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Clean Up and Winterizing: fixing the pump shack window

/ Re-Farmer / 11 Comments

Today, my goal was to board up at least one of the broken windows in our old pump shack.

Which was not an easy job. (Photo heavy post ahead!)

You see, in order to fix the window, I needed to be able to reach the window.

In order to reach the window, I had to cut back some self-sown maples growing in the way.

To be able to reach the trees, I had to clean up this.

You can see part of an old freezer, over on the left. Next to the old furnace is a partially dismantled modern washing machine, next to part of an old wringer washer, and beyond that, a second fuel tank.

It’s hard to see in the above photo, but there is a black electrical cord coming out of a hole under the eaves, about in the middle.

This cord is eventually buried, and extends to the storage shed, which used to be my late brother’s workshop. Though the cord is plugged in inside the pump shack, it was actually easier to plug my extension cord into the other end of this cord, in the storage shed!

I… don’t know what this is.

I’d moved it aside, only to realize I needed to clean out the stuff I’d just put it on top of. It’s quite heavy, so I just moved it by the old freezer for now.

While following the cord until it was buried, I found all sorts of things. Including this old wiring, which I just put on top of the old furnace for now.

I went to move one of the tanks, and found another mystery item was propped against it. No clue what it is, but it says “Ohio” on it. :-D

I also discovered the electrical cable was not actually buried where I thought, and was still on the surface, under the tank!

The tanks were quite light, so I rolled them completely away, near the storage shed.

Under the big white tank labeled “purple gas”, I found this.

It was on top of those two tires flat on the ground, and propped up by the other stuff.

While cleaning up around the tires, I found the window pane! It had simply fallen out and didn’t break!

Once I moved the big tractor tire, I found a collection of seats from old farm equipment under it.

I ended up having to cut away that tree to get them out, because it had grown around some of the metal pieces.

I decided they could be salvaged and wanted to put them somewhere out of the elements. I decided the old chicken coop was the best bet for now.

I am not looking forward to cleaning this thing out! But, if we have any chance of salvaging the building, it has to be done. The beam across the doorway is sinking, and a board that used to be above the door is now over the door. There’s room enough I can move the door to one side, but it can no longer be closed fully.

Also, there is another maple at the corner that needs to be cleared away.

To get to the old coop door, I had to first clear away a forest of burrs with the loppers.

They attacked me.

Actually, just one of them. Once it caught on my sleeve, that was it. Before I knew it, I had burrs all over the front of my jacket, both sleeves, my pant legs, my butt, and even my hair!

I had to ask my daughters to help get the burrs out of my hair! The burrs did NOT want to let go!

That tractor in the background is another thing I need to clear. It has trees growing through it. :-(

As I was getting the old seats out, I found…

… a cast iron frying pan!

I ended up putting it in the pump shack. Where the wood burning stove used to be, there is a tiny electric stove (I doubt it works) that has only 2 elements on it. I just had to put the pan on it! :-D

There was one last seat I was struggling with. It was still attached to something, which was buried, and part of it was stuck in the tree I had to cut away, and other parts stretched out further.

I was eventually able to drag it all out.

I… have no idea what this is. Or was, I should say.

There was no way that was fitting through the old coop door, so it got set aside elsewhere.

Once it was cleared enough, I took a look at the old kitchen sink, leaning against the corner of the pump shack.

I love this thing!!! I have got to find some way to use it somewhere. :-D

For now, I just tucked it closer to the building. I don’t dare move it until I have someone to help. I don’t want to chance breaking it.

After clearing more stuff away, I found this bar sticking out of the ground.

I don’t know what it’s attached to underground, but it was not moving. It could turn a bit, and I could wobble it a bit, but that’s it. I could not pull it out,

No clue why it’s there.

I made my way to the old furnace, moved another tire and found and an old kettle! LOL Then I went to move the old steel… container of some sort, and found more stuff in it. It doesn’t show in the photo, but at the very bottom, there was a roaster lid.

Just the lid. :-D

As I pulled more stuff out from under the dirt and leaves behind the old furnace, I found some other odds and sots.

Score!!!!! Oh, I was so excited! That bar with a point at one end is solid steel and very heavy for its size. I could have used something like that in the past few years! There used to be a bar like this, except more like 4 or 5 feet long, but it is among the things that disappeared. This is a bit short, but it’ll still be very handy.

The other stuff joined the hub caps and other weird scraps on the junk pile.

This is as far as I could go, though. That metal is under the old furnace. I’ll have to, at the very least, tip the furnace to be able to get it out.

