Ah, life. The things you throw at us.
While, thankfully, my husband did not injure himself when the kittens tried to kill him, and he ended up falling, it did not leave him entirely unscathed. As time went on, it became clear he did pull some muscles (I guess that should count as an injury?), and now he’s in even more pain than usual. Continue reading
Today ended up being one of those days where nothing really happened as I intended.
First off, I decided we needed to take a day off yard work. As much as I love it, I knew I was pushing myself harder than I should. I need to remind myself that I am still broken, even if I happen to be feeling great on any particular day. If I overdo it, I’ll wipe myself out for days, and I don’t want to do that!
So I was going to finally start packing up the sun room of my parents’ things, starting after I went into town to pick up some prescription refills. My younger daughter came along, to drop off resumes and play Pokemon Go. :-D We were just getting ready to head home when I get a text from my older brother; he was just passing through the town our mom lives in, and on his way to do some work on the barn, in preparation of the electricity to be hooked up again.
He got there before we did. :-D
So I ended up hanging out with him and helping as much as I could. Being the sort he is, once he finished on the barn, he decided to patch the roof of the shed near it. That turned out to be a huge job, and that was just to patch one of the holes. Also near the barn is a collapsed building and sheets of metal roofing material that he had to scavenge to get the job done.
Part way though, I had to leave to do a dump run. The summer hours for Thursdays is now a lot later than it was during the winter. When we’d got back from town, the girls and I loaded the back of the van with our garbage, so it was sitting there in the heat. Definitely a good thing I didn’t decide to wait until Saturday!
After patching the roof, we came in to have the supper my daughters prepared, and then it was back out to fix one more thing before he headed home. He wanted to replace a melted, broken plug in the pump shack, so that we could have power in the storage shed we’re putting all of my parents’ stuff in.
While we were there, I couldn’t help but look around at all the stuff in there, that’s been sitting for years.
Which is when I noticed this bottle, way up near the rafters.
I tried to get a picture of the label, and enhanced it as well as I know how to do.
It’s still hard to read, but I can make out most of it.
I had to laugh when I got to the end. For horses, cattle, hogs and sheep, too! That’s some all purpose stuff, right there! :-D
Oh, and while we were there, I asked about the old wood cook stove that was in the pump shack. It turned out it’s at my brother’s place. It seems someone spilled battery acid on it, so he took it before it got damaged even worse! I was very happy to hear it was with him.
The electric pole did not get delivered today, so we will be expecting it tomorrow. Now that my brother is finished with what he needed to do at the barn, everything is ready.
It will be so good to have that over and done with!
The Re-Farmer
The plan for today was to go into the city to do our monthly Costco shopping. This was after our adventures yesterday that found us in the garage, getting our thermostat changed in the van.
Everything did seem to be working, though I did have to top up the coolant after we got home, so I was really hoping we could go into the city to stock up.
Then my mother phoned.
Could I drive her into town so she could visit her sister in the nursing home?
After some back and forth-ing about when she wanted to visit, and if I could do the shopping first, then take her later, I decided to postpone the shopping. I’d take my mother to visit her sister in the morning, and do the shopping tomorrow.
However, shortly before it was time to go, my older daughter had an idea. She had intended to go into the city with me, and she suggested she still come along, then we could go to the city after bringing my mother home after her visit. After all, the town she lives in is 1/3rd of the way to to the city, anyhow.
So that’s what we decided to do.
Off we went for the 20 minute drive to my mother’s. After what happened yesterday, I was keeping a close eye on my temperature gauge.
Which was going up. Then down. Then up again.
We also had no heat.
By the time we got to my mother’s the temperature gauge was almost at the level that would trigger the alarm.
What on earth?
We were early, so rather than going right in, we popped the hood.
The coolant was low again.
I checked where the leak was, and it was damp, but it didn’t seem that we could have lost so much coolant there. There was no signs of where it went.
Then I hear my mother’s voice. She had gotten ready early and had come out when we pulled over, and was wondering what was going on.
We topped up the coolant, helped my mother into the vehicle, and started on our way to see her sister; a half hour drive from my mother’s.
As we drove, sometimes we had heat, sometimes we didn’t, and the temperature kept creeping up. We had explained to my mother a bit of what was going on, and while we were driving, she just started praying quietly!
