Today was definitely a full day! I was able to both head into the city for the stock up shop, plus get winter sowing and garden clean up done. The garden stuff will be in its own post, though.
I headed out early, though I did wait until it was light out, first. The deer are very active right now. Sunrise is at about quarter past 8 now, and sunset at about quarter past 6, so I didn’t have a lot of daylight hours to work with!
My first stop for today was the Walmart. I did get breakfast there, which cost a whole $13.00 (I rounded up for the donation option). There wasn’t a lot I planned to get at Walmart, though. Basically, just cat food.
This is what $181.09 looks like.
That’s 7 items in that cart. There’s two cases of wet cat food.
The paper towels were on sale, so I got a package. I picked up some 30″x36″ puppy pads. The dry cat food actually went down in price. The wet cat food did not.
While driving in, I started getting notices on my truck’s onboard computer that my water fluid was low. It kept turning on, over and over. Very annoying! Anyhow, I picked up some all season washer fluid, rated to -40C/-40F.
That’s it. Seven items at almost $200, and that was taking advantage of cheaper prices!
My next stop was Canadian Tire. Yesterday, I noticed one of my headlights was out, so I picked up a new low beam headlight, along with a couple of bags of stove pellets for cat litter. That totaled $39.17, but I decided to use my Canadian Tire dollars, so it didn’t cost me anything. Instead, when I headed out, I stopped at a gas station and put in $50, until I can do a fill at Costco. That’s when I reset my trip meter, which is currently about 1900km since my last end of the month fill (we didn’t go to Costco last month).
I did have a weird thing happen with the truck. As I was leaving Walmart, I started getting an alarm dinging, the “slippery” icon showed up on my dash, and the onboard computer told me my stabilization system was turned off. Then it told me my traction system was off. Then it told me to service my stabilization, then traction, systems.
Then all the low washer fluid warning came on and all the other warnings went away.
Now, it could be a sensor thing again. GM vehicles are apparently notorious for sensor problems. How am I supposed to know if a warning is for real or not?
Meanwhile, we still need to replace the inner handle on the driver’s side door, replace three more tire sensors and, when I get the oil change we are due for, we need to find out where there is a slow leak happening. I’ve had to top up our oil a couple of times, since our last oil change, and that is WITH the leak-stop additive.
So before I headed into the Canadian Tire, I sent a text to our mechanic. I told him I was going to book an oil change soon, but then I got these warnings (which did not happen again for the rest of the trip). We simply can’t afford any more fixes, after the huge expenses we had this past month. I told him it might be time to talk about trading the truck in for another vehicle. It would have to be something that would give us lower monthly payments. We may end up getting a car instead of a truck.
*sigh*
We shall see. He got back to me and I now have an appointment next week for the oil change.
Fun stuff.
Which means that, while we won’t have to skip our Costco shopping trip again, it will have to be a bare bones trip. With that in mind, my next stop was Superstore.
I actually did all right there!
This is what $195.31 looks like.
I focused on somewhat on protein on this trip.
From the top, there’s a large no-name container of peanut butter; my husband has been going through the peanut butter a lot, lately. There’s a big bag of penne pasta, and a Monster energy drink for the drive home.
From dairy, I only got a giant block of Old Cheddar cheese. The Oat Milk I got for my daughters is in the natural foods section.
In the frozen section, there’s two bags of perogies and a bag of mixed vegetables.
Not much in produce. A bag of “ugly” avocados. There were 7 avocados in a $6 bag, so that is a really good deal these days. I also got a small back of seedless red grapes.
With meats, I got a box of frozen chicken nuggets and two boxes of brand name chicken nuggets and strips. Those are mostly for my husband. All were on sale. I spotted some bacon on sale and grabbed a packages.
Chicken drumsticks were an excellent price, and I ended up getting three packages. My husband won’t eat those, though. He can’t tolerate meat with bones in them anymore.
There’s a package of pork and beef breakfast sausages and a package of pork tenderloin. They weren’t on sale, but were some of the best meat prices I saw today. For the girls, I got a frozen pink salmon and a fresh whole trout, both on sale. I also grabbed a pack of sandwich meats, half turkey, half ham. There are two packs of the torpedo buns we love so much (Italian buns, on the receipt) and a loaf of sliced sourdough bread. Last of all, I remembered to grab a couple of bottles of distilled water for my husband’s CPAP humidifier.
I believe that came out to 27 items in total.
So the two grocery stops totaled $376.40. Add in the $13 for breakfast, plus $50 for gas, plus the $39.17 that was paid for with Canadian Tire dollars, I purchased $478.57 in goods today.
Oh! I almost forgot. On the way home, I stopped at the feed store and picked up two 40 pound bags of kibble for the outside cats. That cost $124.99 in total. That brings the total for the day to $603.56 Of that, about $275 was cat food, puppy pads and litter pellets.
Well, one thing will be different at Costco. Since I got the kibble already, I’ll just need to get more canned cat food and maybe more puppy pads. They have a very good price for puppy pads, but only have one size. I’ve found the XXL size to be much more useful. It sucks that we even had to buy the things, when we’ve got litter boxes all over the place.
Anyhow.
That’s the status of the shopping!
Time to enjoy the supper my daughters have made, and then do and update on how much got done in the garden today. I’m rather pleased!
After all the rain we had, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to work in the garden today, though today’s weather was supposed to be better. I had to head to the pharmacy, so I figured I would know when I came back.
I ended up in town a lot longer than expected!
My daughter’s prescription, that they did not have in stock yesterday, the main reason to go back to the pharmacy. My husband had ordered refills for delivery, so I figured I would get his bubble packs while I was at it. My daughter wasn’t feeling well enough to come along, unfortunately. I headed out and got to the pharmacy shortly after 11am.
That turned out to be an oops. They don’t get their inventory orders in until the afternoon. Typically around 1pm.
Also, since my husband’s refills were ordered for delivery on Thursday, and today is Tuesday, they weren’t ready yet, either. Those were left for delivery. I asked about my daughter’s meds, as I thought she got a partial refill, but no, she hadn’t gotten any of this one at all, and she needed them.
At first, I was going to head home then come back tomorrow until I remembered I was going into the city tomorrow. So I gave them my cell phone number and told them I would stay in town, and they could call me when the meds were ready.
That left me with quite a bit of time to find something to do, so I ended up doing a lot of walking!
Most places were closed for the season, but I did remember there’s a second hand store, so I went to check that out. I ended up spending a whole dollar when I left…
I already a similar drinking jar at home, but it’s colorless. They had a couple like that, but only one in this green tinted glass, so I got it.
I did enough wandering around that my left hip was starting to talk to me. Not pain – it hasn’t hurt like it used to since I got that injection at the sports injury clinic – but it started feeling like it was about to give out. By then, it was past 1:30, so I went to the pharmacy. I was just going to sit and wait, since they hadn’t called me yet, but they are so on top of their customer service, I had someone asking if I needed help before I had a chance to! It turned out they were working on my daughter’s prescription right then, so I didn’t have long to wait.
From there, I headed home, where my daughters had a late lunch waiting for me. The weather was good and things were relatively warms, so as soon as I finished eating, I decided to go for it, and headed to the garden.
My focus for today was to get winter sowing done, and I decided to do the sowing planned in the main garden area, first. The first thing I needed to do was a lot of raking of leaves! Once I had both the wagon and the wheelbarrow filled, I started at the trellis bed.
This bed already has seed onions planted along the non-trellis side. I chose the Spring Blush peas for the trellis side, and the rainbow mix of carrots in the middle.
The rows I planted in remain marked with stakes and twine. There is room between the carrots and the onions to plant something else. Fresh bulb onion transplants, perhaps, or more carrots.