Not today.

This is as far as I got today!

Under the window, coming through the concrete, you can just see a pipe. That is a drain pipe. Back when we were still using the well under this shack, and had no running water in the house, we had a claw footed bath tub in here. We would heat water on the wood stove for our baths, and this is where the bath water would drain out. I have no memory if there was more pipe, so it wouldn’t drain right at the foundation.

There’s a bit of stump in the middle that I am leaving for now. My poor little reciprocating saw was really starting to struggle by this point!

I could finally fix the window!

The glass pane fit perfectly in a recess in the frame. It looks like it was held in place by a single nail at the top! The metal side, where a stove pipe used to go through, has about a dozen nails holding it!

As the cats go through that hole, I screwed scrap boards across both halves to hold them in place.

Also, I’m short. I found the cinder block by the storage shed to stand on, so I could reach the top of the window. When cleaning up later, it joined the 5 or 6 glazed bricks that I’d also uncovered by the old furnace.

I keep finding those, absolutely everywhere! I would not be the least surprised if I move the old furnace, and find more of them under it.

One of these days, I need to remember to ask my brother if he knows where they all came from, and why my parents got them! Or maybe my mother might remember.

Now, what am I to do with all the tires I dragged out?

Why, drag them back again, of course. :-D

The stack on the left is covering that bar that’s sticking out of the ground, so no one will accidentally hurt themselves on it. Those tires all have rims. The others are by the window so the cats can still get in through the opening. The ones lying flat have no rims, so they can potentially provide critter shelter.

Yeah. I’m a suck.

I am keeping a fair bit of the maple I cut. I’m sure I will be able to find something I can make with them! :-)

There is still a small window at the end of the shack that needs to be fixed. It’s made up of 4 squares of glass, framed by a + of wood in the middle. One of the three squares is gone, but I have yet to find it on the ground, so I don’t know if it has broken or not. I’m just assuming it’s broken, since I saw the cat that jumped through it.

Tomorrow is going to be our last warmish day for quite some time, so I’m hoping to be able to get that done. I might end up just boarding that one up completely. We’ll see.

That’s assuming my body is up to it. I’m feeling pretty sore right now! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Pariah

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Hmmm…

Rolando Moon is looking a bit like how I feel!

Warning: venting ahead!

Today was a mix of good and bad.

The kitties are always part of the good. :-) Rolando Moon was especially wanting attention this morning.

My main thing today was to help my mother with her groceries, so she could get more than what she can carry home in her walker. With that in mind, I called the grocery store first, asking about medical exemptions to the new mask mandate. This municipality has been under one for a while and we had no problems before, but the province is putting on the pressure, so I wanted to check. I was assured it was not a problem; I was just asked to let the cashier know when we came in.

Then my mother called. She was ready, so I ended up leaving early.

The caretakers in her building are still harassing her, so she was waiting for me outside one of the side doors. With a mask on under her nose. :-( At least she can breathe, but she may as well not be wearing it! She tried to say, it keeps her mouth warm. :-( The harassment is definitely getting to her.

She wanted to go to the pharmacy first, which I was not expecting. I did have my exemption card, and a printout of the new mandate’s medical exemption portion, ready. Of course, I kept my distance from everyone but my mother, and didn’t touch anything but what she needed help with.

It wasn’t good enough.

I got kicked out.

The irony of it is, when a manager was brought over to tell me they would not recognize the medical exemption in the mandate, he was wearing a gappy mask, and pulling on it as he spoke. So he wasn’t wearing a mask properly, himself, but it’s me they’re worried about? They (he and the woman who first tried to make me wear a mask) kept making comments about protecting their staff – from me! – and they were following some other guidelines, instead of the mandate. I was treated like a pariah.

My mother, whom they know by name, with her mask under her nose, was allowed to keep shopping. I did mention she was exempt, too, but they didn’t care. So utterly arbitrary.

Thankfully, she did not need much there, and I waited for her outside. Like I was some kind of leper.

The grocery store, on the other hand, was awesome. I told the cashier we were exempt, and that I’d called ahead about it, and she said it was fine. A friend of mine works there and we started to chat a bit. I told him what happened, and he was flabbergasted. He told me of a person he knows that cannot wear masks. When the mandate came in, she was laid off. Permanently. Which is illegal, but they did it, anyway.

When my mother was done her shopping and I was helping her at the cash desk, I made sure to tell the cashier how much I appreciated that they don’t discriminate against people for their medical issues, and to please pass my thanks on to management. She was very understanding about it. I suspect she’s seen a lot of this.