Since we were passing them anyways, I stopped at the garage. Seeing me, the guy at the counter had a quote ready for me. He had talked to the mechanic about the leaking pipe, so he’d looked up the part and worked it out. I had thought that was what I’d already had a quote for, but he said that was for the water pump, which is loose. I told him the leak was why I was there, and described what was happening. The part I need for this leak would be shipped from another province and would take two days to arrive. I gave the go ahead to order the part. I also asked, was it possible that the thermostat was not the problem yesterday, after all, but this leak was? It’s hard to say for sure. It’s possible. *sigh*
He said he would call me when the part came in, and we were on our way.
By the time we got to the nursing home, the temperature was high again. My mother went in to visit her sister while my daughter and I topped up the coolant again. Where was it going?? We couldn’t tell. That done, we went to a coffee shop and got my daughter some breakfast and caffeine, then went to the nursing home lobby to wait for my mother. As we waited, my daughter and I decided we wouldn’t go to the city at all. Instead, after dropping my mother off, we would just buy enough necessities to last us the rest of the week at the grocery store by my Mom’s, then come home.
When she rejoined us, my mother offered to take us out for lunch, but we declined and explained why.
On the way to her town, the temperature gauge kept going up and up, until I finally pulled over, just in time for the alarm to start going off. We topped up the coolant again. We drove for a bit, but I guess we’d started too soon, and had to pull over again, this time waiting longer.
We managed to get to my mother’s place without having to pull over again. I went in with her while my daughter topped up the coolant again. By this point, we were almost out of coolant! (Thank goodness we keep bottled water in the van, which we used for the mix.)
We then drove around the block to the grocery store and picked up a few things.
As we walked back to the vehicle, which was facing away from us in the parking lot, my daughter noticed the trail of drops leading to the van – and a puddle under the rear, driver’s side.
What on earth was there to be leaking like that?
Groceries in, we drove to the gas station, a few blocks away, and picked up more coolant. Pre-mixed, this time.
As we were adding more coolant, we could see a new puddle had formed under the back. What’s going on?
We are regulars at this gas station, and a guy that normally fills our tank saw us and came over. I told him what was happening and pointed out the puddle. Sweetheart that he is, he got down on the ground to take a look.
We had a broken pipe.
What?
I got down on the ground myself (which was much less painful than I expected, but then I was a bit distracted…) and took a look.
This is what we saw.
I didn’t even think that there would be coolant hoses to the back. But of course there would be. This vehicle has heaters in the back. I’d never had a vehicle with heaters in the back before.
So now what? Clearly, any fluid we were putting in would be pouring right out this hose once we started driving. Could we make it home?
We were going to give it a try.
We got just a few minutes out of town then the temperature got too high again and I pulled over. There was no point in adding more coolant. We weren’t going to make it home.
I called the garage, told them what was going on, and said I was going to use roadside assistance to tow the van over.
Then I called roadside assistance.
Now, usually we have CAA, but it expired and we couldn’t afford to pay for another year. When my husband saw that our Bell cell phone account had roadside assistance available, with monthly payments of only $5, he signed my number up for it; it’s tied to my cell phone number so I have coverage with any vehicle, as long as I have my phone.
The call was a disaster.
First, English was not the guy’s native language, so he had a hard time hearing and understanding me. I had to repeat my phone number. Then he tried to get my name.
First, he couldn’t spell my extremely simple first name, but that’s actually not unusual. People are always trying to change it to something else or drop what few letters it already has. My hyphenated name, however, was a different issue completely.
When he asked for it, I told him I would spell it. I got through the first half, then said “hyphen” and continued into the second half when he stopped me, in confusion. I said my name out loud, saying it was a hyphenated name, then asked him how far he got on the spelling. He had lots of letters, he told me. Lots of them. Then he started reading them out.
He got to the end of the first half of my name, then said “H”. And stopped.
I tried again, this time using a lot of “B as in Bravo, D as in Delta” as I went along. I had to tell him there was a dash in the name, because he didn’t understand hyphen.
Then he asked for my phone number.
I just gave you my phone number, I say.
I don’t have a number, he tells me.
I had to give him my cell phone number again.
Now, even before all this started, he had asked me why I needed a tow, and I told him it was because I was on the side of a highway in the middle of nowhere, bleeding coolant, and I can’t drive without killing my engine.
So at the very least, I already told him I was on a highway in the middle of nowhere.
Which made his asking what city I was in, very strange. I told him “north of…” my mother’s town. Which I had to spell. Then respell, using Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc.
It’s a good thing I remember these from when my husband was in the military. Because he got it totally wrong.
Then he asked if I was in a driveway or parking spot.