In the second photo above, you can see the row of peas is shorter! There were only 25 peas in a packet. I should have bought two! I planted a pea every 6 inches or so, but it would have been good to plant the full row and have them more densely planted, in case some don’t germinate. As it is now, in the spring, I can plant something else in the remaining space that can use the trellis.
Once that was done, I covered the whole thing with a deep mulch of leaves. I actually ran out and had to get more.
Then I decided to finally use that pile of cardboard that I’ve had set aside for the entire season! I used it to cover where the next trellis bed will be built, as well as the path, to kill off the grass below. If I’d had enough, I would have put cardboard on the other paths, before I put wood chips on them as a mulch. The dandelions in particular had no problem growing through the mulch, and you can barely even tell the wood chips are there anymore. *sigh*
There was still enough time and light to work on the next bed.
The only problem was, that bed had turned into a pool!
I removed everything that was holding the plastic down and just started rolling it up. The piece of wood I used to roll up the excess is long enough to rest on both sides of the bed, so there was space below. Rolling it up meant pushing the water further and further to the end before it could finally overflow the plastic. Which meant that only the very end of the bed got an extra watering.
I left that to drain while I went to rake up more leaves.
In the next photo, you can see where I planted the Daikon radish and White Egg turnip. Those went on the outsides of the bed, leaving the middle for a spring sowing of probably pole beans. I’m planning to plant bush beans in the high raised bed.
In the last photo, the bed is mulched with leaves. Once again, the stakes and twine were left to mark where things were planted.
By this time, it was getting quite dark and it was time to stop for the day. The beds that I have winter sowing planned for in the main garden area are now done. In this area, there are still two beds that need to be cleaned up but, if necessary, that can wait until spring.
I did move my supplies over to the east garden beds. Two of those beds will get winter sowing, hopefully tomorrow afternoon, after I get back from the city. That will be the warmest part of the day. Those beds will get kohlrabi and cabbage sown into them, as those beds will be easier to cover with insect netting to protect from flea beetles and cabbage moths.
After that, I have one bed in the old kitchen garden that still needs to be harvested of alliums and Swiss Chard, and then I will be doing winter sowing in there and the wattle weave bed. The only other area that needs to be cleaned for winter sowing is the square bed off to the side of the main garden area that I’d grown the Albion Everbearing strawberries in, last year. The survivors got transplanted along the new asparagus bed, and I’ve decided the space may as well be used as a permanent poppy bed, since I expect those to self seed readily, and it can be treated as a perennial bed. However, if I run out of time to winter sow those, they can still be done very early in the spring.
So there we have it! Four more things winter sown for next year.
From the predictions I’m seeing, it’s supposed to be a mild winter, but other sources say a harsh winter. We shall see! Hopefully, the winter sowing will survive and we’ll have a head start to next year’s garden!
With how short our growing season is (I’m not counting on the newly revised averages yet), every little bit will help.
One of these years, I hope to get enough to actually can or freeze again! The last two years have been pretty brutal. If we depended on the garden for food at this point, we’d starve! :-D
Little by little, it’s getting done, and I’m feeling pretty good about it so far!
Not much going on today. It’s been raining constantly since the wee hours of the morning.
Heavily.
My daughter and I did head into town this morning. She needed to go to the pharmacy and I, thanks to a timely donation, was able to go to a dollar store to pick up some puppy pads, since we are all out. We’ll have to go back tomorrow for meds that weren’t in stock. For now, the weather forecast no longer says the rain will continue into tomorrow, so I’m hoping to get some winter sowing done, if it’s not too wet. Not much point, if it’s so wet the seeds will just rot away!
With nothing much to write about, here’s a video from Max Miller, Tasting History, to share. He’s doing a “villains” series right now, and this is the newest one, as of this writing.
I love it when he tries a recipe and it turns out to taste awesome.
I also love it when they don’t, because his reactions are hilarious. In fact, I’ll include one of those, too…
This morning, I was to cover for home care for my mother’s med assist, so I was up and about feeding the outside cats before it was light out.
They seem torn between famished for breakfast, and wanting to still be in their cozy spots!
Thankfully, it was light out by the time I started heading for my mother’s, as the first thing I saw when I got on the main road was a pair of deer on the road! The highway condition group I’m on has been reporting a lot of deer activity this year, with certain areas being particularly dangerous right now.
I got to my mother’s a bit early. She was still in bed, and I would have brought things to her, but she came out to join me. I made her a breakfast that she could have with her meds. I suspect it was a fuller breakfast, small as it was, than she would have been up to doing on her own. Hopefully, she will be willing to have the home care workers help her with that. The new assists aren’t part of her current schedule, but they would be informed by now, and her morning assist is 10 minutes to allow for extra help, even if it’s just to get the kettle going and doing some instant oatmeal.
When getting some milk out for her, I discovered she had issues with the carton. She had tried, and failed to open it from both sides and ended up making a hole with a knife! I was able to get the spout side open for her but, with the hole she made, had to be very careful pouring it into her cup. Last time, I’d got her a plastic jug of milk from another town. She had cleaned it out to use it as one of her water jugs for drinking and cooking, so I gave it an extra rinse and transferred her milk from the carton to the jug.
I wish her local grocery store still carried the smaller plastic jugs. They only have 4L in plastic, and my mom can’t handle jugs that size. My siblings and I will have to make a point of getting 2L milk in plastic jugs for her, when we know we can swing by to drop it off.
After that, I spent the next hour or so doing some of the things home care can do for her, like emptying her commode and rubbing the Voltaren on her back, and stuff they can’t, like changing her bedding and sweeping her entire apartment.
She told me that she’s been asking the ladies to do the Voltaren in the morning and before bed, and they have been quite willing to do it, but there’s one home care worker she has issues with. This is the same one that will come in, get her pills out, then leave without making sure my mother takes them. Last night, my mother has asked if she could rub the Voltaren on her back. Her response was to look at the sheet and say, that’s one listed on there. Which… of course it isn’t. This stuff doesn’t require a prescription. But they are supposed to be able to help with a number of things – her bed time visit has 15 minutes schedules for that. I don’t know if this worker refused to do it or not.
As we were chatting, my mother asked me if living here at the farm has been helpful for us, financially. I told her that yes, it was at first, but things are getting really expensive now. Especially when we have things like the door to replace. This is the first time I told her that we had to put it on credit. That’s when she started saying that my brother should be taking care of this stuff for me. I just laughed at that, because I know when she says that, she’s saying it’s because he’s male, and I shouldn’t be doing “man” stuff. However, she had also been teasing about helping pay for the door, so that would also have been her way to say he should have paid for it. Meanwhile, our deal is that we live here “rent free”, in exchange for maintaining the place and keeping it up as much as we can. I wasn’t going to go there, though.
Then she started saying that we should be communicating more. That confused me because she knows I’ve been talking to my brother about this (it’s his house, after all), and her. So I asked her, what did she mean? Oh, I should be talking to my brother about it and… don’t forget! He has access to her money.
…
???
Yeah, he has Power of Attorney, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to use her life’s savings!
I told her, she needs to talk to my brother about her money, not me. Then I added, I won’t ask her, like our vandal did. He was forever going to her for money. He even expected her to pay for a large building he wanted to build and was furious when she refused, and blamed her for having to take out a loan. She said, oh, that was a long time ago. He doesn’t ask for money. Not any more, I pointed out. I reminded him of how she’s given him a check for a substantial amount, only for him to come back asking for another one, saying his wife had accidentally burned the check with their garbage in the burn barrel. She gave him another, much smaller, amount (still a lot, though). When my brother found out, he checked her account and discovered the first check had already been cashed!
She remembered that. That was money she gave him to go towards the building he wanted to build.
*sigh*
That did give me a chance to tell her about our incident from a couple of days ago. When I told her how he’d opened up his shirt, took off the support strap and started waving his colostomy bag at me, she told me, he’s been showing that thing to everyone.