Once back at my mother’s place, she was acting like she had to sneak me in through the side door, out of fear of the caretakers. Once we had her groceries inside, I took a printout of the relevant portions of the mandate to tape to her door, making it as small and neat as I could. She has a mask exemption card there already, but medical exemption section number in the current mandate has changed, and I don’t know when I can get an updated one.

Then I stayed for a little while to chat. Not long after, we heard voices in the hall. No big deal – until those voices stopped outside her door. We could hear two people talking about the portion of the mandate on her door, and how “she had to do that…” because the section numbers had changed.

Then the person doing most of the talking said, “she can’t be allowed to get away with that” and “this shouldn’t be here”.

!!!

My mother recognized one of the voices as one of the caretakers.

Clearly, this person was aware of the exemptions, but didn’t want people in the building to know about them, or actually use them.

They continued talking and I got my phone out to try and record it, but it’s really hard to hear. I did catch the “shouldn’t be here” comment as they were walking away down the hallway.

I didn’t stay much longer. As soon as it was quiet, I left.

As I did, I saw two people sitting outside the main doors, watching me. Both pulled their masks down while I was walking to the car and, as I was leaving, I could see one of them on her phone.

It could have been anybody, or the woman making the call could have been one of the two people we heard in the hallway.

As soon as I could, once I was home, I made a phone call to a social worker who has been trying to help my mother. When last I spoke to her, she’d given me the number for the housing department responsible for the building my mother lives in. I told her I’d tried calling, left message, and there has been no response. She was not surprised. I told her there was another incident.

She told me she just had another incident, too, but to go ahead and tell her mine, first.

I knew immediately they were related.

I told her what happened, and she was able to put names to the voices we heard. We had a pretty extensive chat about the whole thing.

I’ll also be coming in on Monday to write an incident report.

As for her incident? Yup. It was related. There was a complaint about my mother and “she can’t be allowed to get away with this” along with the accusation that my mother was lying about her medical issues. I’m guessing the person I saw outside her building, making a call, was the person who phoned to complain.

Since I was there to hear what they said first hand, and I don’t live there, I can make the incident report myself. Something a lot of the people who live where my mom does either cannot do, or are to afraid to do.

I was also encouraged to file a human rights complaint about what happened to me, too. I’ve also been encouraged to go to the media.

On the one hand, I really don’t want that added stress. On the other, the stress of all this is already there.

This is all so very wrong.

The Re-Farmer

A Lazy Day

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Gotta start with some morning smiles!

Nostrildamus aka Nosy, really wanted attention this morning! Even the Spice Boys let me pet them. :-)

Rolando Moon kept following me around while I did my rounds, then again when I made a quick trip to the post office (timed it badly, though; they were still closed for lunch, so I couldn’t pick up a parcel) and to pick up a few things. (I did phone ahead to ask about medical exemptions to the mask mandate, so I had no issues while I was there.) When I got home, Rolando Moon met me at the gate and kept following me!

I was still taking off my shoes and jacket when my husband suddenly asked, “who’s this?”

Rolando Moon had snuck into the house while I was carrying stuff in!

The other cats absolutely surrounded her, sniffing away. Amazingly, she wasn’t growling or hissing at any of them while they did! Even more surprising was Fenrir, who was not only sniffing her, but rubbing her face against Rolando’s. I wonder if she recognized her? At some point, though, there was a sudden scuffle. My daughter broke it up, and when I opened the door, Rolando bolted for the great outdoors. :-D

Meanwhile, today was a completely lazy day. I did not continue any of the stuff I’d started yesterday. It was a dark and dreary day, and by the time it warmed up to a decent temperature, what little light there was, was gone.

Tomorrow will be colder still, but I’ll be out helping my mother with her shopping. We’re supposed to warm up again on Saturday, but it’s also supposed to rain. We’ll see how that works out.

So I guess today was a day of rest and recuperation. My wrist and hands have been giving me grief, and working on those trees yesterday didn’t help. I am pretty sure I broke a finger a while back. Nothing major, but I think I may have had a linear fracture. I’d been trying to look behind something in the barn, not realizing the far end was under some metal bars leaning in the corner. One of them fell towards me and I’d blocked it with my hand. It hit the side of my pinky finger. That was weeks ago. I can now feel a lump where the metal hit the proximal phalange, and it still hurts. While cutting back the maple trees yesterday, I kept bumping it, or what I was going would put pressure on it, reminding me that yup; I probably broke it! No point in getting it checked, though. After all this time, it would just be confirming whether or not there was an actual fracture. It would be good to find out what’s going on with my wrists, though. Not with all the restrictions in place right now. People have been refused emergency care for broken bones until they got tested and quarantined already, and that was before the current mandates were put into effect.