No. On the side of the highway, in the middle of nowhere.
On the left or right shoulder?
What?
Which side of the road am I on? Right or left?
That depends on what direction you’re coming from! I’m on the East side.
I don’t know East.
?!?!?!?!?
I finally said, if you’re coming from the south, on the right. Then I told him what highway I was on (he never asked), and between which two roads (which I had to get off of my maps app, because we weren’t actually near enough to any roads to see what the road numbers were).
During this call, I honestly wondered if he even knew what province we were in. After we moved, we never changed our numbers. My number has the prefix of our previous province.
Eventually, he got to the point of telling me the system said it would be an hour and a half for a tow truck to find us.
I lost it at that point, told him we’d figure something else out, and hung up.
I’m going to have a talk with Bell’s roadside assistance people.
I called the garage back. Told them the roadside assistance was a bust. What did they suggest?
They have their own tow truck, with an appointment at 2pm, but he could come get us right after. It was about 1:35 at the time. It would get to us around 3.
It would still take almost 1 1/2 hours, but at least we knew the driver would find us! So that’s what we did.
I really appreciated that my daughter was with me. It made the wait much more fun.
The tow truck got to us at almost exactly 3. Then we crammed into the cab with him (the middle seat was really more for a console) and off we went to the garage.
They got the van in almost right away. As it was being brought in, I talked to the guy at the counter, and he was telling me that they couldn’t do much, because the part still wouldn’t be in for 2 days.
No, I told him. That’s not where the leak is. It’s in the back. That’s when the mechanic that had worked on our van came in and concurred; the pipe leaking in the engine was just a drip. I showed them one of the pictures I’d taken, as the van was being driven onto the lift. It was not at all what they were expecting to see!
The broken pipe took less than 5 minutes to fix.
Here is the culprit.
This piece is from inside the hose, joining two lengths together. It has clearly been corroding for some time. It could have been something as simple as a rock hitting it for it to finally break completely.
Which means it may have been leaking slowly for quite a while, but not enough to be noticed. Then it got worse, until it finally broke entirely, some time while we were driving today.
Just think.
This could have happened while we were on the way to the city.
Though the fix was quick, getting it going again took quite a bit longer. Once more coolant was added, they had to get the air out of the system.
And there was a LOT of air in the system.
When the mechanic saw me watching at the door, he invited me to come over (customers are not usually allowed in the work area) and we talked as he worked, with him explaining what he was doing, as well as general conversation.
They put a funnel on an extension in place of the cap, filling it with more coolant. With the engine running, you could see air bubbles coming up through the coolant. As the air went out, coolant would go in, and more would be added to the funnel. This got repeated quite a few times.
After a while, it seemed the air bubbles had stopped, but we still had no heat. There was still air locked somewhere in the system. Every now and then, he’d sit in the van and rev the engine for a while, and a few bubbles would come out, but still, no heat. He would go back to the engine, then back to the cab, back and forth.
Then, while he was revving the engine, I happened to catch it; huge bubbles coming up the funnel, to the point the coolant looked like it was boiling! Then the coolant drained into the reservoir until there was hardly any left in the funnel.
Suddenly, there was heat in the van, too.
It was done!
As they were closing things up and putting things away, they gave me one of the gallon jugs of coolant they had premixed for my van.
When it came time to pay the bill, it was just under $250 – with most of that being the cost of the tow! They didn’t charge me for all the time spent getting the air out of the system.
As I was paying for it, I told the guy at the counter that when the parts came in, they would have to wait until the end of the month. I’m done. He understood.
So the status of the van is, I do still have a leak on the engine that needs to be fixed, but it’s just a drip. I’m not going to be doing any long drives to the city, and will avoid using the van for the next while, but it’s drive-able.
No bulk grocery trip in the city this month.
Meanwhile, I’m going to have to contact my cousin. They’re saying the water pump is loose – but that’s what my cousin replaced for me, a couple of months ago.
I knew we’d have to do a lot of work on this van. Just not one right after the other like this!!
All of this would have happened at one point or another, even if we hadn’t moved and were still in the city. The big difference is, if we were living in the city, we’d still be paying housing charges at the Co-op. We would not have had the funds to do any of this work, and would have ended up without a vehicle at all.
I’m really trying to see any sort of positive in the middle of all this. :-D
Well, I guess this is going to be a very quiet – and even more frugal that usual – month for us.
Plans? What are those?
The Re-Farmer
Well, I’ve taken the van in this morning to get the safety inspection.