*shudder*
All in all, things went really well this visit. I was able to get quite a bit done for her, which was nice. I even remembered to ask her if she wanted me to make lunch for her before I left – and from her reaction, I could tell she had meant to ask me to do just that, but had forgotten! She told me what she wanted put together on a plate for her, then to set it in the microwave, so that all she needed to do was turn it on when she was ready to eat, after someone from church came over to give her communion.
After I was done there, I was going to swing by the grocery store to pick up a couple of things for home, but they were closed. So I made a side trip to the town closer to us and got a few things there before heading home.
By then, the winds had gotten even worse, so there was no way I was going to get anything done outside today. A forced day of rest!
The forecast now says we will be getting rain all day tomorrow (Monday), continuing on through half the next day. So that’s two more days of outside work lost. After that, it’ll be cooler, but at least the winds will have died down and the weather clear. The problem is, Wednesday is my first city stock up shopping trip. I’ll shoot to head out as early as I can and hopefully get back with enough daylight hours to get at least some work done outside. At this point, I think I’m going to start winter sowing, just to get things into the prepared beds while I still can! On the plus side, the long range forecast now suggests the first couple of weeks of November might still be warm enough to get more done out there.
When it was time to head out and feed the outside cats, I ended up spending quite a long time doing my evening rounds, checking for wind damage, picking up fallen branches, etc. I was finishing up when I spotted this cozy scene.
In the first picture, you can see Pinky in the cat bed on the bottom. That is the cat bed that had been in the catio, where she and her little would cuddle together and sleep.
In the upper level Midnight is in the cat bed there, and in the second picture, you can see he is cuddling with a little grey tabby kitten! Which is amazing, because he usually growls and swipes at the kittens!
I’m glad to see kittens in there. Most hang out together in the sun room, but some just won’t stay there other than to grab some food. The winterized catio is being well used, too. So far, it’s been holding up to the wind all right. I did put the red bench I made against one side wall, to reduce how much it was fluttering in the wind, so that helps, too.
Technically, it’s warm today, but with that wind, it’s very unpleasant out there, so I’m very happy to see the cats using the shelters. Some, like Adam, Sprout and Sprout’s calico seem to have secret spots out in the outer yard somewhere that they hang out in. Sprout’s fluffy orange and white seems to have moved into the portable greenhouse!
Oh, I have news about the ones that have gone to the foster. The adult and Pinky’s two have been spayed and neutered. The adult is completely deaf and has a really bad ear infection, but there were no ear mites in any of them! The vet thinks the adult may have been born deaf. I fully expected to learn the infection was from a really bad ear mite infestation, and that that is what caused the deafness.
So the adult is going to be rehabilitated and socialized, so she can be adopted out rather than coming back to us, since she won’t survive long as an outside cat. If she really were dumped, as we suspect, I’m amazed she survived long enough to find our place at all!
We do the best we can for the outside cats, so they can be cozy, safe, well fed and warm, but nothing beats getting adopted and living the good life indoors!
Gotta work on socializing more kittens, and getting those ladies fixed!
Today was supposed to be a much warmer day. Technically, it was, but we also had high winds, so it sure didn’t feel much warmer!
The winds showed exactly why I needed to get the catio finished. The bottoms or the front panels I had to leave unsecured because it got too dark and too cold to continue were flapping in the wind.
If you click through above, there’s a short video of the kitten being adorable.
Working on the bottom of the catio had its challenges, but the biggest one turned out to be Kohl. She absolutely HAD to be right in there, trying to lick my fingers and giving me little nips if I didn’t pet her often enough.
Once it was done, I figured it would be easier to make a video to share.
The only problem was that the door was loose. Previously, I was able to tie it in the mostly closed position, so it wouldn’t get blown around in the wind. There is a brick to keep it from closing all the way, but it sometimes gets knocked over and I’ve found the door closed a couple of times, just since it got moved to this location. Since it’s not latched, a cat inside could push their way out, though it might take them a while to figure it out, and it would be harder for the smaller kittens. No cats would be able to get in to the food, water and shelter, though.
What I ended up finding was a small Bungee cord with hooks small enough to fit onto the wire mesh. I’ve got it looped around the handle. It’s stretchy enough that larger cats can push their way through the gap, but strong enough to keep the door from being blown around – plus securing the door like this helps keep the brick in place, too.
All in all, I’m very happy with how it has turned out. There are a few finishing touches I’d like to do, but they aren’t essential.
After I finished with the catio, I had intended to work in the garden, but it was just too windy. Instead, I worked on putting things away for the winter. The canopy tent was really being blown around, so that is not down and tucked into the garage for the winter. Then it was puttering round, doing things like getting the insulation set up around the based of the house, putting the hoses at the back away, etc.
While I was working, I heard some load noises from somewhere in the outer yard, so when I had the chance, I went looking around to see what had been blown over.
This old log building has been slowly collapsing more and more for many years. It’s a shame it was allowed to happen. I remember playing in there when I was a kid, and it was in front of where the chain link fence is now.
With the wall down, I went closer to take a look at things. We’re definitely going to have to get that cleaned up as soon as possible. There are a lot of nails and sharp things sticking out.
There is also an oil drum that is now visible, though not in the angle of the shot above. Something sitting on top caught my attention.
Yup. They are fire bricks. I had to remove moss growing on one of them.
After taking the picture, I looked up the name on the bricks.
It turns out they are vintage fire bricks! Claybank Brick Plant in Saskatchewan is designated as a national historic site! It operated from 1914 to 1989, with a brief closure in 1916, partly due to WWI.
The bricks are now in the garage.
There is so much stuff in there, including what appears to be salvageable small lumber and possibly a stack of plywood? I can just see the edges of them, with no indication of size, other than there being some smaller ones in the stack.
After inspecting the wind damage on the old log building, I went around the yard to see what other wind damage there might be. No new fallen trees, thankfully, but I did find some larger fallen branches. My mother’s angel by the gate is still upright, though! I’ve no doubt that, were it not secured to the concrete base under it, it would have fallen over with today’s winds.
While I was still outside, I got a call on my cell phone.
It was home care.
*sigh*
They don’t have anyone to cover my mother’s morning med assists, tomorrow. This was a time slot that actually had someone scheduled, not one of the “unfilled” slots. I went in to call my mother and left a message, then headed back outside to finish a few last things. When I got back in, I thought I saw a new message on the machine and listened to it. It was my mother talking about not getting her meds regularly, and that’s why her health is failing. I called her back but she was confused when I mentioned I’d heard her message. She hadn’t called me today! (She hadn’t seen my message to her, either.) It turned out I had listened to an old message.
Ah, well. I needed to talk to her, anyhow. She’s still upset about having the male home care workers from India. This time, she saw something on the news about a “new” gang from India that the police found. Nothing about where, but now she assumes that if the home care workers are from India, they must be gang members.
*sigh*
Anyhow.
I encouraged my mother to ask the home care workers for help more often, and she didn’t get angry with me about it, so that’s an improvement. Since I’ll be there tomorrow morning, I’ll be taking care of a few other things as well. Her current schedule was done before we had the meeting with the home care coordinator, so it doesn’t reflect extra time for this, but I noticed that she’s got 15 minutes for the morning, 5 minutes at supper, and 10 minutes for the bed time meds. If they’re going to be available to do things like make her a small meal, they’ll need to increase at least the scheduled time at supper.
With that in mind, I’d better get to bed before midnight for a change. :-/
Tomorrow is supposed to be just as warm as today. I hope the winds won’t be back. If I’m going to get any winter sowing done, I need to rake up lots of leaves to mulch the beds right away. I wasn’t even going to try, today. It would just get blown away!
Well, crud. I just checked the forecast. Apparently, it’s going to be even windier, tomorrow!
At this rate, there might not be any leaves left in the yard to rake up for mulch!
