postaday

I am so tired

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

The day feels way longer than it should have.

Today was set aside for me to go to my mother’s to do her shopping and errands and household stuff. I’ll start off by saying, she was actually on really good behaviour today, comparatively speaking. Things did go well.

The morning started off with the feeding of yard cats and doing my morning rounds. I tried for a head count this morning, and got 30. Last time, it was 35, including a cat I didn’t recognize. I haven’t seen it, since.

As I was heading in, I found this little crowd.

I moved both heat lamps lower, but this one is a 150watt ceramic heat bulb. The other is 200watt. I thought it was 250w, forgetting that I wasn’t able to find the ceramic heat bulbs at 250w. The lamp is rated to 250w, and there’s an incandescent 250w heat bulb in a matching lamp in the isolation shelter.

Speaking of which, that’s going to be used for its original purpose soon!

This morning, I got a message from the rescue. We have two dates to spay two cats each. I was sent a screen cap of a texted confirmation with two dates, one of which was for 3 cats. I was told I had two slots and someone else had the third, so I thought that was my date. I didn’t think the earlier date was also for me until I got a call while I was at my mother’s from the vet clinic to confirm the earlier date! It is straightened out now, though I did tell the woman who called me that, while we have two females we know we can catch for the first one, with the second one, we might have to just catch what we can, and see what they turn out to be! This isn’t very uncommon when it comes to strays and colony cats. I’ve brought in cats without even knowing for sure what gender they were, and they were fine with it.

But that got worked out much later.

I was able to head out a bit early to my mother’s bringing along my stock pot and a good knife, along with the prepped vegetables and herds, for the chicken stock was would be making for her. When I got there, my mother was back in bed, after her morning med assist. I noticed she had a garbage bag ready for the bin by the door, so I quickly dropped the stuff off, grabbed the garbage and headed out. Which turned out to be excellent timing. I passed one of her neighbours in the hall; someone who’s window faces the street. We ended up chatting for a while, and he told me he seeds me out his window quite often. He was very sweet. He mentioned that my mother clearly needs more help, and that he’d told her, if she ever needs anything, to just knock on his door.

When I got back, I told my mother about this, but she had no memory of him saying this to her! When I told her which apartment he was in, she even struggled to remember who lived there. She would recognize him to see him, but not necessarily connect him to any particular apartment.

It’s good to know she has some good neighbours.

When I got back to my mother’s, she was up and at her table. She joked about her being wrapped in a robe and wearing a regular shirt, because it’s been so long since her laundry was done, she ran out of nightgowns!

She was rather amused when I started unpacking my supplies and pre-prepared ingredients to work on her chicken stock. I just had to prep the chicken legs and thighs. My mother insisted I wash the pieces really, really well, to wash off the “chemicals”, then started telling me how the stores all spray meat with chemicals to make meat last longer. I told her that’s not quite what they do, and she got instant angry with me – but I was still washing her chicken for her, so she turned off the angry. I’m not sure if she was thinking of the CO that’s used to keep beef red in packaging, or she she was thinking of the chlorine rinse they used to do, to kill off bacteria like salmonella, though that hasn’t been done in years. No doubt, it was something she saw on daytime TV or read in a paper, many, many years ago.

After the chicken was in the pot, I started adding the mirepoix ingredients, then showed her the rest. I don’t think she has ever used ginger before, except maybe in power form. I know she was aware of turmeric, as she had bought a whole bunch for herself because she’d read about how healthy it was, but didn’t know how to use it. She ended up giving it to us! Apple cider vinegar is something she was completely unaware of.

She was oddly surprised by how many garlic cloves I brought – an entire head, so about 6 or 7 cloves. That was probably the last thing I would have expected her to be surprised about. “Polish penicillin” was always a staple ingredient when I was growing up, and she often brings up about how we should plant lots and lots of garlic. I remember how my parents would sometimes eat it. They’d pour some salt onto the table, then dip their cloves of garlic into the salt as they ate it raw!

Once the chicken stock was at the point where I could turn it down to a simmer, I got the first two loads of my mother’s laundry going, then we went over her shopping list. She had added a few things to it since I started it for her a few couple of days ago – including wine! The pharmacy has a liquor section, but the wine she likes isn’t available anymore. In our province, the government controls liquor sales (which is one of the reasons our booze is so expensive; it’s mostly taxes). When Trump started talking tariffs, our premier ordered all US booze to be pulled from the shelves. This was already bought and paid for by the government, of course, and hardly anyone was demanding US booze get pulled. It was just an childish tantrum on the part of our premier. Canada has one Western province where alcohol sales are private. Some places did try to remove US booze from the shelves, but the customers complained so much, they put them back. People in our province have no such say in the matter. The irony of this childish display is that we’ve had tariffs on US products for decades.

Which means the wine my mother usually gets – a super sweet kosher wine my parents bought for as long as I can remember – is no longer available. She asked me to try and find something I thought would be close. 😄

The pharmacy was my first stop and I had to ask one of the staff for help. I don’t know wines. Nothing against them. There just aren’t a lot of alcoholic drinks that I enjoy. In the end, I had two staff members looking things up, trying to find something my mother might like to replace what she normally would have gotten. It came down to just one thing – without US products, their shelves were pretty empty – and there was only one bottle of it left. On sale, too, which was nice.

That done, I picked up a few other things on her list, then got her bubble packs. I got another nice surprise at the checkout. My mother has the loyalty card, which is on her file at the pharmacy. She had lost track of the card for a while, but because it’s on her file, any times she got her prescriptions, she was still collecting points. Only at the store counter does the card need to be shown to collect points.

My mother was able to get $40 off her stuff! Plus, she collected enough new points through her prescription refills that, next time, she’ll be able to get another $20 off. !!!

When I told her that later one, her response was, why didn’t they use that $20 right then?

*sigh*

That done, the next stop was the grocery store for a somewhat larger shop than usual for her. She even requested I picked up some of the deli chicken I would get for her for sandwiches. She didn’t want slices, though. She asked for a chunk about an inch thick. That certainly made it easier for the deli person!

By the time I was done the shopping and back at my mother’s, her Meals on Wheels had arrived and the empty tray was waiting on her walker, outside her door. Those get left in the common room for pick up, on the next delivery day. So I took care of that for her before heading in. I was quite surprised she was done so quickly, and commented on it. I did notice the container with vegetable soup was on the counter, though. Once a week, they do a “use whatcha got” soup using leftovers. My mother says it tastes like dishwater. !!! So that ended up getting tossed. Another moment where she suddenly got angry at me, this time because I couldn’t read her mind over just how she wanted it tossed. *sigh*

Once her things were put away, the rest of the time was spent tending the stock, her laundry and general clean up. I did stop for some tea and a bun as a lunch, before getting back at it. Once the stock was done, I took out the meat to set aside for a bit, then the large sticks of celery and carrots, because I knew my mother would want to include them in a soup or something. I found a little strainer that I used to get most of the big stuff out for the stock before salting it and letting it cook longer, while I deboned the chicken. That all fit into one of the freezer bags that I’d brought along with everything else. The vegetables went into a handy take out container my mother had.