This is a bare bones inspection required in order for me to be able to transfer our license and registration to this province. Whatever else they find, as long as I can get it fixed within 30 days, they can sign off on it as a pass.
It failed.
When the mechanic came in, his first question to me was “were you planning on keeping this vehicle?”
There are a lot of little things wrong with it. Whoever owned it before us didn’t maintain it well.
Here we thought that buying from a dealership would save us from this hassle. I never thought that the dealership would be the one to screw us over. I would have been better off buying a vehicle off of LetGo.
Ah, hindsight. It’s always perfect.
To be fair, the engine itself is sound. If it weren’t, it wouldn’t be worth fixing.
The mechanic did find where our power steering was leaking. Apparently, it wasn’t spotted because it’s leaking into something, and not just onto the ground. It’s not a safety issue, though, so that can wait.
At my request, he also checked my driver’s side door to see why it’s dropping. The bushings are worn out. Again, not something that affects the safety inspection.
There were only two things to cause the failure.
One, is the brake light at the rear of the van. The one that’s above the lift gate. If it had just been a bulb, it would have been a quick fix, right then and there.
Turns out, it uses an LED light bar. Which they didn’t have in any of their parts vehicles in stock. Which can only be purchased new, directly from GM. Which makes it considerably more expensive. Also, it would need to be ordered in.
The other failure was with the ABS indicator. The light has always been on since I’ve owned it, and the onboard computer always has a “service ABS system” warning. So I figured there would be something, there.
It turns out the problem was with what WASN’T there.
A connector.
It turns out the connector for the relevant wiring was gone, and the wires themselves were tied off.
I had to ask. Why would someone do something like that?
His best guess is that it had come loose and was dragging on the ground. Rather than replace it, the person who did it just cut it off and tied off the wires, so they wouldn’t be dragging on the ground anymore.
He also mentioned in passing that he’s not impressed with these systems. The ABS warning light is on on all his own vehicles, and it’s a common problem.
They did a quick check, and it turned out they did have a connector in stock that should fit. I gave the go ahead to do both the light (which is when they found out it wasn’t just a bulb and couldn’t do it) and install the connector.
It didn’t work.
The connector was the right kind, all right, but the indicator lights continued to show. He even drove it around a bit to see if it would turn off. When they tested it, it kept coming up as erratic readings.
They found where the problems where.
On their own, the cost to get everything fixed really isn’t that bad. All together, though, it’s going to be almost $650.
The only way we can afford that is if we go into the money set aside to fix the broken power pole.
Granted, the pole can’t be fixed until the ground thaws. Which means sometime in May. If we use this money, we likely won’t be able to replace it all of it until the end of May, which means the pole won’t get replaced until June. My brother was going to get the power restored to the barn at the same time (they plan to paint it this year, and will need power for the equipment).
We don’t really have a choice. We have to get the work done and the registration transferred. We’re already behind on that.
*sigh*
Moving out here was supposed to be a help to our financial situation. All these extra expenses are making it harder for us just to get caught up on extra expenses related to the move. So it’s extra expenses on top of extra expenses.
It’ll work out in the end. It’s just going to be a painful ride for a longer time. Being the cynic realist that I am, all I can think of, what will happen next? Because there’s always something, isn’t there?
Still, we have a roof over our heads, food on the table, and our basic bills are being paid. For that, at least, I am thankful.
The Re-Farmer
We only had one thing scheduled for today. Doctor’s appointments for my husband and myself, booked one right after the other.
Ah, the best laid plans.
First up, though… the morning critters! Continue reading
Remember I was saying we wouldn’t need to go out again until at least after Christmas?
Scratch that.
Well, technically, we didn’t need to go out. But thanks to a generous gift from my FIL, and still reasonable temperatures for a few more hours, my husband and I dashed into the next town. This allowed us to get a few more little things for Christmas (we start celebrating on Christmas Eve with our semi-traditional wigilia dinner) and some gas. We were also able to get a gift for the girls – a much needed item that I know they will appreciate. I’m glad we could get it now.
While we were chatting during the drive, I mentioned something I saw in our hamlet’s store when I was there last. This is an old time sort of general store, which as some groceries, clothing, pet foods, etc, along with the liquor store and post office. I had noticed a bag of deer feed (you can get hunting and fishing licenses here, too), and we talked about how it might be nice to put feed out for the deer when we can.
On the way home, we stopped at this store to pick up an item the big grocery store didn’t. My husband just dashed in to get it. As much as he can dash, anyhow. LOL Well, our local store didn’t have it either. Instead, he came out with a bag of deer feed!