It looks like I won’t be going back to the one hardware store anymore, either. I got an email back from the manager I’d written to about them refusing to honour my medical exemption. From the looks of the response, they spend quite a bit of time working it out. In the end, though, if a person cannot wear a mask, they cannot come into the store. They can phone ahead, order online, etc., then have things brought out to their vehicle and pay for them in the parking lot.

Like lepers.

All this for .28% “active cases” of the Wu Flu in the entire province, most of which are in the city, and of those, they’re almost all in particular nursing homes, or people who were already in the hospital for other things. The percentage of people in hospital with the Wu Flu is .01%, with .001% in ICU. The total death rate for our province since spring is .006%. Yet people are acting like it’s the Bubonic Plague, which killed an estimated 30% – 60% of all of Europe’s population. Worse, is the increased level of cruelty, harassment and abuse I’m seeing surrounding the mask issue, all from pro-maskers.

At times like this, I wish we could be living even more isolated than we are already. :-(

The Re-Farmer

It worked!

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I am happy to say, the modification to the kibble house did the trick.

While the containers were pushed around a bit, they were all inside the kibble house, where they belong, and not on the ground. The cats seem a bit perplexed by it being there, but that clearly hasn’t stopped them from breakfast. :-D

I wonder if it will affect how much the skunks will get into the kibble at all. They can climb up well enough, but their short little legs make getting down harder. Now that there is also the board in the way, it will be even more difficult. We will have to keep an eye out and see.

The Re-Farmer

A (furry) Morning Mystery

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These guys are no mystery at all, of course…

These are my morning smiles!

If you notice strings hanging down from under the roof of the kibble house, I left those for the cats to play with, after tying down the tarp I put over it last night. :-)

When I do my morning rounds, I don’t typically go all the way around the two old dog houses we’d set up near the outhouse as critter shelter last winter. The last time I went around them was when I took some of the straw to bury in what became our garlic beds. Some time between then and now, this showed up.

This is in front of the opening of the bigger dog house, facing away from the house.

That’s quite a lot of fur.

There is no skin attached to any of it. No sign of blood or bones. So this is not the remains of an animal that was killed and eaten.

Since I can’t really see into the old dog house, I turned the flash on on my phone’s camera, stuck it in the opening, and got this.

It looks like more fur, and even a pile of droppings in the corner near the opening.

If it were spring time, I would be thinking this is some animal shedding its winter fur. Usually, we just see tufts, but it’s possible an animal would use the sides of the opening to scratch off mats of itchy old fur.

But it’s not spring. So nothing is shedding their fur right now.

I don’t even recognize the fur to know what type of animal it is. Any animal I can think of is unlikely to be in our yard, and certainly not using the old dog house.

Well, at least I know that these old dog houses are still being used by critters for shelter!

The Re-Farmer

Got some things done

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Today turned out to be a lovely day, indeed! Even now, as I write this at past 7pm, it’s still 8C/46F. Which is good, because I unexpectedly spent a couple of hours outside!

I’ll get to that in a bit…

First, a winky smile for you to enjoy!

Rolando Moon joined me as I was doing my morning rounds.

So did Creamsicle.

And Potato Beetle.

And Rosencrantz!

Even some kittens followed along, in the distance! It was quite a crowd! :-D

I think they were all enjoying the milder temperatures.

I headed out to town early, as I wanted to go through a car wash with the van before taking it in to the garage. I figured it would be nice for him to work under the van without months of gravel road dust. ;-)

Today, however, is the first day a province wide mask mandate came into effect. Even though there hasn’t been a single person testing positive for the Wu Flu around, the city has seen a spike in PCR positives, and with the usual increases of people getting sick as we go into flu season – all in the city – our provincial government has put everyone under mandate. The usual exemptions still apply of course. One of the local hardware stores has a drive through car wash, so I went in to buy one. The cash desk is near the doors, so I didn’t even have to go far into the store, and I kept my distance. I was told by the cashier that they couldn’t serve me without a mask. I told them I understood about the mandate, and that I was medically exempt. She told me the whole province was under mandate. I said I knew that, but that there are several exemptions in the mandate, including medical, and I can’t wear a mask. I was told they couldn’t serve me without a mask. She did try to be polite about it, and a manager was called. I think she was ready to process the sale, too, after she asked how I intended to pay, and I said by debit. While we waited, she was apologetic, and I did mention that I understood retailers and employees were not being told about the exemptions.