Well, I seem to have pushed myself a bit too much, yesterday. I actually needed to use painkillers before doing to bed last night. In the morning, I asked my daughters to do the morning routine while I took more pain killers and tried to get a bit more sleep.
Which the cats sabotaged, of course!
My younger daughter needed to hit the grocery store, so she went along with me to the hardware store to pay the balance on the new front door. I even got Air Miles on it – and on the deposit I’d etransferred back when I first accepted the contract.
While there, we looked around for something to use to secure the vinyl I wanted to wrap around the catio. I knew what I needed it to do, but didn’t know what there was that I could use to do it. All the different things we looked at were either not flat enough, not strong enough, too strong, etc.
Finally, we just sort of gave up and starting looking at hand tools.
Because my daughter and I both have a thing for tools!
When someone asked if we needed help, I figured, why not? I brought up some pictures of the winterized isolation shelter and explained that I wanted to something that would do what the wood lath did to secure the vinyl, but narrower, and showed him a picture of the catio.
After talking about it for a bit, he took us over to a display we’d walked right past and showed us their steel strapping. I did already have some at home and would have preferred to not use metal, but in the end, it really was the best we’d be able to come up with. So we got a roll of 25′ galvanized steel strapping to supplement what I had at home, which would not have been enough for the job.
Then, my daughter treated us to lunch.
Well…
Breakfast, really.
Her disability has finally started to come in, so she had a small budget.
After lunch, we did her shopping, then headed home.
As soon as I was settled in and changed, I headed out to work on the catio.
The first thing to do was cover the door, on its own. For that, I repurposed some of the old vinyl that had been taken off earlier. It was a bit frayed so, after measuring the door, I doubled it up and duct taped parts of it to hold it together, and reinforce stress points.
Because of the latch and handle, one corner got folded under when it was time to attach it to the door.
Attaching the steel strapping to the bottom was the most difficult part. I don’t bend well.
I then measured the height of the sides for the next part. It is 50″ tall, and the clear vinyl dining table protectors I got for this are 52″ wide.
I am very glad I moved that folding table under the canopy tent near the catio!
I spent the next while setting strips of duct tape half way under one of the long edges of a vinyl sheet. The duct tape is 2″ wide, so I set it so the vinyl was around the middle – at least as close to the middle as I could manage. Kohl decided she REALLY needed to be on the table and giving me kisses! Even if it meant stepping on the sticky side of duct tape!
Plus, it kept getting windier, and I had to weight things down all over the place.
Once I had tape under the edge of the sheet, I turned the duct tape over, folding the vinyl to create a 1 inch “hem”.
Then I did the same thing on the other side, to bring it down to about 50″. I didn’t care if it wasn’t exact. In fact, a little excess extending past the based would be quite acceptable.
For the short ends, I folded duct tape over the edges to reinforce them, then added more to reinforce the corners.
By then, I’d been outside for quite some time and, while it was supposed to be warmer today, the wind made it feel colder – and the wind was picking up more. So I messaged my daughter and she helped me reinforce the edges of the second sheet. I was getting really chilled, so when that was finished, we weighted things down so I could go inside and warm up. After about half an hour, I headed back out – this time with a jacket!
In the first photo above, you can see the covered door. Instead of cutting off the excess vinyl, I folded it under, instead.
Then I cut away the rope handles at the corners. They were great for making it easier to move the catio, but they would be in the way of the vinyl wrap.
When I started attaching the side panels, I started with the one that needed to be folded under at the corner. In the next picture, you can see both, with the diagonal strips of steel strapping to keep the folded under edges from catching in the wind.
For the side panels, I didn’t expect to finish today, as I knew it would be getting dark soon. I focused on getting the front panels secured at the top and sides, then did the top only on a side panel. You can see in the next picture how far I got with the first sheet. I repeated the process on the other side.
I had forgotten that, when I fixed this thing up, I used metal strapping to secure the mesh on the side near the door hinge, so that had to be worked around. I had also used metal planted to reinforce the corners, so the strapping couldn’t go right to the corners. Which is okay. As long as the corners by the door were secured, the vinyl wrapped around the corners would not be as much of an issue.
Once both sheets were attached at the front and sides, the remaining vinyl was blowing in the wind, so I wrapped them around the back and secured them with short strips of steel strapping at the corners.
Before I even finished that, though, I saw a problem that I suspected would happen.
The two sheets were not long enough to meet at the back.
There was no way I could leave things like that, with the wind. I needed to close up the back.
Back I went to the leftover vinyl from last winter, cutting off a strip a fair bit wider than the gap. The top and bottom got reinforced with duct tape.
In the next picture, you can see the metal plate the top. When we were given this catio, the back was all one open space. I added a vertical support in the middle, then covered it with a couple of pieces of wood lath to secure the wire mesh. I added these metal plates all over the place while repairing and reinforcing the catio!
Working around the metal plate, I secured the gap filler with the steel strapping and a screw on either side of the metal plate, which you can see in the next picture.
Before securing the ends of the larger sheets, I made sure to go all around to pull things snug and straight. The catio is elevated by bricks, and the vinyl is long enough to hang below the bottom edge, and I had to make sure all the bricks were pushed in and flush with the edges, so the vinyl wouldn’t be pulled out of position. Once everything was as flush as I could get it, I could secure the edges at the back, setting them over the gap filler, rather than under. Once the corners were pulled as snug as I could, they got secured with screws, which you can see in the next picture. That done, I could finally screw the ends of the strapping in place.
The bottom did not have a metal plate, but the very middle did have the seam between two pieces of wood lath, so the initial screw needed to be off centre. I tugged and pulled to make sure there would be no gaps – the pieces don’t quite line up at the bottoms, since none of the edges were completely straight – before I secured the gap filled in the middle. Then it was repeat the process, to secure the overlapping pieces.
That was as far as I could do tonight. It was getting too dark and too cold! Securing the bottoms will wait until tomorrow.
Aside from that, though, it’s basically done. Here is a slide show of how it looks now, from all sides.
I had several cats who were just fine, going in and out of the catio, while I worked on it! Some even tried to “catch” me through the wire mesh from the inside.
Last winter, the wind tore at every loose bit of the covering. This winter, with the door having its own separate cover will make a difference, as will removing those rope handles. The steel strapping and reinforced edges should keep things from tearing away – I hope! In theory, I could probably get away with adding trapping to the bottom of the front panels, only. The back is already reinforced, and the sides are quite snug at the bottom. I’ll still had some strapping, though.
Tomorrow.
That done, it was time to put things away. As I went into the garage to tuck things into their places, I noticed I was being watched from the top of the truck!
Pink seems to have moved into the rafters of the garage again – at least for the night. We do see her around the house, and she goes into the isolation shelter to eat. I even saw her on the rail outside the sun room, and she enthusiastically excepted pets. She even gave me kisses!
However, my working on the catio did get interrupted by a cat fight by the isolation shelter. I went over to break it out and found Pinky cowering behind the bin in full defense mode, while Patience threatened her! Even when she comes around other cats to eat, she will growl and snarl at cats that come close.
If we aren’t able to get her to the rescue to adopt out, I’m thinking of making a shelter for her in the garage. Something better to stay warm in, than the rafters!
Oh, that reminds me.
We heard from the foster that took our six cats and kittens. The one adult with the infected ear – they have been calling her Mila – has not been adjusting. She doesn’t get along with the other cats, and is growling and snarling at the humans. She will be getting spayed soon, and they’ll be checking her ear at the same time and determining treatment. The foster was wondering if we were okay with taking her back after, rather than trying to adopt her out.
She got along fine with the cats here, was a regular in the cuddle puddles, and even let us pet her, so I said yes.
They will keep her for a week after spay for observation. If things don’t improve, she will be coming back to us.
Poor thing. She is a real sweetie. I thought she would have been good for adopting out.