Turns out, it’s incredibly cheap.
We will have to be careful about putting it out. Small quantities, every couple of days, near the spruce grove. Too much, too often, can harm the deer. This way, they’ll have some supplemental food during the cold times, near the shelter of trees, and we’ll be able to see them from our living room window.
I’d love to find a way to have water out for them, too. Water is always hard for wildlife to get at, this time of year.
In time, we want to include bird feed as well. A nice little wildlife sanctuary around out home.
But that is for another time.
For now, I’ve started brining our turkey for tomorrow. It’s a simple enough thing to do – so long as you have something big enough to immerse a turkey in! Normally, I would use course salt and float lemon slices in the brine, along with other herbs and spices. This year, I just went with lemon salt. Another thing that’s very easy to make, which I’ll include in a separate post.
For now, it’s back to work. Yesterday, we got all the cube shelves in place that I wanted in the dining room. Now they need to be filled with the things want in them. Which requires getting other stuff put away, at least temporarily, elsewhere.
I’m really looking forward to not having to dodge boxes, bins and furniture.
I can start by making the space I need to fit one last cube shelf into my office.
I do hope it actually fits!
The Re-farmer
Plans? What plans?
But first, the most important thing.
Yes, we still have hot water. Lol! Oh, it is so good! And no waste of the day, heating water all morning.
With the temperatures dropping, I had intended to not go ANYWHERE if I could avoid it.
However, I forgot about doing a dump run. Continue reading
My brother has pulled off another miracle for us.
Two of them.
We had plans to go into the city around noon to finally take care of the Costco/pharmacy mess, then a Christmas dinner with my husband’s family.
It was also the day my brother booked to come fix our van door and the hot water tank. Because of our plans, he came much earlier. Amazingly, he started the day at 5:30 am, took three hours to prepare for everything he could think of (because, once here, there is no alternative if something is missing), then drove the hour and a half or more in freezing rain to our place.
Then he lugged a 150-200 pound door down the stairs into the new part basement to work on.
Our door had a broken latch and couldn’t stay closed. It happened because of a loose hinge that caused the door to drop. When closing it, the latch would hit the bar it was supposed to catch on to stay closed. Eventually, it simply broke. I’ve been driving with a bungee cord hooked onto the window frame to keep the door closed, ever since. Our garage had tried to find a used or salvaged part for me, because a new one would have cost an insane amount of money, but they were unable to find a salvageable part.
My brother managed it, salvaging the hinge pieces as well as the entire door.
Long story short, he ended up McGyvering the two together. The frame of the replacement door now has the inside shell of our original door, plus the outside handle of the original door – with the key lock in it – got transferred from the original door, to the replacement door.
This is the original door, with the broken hinge, as well as the broken latch.
It took him something like 5 or 6 hours!!!
Then, as soon as he was done, we headed to the city, while he switched to working on the hot water tank. It turns out he got the last two of those bands left, not just in North America, but the world! They haven’t been made in decades, and they were still in the original box. He wasn’t sure if replacing them would fix the problem, but he was going to try.
We got home less than half an hour ago, and found we have hot water!
Which means, in the morning, instead of sending hours heating water for several people to have baths, we can take 10 minute showers, and get on with out day.
I love my brother.
Update: I just got off the phone with my brother. Turns out only the bottom band needed to be replaced, but the new one was several inches too short. He had to gerry-rig it. He also found the schematics for the replacement thermostat was wrong, which likely explains the breaker going.
We shall see how the hot water is, tomorrow. In the end, it’s still a temporary fix until we can get a new tank.
The Re-farmer
The delivery of our stuff was simply insane. I am not up to detailing it, so here are the highlights.
This is what the master bedroom looked like. There was space on the floor for the mattress and that’s about it.
But our stuff is in.
Finally.
The Re-farmer
This afternoon, my husband had an appointment with a new doctor. For a GP, we don’t need to find someone in The City, so he booked one in the nearest town with a medical centre. It took about 15 minutes for him to input the list of medications, which my husband handily keeps up to date on his phone. The process has been started to get his files transferred over from his old doctor. We will have to apply for new medical numbers, which we have 3 months to do (by mid-February), though the earlier, the better.
I had forgotten something about this town. The distinctive smell from the distillery, when the wind is right. The smell of fermenting grains. Like a giant bakery. It smells delicious. Continue reading
The Re-Farmer 