The manager came and just said, we can’t serve you without a mask. I said again, I am medically exempt, pointing out that a refusal was a violation of the Human Rights Act, and I could file a complaint. He said I could do that, but they won’t serve me without a mask.

So I left.

I stayed in my vehicle for a while, trying to find an email address I could use to send a note about what happened (there wasn’t one; once I got home, I used the email address to a manager I’d written to in the past, having sent compliments for excellent customer service) when a staff member came to my vehicle. She told me they remembered that they had a portable debit machine. If I still wanted the car wash, they could bring it out to me. I told her I would be satisfied with that, and she asked me to drive close to the doors, after finding out which level of car wash I wanted. I drove over, and it was the manager who came out with the debit machine. After I tapped to pay for it, he went back in and another staff member came out with an invoice printed out with the code, and my receipt. The first person and the manager acted a bit like I was a leper, but the guy who brought me my receipt didn’t, and I really appreciated that.

With two vehicles in front of me, I had just enough time to get the car wash before my appointment at the garage!

All that for a $16 purchase. :-/

When I did get a chance to send an email to the store manager, I did say I appreciated the efforts, and that I understood the mandates put retailers in a really horrible position, while not giving them the information they need. I also mentioned that I am “fortunate”, in that my medical exemption is for something physical. If it were related to trauma, being confronted like this could have triggered someone pretty badly. I know people who are terrified to go out anywhere right now, not because they are afraid of the virus, but out of fear of something like this happening to them. The same anxiety issues that cause panic attacks if they wear a mask is causing panic attacks over the possibility of being abused for not wearing a mask. :-(

The garage, on the other hand, was completely different. There weren’t even any signs anywhere, and the owner doesn’t wear a mask, himself. Physical distancing is easy, and he is very thorough about hygiene. As we were chatting, I mentioned what had just happened, and told him again how much I appreciate him!

I noticed, as I parked my van, that he had the most adorable little picnic table outside, just big enough for two. Being such a lovely day, that’s where I went after I left my keys with him. (It’s not like there are any coffee shops or the like, where I could just sit and wait! They are all take out, only.) I saw a few others going in and out, some with masks and some without, while I waited. It is clearly – and deservedly – a very popular garage.

Since I don’t have rims on my winter tires, it took a while for him to do the switch. I’m going to have to get a spare set of rims. This job would be done a lot faster, if I did! Mind you, tires without rims are a lot lighter and easier to manhandle out of the back of the van, to where they get stored in our garage! :-D

When he was done and I went in to pay, we started chatting again. He remembered a little bit about where we lived and had some questions.

After I double check with the renter to make sure cows aren’t on the other quarter section, I will be giving him permission to go deer hunting over there. :-)

With the days being so short, once I was home, I grabbed a quick supper, then headed outside to putter about the yard while there was still light out.

I just had to go to the outer yard to get pictures of the sunset! It was stunning!

I always get a giggle out of seeing the cat paths! We have them all over, but this one is probably the most well worn! :-D

One of the things I wanted to get done was to cover the roof of the kibble house with a tarp. The rest will be fine until we can paint it next spring or summer, but the roof has screw holes from the boards we took off of it, and I don’t want moisture to get into them. I don’t have proper cordage right now, so I ended up using the cotton yarn I used to make a trellis for the cucamelons. I wanted to make sure it was secured as flat as possible, so nothing will catch and blow in the wind. The yarn isn’t particularly strong, so I was using a lot of it.

Unfortunately, by the time I was finishing up, it ended up a big tangled mass that the cats were just loving! I had to stop and untangle it, so I could finish the job.

About and hour or two later, the girls came out to check on me. :-D

By then, it was fully dark, and I was working by porch light. A pair of skunks had come out and pulled one of the kibble containers to the ground, so I chased them off, but they came back to each the kibble that spilled into the grass. I was too entangled to chase them off again, so one of my daughters did it for me. :-)

Then she noticed where a cat had chewed through the yarn. LOL

My other daughter took over untangling the yarn while I went back to tying down the tarp on the kibble house. The cats had left me just enough to do it!

Well, at least a little bit got done outside before I got side tracked! My daughters’ tulips got a good layer of leaves to mulch them, though we will probably add more before we’re done. :-) The other bulbs should be fine; only the tulips need the extra effort.