But I digress.
It was getting quite dark by the time everything was put away, and I switched out the trail cam cards. As I returned to the house, I saw this handsome fellow.
There had been two other cats with him but they ran off when I got closer. Midnight has been spending a lot of time in here, now that the heat lamp is going! I also saw a fluffy kitten using the hammock while Pinky was in there, earlier in the day. I think the cats are quite happy to have this shelter back beside the house!
I think the more feral cats will be happy with the winterized catio, too.
Tomorrow, I finish securing the bottoms of the catio, and then it’s back to the garden beds. I have been planning out what I want to winter sow and where. The weekend is supposed to be quite warm, so that will be a perfect time to get caught up. Monday is also supposed to be on the warm side, but we’re also supposed to start getting rain again. I should be able to get the winter sowing done fairly quickly, though, since I don’t need to use all of the cleaned up beds for that.
If all goes well, things should be done and ready for winter fairly soon!
In the garden, at least…
😄😄
There’s always something more to do! I’ve pretty much given up on being able to get a new bed started before winter, though. I was really hoping to be able to harvest more of the dead spruces for raised bed frames.
Ah, well. We shall see how the weather holds! Pretty much everything hinges on the weather. Especially this time of year, when every pleasant day is something to take advantage of. It won’t be long before the snow comes!
I am becoming much less of a fan of winter, every year, since we moved out here, that’s for sure!
We had a slightly warmer day today, but I decided to leave working on the garden beds for the next few days, as it gets even warmer. Today, I focused on getting the cat shelters ready for winter.
I did, however, remember to take pictures of the finished garden bed in the old kitchen garden.
It doesn’t look all the different, really. The new stakes were pounded down with a sledge hammer, so they don’t need to be trimmed shorter. There’s enough height left that, should I want to in the future, more deadwood could be added for a taller wall. Towards the middle of the wall in the first picture, you can see some of the fly-away twine ends, where I had to fix where they snapped while I was pounding the stakes down.
I’m quite happy with the result. It’s not as pretty as wattle weaving, but it’ll hold the soil in place, and the taller stakes will be available to use to hold supports, should the bed need to be covered.
That done, it was time to winterize the isolation shelter and catio.
The vinyl (from dollar store table protectors) that had been wrapped around the bottom of the isolation shelter last winter was so torn up, it had to be thrown away. The vinyl around the catio had tears in it, but could still be salvaged. Especially since it ended up getting wrapped a second time part way through the winter. That gave me two layers to work with.
The bottom of the isolation shelter needed only 2′ in height. That meant I could take the vinyl from the catio and fold it in half, length wise. It took two dining table covers to wrap around the catio. With the second layer that was added, that gave me the equivalent of four covers, that were taped where they overlapped. I was able to separate the second layer easily into the original two length. There were larger tears near the bottoms, as well as small tears all along the edges, where they’d torn loose from the tacks that were holding them in place. Once folded in half, though, I was able to get a solid piece.
In the first picture, you can see that I duct taped the short ends to old the halves together, then added more to the corners to strengthen them more.
Thankfully, we didn’t have much wind and, with the folding table not put away for the winter yet, folding and taping the lengths wasn’t as much of a hassle as I’d feared. The only real problem I had was Grommet, constantly getting in front of me while I worked!
Next, I brought out my remaining pieces of wood lath and cut some to fit the shorter sides of the shelter, plus some for the section in the front. I had some short screws left from another project and used those to secure the vinyl at the top and bottom. Leftover lengths of wood lath were added to the ends of the vinyl as well, so the wind wouldn’t catch on them.
I secured one sheet to the ramp door side, first, then wrapped it around the back. The other end just reached around the opposite corner of the back, which I tacked in place with a push pin temporarily. Then I secured the other sheet to the front section of the shelter before securing the side, making sure to catch the edge of the first sheet with the screws.
For the back, I used a full length of wood lath to secure the vinyl at the top – the second sheet reached as far as the middle of the back.
At which point, I was out of the little screws I was using. I don’t want to use longer ones, as this is something that will be removed in the spring. The back will be against a well, though, so I just used a push pin half way down the centre support and let it be.
Next, I added some handles, to make it easier to move the shelter.
For the back, I had larger handles held in place with four screws. I replaced the ones the handles came with, which weren’t long enough to even go through the layer of insulation back there, with 2 1/2″ screws.
In the next picture, you can see the smaller handles I added to the front. Those had to fit in the space between the window and the edge, so there was room for a handle with only one screw to secure it. I didn’t need screws as long as for the back, but I still replaced the package screws with 1″ screws. They also had to be mounted lower down, so as not to be in the way when the roof is open.
At this point, the shelter could finally be moved to its winter home.
I was not able to use the handles.
The problem is the wheels. Even on the folded pieces of cardboard I put under the wheels, they sank into the soil. This thing is HEAVY!! It took a lot of manhandling to get it across the grass. It had to go across the sidewalk to the house, and one of wheels promptly sank so deep in the soil as soon as it was no longer on a concrete block, I had to actually lift the corner and pull the whole thing over.
Then there are the patio blocks.
Which should have been a lot easier, but there’s that tree in front of the old kitchen window. It’s roots have lifted and shifted the concrete blocks. Once again, I had to actually lift corners to get them over the edges of the patio blocks.
I did get it into position, though. Finally!
Once there, I did some cleaning, starting with washing the front windows, inside and out. I had taken out the sliding windows and gave those a wash before putting them back.
I had a couple more boards like I’d used to attach the roof panels that I added and screwed into place. It’s a low slope roof, and the plastic roof panels sagged just enough for water to sometimes collect on it. I gave the roof a washing, then left the roof open for the water to drain off. That was a good time to move the heated water bowl to the other side, and secure the heat lamp, which you can see in the second picture of the slide show above.
I found a piece of scrap wood that I added as a cross piece, which runs through the hanger part of the clamp lamp, for extra security. The clamp is secured with a couple of zip ties. The new cross piece is held in place by friction, but I zip tied it to the permanent cross piece the clamp is attached to, as well.
I did make sure to test the heat lamp before I started all this!
Once everything was set where I wanted to – make sure that I could reach the on/off switch for the heat lamp from the sliding windows – they were plugged into the extension cord, which got set up on its hooks on the outside.
Before that was plugged in, though, I got the ramp door shelter box ready to bring over (it was a handy table for while I was working on the shelter!) and started getting the catio ready to move to its winter location.
Around this time, I got a message from my SIL. They needed to go into storage and were on their way, and letting me know what their rental car looked like, while their car is in the garage for repairs.
They weren’t going to be long, so I went and opened the gate for them, then went back to working on things in the yard.
I heard a vehicle coming and looked through the trees to see if it was them, only to see our vandal driving by.
On seeing the gate was open, he started slowing down.
I couldn’t see him through the trees anymore, but I could hear him stop on the road, then start backing up.
I wasn’t about to give him a chance to drive in, so I walked out towards the driveway, so he could see that I was there.
He stopped at the end of the driveway, and just stayed there, watching me.
So, I got my phone out and started recording him.
I ended up getting more than four minutes of recording him as he got out of his vehicle and started gesturing at me (turns out he was “blowing kisses”). Then he opened his shirt, took off the belly strap and waved his colostomy bag at me. Then he started yelling at me, demanding to know why I was recording him, yelling that I wanted to put him in prison, that he was dying anyway, etc. He was yelling at me for so long, I ended up walking over to one of my brother’s pieces of farm equipment nearby, so I could brace my arms while he yelled. At one point, he started demanding that I go over and talk to him – like I would do that!!! – while gesturing to the road and saying he was legal there, and I should come and talk to him. As if! Oh, and I don’t own the property. I don’t own anything.
So… why has he been yelling at my mother about how she “gave” the farm to me?
Oh, my goodness.