The stock was a different issue. I should have brought jars! I could find only two suitable empty jars and started ladling the stock into them, through the strainer. My mother kept telling me to leave everything out to cool down, first. It took me a bit to understand that she didn’t like the containers being used, and especially when I put the lids loosely on the jars. She thought they would take longer to cool down than if they were just left out. The idea of covering them at least to keep dust out apparently never occurred to her!

I find myself wondering if she was expecting to leave my stock pot behind?

By this point, I was finishing off and starting to pack things up to leave, as soon as her last load of laundry was dry. I had mentioned to my mother earlier that I needed to swing by the garage before going home (she wouldn’t understand what getting a tire torqued means). When she started complaining that I was getting ready to leave, I told her, I still need to go to the garage on the way home.

Which is when she started getting mad at me again. Why was I leaving so soon? I told her, I’d been there for almost 5 hours. Didn’t she finish her Meals on Wheels first? Yes – before I came back with her groceries. She actually tried to claim I’d been there for barely 2 hours, instead of almost 5 hours!

One of the things she wanted me to do was cut her toenails, which I really didn’t want to do on top of everything else. It would have been good for her to soak her feet to soften them, first, too, which hadn’t happened. She basically started having a tantrum. It was as if I hadn’t done anything else for her at all, because her toenails hadn’t been done.

Then she started berating me, asking why I booked to go to the garage on a day I was going to be at her place. I told her, I didn’t; I brought the truck in yesterday. This is a safety thing to make sure my tire doesn’t go flying.

Some time ago, I’d brought over a good set of toenail clippers, because she only had fingernail clippers, and a micro-pedi grinder thing. She told me to take those home, and was angry about it for some reason. I told her, no. She has toenail fungus. If I take them home and use them, I would get her toenail fungus. Only she can use them, now. That made her mad, too.

In the end, I agreed to take a look at her feet. It turned out her nails were really broken up, and only a few had anything to be trimmed. I started using the clippers and she got angry again, demanding I use scissors, because the clippers didn’t work.

They worked find.

I think she may have tried to clip her own toenails and couldn’t manage it, because then she told me one toe had gotten so bad, she grabbed scissors and cut as much as she could, herself.

While I was doing her toes, I pointed out which one had the fungal infection. That lead her to complain about how she spent so much money on medication for it, yet never used it. So I asked her were it was and went looking. At first, the only box I found that was the size I remembered it came in turned out to be eye drops. My mother got angry again, saying she’s never bought eye drops before, so why was it there? She forgot that we did get eye drops for her, when she started getting treated for her macular degeneration.

I finally found the box, hidden way in the back of her cupboard, and applied the medication, but this is not something she can do herself, and it’s not on her care list with home care. I’m not sure if we can even add it to the list or not, partly because I don’t know that my mother would be willing to let them do it.

Ironically, for someone who complains about all the medications she’s taking, she once again brought up about how she thinks she should be using the inhaler – a prescription that was cancelled. I had to explain to her, getting this was a test to see if she had asthma. The alternative would have been to get on a waiting list to get tested, and it could take a year or more before she got to the top of the list. It was simply faster to have her try the prescription to see if it worked or not.

My mother doesn’t understand. She has trouble breathing at night, and she’s gone from complaining about “having” to take it, to now wanting to have it, even though it made no difference at all. Her mind has just latched onto it, now that the prescription has been cancelled. She’d been wanting to stop using it for a long time, too.

Anyhow.

I finally managed to head out, though my mother was still quite angry that I was leaving “so early”. I did manage to get to the garage in good time. I just had to wait until someone was available to do it. Then, since I was there, I popped into the grocery store across the street to pick up some bread, after my daughter told me she hadn’t had a chance to do any baking today.

By the time I left, it was starting to rain! We had reached our high of 10C/50F, too. Happily, I managed to get home before it was getting too dark. That half-light at the end of the day makes it so hard to spot deer getting ready to run across the road.

While things ended on a fairly negative note, I got a lot done at my mother’s. Her fridge is stocked up again, she has her meds, I got her chicken stock made and she has cooked chicken to last her a while.

It just took a really long time, and unfortunately, spending that much time with my mother, even on a good day, is pretty draining.

I am so very tired now.

The Re-Farmer

Truck is done and mid-month top up. This is what $155 looks like

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Today’s main thing was getting the truck to the garage to get that leaking seal replaced, along with the tire sensor, which would also replace the valve with the slow leak that was getting worse. I didn’t need to get there until 10, so there wasn’t too much of a hurry.

I still left early, of course. I always try to leave early! I’d rather be half an hour early, than 5 minutes late, for anything.

When dropping off the keys and talking about the work that was scheduled to be done, I asked if they could give all the tires a check, too. I freely admit, I’m paranoid about tires! There is one more that has a slow leak in the valve, but both rear tires will need their sensors replaced. Even the one tire that has been rock solid the whole time. The last time I got a sensor replaced, they checked the other tires and couldn’t get any readings off them, which meant the batteries were likely dead, and it’s repair by replacement for that. They were fine with checking the rest, too.

After that, I headed across town (all 6 blocks or so), with a plan of stopping at various places on the way back to look for things. I did have to stop for breakfast first, though. I forgot to eat before I left and was starting to get dizzy.

My first stop after breakfast was not productive; I didn’t find anything I was hoping to. I had some things I wanted to pick up for my husband that I wasn’t able to get yesterday, while in my mother’s town. I found some of those at the next stop. My last stop was a hardware store, were I was able to find a couple more things I needed.

By then, it was almost an hour past my appointment time, so I headed to the garage. I could see the truck hadn’t been moved, though. They had a vehicle stuck on a lift, waiting for parts, so they weren’t able to get to it yet.

At that point, I needed to just sit down, as my hip was starting to give out on my. Which was good, because I got to talk to the mechanic that was working on my truck. He knew he was from our area, and that he knew my brother, and really felt I should have know who he was. I finally had a chance to ask his name.

Well, no wonder he seemed familiar! He was the guy that helped us out on the road, when the truck started screaming at us and we discovered all the problems we were having with the oil system! That was two years ago! After having to replace the MAF sensor – twice! – it took this long to find where and why we were slowly losing oil.

They were able to get the truck in soon after I got there. The seal was replaced, then they worked on the tire sensor. Once that was back on, they ran the truck for a bit, then raised it back up on the lift to make sure nothing was leaking anymore, and everything was nice and dry!

Once it was at floor level again, they started checking the other tires. I could see them through the office window as they went around with their device, checking each tire.

Then doing it again.

Then they topped up all the tires for me, and went around again!

When they came back to the office and I was settling the bill ($226 and change, after taxes), we chatted about the tires. The new sensor was programmed, but they were not able to connect properly to the back tires. I was told that, after driving about 15km at speed, the new sensor should get recognized by the onboard computer and it would reset itself. The “service tire monitoring system” notice should go away, along with that one dashboard light for the tires, by the time I got home. If it doesn’t go away, they’ll need to check the back tire sensors again.

I told him I didn’t expect the light and warning to go away, and fully expect to have to replace both sensors on the back tires. When it’s in budget again. The tires are fine. That’s the main thing.

The warnings were still there when I got home. We’ll see if they’re still there when I leave for my mother’s tomorrow. I expect they will be.

