decide to just wait until the post office reopened in the afternoon. I forgot today is Wednesday. The store the post office is in closes at noon, every Wednesday, for inventory.
I was expecting the chicken coop to come in several large boxes, but there was only one small box. Only one package slip in my mail box. No coop. There was no “attempted delivery” this morning at all.
Hmmm.
Something to look up when I got home, and after I checked out my new stuff.
Two new heat mats, two 4 light clamp lamps and one 5 light tripod pedestal lamp, with full spectrum lighting.
This gave me a chance to do a few things all at once.
Right now, my work table is covered with a gain self-healing cutting mat my darling husband got for me some time ago. Unfortunately, the heat mats make it warp. So I cut some pieces of half inch rigid insulation to size, to go under the heat mats.
The heat mat with the germinated plants in it got a piece of carboard between the mat and the tray as a buffer. Normally, I would stop using a heat mat as soon as the seeds germinated, but it’s so chilly in the basement, that’s not really an option. Especially since I will no longer use a light fixture that puts off a small amount of heat. The buffer will keep the seed starting mix warm, but not too warm.
The large celled tray now has a new heat mat under it. I’ve filled the last empty cells with seeds that were set to pre-germinate, even though they were not germinated yet. Then, just in case, I added a couple of fresh seeds into each cell. I did actually see a single Caspar eggplant starting to break through the surface, but nothing in any of the other cells. It’s entirely possible the seed starting mix, not being on a heat mate, but getting some heat from above, was too cold.
I also added new luffa seeds to the three Red Solo cups where nothing has shown yet, including the one where I couldn’t find the pre-germinated seed at all.
The new lights have a controller with several settings. There are five brightness settings – I put them at the highest. They can also adjust from red, blue or white light, or all three. I have it on all three. It can also be set to shut itself off after 6, 12 or 16 hours. I set it to 12 hours. Each lamp also came with an adapter, so they can be plugged in as usual, or can have USB. I have a power bar hanging above that has a couple of USB slots in it, so I decided to use that.
The only problem is that these are clamp lamps, and cannot stand on their own. Which means I had to move the tray set up to the front of the table for the lights to reach. Only at the front of the able is the surface narrow enough for the clamps. This worktable has a sheet of plywood on top of a narrower table top. The ends are too thick for the clamps.
With a full tray of cells, plus a second tray that’s only partially full, I set things up so that the full tray has five lights over it, and the other has only three.
I’ve still left the shop light above on. That light is manual, so I’ll need to shut it off and on, but that’s okay.
I am looking to pick up more seed starting mix when we are out and about tomorrow then, either on Friday or the weekend, I’ll start more seeds. Specifically, I’ll be starting herbs.
The tall light fixture will be set up in the living room. The onions in their seed snail rolls are getting plenty of light, with the shop light lowered to their level, but the other plants around them could really use better light! That room gets the morning light, and that’s it. It’s pretty dim, the rest of the day. We don’t have a lot of plants anymore, after repotting and donating most of them to the large animal rescue that took Poirot’s orphan kittens last summer. That, at least, will make it easier to give them proper lighting with this new lamp.
The lights themselves were very reasonably priced. The smaller lamps were under $25 each. It was actually cheaper for me to buy as a quantity of two separately, than to buy a single 2pk, which is weird. The larger lamp was under $40, regular price, and I got that one on a 10% off sale.
That done, I went looking to see what happened with that coop delivery.
Now, when placing the order, I was really surprised that would be delivered by Canada Post. When checking the tracking for the two packages I was expecting, they were the same. They even went through the same delivery depots at the same time, though the lights were ordered several days before the coop was.
Any time an order arrived, the trackers say “delivery attempted”. Of course, no delivery is attempted at all. The packages are just left at the post office for us to pick up with the regular mail.
Today, however, the coop’s tracking now said “undeliverable” and “location unknown”.
It also said, Fed Ex.
*sigh*
If I’d known is was going to be Fed Ex, I would have used our physical address. They have actually found us and delivered to us before.
I tried using the “contact shipper” link on Amazon, which took me to a page with a list of delivery companies.
None of them, Fed Ex.
So I went to their website and eventually found a customer service number to call.
After going through the robot sentinel, I actually got to talk to a real human being! Not only that, but he was awesome!
I gave him our physical address, including both the name and the numerical designation for our road. He put me on hold to work on it, then had to come back to ask more confirming questions. I told him, our address doesn’t exist on Google maps. He did, however, find a road with the numerical designation – but under the name of our municipality, not our little hamlet. So I had to explain that that section of road ends at a crossroad, then restarts a short distance off before continuing for several miles. It’s those several miles that are the empty void in the map, and we are in the void. In the end, he was able to take directions and instructions on how to get to us, and how to find our driveway – with the warning that if they miss our driveway, they’re not going to find the next one to turn around in for another mile. I also told him about the sign we have, with our physical address on it, and arrows pointing the way, at the turn off. Because we’ve had this problem before!
We had a lot of laughs while working this out.
I asked if they would be delivering tomorrow, and he said it was very likely. So I told him, I’ll be out for most of the day, though there will be someone home. I let him know we would leave the gate open, and the garage, and the package can be delivered into the garage. I don’t know how many boxes this is going to go into, but it’s warm enough that I don’t mind not parking the truck all the way into the garage, so make room for the boxes.
We will need to figure out where to assemble the coop. It needs to be relatively close to the house, on level ground, and in an area that doesn’t get flooded out in spring melt. Wherever we decide to set it up, we’ll probably have to level the ground. We really don’t have level ground anywhere!
On the plus side, this is a relatively small coop. It would be easy to move, if we ever need to. It could even get set up in the main garden area, where we can let the chickens help prepare the soil for us, where more raised beds are going to be built. The coops is just under 4′ wide, and just over 6′ long. The raised beds we will be building in the main garden area will all be 4′ x 18′. It could be set up where a new bed is planned and either moved 6′ every few weeks, or an extended run could be built to cover the 18′. I’ve got enough chicken wire for that. I’d just need to find the materials to frame it out. The coop design I got has the eggs boxes and roosts above and an open run below, with wire mesh walls. It would be easy to make a door to access an extended run. The only hitch is that access to the nesting boxes are at the ends, so a run on the end would make it harder to reach.
Hmmm… Things to think about.
We’ll have snow on the ground for quite a while yet, though, so there’s plenty of time to figure it out.
The Re-Farmer 