I just got a message from my brother. Somehow, our vandal managed to leave a voice mail with my brother (his number is blocked). He was ranting about how he (my brother) is going against “the code”. The code of “Jesus and God.” Also, my brother and I are why he’s dying of cancer. The stress from us. He mentioned me recording him and said he “asked” me to come talk to him.
Also, I’m fat and my daughters and I never have to work again, and we’re apparently enjoying steak, caviar and champagne. And the pope is going to be reading a magazine about Christianity, and my brother’s not a real Christian.
He also brought up that he helped us, years ago, by living rent free for a year in a house he owned when my husband “lost his job”. Except, it was after my husband left the military, not “lost his job”, and it was only a few months before we got things worked out (we had zero income for 4 months because someone in the DnD forgot about the paperwork). We paid him rent until he put the house up for sale.
Yes, there was a time when we were close, and he did help us out. But now it seems he’s inventing things to make it sound like he helped us more than he did.
There was a lot more in the message, but it was all just insane. He is absolutely obsessed with us!
Ugh.
So… where was I?
Ah, yes.
After yelling at me from the road some more, our vandal got into his vehicle again and just sat there. By this time, my daughters had come out to see what was going on, and make sure I was okay. So I stopped recording and walked over. Once I was past the garage and couldn’t see him anymore, we heard him yelling at me some more before he finally drove off. We could hear his vehicle all the way, even to the sound of him tearing into his own driveway.
No, he doesn’t live THAT close to us!
My daughters stayed out with me for a while. I had move the catio to its winter location, so they helped me set it on pieces of bricks by lifting the ends so I could slide them under. As before, I set the pieces under the front corners on their edges, while the ones under the back were flat, so that water would drain off the flat roof towards the back.
My older daughter is going to be up all night as she works (she’s been trying to be up during more daytime hours lately, to be available to help with things).
This is how the catio was, after they helped set it up on bricks, so the wood won’t have direct contact with what will eventually be very wet ground.
I took out the cat bed that Pinky and her babies had been using. That went into the bottom of the isolation shelter, and the box nests got put in here. They are on top of scrap pieces of insulation.
After this picture was taken, I swept the leaves off the roof. I have an old snow brush/ice scraper where the ice scraper broke. It has been incredibly handy for maintaining the cat shelters!
Then I made sure to add the weights back onto the roof, so it won’t get blown over again.
Tomorrow, I need to go into town and pay the balance for the door replacement at the hardware and lumber store. While I’m there, I hope to pick up more of the tiny screws and anything else I might need. I would need more wood lath, if I’m going to use that to attach the vinyl on the catio, too, but I will get that somewhere else at a better price. The catio frame is 2×2 lumber, and I might want to find something narrower to secure the vinyl.
This winter, I’ll make sure to have the vinyl covering the door as a separate piece. Last winter, I had tried to secure it near the hinge but it kept coming loose and start flapping in the wind.
Meanwhile, my brother and SIL arrived. My brother did his thing while I was able to give my SIL a tour of the things I’ve been doing. She even helped me adjust the isolation shelter, when I realize that one of the wheels was hanging in the air, thanks to the uneven patio blocks.
The light above our main door had started flashing instead of working properly, so my brother wanted to take a look at it. He is the one who got and installed it originally – because while my late father was still living here, our vandal (who was “helping” my dad) would show up at all hours, and the motion sensor light would let my dad at least know he was in the yard. After fussing with a switch at the top that I didn’t even know was there (can’t see it without a ladder), he got it working again, but he doesn’t think it’ll last long.
Then I helped him move the old storm door that was still leaning against the house to the barn for storage. It’s still a good door.
It was really good to see them, as always.
After they were gone, I had a few more things to finish up. Now that the isolation shelter is no longer under the canopy tent, I move the folding table under there. I’ll be leaving that out for a while longer, as there’s still plenty that needs going around the yard before the snow flies.
For now, I’m just happy the isolation shelter is winterized.
I’m just looking at the temperature right now. I think I’ll go turn the heat lamp on for the night!
Thankfully, there was no rain today. The installers were able to get our new door in!
I headed out quite early to feed the outside cats, then make sure the gate was open for the installers. We have had the folding table I made out of folding legs and a piece of plywood I found in the basement set up under the kitchen window for some time. The hand rail to the door runs past it, and the isolation shelter needs to be set up there for the winter, so I moved the table out and cleared the patio space under it. Then, since it was clear anyhow, I set up the pieces of insulation that go against the basement wall for the winter. The table itself, I set up next to the elm tree outside the kitchen window, keeping it handy for the installers, if they needed an extra surface. It will be folded up and put away for the winter, later.
They did end up using it, along with one they’d brough themselves that was almost identical in dimensions!
Once inside, the makeshift barricade to keep the cats out of the entry while they worked was set up. Then I made myself some breakfast.
I was settling down to eat when I heard their truck and trailer backing up to the house. I headed out to greet them and touch base, then went back in. After I finished eating, I found I had a decent amount of time before I needed to go to my mother’s, since we worked out that I would do her grocery shopping after the meeting with the home care coordinator in the afternoon.
I took advantage of it and started working on what was originally supposed to be a wattle weave wall in the old kitchen garden.
The first photo was before I started working on the bed and had brought the stakes over.
Hard to believe that those black looking stakes are also maple, and were as bright as the new stakes, originally! They turned black after the first major rainfall.
You can see my initial attempt at wattle weaving in that first picture, too. Removing those was my first order of business. Once they were clear, I raked away any leaf litter that had blown into the area I would be working on, and clear out a few weeds.
Once that was cleared, you can see in the second picture that I wrapped twine along all the uprights. In the third picture, I’d laid out the first stakes that would be pounded in. These would be placed in the middle of each of the ones already in place, using the twine to keep them in line with the other stakes.
In the first photo above, the next set of stakes were laid out, with my spare on the side. These would go between each of the stakes already pounded in, in a slightly offset row, which you can see in the next two photos.
You can also see the hammer and board I used to pound them into the soil. The board was set at the top of each stake, and I used the flat side of the hammer on the board to pound them in. That pretty much assured I’d never miss, and wouldn’t be damaging the tops if I did.
With all the stakes in place, I started putting the pieces I’d tried to wattle weave, back, running them in between the offset rows. Some of them were rather bent from being woven around the stakes for so long but, for the most part, they went in fairly well. Some pieces were pretty wonky, though, leaving gaps. Once they were all in place, I went to my pile of smaller willow switches and use them to fill in gabs, making for a thicker and more solid wall. You can see how that looked in the first two photos.
Then I grabbed the loppers and headed into the spruce grove. In our first years here, I’d cleared up and cleared out the poplar growing in a few spaces along the edge of the grove. Poplar being poplar, they’ve been growing back. I found the straightest ones in the size range I needed, cut them down and trimmed away their branches. I also gathered some much smaller, narrower pieces to weave into the ends of the garden bed.
In the last picture of the slide show above, you can see the wall with the new lengths added. The pieces woven into the sides helped lock in the larger pieces in the deadwood fence at the ends.
Then, I forgot to take pictures of the rest. I’ll do that in daylight, tomorrow!
As the deadwood was laid between the rows and pushed down to the bottom, the stakes started to get pushed outwards slightly. I decided to secure them with twine, basically joining the stakes together in a zig zag pattern, making sure they were snug against the tops of the deadwood as I packed them down as much as I could.
I should have waited on the twine.
My original thought was to cut the stakes to just above the height of the deadwood, so they weren’t sticking up too high above it. I decided to see if I could get them pounded deeper into the soil, and more secure. For that, I headed to the garage for a sledge hammer.
Which did a mighty fine job of getting the stakes deep enough that I didn’t have to trim any of them! I was even able to pound in some of the original stakes a bit, too. Those ones I am keeping taller, though. They have matching height stakes on the opposite side of the bed, and will be used to hold hoops or whatever gets used to add protective covering to things growing in it, if needed.