Everything went well, otherwise, and the truck was good to go. My next stop was across the street to the grocery store. I still had one more thing on my husband’s list, plus I wanted to get ingredients for the chicken stock I’ll be making for my mother, tomorrow. I want to get it started before I leave to get her groceries, and planned to do the prep tonight, first.

I ended up making a much larger shopping trip than planned! Normally, I wouldn’t do a mid month top up like this, so soon after doing a Costco trip, but there were some really good sales I wanted to take advantage of.

This is what $155.69 looks like.

Which is actually quite a bit more for the money that usual!

Here is what I got – sorry for the poor photo quality. I didn’t realize how bad it was until I uploaded the image!

From the top: there’s a case of Fresca, which was the one thing left my husband had requested. On sale, but that just put it back to the regular price it was a couple of months ago.

The large bag of cornmeal was not on sale. When we first started buying these large bags, they were under $4. Now, they’re over $7! But, we were running low, and I’d like to bake some cornbread.

I remembered to get some white wine vinegar, as we were out. We were also running low on pancake syrup and it was on sale, so I got a bottle. The tea I got is something new to try. It has chicory root in it and is “coffee inspired”. We have chicory seeds, so I figured trying some in a tea would be a good idea.

The Monster was for the drive home. We were out of apple cider vinegar, and I wanted to use some in my mother’s stock, so I picked some up. I also got freezer bags that were on sale. One of them will go to my mother’s, so I can pack up the cooked chicken in smaller bags to make it easier for home care to prep her meals.

Lactose free cheese, mostly for my husband. The digestive enzymes I got at Costco don’t seem to be helping him, he tells me.

We did not need more eggs, but the 18s were on sale, so I got a couple. We’ll be hard boiling a bunch of them to keep handy for snacks, or to make egg salad with, now that we have so many eggs on hand.

The cabbage is for ourselves, but the onions are for ourselves as well as to prep for my mother, tomorrow. Same with the ginger root, carrots and celery. The 3 pound bag of apples was for home, though – and a really good sale! Apples have been insanely expensive lately. I look forward to having our own, but it’ll be a few years yet!

The salad mixes where the big savings. I’d already picked up some at my mother’s town yesterday at an excellent sale price, but these were even better. These salad mixes are usually over $7 a bag, but with the sale, they were under $4 a bag! Plus, extra points. If I didn’t know we wouldn’t have the room in our fridge, I would have gotten more.

Another good sale was on whole chicken, so I got a larger one. Normally, it would have cost almost $20, instead of just under $12. The pork sirloin roast was Buy One Get One Free, so I picked up a couple of the largest ones that were left. There was bacon on sale, too, so I picked up a package. Last on the receipt was a chicken salad sandwich to eat during the drive home. It was well past lunch time by then.

Then, when it came time to pay, I had enough points on my loyalty card to get $10 off – but got enough points with all the promos that I once again have enough points to get $10 off the next time I use it!

So with all the sales and discounts, not counting the sales on items priced by weight, since that’s applied before they get to the checkout, I had a total of $54.34 off. Add on the loyalty points discount, I got a total of $64.34 taken off my bill.

Not too shabby.

After one more stop at a gas station, I finally headed home. After my daughter helped me unload the truck, it was late enough to feed the cats outside. I even remembered to call my mother to remind her to take the chicken out of her freezer for the stock I will be making her tomorrow. I made sure to tell her not to get her own little pot and frying pan out again, as I was going to be bringing a bigger pot to use this time.

I was out again, about an hour later, to do my evening rounds, cutting some fresh herbs to use in my mother’s stock, before commandeering the kitchen. I now have a bag ready with our smaller stock pot, a good, sharp kitchen knife, and various ingredients that don’t need to be refrigerated, set aside. In the morning, I just need to grab some prepped ingredients from the fridge and that’s it.

Normally, my mother doesn’t do much when she makes her chicken stock. Last time, I included carrots, celery and onion, and she told me she only just used onion. I know she normally would not be too keen on trying new and different ingredients, like the apple cider vinegar, ginger and turmeric I’m bringing. She can get very angry over the idea of trying new things. She has been talking about problems with her digestion, though, and I specifically looked up a recipe for “gut healthy” chicken stock. I think it might help her be willing to try something new, if I explain it that way.

Meanwhile, I found we still had two last packages of meaty beef bones hiding in the chest freezer, from our last beef share purchase. I’ve got those thawing out with plans to make bone broth in the slow cooker.

All in all, it turned out to be a more productive day than I originally expected!

Tomorrow, we’re expecting a high of 10C/50F, but I won’t be home to take advantage of it to get stuff done outside. The next couple of days will have highs of only 2C/36F, which is when I’m planning to do some final mulching and covering the septic tank for the winter. After that, our highs will stay below freezing for a few days, and then we’re supposed to warm up again, possibly reaching a high of 5C/41F by next weekend. Which means there’s still a possibility of getting more progress outside.

Once we get past the first week of December, the long range forecast is now predicting quite a drop in temperatures, including overnight lows of -28C/-18C, so the more I can get done before then, the better! It’s been harder to keep things stocked up, but I really want to have at least a month’s worth of supplies on hand, before the deep freeze hits. The hard part will be stocking up on cat food.

Oh, I just got a message from the renter. They do have a straw bale they can spare, and will hopefully be able to bring it over on the weekend. Perfect timing! We’ll have straw to cover the septic tank, instead of the insulated tarp, and it’ll be much better for mulch in the garden, too.

Little by little, it’s getting done!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden: they’re alive!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Right now, there’s basically nothing in the garden. The herb bed, amazingly, is still chugging along, but everything else is done for the year. So, when I do my rounds, I don’t check the garden beds like I do throughout the growing season.

Which is why I had such a surprise today.

When the septic guy showed up to empty our tank, I stayed around on kitten duty, to keep them away from the open tank. A couple of cats wanted to hang out.

I had to pick up and carry Sir Robin most of the time, because he was so curious. When I put him down to look at things, he stayed close and even posed quite nicely for me.

Fancypants, here, is more feral, but still very curious, so I was keeping a close eye on him.

His going into the area fenced off from the deer, to protect the tulips and apple tree, is why I was there to spot my surprise.

First, it was seeing fresh green leaves poking up where the saffron was planted, two autumns ago. I’d seen some sprouting in the spring, but then they disappeared and I thought they died off. Their first growing season was much the same. It’s really hard to keep this area clear of the creeping bellflower that threatens to choke out the tulips. The crocuses are much more delicate. Plus, these are zone 4 corms, and we’re in zone 3, so I really wasn’t expecting much. Just hoping.

Today, I found fresh new saffron crocus leaves coming up! In November!!! These are supposed to bloom in August, never mind start coming up.

When I first started taking pictures, I actually missed it.

Yes. That is a spent saffron crocus flower laying on the leave litter!

The plant just to the right of it in the picture has what looks like a flower bud ready to open soon.

!!!

I opened up the makeshift gate in the fence wire to get better pictures, which you can see in the rest of the photos of the slide show above.

Yes, I picked the flower.

We have our very first saffron threads from our first blooming saffron crocus!

We’ll keep an eye on the flower bud over the next few days, to see if it opens or not. If it does, we’ll pick that, too, for a grand total of 6 saffron threads. 😁

The clusters of crocus leaves are looking strong and healthy, now that their competition is died off for the winter. They also look like they are spreading, even though they’ve barely survived their first two seasons.