If we have time, I hope to clean the ashes out of the fire pit, in case we want to use it over the winter. There isn’t a lot, but with the blocks to hold up the cooking grill, there isn’t as much room for ashes as there used to be.

I’m looking forward to getting back outside tomorrow! :-) I definitely plan to enjoy the mild weather, while I can!

The Re-Farmer

Taking stock

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Of course, I just have to start with my morning smiles!

I am so glad we were able to build the kibble house for the outside cats. It’s working out really well! We have about 5 days of warm weather coming up next week. The perfect time to add a sheet of rigid insulation under the floor boards, then add another board across the front, to keep the containers from being knocked out. Hopefully, the winds will have died down more by then. We don’t have anywhere near the high winds we had yesterday, but it’s still too windy to be trying to work with things that become sails! :-D

Speaking of winds, my morning rounds were a bit more extensive, as I checked to see what damage there might be. I found the back doors of the barn were actually starting to pull open. They are double doors, with one side “latched” at the lintel, while the other split door is held in place by the first one. If it weren’t for the bar holding the one side in place as much as it did, no doubt that both sides would have been flung open. As it is, they were pulled open far enough that the split door was barely held in place.

Even one of the garage doors were my mother’s car is parked were being blown open. We finally had to roll and old tire, still on its rim, in front of it to keep it from blowing open. Those doors are supposed to be held in place with spring latches at the time, but the piece one of them latches into has broken, and both sides of the door are sagging. Another thing on the list of things to fix!

The tarp I put over my late brother’s post pounder is being torn to shreds. I’ve tried tying it down more, but the recent winds have undone all of that, and more. I was at least able to cover the motor with a plastic bag until I can find another tarp large enough to cover the whole thing.

Oddly, I found a piece of aluminum blown onto a stack of wood by the old garden shed. It’s the same material the eaves-troughs on the house are made of, though it’s not a trough; more like an edge piece. I have no idea where it blew in from! Still, when the girls are on the roof to clean out the eaves-troughs on the second level, it’ll be a good time to check the roof for damage in places we can’t see from the ground.

We also lost another tree in the spruce grove. Not a spruce, this time.

One tree broke off about 8 or 9 feet up, and another next to it lost its top. Not too bad for losses, all things considered.

Cleaning up in the spruce grove was my goal for the past 2 summers, and it just didn’t happen. We really need to get in there and clean out all the dead wood. It’s quite the fire hazard, and the area is almost impassable. In checking out the latest breakages, I was pleased to see there’s quite a lot of red bark dogwood, as well as wild roses, in the area – two things that I want to encourage the growth of, as we clean out other things. In time, the plan is to transplant more spruces into the spruce grove. So many have died, it’s almost not a spruce grove any more! A lot of what we’ll be taking out of the grove are small poplars. These are pretty flexible and springy when they’re small, so we are planning to find ways to use them to make things like arbors, trellises, and other things, where I plan to use bent wood. The larger ones that will be cut down will be used as support posts. Among the things we want to make is an arbor with a gate to put on one side of the driveway gate. This is for when people come by, to make deliveries or whatever, while the gate is locked, so they don’t have to climb over the gate to get in, potentially damaging the hinges. I also want to make combination benches and climbing trellises to set up in different areas around the yard. It’ll be good to be able to actually use the small trees we’ll have to clear out to make useful and pretty things, rather than just adding them to the chipper piles.

I also made a run into town today. I was intending to do it yesterday, but just did not want to drive in those winds. Especially since I wanted to swing by the cemetery with some artificial flowers my mother gave me to put at the graves of our family. While there, I took the time to pick up and replace some of the stuff from other graves that got blown around, but some of them, I just couldn’t tell where the things had come from, so I just set them aside.

Among the things I had to get in town was more bird feed and suet, and I’ve also picked up deer feed. From the droppings I’m finding, they are coming around more often. We will start leaving out small amounts for them to get used to finding it here again, but at this time of year, it’s more like dessert. There is plenty of wild food available for them.

I just checked our long range forecast. When I last looked, tomorrow was supposed to be one more cooler day, then it would warm up over the next few. Now it’s saying the next two days will reach highs of 11C, then highs of 9C for the next couple of days after that! So we’ve got 4 days to do as much as possible outdoors before it starts dipping below freezing again. It’s looking to be a pretty mild November, but I still really want to get more mulch on the tulips the girls planted, in particular. The eaves-troughs are the only essential thing left that needs to be done; the rest is stuff that we’d like to get done, but if we don’t, it’s not a big deal. We shall see what we manage. Tomorrow, it’ll be on the girls for the most part, since the van has been re-booked for the garage for then.