Unfortunately, in the process of using the sledge hammer to drive the stakes deeper, I ended up snapping the twine in two places, and I had to take care of that before I could call it done.
Building the walls on this bed is now FINALLY finished! Now all it needs is another weeding, and it’s ready for next year’s garden.
By the time I was done and putting things away, I had time to change and get ready to head to my mother’s.
The installers were also finishing up! By then, they were putting the hand rail against the wall back. I couldn’t believe how well it worked out (there was minimal water staining visible when they took the old frame out, and everything else was still sound), and how quickly they got it done.
We finally have a proper front door again!
What they were NOT able to do was put the storm door back. It’s too tall for the new frame. It was handy for when we run the drainage hose from the washing machine out the window, but is no longer actually needed. The new steel door itself is built for Canadian winters. We won’t be getting any more frost at the bottom, or at the hinges!
The door now swings from the opposite side of the original door, by my request. That meant the arm bar had to be moved to the other side, too, since it needs to be opposite the hinges. It had to be mounted slightly higher because of where the handle and deadbolt are located, compared to the original door. The screen on the door can be removed, so we can still run the hose out the window when we do laundry, and the cats can’t get at the opening anymore.
I am very happy.
Then, it was off to my mother’s.
*sigh*
Short form. Honest.
I showed her a picture of the new door, thinking she would be happy. Instead, she was at first confused about which door it was (even though we’ve talked about it several times), then she didn’t seem to like the look of it (??), then she got really angry when I told her they couldn’t put the storm door back on because it wouldn’t fit. I got a lecture about how, if they’re not willing to do it, I should go find real professionals who would do it for me.
My mother makes a big deal about planting garlic, so I tried showing her pictures of the finished garlic bed with planting of spinach and Swiss Chard between the rows of garlic before covering the bed for the winter.
She became thoroughly disgusted when I mentioned buying seeds. I should be saving seeds (and planting spaghetti squash; that’s essential, suddenly). Which I have been, but apparently, seeds for things I’ve never grown before should magically appear or something, and spending money on seeds is stupid. Also, I need to plant spaghetti squash. Basically, she was really happy about insulting me for not gardening like she would. Practically chortling with glee in the process.
I tried showing her other pictures of the garden beds I’ve been preparing for winter, but gave up. She started ragging on me about how I keep talking about all the work I do in the garden, but never the benefits. I told her, the work is the benefit! I enjoy the work.
Turns out, that wasn’t what she meant.
Apparently, I get nothing from the garden. Ever. Not any of the stuff I’ve brought for her, even though we had so little produce this year. Things like drought and heat waves and a summer of endless smoke from wildfires means nothing. I should magically have a successful garden, every year, and it should be just like she used to have (or, at least, how she now imagines she used to have).
…
We tried talking about the upcoming meeting about her home care need and, in the process, I found out our vandal had visited again. He had shown up at the same time as her supper med assist, so he went into the common room. Even from her apartment down the hall, with the door closed, she could hear him loudly talking to people there, though not what he was saying. Knowing him, he was slandering me and my mother about this property. After the home care worker left, he came to her apartment and started ranting at her about the usual; that she “gave” the property to me (which she hasn’t), and so on. He wouldn’t let her respond to anything, of course, and didn’t leave until she started crossing herself repeatedly.
I asked when this happened, and she really struggled to remember. She did remember that it was after their exercises (which is why there were people in the common room), which meant Tuesday. Which was yesterday. But she couldn’t remember that it was yesterday.
We talked more about my mother accepting more med assists, like meal preparation, dress assists, bathing assists – basically, all that they’re allowed to do for her. She really does need the help, but her refusal to accept it is part of what’s keeping her from being approved for a nursing home, like she wants. She started getting angry at me, saying “I’m not used to having servants”. I told her, they’re not servants. They are helpers. Let them help!
That sent her off on a racist rant about the male home care workers, all of whom are apparently from India. I cut that off and told her, she can’t be saying stuff like that to the workers.
We also got her shopping list worked out in between all that.
Then the home care coordinator arrived, right on time.
The poor woman. She’s trying so hard to help my mother.
In the end, we were able to get her to accept allowing them to do meal assists on those days when she’s not feeling well, and we talked about the sorts of things they can do – quick cooking, reheats, etc. She said she would accept a shower assist once a week (she sponge bathes only), and she actually requested help with getting things set up so she can soak her feet once a week. She would accept dress assists, if needed, too. She might not need all of this every day, but we stressed, the more help she accepts, the better. We don’t want her to fall and hurt herself.
The coordinator also had to explain to her that she can say things like “I don’t want a man touching me”, in refusing their assistance with certain types of care, but she should NOT be going on about their race or country of origin. My mother tried to say, “I’m not going to lie.” I told her, you don’t have to lie. Just don’t say anything! The coordinator concurred.
It was a long and difficult meeting, but we did get progress.
There were a couple of forms that need to be signed every year, so when the coordinator was done, I followed her to the home care office, where I signed on my mother’s behalf. One of the forms was a list of what the clients needed to do for the home care workers, ranging from making sure driveways and sidewalks were clear, to ensuring the clients had no access to guns or knives. No using illicit drugs, no smoking within an hour before they are scheduled to arrive, no verbal or physical abuse…
Much of it didn’t apply to my mother, but a few lines where highlighted in regards to how the workers are to be treated!
She also gave me an emergency responders kit to replace the one on my mother’s fridge. My mother’s was incomplete for some reason. So when I got back to my mother’s, I went through her copy of one form, then filled in the information for the first responders sit. If she needed to be taken to the hospital by ambulance, they would grab this package and have all the info they need, from her meds list to my contact information, and signed permission for me to be her advocate, doing all the things I’m already doing on her behalf now.
That took quite a while to finish off! But it’s done. Finally!
Hopefully, my mother will behave.
I’m not holding my breath.
The paperwork done, I went to do her shopping. After I got back and put everything away, I had the idea of making a list of what she typically eats for her meals. This way, if she asks them to make her toast, they will know if she wants butter or jam or whatever on it.
Unfortunately, my mother just started to get angrier and angrier. She doesn’t trust people to make her food. She can do it herself. She doesn’t want to be a bother (ha!). Etc. I don’t know what she thinks they’d do to her food, but she even started saying that if this is what she has to do to get into a nursing home, maybe we can set aside getting her into a nursing home for now.
I was not impressed.
She is determined to sabotage herself. It’s so hard to help her, when she does this. Then, of course, she blames everyone else and has no understanding that her own actions are the problem. She simply can’t grasp it, and it’s getting worse as she gets older.
She and our vandal are very much alike is many things.
I finally set the list aside for later. By then, I’d been there for over 4 1/2 hours. The meeting was finally done, and I could finally go home!
Well… after a stop at the grocery store for a few fresh items we were out of.
At least coming home to our nice new door cheered me up a bit! I am so happy with it!
We need to find someplace to store the storm door, though. It’s still leaning against the house.
Things are supposed to warm up over the next few days; especially on the weekend. We are no longer getting rain in the forecast. Which means I’ll have almost a week of good weather to get more garden beds ready and do more winter sowing. We also need to winterize the bottom of the cat isolation shelter before moving it by the house, where we can plug in the heat lamp and heated water bowl. The catio needs to be moved, too. Pinky no longer uses it. I think she’s returned to the rafters in the garage, where she used to hang out last winter.
I plan to take advantage of every pleasant day we’ve got, before the end of the month stock up trips need to be done!
For now, however, I am mentally and psychologically exhausted. It doesn’t help that my eyes are still achy from the dilation drops and vision tests I had done, yesterday.
Well, I’m actually glad the installers couldn’t make it in to do the front door today.