I’m just blown away. I honestly thought they’d died off. I knew, when I bought these, that their chances of survival would be low, so this is just really awesome.

We’ve got a few more warmer days, but before the ground freezes, I want to put a nice, thick mulch of leaves over it. I don’t want to put it on too early, as that would smother them. If the long range forecasts are at all accurate, we could possibly wait as long as another week and a half, but I don’t want to wait too long, either! I think I might need to look at the overnight lows more than the day time highs when deciding when to cover them.

I can still hardly believe they survived!

The Re-Farmer

So much progress!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

I so love it when the weather is good and I don’t have to go anywhere. I got so much done today – and it’s not even 2:30, yet, as I start this!

First was a morning of phone calls.

Priority was to call about my mother’s Meals on Wheels being cancelled. I got through to the kitchen number and talked to a woman there. She told me she had listened to my message, but there is no management in today, so she couldn’t find out more for me. She did check their list, though.

My mother’s name is still on it.

Her service did not get cancelled.

So what was the phone call she got about? That is a question for when a manager comes in, tomorrow!

Needless to say, my mother was both relieved and confused when I called to let her know she would be getting her Meals on Wheels as usual.

I also got through to the septic guy.

Yup.

His truck broke down.

He’ll be here tomorrow to clean out our tank.

We’re good with that – the weather will still be good, too.

That all done, it was time to head outside.

One of the first things I worked on was emptying the rain barrel by the sun room and setting it aside for the winter. It had a solid layer of ice on the top, so I had to use the ice scraper tool to chip a hole through. Thankfully, the barrel was not completely full, and I was able to carefully tip it over to drain. It took some doing, since the hole in the ice was just off centre, but I was eventually able to get it empty enough that I could tip it completely upside down. Then it could be rolled to the spot by the honeysuckle where it stays for the winter, lying on its side. There is still a thick layer of ice in it, so I made sure that end was facing south. There’s a chance it will at least melt enough to break apart or fall flat. The barrel will serve as extra potential critter shelter in the winter, so it would be good to get the ice out.

That done, I went and dragged the insulated tarp over to the septic tank, just in case we don’t get a straw bale soon. I’m not hearing back from the renter, who is the one I usually get it from. They did give me the names of others I might be able to get from, but I’d rather get it from the renters.

Bringing the tarp over meant going past the pile of bricks that used to be the chimney from the old wood furnace that isn’t used any more. When the new roof was done, that chimney was removed and I asked them to leave the bricks, rather than haul it away with the junk. The plan had been to use them as part of a path we plan to make along the back of the house that will eventually be part of a shade garden. They piled it all on an old tarp they could leave behind, and it’s been sitting there, ever since.

I didn’t want to move the pile twice, but I don’t know when we’ll be able to make that path and it’s in the way. So I cleaned that up, next.

That old chimney needed to be replaced back when my parents bought this place, before I was born. The chimney blocks I am now using as a retaining wall and for planters were meant for that, and it just never happened.

Those bricks were in terrible shape! Most were broken. There were a few whole bricks. I stacked those, and the larger broken pieces, against the pile of logs still sitting from when we had trees cut away from the roof, years ago. The tarp was intact enough that I could use it to drag away the collected debris and pieces too small to be worth keeping. That’s now with the junk pile for hauling to the dump.

It means moving the pile twice, but it’s now out of the way, and even sorted, more or less, so they’ll be easier to work with when we finally get around to making that path.

We’ll need more broken bricks, though. 😄

That done, it was time for the big job.

I was going to wait until after the tank was emptied, but decided to take my chances and clean up around the ejector today.

Grabbing gloves and tools, I headed out to the gap in the fence closest to it. This meant going through where some old farm equipment and various outbuildings are.

Plus some really massive burdock.

I started cutting back the burdock when I got distracted. There’s an old Farm Hand tractor that I’d cut clear of self seeded maples a few years back. They were growing back. Since I had the loppers with me and was using them to cut the burdock, I cut the maple suckers away from the tractor. That didn’t take very long, though, so I was back to cutting away the burdock. Several of the burdock stems were thicker than the maple suckers I’d cut away from the tractor! Try as I might, I couldn’t avoid getting burrs stuck to me, so pulling those off was fun. Not.

I didn’t clear it all away, though. Just enough to make a path to the opening in the fence. There’s just the renter’s electric wire across it. There are some huge willow trees there, so the cows don’t seem to try to get through the opening here, unlike the old gate opening, which has a chain across it, as well as the electric wire. They do go under the willows enough to graze the tall grass on that side of the fence down, though.

The cows were moved off some time ago, so the electric fence is not hooked up to a power source right now.

Here are the “before” pictures I took.

In the first picture, I’m standing in the lower area the grey water is supposed to be draining towards. You can just see the small trench I made to help it flow through. The whole area was really rough after the excavator buried the new ejector, so that needed to be worked around.

Those boulders and all the other rocks you can see were from the hole they dug to reach the pipe.

The second picture in the slide show above is where the problem lies. Instead of draining down the slope, things are pooling at the end of the old sheet of metal roofing that’s there as a diverter. The snow fence is something my brother had put around to keep the renter’s cows from accidentally trampling the new ejector. It’s nowhere near as tall as the old one was.

The third picture is of the inside of the fenced area, where the diverter is. Yes, there is a long sheet of metal hiding under that mess!

The last picture in that series is the view from just inside the “gate” of the snow fence.

I had to cut my way through burdock to get to the fence and access the area. To get to the rigged gate of the snow fence, I had to cut my way through Canadian Thistle. Those were as big as the burdock, and getting stuck on those was a lot more painful!

Inside the snow fenced area, it was mostly old nettles I had to get through, plus some young burdock and a LOT of crab grass. Plus a few burrs.

This is what it looks like, after I cleared all that out as best I could.

One of the main concerns with laying that sheet down as a diverter was that it might get blown away, so we put some logs and a big rock on it, to prevent that from happening. In the first picture, you can see the logs at the end.

The second pictures shows the first part of the problem. So much debris had lain over the metal, it actually flattened it on one side that the grey water was, at least partly, draining off of their instead of all the way to the end.

In the third picture, you can sort of make out the other part of the problem. The soil is rough and there’s a bit of a lump on one side. It seems to be just enough to keep the grey water from flowing to the lower area. Instead, it’s draining to a different area, where it is pooling, first.

Worse, it was also flooding back under the diverter.

Last year, we had to use the emergency diverter for the grey water to be pumped into the yard, far from the house, because the new ejector froze. With the ground around it saturated, because the grey water isn’t flowing away as it should, there is a risk of that happening again.

The first thing to do was to get those logs off (the rock didn’t need to be moved) and clear the debris off the diverter. The logs then went under the sides of the sheet to create more of a channel, which you can see the start of, in the first picture below.

There was still the problem of things pooling at the end, instead of flowing away. I’d already opened up the trench more, but there was still that lump of soil that prevented the grey water from draining straight to the trench. There was no way I was going to be able to level that whole area enough with just a spade. Plus, the soil is already partially frozen.

The diverter needed an extension.

I went over to the pile of stuff nearby, where we’d salvaged this sheet of metal from in the first place, and looked around. There are still cast off pieces of metal roofing in there. I found a shorter one that I could use.