I will be very happy to get that oil change done, and those winter tires on, before winter really hits!

The Re-Farmer

A blustery day!

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High winds are sweeping across the prairies right now! There has been snow, now and again, as well. As I write this, I can see the live feed on our security camera, which has switched to its night setting. That means the snowflakes are being lit by the infrared flash, looking like white lights. I don’t know where the wind is supposed to be coming from right now, and those flakes are being blown in all directions – sometimes at the same time! I am quite happy to be indoors and warm right now!

The high winds had started the night before, but the outside cats were well sheltered. The three large kibble containers were all knocked on the ground, probably by skunks. The water containers along the side of the cat house were completely filled with leaves blown into them. The heated water, bowl, was disgusting.

A cat had somehow managed to crap in it!!!

So that took some time to clean up. :-(

Over the next week, it’s supposed to be warmer – even as high as 12C/53F! So we are making plans for what we want to quickly get done before it gets too cold again. Until then, we’ve got plenty to do inside. Our last fish has died, and I’ve decided not to get more. I’m hoping to salvage the live (barely) plants in a smaller, gallon tank. I have just not had success with live plants, and there are too many other things to focus on right now. So the 20 gallon tank is being cleaned out, while the entire living room is being shifted around. The camera and tripod are being set up again at the window. I don’t know that I’ll be up to starting my photo of the day again, but at least it’ll be available once I start putting deer feed out again.

The inside kitties are living a life of luxury right now, and even let me take a few pictures! :-)

I’m happy to say that Cabbages is well settled in, if not quite fully socialized. She will sometimes let us pick her up and does enjoy pets and cuddles, but if we try to walk up to her, she still runs off and won’t let us touch her. She still goes into hiding during the day, but not as long as she used to.

Among the other cats, even Fenrir is finally accepting her, and not growling and hissing like she used to. She has even put up with Cabbages snuggling up to her butt for a nap. Mostly, I think, because when she does hiss at Cabbages, Cabbages just ignores her. :-D

Tissue (aka Little Braveheart) is fully socialized, not only with people, but the other cats, as well. Unfortunately, she, Turmeric, Cabbage and Leyendecker ALL keep trying to nurse on “grandma”!

Turmeric just looks innocent in this photo.

Actually… she doesn’t look at innocent at all, does she? :-D

We are such sucks, when it comes to the cats! ;-)

The Re-Farmer

Well, it’s all we can do for now

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I had to bring the van to the garage for 9am, so I was outside, doing my rounds, earlier than usual.

I usually wait until it isn’t dark anymore, but of course, it’s staying dark much longer now.

That didn’t stop the kitties from coming out for an early breakfast, though!!

Things didn’t quite work out at the garage, though. When I got there, I asked if it was okay if I could stay in his office/waiting area. With all the restrictions, there’s no place to just sit, and it’s too cold to stay outdoors.

It turned out, however, that he somehow double booked. My appointment wasn’t written in his schedule! He remembered what I was booked for, but he had someone else scheduled.

On top of that, the lift he needed to be able to access my tires was occupied by a truck that was supposed to have had only hours of work, but has instead been there for days.

Considering he had my mother’s car on a lift for almost a month, I could only appreciate the situation.

He asked if I could come back in the afternoon, but with my needing to go to the court office, it wasn’t an option. I could have gone in the morning, but I had no way of knowing how long it would take. I might not have been able to get back in time.

So we re-booked me for Monday. A quick stop top

pick up breakfast at the grocery store, then the gas station before driving the 30-40 minutes to the small city it’s in. While I was inside, nowhere near anyone, waiting to pay for my gas, a masked customer came up to me – so much for physical distancing! – telling me that there was a sign at the door saying we had to wear masks. There is no mask mandate in this municipality, but I just told him I was medically exempt. He slunk away with a snarky “isn’t that convenient” type of comment. I told him, “… and that’s harassment.”

At least he had the decency to seem embarrassed.

The clerk behind the counter wasn’t wearing a mask, either.

A tree, keeping watch over my van in the parking lot! :-D

When I got to where I needed to go, the court itself, in a different area of the building, was in session, so there were two security guards in body armour at the door. Though the mask mandates were supposed to expire two days ago, they got extended (is anyone surprised?). The guards were wearing cloth masks that matched their uniforms. I got questions about why I was there, if I had any symptoms or have been around people who tested positive, etc., and about masking. They accepted my exempt status, though I don’t think they believed me. I was the only person I saw, anywhere in the building, without a mask. Since I had everything prepared and needed only to have things signed, witnessed and to swear on the Bible, that part went by quickly. The lady behind the counter was surprised by my typed affidavit, and I explained I was told I could do that, so she accepted it. I then had to wait outside the doors until someone came to me.