The rains stopped some time before sunrise this morning. It was still super wet when I went out to feed the cats at about 7:30am There was no rain in the forecast, but while driving today, we got hit by rain several times! Hopefully, things will be better tomorrow.
Before I get into more stuff, though, I just have to share this bit of fluffy adorableness.
There was one litter with four grey tabbies. Two of them are getting fluffier as they get older, and they look almost identical! This is one of them. The other two are short haired and one of them sometimes allows pets, but they are also almost identical. Which means that when I reach out to pet, I’m never sure if it’s the friendlier one that will allow it, or the skittish sibling.
Must. Socialize. The babies.
So they can get fixed and adopted out!
Meanwhile…
My daughter and I headed out to my appointment ridiculously early. I had a budget for lunch, and we could take our time with it.
Not long after we’d passed through my mother’s town, my cell phone started ringing. My daughter answered, and it was an automated call from Life Line. It was to notify that my mother’s pendant seems to no longer be connected, and recommended doing a test.
When the call was done, I pulled over to phone my mother. It went straight to machine, so I left her a detailed message about it, telling her to test her pendant and see if anyone answered. If they did, to just tell them it was a test. If there was no answer, I would be there tomorrow to deal with it, and would call her after I got back from my eye appointment.
Doing this didn’t take very long, but enough time that I was glad we left as early as we did!
Once in town, my daughter and I had lunch, then went to the eye clinic. We got there about half an hour early but, after about 15 minutes, I was take in for stuff they do before the actual appointment with the doctor. This time, it was just the glaucoma test. Taking photos of inside my eyes would be done after I got the drops and the field of vision test.
For the field of vision test, I just had to wait for another patient to be done and the usual sanitization, and was called in quickly. She did the eye drops first, which meant tilting my head back.
This is the first time I got the dilation drops in this room. Usually, it’s been done in the examination room. When I tipped my head back to get the drops, I found myself looking directly into a couple of bright lights! Very hard to keep my eye open for the drops! After the first one, I let her know and she shut the lights off to do the next eye. With the door open, she had enough light but, until I told her, she didn’t realize that doing the drops there meant getting blinded by the ceiling lights!
The field of vision test could be done right away, without having to wait for the drops, since it is all close up. By the time that was done, enough time had passed that I could go straight to getting the photos of the inside of my eyes.
There’s nothing like being told not to blink to suddenly want to blink like crazy! 😄
Those done, it was back to the waiting room until the doctor could see me.
I didn’t have to wait long.
The first thing she did was go over the photos with me, and compare from my last appointment. I’ve got the tiniest of hemorrhages that are being monitored. One slightly larger one – just large enough for me to easily see from the eye exam chair – was no longer there. Overall, nothing had really changed, so there’s nothing to treat. I’ll be back in 6 months for continued monitoring.
Then she did the physical exam with the bright light to see directly in my eyes.
Fun stuff.
Not.
The whole thing was done nice and fast. Being there so early meant we were out early, too!
I made my next appointment for April, and then my daughter started driving me home. Next time, I won’t be getting the eye dilation drops, so she won’t need to come with me.
In my mother’s town, there are two gas stations along the main road. One is a co-op, and we no longer go there for gas. Turns out they can pay dividends because they use old, cheaper gas. I found that out when we had to replace an expensive part in our previous vehicle that had gotten clogged up. Even our lawn mower got clogged up after only one summer’s use, and we only use premium for the mowers!
On the way out, both stations were at $1.199/L
On the way back, the co-op was at $1.310/L
!!!
We turned around and went to the other station that was still at $1.199 to put some gas in before they got the call to increase their prices! I mentioned the other station’s new price and it had changed so recently, she didn’t know about it yet (the two stations are close enough that they can see each other’s price signs).
We didn’t put a lot in, but it was enough to fill the tank at that price. Which is good, because I will be back tomorrow and probably would have needed to put more gas in by the time I was ready to go home from my mother’s. If all goes well, I won’t need to get more gas until our first city shopping trip next week.
Once we got home, it was later than I would normally have fed the outside cats, so taking care of that was my first priority. They were very hungry!
I’ve been keeping an eye out for Pinky. This morning, I didn’t see her until I was getting the truck ready to leave, and she was by the garage. I saw her again while doing the later feeding, and she was again near the garage. I’ve seen her sleeping – alone – in the catio, but since we took her babies in to the rescue, she has been alone.
She won’t let me get a closer look at that injured toe, but it no longer looks bright red, she isn’t favouring it, and there’s no sign of infection, so I think she’s okay. Still something to monitor.
I so wish we could bring her in to her babies! Of course, her “babies” are the cat equivalent of teenagers now, but they were the only ones I ever saw her with. She doesn’t get along with any of the other cats, and now she’s alone. She barely even lets me pet her anymore.
💔💔
Hopefully, we can bring her in soon – and can get her friendly enough again to get her into a carrier!
Once settled inside, I called my mother. She never noticed that there was a message waiting for her, even though I could hear that she was in her TV watching chair, which is right next to her answering machine. I told her about the call I got and had her test her Life Line pendant while on the phone with me.
There was no response.
So, I will have to deal with it tomorrow. I had planned to come earlier, so I could do her shopping while she was having her Meals on Wheels lunch, but she suggested I do the shopping after, so I wouldn’t have to be at her place for too long.
This being my mother, it makes me wonder what she has planned for the morning that she doesn’t want me to know about.
So I’ll be there for early in the afternoon. The appointment might take an hour or so, since the home care coordinator will be reassessing my mother for the nursing home panel, too. I pray my mother finally gets approved! She has been wanting this for over a year now, and her mobility is getting a lot worse. At the very least, she needs to accept increased home care for things she’s been insisting on doing herself, when she shouldn’t be.
We’ll see how that works out.
By the time I’m done at my mother’s, I should be coming home to a new front door!
As for now, the rest of my day is pretty much toast. Aside from it being too wet to get anything done outside, my eyes are still aching from the dilation drops and blinding tests. If it wouldn’t mess me up entirely, I’d be going to bed right now, just so I could keep my eyes closed!
Well, there was definitely no chance the door would get replaced today! It started raining last night and is expected to continue to rain until about 6am tomorrow morning.
The door isn’t going to be done tomorrow, either. The installers aren’t available until Wednesday.
Which is the day I’m going to my mother’s for her grocery shopping and appointment with the home care assessor. I’ll be coming home to a new door.
Rain or no rain, the outside cats needed to be fed. When I went out to do the evening feeding, though, this one was not hungry and stayed in bed.
This fluffy kitten is getting so big – and so gorgeous!
Must. Socialize. The wild kitty.
Feeding the cats was about it for going outside today. Even they were avoiding it as much as possible!
Which means I more relaxed day indoors. I even got to do some crafting! I haven’t doing any in a very long time. Partly because I usually do crochet, and with my hands to rough and dry from working in the garden, the yarn gets hung up on my skin and will even pull the loops of my hook!
Today, however, I tried doing a small weaving project. I’ve got a loom knitting and weaving kit, and used the pieces to put together the smallest square peg loom possible. Big enough to make coaster sized squares.
I’d gotten the idea from some Pinterest images that showed up in my feed, but it was this video that gave me the full instructions.
I tried using single strand yarn, but found it too open and floppy. I ended up making four squares, experimenting with different thicknesses, doubling up the yarn, and different ways of finishing the edges. Eventually, I’ll make up larger peg looms and see how that goes. If nothing else, practicing on the small loom for coaster sized squares is a good way to use up leftover balls of yarn that are too small for anything else!
So it’s a been a quiet day, overall. Which is good. Normally I try to keep Sunday as my day of rest, but took advantage of the good weather to get much needed work done, so today is my day of rest, instead. I’m going to need it, as I’m going to be doing a lot of running around over the next couple of days!
The Re-Farmer 