It took some fussing to get it under the snow fence, then under the big diverter sheet. The smaller piece was already curving on its own, so I could take advantage of that. I set it at a bit of an angle, then used rocks to flatten it more on one side, while raising it up on the other – then added more rocks on top, to make sure it didn’t blow away.

This left a corner of the metal sticking up, and that was something the renter’s cows could get injured on. I needed to make some sort of barrier.

Well, there are those willows nearby, and willows are known for dropping their branches. I had lots of deadwood around to drag over!

In the third picture, I tried to stand in the same place is when I took the first “before” picture. There’s a willow branch that does off to the left. Out of frame, it’s actually still attached to the tree. I dragged it across, but it wouldn’t break all the way, and I didn’t have the tools to do anything about it. I decided to take advantage of it, instead, and it added to the deadwood barrier I was making.

The fourth picture is the “after” shot from just inside the makeshift gate. Looking so much better!

The fifth picture is after I adjusted a bit more at the end. It looked like there was still a possibility of grey water flowing back under the long sheet, after pouring onto the new extension, so I put more support under one side that will hopefully prevent that from happening. I also stepped on key points, on both sides of the snow fence, to bend the metal and make the channel more defined. You can see that on the outside, in the last photo.

With the tank not emptied yet, this whole time I was working, it was possible that the pump would be triggered and I’d have grey water to deal with while I worked. All it would have taken was someone flushing a toilet or washing some dishes. It seems the pump’s float had been triggered recently enough that it didn’t happen. I did consider asking a daughter to turn it on manually, so I could see how it flowed with the new set up, but in the end, decided against it. If the tank was recently pumped out, there might not have been enough greywater to run through, and I didn’t want the pump running dry. I can check on it later and will be able to see.

Once the septic guy empties the tank, it will be a while before the grey water side is filled enough to trigger the pump. Hopefully, that will give the soil enough time to drain. It shouldn’t need long, since it’s all sand and gravel, but we do have a lot of clay, too, so it’s hard to say. Between the cleaned up diverter, the heat tape that’s still on the above ground portion of the ejector, and the wind shelter my brother built around it, hopefully it won’t freeze again this winter!

So that was the main project I wanted to work on today. I still want to head out again later to see what else I can get done while it’s still light out and warm enough. I don’t be digging up and cleaning any garden beds, but there’s always something that needs to be done! Since I’m taking the truck in on Thursday and going to my mother’s on Friday, I basically have today and tomorrow to get as much done as possible. After Friday, the day time highs are expected to just barely rise above freezing, so it’s hard to say what progress can be done after that.

I can’t believe almost half of November is already gone. Where did it go???

The rest of the month is expected to be relatively mild. With or without progress outside, I am appreciating that. The older I get, the less I enjoy winter. My hands are cracking and splitting from the dry cold already, just for starters. Winter is just rougher on everything, from our bodies to the house to the truck to the yard cats… everything!

So I am enjoying and appreciating every bit of mild weather we can get!

The Re-Farmer

Too much wind! Also, a mystery

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

Good grief! As I write this, we are supposedly at only -1C/30F, but the wind chill has us at -18C/0F.

It feels colder than that!

I head out earlier this morning to do the cat feeding and my morning rounds, while it was still dark, so that I could open the gate. The wind was already really bitter by then, though it had to have been calm during the night, as everything was covered in hoarfrost. The septic guy said he would be here in the morning and, sometimes, that has meant right at 8am, so I figured I’d better get it open early.

When he didn’t show up before my younger daughter and I had to leave, I called and left a message saying I would be gone (he would see the empty garage as he came in), but that there would be someone home, so just knock at the door as his payment was ready.

In the end, he never made it. I’ll have to call him tomorrow and see about a reschedule. The last time that happened, their truck broke down!

I headed to the truck early to warm it up and noticed that front tire with the leaky valve was pretty low, so I fired up the compressor to pump it up. Then I headed back inside, out of the wind, to text the garage. The leak seems to be getting worse, so I asked if they could order the new sensor and replace it when I come in to get the oil seal replaced later in the week.

After that’s done, there’s still two more sensors to replace.

My daughter and I had to go into town for the pharmacy, first, as she had to pick up a prescription she needed for her medical appointment. I had called in one of my own for refills, too, but their delivery from the city wasn’t going to be in until the afternoon, so I told them to include it with my husband’s delivery. I’ll be in town that day, but it’ll be to drop the truck off for my appointment, and I don’t want to be carrying meds around while it’s being worked on.

I’d received a response from the garage, confirming that they could get the sensor ordered in and done at the same time. I asked if they needed any info off the tire but when they didn’t answer before we were done at the pharmacy, we just swung by and I ran in to ask. They didn’t, so we were soon back on the road.

Headlong into the wind.

We had left early enough that my daughter and I could stop for lunch at a Subway right near the clinic. We timed it perfectly, as there was a huge rush starting, just as we were paying for our food. We were able to take our time to finish before heading into the clinic.

One of the things my daughter wanted to bring up is that she will NOT be going back to that endocrinologist again. I still think she needs to make a formal complaint over how she was treated and manhandled.

Her appointment wasn’t very long, so we were soon heading out again, this time to the nearest Walmart in the smaller, nearer city.

I was no longer driving headlong into the wind, but the route was mostly open fields at this point, so I was instead fighting to not be blown off the road!

My daughter and I had out own shopping lists, and I had one from my husband, but we even altogether, we didn’t need a lot. It was just stuff we either couldn’t get locally, or was so much more expensive locally, it was worth the gas and the side trip to get them there.

Before we left, I got a message from my husband. My mother had called. She had gotten a call from the Meals on Wheels office saying that her deliveries were cancelled, and she was wondering if I had cancelled them.

?!?!?!?!!!!!

Obviously, I didn’t. Once we were home, I called her up as soon as I could, to get as much information as I could, before calling Meals on Wheels. It was past 4 by then, and I had no idea if they would even still be open. The meals are cooked and assembled in the kitchen of an apartment building similar to my mother’s, except they offer meal service and a few other things. My mother has actually been on the waiting list for that place for a few years now.

I called my mother and she immediately started talking about what happened today, and it was a bit confusing. Basically, her Meals on Wheels delivery came at the same time as her lunch assist person. there was some sort of confusion. Why, I have no idea. This is not the first time she’s had both since her increased service. Home care is aware that she gets Meals on Wheels and were good with it. I think maybe it was the first time they arrived at the same time.

After they left, she got a phone call from the Meals on Wheels office (they don’t actually have an office) saying that someone had cancelled her service, and that there would be no more dinners from them. My mother was wondering if I had cancelled it. Of course, I hadn’t. So she wondered if my brother hand, and of course, he hadn’t either. I didn’t even have to ask him about that!

Part of what was confusing is that as she was trying to describe what happened and the confusing of her lunch assist and Meals on Wheels coming at the same time, she started talking about how she doesn’t need both. If she had people coming every day to do her meals, why have Meals on Wheels?

I told her, these meals are more complete than she would make for herself, and require more preparation than home care is able to do for her during daily meal assists, so it would be better if she kept it up. I didn’t really get to say more, but these are also the most nutritionally complete meals she has all weak.