The chairs had been taken away since I was there on Monday, so I tucked into a little cubby in the wall next to the pay phone, opposite the security guards. Which was… interesting.

One of the guards, who was wearing thick cloth gloves, kept pulling at his mask and adjusting it. Because of this, I could see that it wasn’t even layers of fabric, but little more than a single layer of interlock knit (t-shirt material) over his face. Cloth masks are confirmed as being the most useless type of mask to begin with, but this was about as flimsy as could be! Still, they satisfied the mandate. :-/

Then I saw him repeatedly use hand sanitizer.

On his cloth gloves.

It was the strangest thing!

I think I waited for about an hour before someone came out and handed me some printouts.

The application was denied.

The letter explained why. It came down to two related things; one of which I might have been able to dig up old emails to meet their standard of evidence, but the other… I just don’t have it. Since I’ve cut communications off with our vandal, I am not in a position to know those sorts of details. At least not to the extent they need.

So that is that. Unless/until something else happens, I will not apply again. As much as he needs the help and won’t get it himself, there is a reason these mental health applications are hard to get, and I do appreciate that. Too many people already abuse the court system for their own personal vendettas. To force someone to have a psychiatric evaluation, the application absolutely must have the evidence to back it up.

I really should have done this when it was first recommended to me, 2 years ago, when the worst of it was still happening.

Ah, well. Live and learn.

One thing that helps is, my family is very supportive of me in all this. When I got home, one of my daughters made lunch for me. As I spent time writing related emails and making a call to get legal advice (I love my Legal Shield!) for the court date, my husband and I had a chance to talk about it, and I updated my brother. As he now owns the property, what our vandal is doing is against him as much as against us! Later, my daughters put together a charcuterie board for us to share for supper, as we watched an episode of The Edwardian Farm. That did get cut short when my lawyer called back. We didn’t talk for long; he asked me to email him copies of the court form about the peace bond, will do some research, and get back to me next week.

Among the things I need to talk to him about is that our vandal has been dropping hints for some time that he’s planning to sue… someone… not sure who. When I first heard of it, it was in a voice mail directed at my mother, but now that my brother is the owner, perhaps that who he plans to sue? Of course, we are “making” him do this but I have no clue what grounds he thinks he has that he can sue any of us for. He apparently still thinks everything has been “given” to me, and by “everything”, he means all the stuff on the farm he feels entitled to because he helped my parents, way back when. It seems he honestly believes he owns it all. When we moved here, my mother expressly stated that we were to treat everything and use everything here as if it were our own, and my brother is on board with that, too. Even so, the stuff that’s here belongs to the farm. It’s not “ours” any more than the farm or house is. It’s a sort of package deal. :-D Of course, there’s more to it than that, which I can’t get into here.

What a mess!

With all the stuff we’ve discovered since moving here – like needing a new roof and a complete renovation, possibly needing a new well, not having the tools and equipment we should have had had to take care of the place, and so on, in the end, this is really the only major problem with living here. In the end, that’s really not too bad. It’s still better than what we left behind.

Life is good.

The Re-Farmer

Blogversary! We’re three!

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The Re-Farmer blog is three years old today!

“What are you looking at?”

A few more weeks, and we’ll be celebrating three years of living here.

Three years and 2,324 posts! That’s a lot of documenting our journey, and recording how things have been changing in our lives since moving out here. As of today, we’re even up to 410 followers, which is amazing to me. Thank you to you all for joining us on our journey, in our little corner of the world! :-)

Our journey has certainly taken some unexpected turns. Among them, I was not expecting to spend this day filling out the form and typing up an affidavit (then editing, tweaking, and editing some more!) to get a mental health order for our vandal. I’ve given him several days to respond to my email, asking him to get help but, at this point, it’s time to take the next step.

I’m also realizing that I’ve forgotten to eat both lunch and supper today. *sigh*

Time to grab a quick bite, then head to bed early. Tomorrow, I drop the van off first thing in the morning to get the winter tires put on, along with an oil change. From there I’ll head back to the court office and finish filing for the mental health order. Hopefully, I’ve included enough information this time.

“Happy” Blogversary. :-(

The Re-Farmer