Then she started taking that she didn’t need… and here I lose it on the words she used, because they were more implying than saying outright, but basically, she’s trying to suggest that these meals are so big, they are making her fatter, so she should probably stop. She’s been getting to the point of saying she should practically stop eating entirely, so I needed to cut that off, quickly. I told her, she’s 94 years old. She doesn’t need to be worried about her weight at this point. Who cares?

I told her I needed to call Meals on Wheels right away, because I didn’t know when they closed, but then she launched into how she takes the “pink stuff” (Pepto) and Tylenol and started going on about how she thinks her problems are her digestion (this after years of blaming her insanely healthy heart) – so basically, she was working herself up to blaming everything on the Meals on Wheels meals. I had to cut her off and say I would call her back after calling Meals on Wheels.

I was too late. They were closed.

The number I called was directly to the kitchen, but I noticed another number in my online search, so I tried that, too. That was the building’s management office. Their answering machine gave office hours, and they are open only 3 days a week, and the message added that if it was about Meals on Wheels, to call the kitchen number.

Tomorrow is Remembrance Day and I normally wouldn’t expect a call back until the day after, but they do cook daily meals for the residents, so it’s possible I’ll get a call back tomorrow.

I called my mother back and told her as much as I could. Thankfully, she didn’t try to blame her various issues on the Meals on Wheels meals again. It frustrates me to hear her trying to blame all her problems on her food, but she knows nothing about nutrition. Half the time, she’s basing things on something she saw on TV 30 years ago, or some women’s magazine that the ladies from the Senior’s Centre drop off sometimes, or something her neighbours have said, to just leaping at associations with no real connection. All the more reason for her to have those Meals on Wheels! If it were up to her, she would be seriously malnourished while convinced she is eating “healthy”.

Anyhow, I told my mother I would get back to her as soon as I knew something. I have, of course, updated my siblings about it as best I could.

I’ll be at my mother’s on Friday to get her bubble packs and do her shopping. I’ll stay to do other stuff for her, too. I should remember to ask her to take the chicken I got for her a while back, out of the freezer so I can make up another stock for her. That will give her cooked meat that the lunch assist people can use for her meals, too. This time, I want to bring one of my stock pots from home. Last time, I had to split things up between a small pot and a frying pan! I should bring a proper knife, too. She has been using what look like cheap “as seen on TV” steak knives, and is happy with them, but they really are terrible. At least for full food prep. I had to use one to butcher a whole chicken for her a while back and it was so bad, I ended up using the only other thing she had – a bread knife!

Hopefully, the Meals on Wheels thing will be straightened out by then. I’m really at a loss as to who would have cancelled her service. Unless my mother gave specific instructions, they would not have had any authority to do so. It doesn’t sound like my mother did anything like that, but she talks in circles so much, someone may have misunderstood her? I just don’t know.

I am just noticing one of my weather apps that I have on display at all times. According to that, we’re now at 0C/32F. We should keep warming up all night, to a high of 6C/43F tomorrow. It’s not supposed to be as windy as it still is right now, but still pretty windy. On Friday, we’re supposed to reach a high of 8C/46F! That would be a great day to get a few more things done outside, but I’ll be at my mother’s. Ah, well. I’ve at least got the next two days at home to work on things. Once the septic tank is emptied, I want to head over to the ejector to cut away all the weeds grown up around it, then dig more of a trench to drain the greywater towards the low area, rather than forming a pool just 10 or so feet away.

Hopefully, the septic guy will be able to come in soon! This is not a job I want to work on when it gets colder again.

Gotta take advantage of every warm day we get. It won’t be long before anything left will just have to wait until spring.

I would really love it if I could just hibernate all winter!

The Re-Farmer

They look so sweet

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

They lie.

Ghosty loves that cat bed so much, she’ll curl up with any other cat that’s in it! This time, it’s Beep Beep, one of the originals cared for by my late father. She is very likely Ghosty’s great-great-great-grandmother or aunt.

Ghosty is probably the most intelligent cat we’ve ever had – and the reason why I feel like crap today, due to lack of sleep. Once we’re all in bed, she starts getting into all the things she knows she’s not allowed to while we’re up, and I’m the only one that can hear when she does. Particularly when she starts digging into things at my desk in the wee hours. She does it when she wants the kibble bowls topped up, because she knows it will wake me up, and she doesn’t stop until it’s been done. This morning, she dug into my organizer tray, pulling out all sorts of stuff and knocking one of my speakers half off the desk, which I discovered hours later.

I actually got the girls to do the outside stuff this morning, so I could get back to sleep, but it just wouldn’t happen, mostly because of the cats! Then I had the disorienting feeling that it was about 4pm, only to look at the time and see that it was noon. My daughters are feeling the same way, today!

I really, really need more sleep.

The Re-Farmer

How things went and, a new addition?

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Good grief, I can’t wait until the days start getting longer again. I keep thinking it’s closer to midnight, but it’s barely past 5:30 as I start this!

This morning was the first morning where I could actually say it was cold. We even had some snow on the ground, though not enough to cover much. For the past while, I’ve been giving the yard cats their morning feeding after softening it with some really thin, warm “cat soup”, but it’s been freezing faster than they can eat it, so I did just dry kibble this morning. They very clearly were expecting different and weren’t too happy not to get it!

I was heading out soon after to do my mother’s morning med assist, after being called yesterday about a cancellation. She now has 20 minutes scheduled, so they have time to do a meal assist and, if she’s willing, to help her get washed up or dressed on top of her regular assist.

When I got there, she was still in bed and really struggled to get up. I encouraged her to stay in bed while I made her breakfast, but she made her way out and did her morning washing up routine. Once she was settled with her meds and food, I took care of her commode, etc.

Since she has a lunch assist now, I asked her what she wanted, in case there was something I could leave out or set up for the worker that came for her lunch assist. In the end, I just brought out a can of chicken noodle soup, because the rest of what she wanted had to stay in the fridge.

Overall, things went well, though my mother seemed quite down and a bit depressed about how she was feeling. She said she thought she was going to the hospital today, but did acknowledge that she tends to feel better after getting up and moving about, and is usually feeling pretty good by the end of the day. What did catch my attention and showed me how much worse she was feeling than usual is that she did NOT do her usual complaining, with the whole “I’m dying!” thing, then launching into what she wants us to do for her before she dies. She was quiet about it, and that’s way more of a red flag.

Yes, I did send an email to the home care office when I got home, as this is something they need to know. The care aides also pass on things like that, as they observe them.

The only time things started to go south was near time for me to leave. She remembered something she wanted to tell me, then started going on about how she didn’t want us using her pension to pay for things here at the farm.

…

Yes, she paid for the door, and I told her again (when I had the chance) that I appreciated it, but I had never asked her to. It was my brother that talked to her about it because, for the past while, she’s been talking about how she wants to help me and my family out more. She’s also been hinting about helping with the door before, too. So something has changed.

Before I could figure out, she started talking about how, she doesn’t live here any more, it’s not her responsibility, then started complaining about how much doing the roof cost. She is convinced we were cheated, because it shouldn’t have cost $14,000. I told her, that was just how much things cost at the time. If it had been done three years earlier, it would have cost $9000. I didn’t get a chance to remind her that I’d gotten estimates from three different companies then, and they were all pretty much the same cost. She had said no.

She started telling me, I should have gone to other companies to find a better price, and I told her, I went to 5 different companies (3 responded, but I didn’t even try to bring that up). Then she started complaining that they charged for clean up. We shouldn’t have paid for that. We should have done it ourselves. I said to her, do you know just how much there is to clean up from a roof?

She was talking about the door.

It seems that when my brother talked to her about it, he’d brought printouts, including the original estimate with details on what was included in the cost. Clean up was part of it. My mother said that we could have “saved some pennies” by doing it ourselves.

*facepalm*

I just did not want to go there. Instead, I started getting ready to leave, because I still had to go to our own pharmacy to pick up some refills. I double checked his message about how they’d be ready for pick up today, to see if there was a time I had to wait for, as it was still early in the day for that sort of thing. As we were talking, I read out “pick up injections”, and my mom was all “injections!” then going on about my poooor husband that he has to take injections, and oh, we have it so hard, we suffer so much…

…

I told her, he’s been on two injections for years. (She knows that; she reacts the same way, every time) Doing injections is not a big deal these days. She still tried to play the pity game, and how she feels so sorry for us. I told her, yeah, we have problems, but so does everyone, and a lot of people have things a lot worse than we do. We have a lot to be thankful for.

Even with this stuff, I’d say it was a good visit when it comes to my mother.

From there, it was off to our pharmacy, where I was also able to get my vitamins that I didn’t get at Costco. Different budget. Then it was just getting some gas and going home. I wrote off my planned trip to the dump today. I want to avoid extra driving as much as possible until we can get that leaking seal fixed, next week, and we’ve got a trip for a doctor’s appointment in between.

By the time I got home, it wasn’t too much longer before I was heading outside to take care of the outside cats and switch out the trail cam cards, before it got dark.

The cats were very happy to have the softened kibble again!

After I put the food out, I was topping up water bowls with warm water when I spotted one of the older grey tabbies eating at the feeding station under the shrine.

Then I realized that cat I thought it was, was by the house – and this one was much bigger!

Also, shier. I didn’t try to get any closer, as he was clearly ready to take off if I did, but he also watched me from behind the shrine’s pedestal base, rather than running away.

Just in case, I did a head count and got 35. Which means we have several more than my last highest count.

So it looks like we have a newcomer. This was the only one that seemed a stranger. I think the other “extras” were cats that didn’t usually show up at the same time as others at feeding time. With the colder temperatures, more are coming closer to the house instead of waiting until later.

Later on, I headed outside to check on some noises the girls were hearing through their windows (they can hear a lot more than I can!). I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but I did spot this crowd.

There are four cats in that cat bed! You can barely see the little tabby.

Frank is the one looking right at me, and the little white and grey draped over her back end is the one that has been sick for the last while. It has discovered the heat lamp and spends most of its time in the isolation shelter lately, and it looking much stronger.

They’re going to have to get used to it being closed up, soon.

Thanks to a generous donation, the rescue we’re now connected to is going to book us for for spays and/or neuters. The goal is for four cats, two at a time. With keeping the isolation closed up while females recover from surgery for two weeks, two adult cats is the limit. Though if we are able to get Frank and Pinky in there, I’d probably keep that little white and grey in with them, too.

I’ll have the dates sent to me later, but they will be booked some time after the 16th. I would hope we can get other females after that, but they’ll do neuters are well, if that’s what we can catch. I would love to get Adam, Slick, Sprout, Sprig or that white one with the grey tabby patches, but that would involve trapping.

I should maybe talk to them about the possibility of taking the friendliest outside cats for adoption, some of whom are already fixed. More than a few times, I’ve almost been able to touch one of the more feral cats, only to have a super socialized cat or three, push their way in, demanding attention and scaring off the more feral ones.

We’ll work it out.

So, that’s how things have been today. Tomorrow is Sunday, and it looks like it will actually be a day of rest for a change. We’re expected to have some snow in the wee hours of the night, but tomorrow’s high is supposed to be just below freezing. After that, we’re supposed to warm up again, with highs above freezing for almost two weeks. More time to get as much done outside as I can, while the weather is good.

But not tomorrow.

The Re-Farmer

Well, we’ll see if this works!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

According to the weather apps, we’re currently at -5C/23F, with the “feels like” at -9C/16F.

I don’t know where the weather station for that reading is, but it’s been mostly sunny today and feels much warmer than that, to me!

Warm enough that I decided we should go ahead and cover the portable greenhouse with the tarp so graciously gifted to us.

In retrospect, we should have removed the torn up plastic over first, but the tie downs are attached to it, so I didn’t think of it.

I had already adjusted the tie downs so that they no longer stretched away from the corners, creating tripping hazards. Instead, I wrapped them around the sides and and was able to secure them around the corners at the opposite end. They are long enough that the ones from the back corners wrapped around the doorway and were secured on the inside. Which meant there were no tie downs to work around while adding the tarp.

Gotta love the sexy rhino.

So this is a really high end tarp, which is so appreciated. It also is black on one side, so we decided to have the black facing out, so that it could warm up more in the sun.

As you can see in the second photo of the slide show above, the tarp is a fair bit bigger than the portable greenhouse frame!

I had the help of a daughter to get it unfolded, then up and over the frame. After that, I worked on it on my own, since I was figuring things out as I went along.

I deliberately put the tarp off center so that I could secure the side facing the kibble house to the ground, right at the base of the frame. I spend the next while trying to figure out how best to origami it in a way I thought would be least likely to get caught up in the wind. Once I secured most of it, I ended up tucking the excess on the side facing away from the kibble house, under the frame itself.

From the back and sides, it made a nice little package.

If you click through to the next couple of pictures, however, you can see the front was a very different challenge. I had considered and tried a number of options, and even considered turning that end into a sort of tent. Which probably would have turned into a wind tunnel, so it was probably good I decided it wouldn’t work . We need to be able to walk through there, shovel snow, etc, and it would have blocked things way too much. I ended up folding quite a bit of it under, tucking the edge back over the frame to secure it. Which left me with no grommets I could use to secure that anything around the doorway from the wind.

I had set up an old bench we found… in the spruce grove, if I remember correctly – that I’d had against the back to keep the wind from flapping the torn cover around. I also had our wire mesh door and folding table along the more exposed east facing side, for the same purpose. Those got put back, once the sides and back were done.

The doorway needs to be kept available, of course, and there was no way to shelter the doorway and still be able to get in and out as needed. I had to find another solution.

The solution was, twine.

I tied one end of the twine to the frame on the inside on one side, wrapped it around the back, then secured the other end to the matching part of the frame on the other side, making sure all was snug and tight. If you click through the next couple of pictures, you can see how it was secured by twine, bench, wire mesh door and table. The bench has to be lying on its side, as it is too broken up to stay upright if there is any wind, or even if a cat just jumps on it. 😄

The door is wide open, and wind and snow will get into it. There is no getting around that, at this point.

As I was working in it, cats and kittens were very curious and checking everything out, so I am confident they will be comfortable using it for shelter. It is definitely warmer in there, too. Having it black side out is going to make a big difference, I think. Enough to make up for losing the greenhouse effect. It’s now quite dark in there, but the cats don’t mind that at all.

Now, if only we could find a way to make sure no cats try to jump up onto it! The tarp may be 10mm thick, but cat claws could still cause damage.

So that’s a bit more winterizing we found ourselves needing to do. I think it will work out all right for the most part. It’s only the front that concerns me. We don’t have any high winds in the forecast right now, though, so it will be a while before it gets a litmus test!

The Re-Farmer

I just can’t… (updated)

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Not what I normally post about, but what happened here ultimately affects all Canadians, but especially rural folk like us.

I’m horrified.

Language warning for this FB link. WP won’t allow embedding for some reason. Probably because its on FB.

Rebel News is the only one that has been on the ground, following this the whole time.

I’ve been watching on social media, late into the night. Within minutes of our Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal, the shooting started, at night, for hours.. Watching live streams of the owners wailing and crying as shots rang out was heart breaking.

This came out this morning.

I just can’t…

The Re-Farmer

Update and warning. Some of this is just so hard to watch. I heard her screaming during live streams last night. They will haunt me.

Costco shop: this is what $791 looks like

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Well, I finally made it to Costco!

With some side trips, first.

My first stop was at the post office to pick up my daughter’s new office chair that we couldn’t pick up yesterday, because I forgot they closed at noon on Wednesdays. I had another surprise package, but I’ll cover that in another post. I dropped those off at home, then headed out right away and stopped at my mother’s. She had a letter from the regional health authority she wasn’t understanding. I confirmed that it was indeed an appointment for an MRI she was on the waiting list for, for more than a year. There was a form with it I helped her fill out as well.

We talked about her new home care schedule and I asked if she was letting them help her with meals. There is one home care worker that she has a lot of issues with. When my mother asked if she could put water in the electric kettle my brother got for her, because she has a hard time doing it herself, she balked, saying she was only supposed to do her pills, nothing else. Mom told her, this is new stuff (the worker should have known). She did put the water in for my mother, but didn’t close the lid nor start the kettle. My mom pointed out that she didn’t finish. The worker said that my mother is the only person she has a problem with – and that she didn’t do it because my mother didn’t say please or thank you.

Now, my mother has her issues, but right now, with her cognitive decline, she has trouble finding the words to ask for help. Expecting her to remember to say please and thank you under her circumstances sounds awfully strange. They had what my mother called a bit of a disagreement. The worker then apparently took the little container her pills had been counted out into, which my mother had not taken yet, into the lock box, saying she would make a call about my mother, and left.

???

She locked my mother’s pills away.

After a while, she came back and my mother did get her pills. She also had a different attitude. My mother said she did apologize and they ended up hugging before the worker left.

So very strange.

I asked and apparently this one worker never looks at her sheets, never fills out the form inside the lock box and, unlike all the other workers, never asks if there is anything else she can do for my mother.

I think I need to send an email to the case coordinator about this. I’m sure she’s already heard the other side of the story by now.

I also need to let them know what day my mother’s MRI is. It’s an evening appointment, so she won’t be home for the bed time assist. My problem is, I don’t know if Mom can even get into my truck anymore! I’ll have to talk to my siblings about that.

Once done at my mother’s I could finally head into the city.

When I got to the Costco, I didn’t even try to get gas first, like I usually do. The parking lot was shockingly full. I lucked out, though. As I decided to cut through one of the lanes to go back to the overflow area, someone started backing out. There was another car waiting and I was going to let them have the spot, but then another vehicle backed out, right next to them! So we both got spots. 😊

The store, however, was much less crowded than expected.

I didn’t find everything I had on my list, but I did end up spending almost $800

*sigh*

This is what $791.01 looks like.

*double sigh*

Because it’s been so long, I did get more than had been on my original list, when I tried to do the shop last week and ended up getting new spark plugs on the truck, instead.

The reciept was long enough I ended up taking two pictures.

On this part of the receipt, for the meats, I got a 3 pack of dry sausages, a large pack of drumsticks and two pork loins. I also got 2 panini packs for sandwiches, and a pack of farmer’s sausages. The Kirkland canned chicken was on sale, so I grabbed two. It’s been a long time since we’ve picked those up! We used to get them regularly.

There is also a couple of packs of wraps, 5 pounds of butter, a block of mozza and a block of Old cheddar cheeses, and a bag of Basmati rice.

On the flat cart, there was a flat of Coke Zero for my husband and I, and a flat of cranberry and blackberry Ginger Ale for the girls. They didn’t have any Monster, so I got a case of Celsius energy drinks. There’s a 9 pack of pasta, two cases of canned cat food, toilet paper, two bags of kibble and a box of puppy pads.

On the rest of the receipt…

There is a 4 pack of Pronamel toothpaste and a bottle of Ibuprofen (for the girls; I can’t take them because they are contraindicated with my anti-inflammatories) and lactase digestive enzymes, plus AAA batteries among the non-food things.

Then there is a container of dehydrated onion, popcorn, a 3 pack of Spam for the pantry, peanut butter, a 2 pack of lemon juice, olive oil, a 3 pack of oat milk, a flat of ramen noodles, two 2 packs of rye bread and a double flat of eggs. Nice to see those under $20 again.

So this will last us a while, but there were a few things I didn’t get. My own vitamins didn’t get included. I was supposed to pick up their big 2 packs of Head and Shoulders, as my daughter and husband now both use it as an anti-fungal body wash (which our doctor recommended to my daughter rather than an expensive prescription anti-fungal cream). I couldn’t find them and even asked someone to look it up. According to their inventory, they had over 100 in stock. The guy went looking but couldn’t find them, either. Which means they were probably still on a flat somewhere, waiting to be put on the shelves. So that had to be skipped.

After everything was unloaded, I made sure the pork loins were not put in the freezer, as we usually would. Instead, I cut them up, first.

I split one of them into three roasts. The other was cut into chops about 1″ thick. I filled two bags with 8 chops, and the third had 8 chops, plus two wonky end bits.

Aside from the in store shopping, I did make sure to get gas before I left. Regular was $1.199/L at Costco, and I’m glad I filled my tank there! As I was driving in, I saw gas prices all over were $1.249/L As I was leaving, everywhere had gone up to $1.339/L! So it cost me $65.18 for just over a half a tank of gas, instead of what would have been almost $73.

Thankfully, I won’t need to do much driving around between now and when I’m back at the garage to get that oil seal replaced. A trip to the dump on Saturday is about it, though I’ll probably do a grocery shopping trip for my mother, too. Oh, I forgot. My daughter has a doctor’s appointment on Monday. Not in the city this time, though.

When we lived in the city, I used to drive around a lot more often. I drove my daughters to work most of the time, because there were no buses to where they worked, and it wasn’t unusual for me to be driving somewhere, two or three times a day. Now that we live out here, driving somewhere two or three times a weeks is more than I want to be doing! 😄 I would be such a hermit, if I had the choice! 😂

Stock up trips like this do help reduce how many times I have to head out. Enough to make it worth the trip and putting up with things I would much rather avoid – like being around people for so long! 😁 Of course, it also saves us a pretty penny, as a lot of this stuff is much more expensive locally, if we can even find some of it.

Though that really isn’t much for almost $800, compared to what we could get for the same amount of money, when we first moved out here.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer