I have been trying for days to upload images, with very little success. We have had no real problems going online. It is just uploading that is an issue.
This might be why. 😒
At one point, during the doors test, the upload speed dropped to 0.01mbps.
Also, it took a couple of tries to upload this from my phone, too.
The storm continues and is expected to, through the night. While shoveling this morning, I checked the satellite dishes, and they seem clear. The wind is from the north, so they are sheltered.
I’m still having difficulties uploading images, so I’ll have quite a bit of catch-up to do later. So far, I’ve been able to upload a few photos here and there, but not enough to do even one complete post with them! The rest of the family is having slow uploads on their machines, too, so it seems like it’s our internet, even though downloads seem to be unaffected.
For now.
The predicted snow and stormy weather has arrived. When I drove my daughter to work, we had some freezing rain, but just barely enough to feel it. We started to drive into snow the closer we got to town.
After dropping her off, I stopped by the lake to see the conditions. It took a while, but I was at least able to upload this video.
I was being pelted with freezing rain as I took this, so I didn’t stay out long. By the time I went from getting this video to getting to a gas station, just a few blocks away, the freezing rain had become blowing snow. On the drive home, I was heading right into the oncoming storm! Visibility was down to about 150 meters, if that.
As I write this, the winds seem to be doing down – at least for a little while. It’s supposed to continue snowing through tomorrow, then be rain and snow on Saturday. By Sunday, it should clear up. Which is good, because we are having Thanksgiving dinner that day with my old brother; we’ll get to finally meet their first grandson! I certainly hope the highways are good, because they’re driving in from out of province. :-( Looking at the weather radar, this storm system is coming almost straight up from the US, so they should be clear for most of their drive. Unfortunately, the most severe part of the system looks like it’ll pass over the city. My brother’s place may get some of that, too. While they may not get the worst of it, they’re definitely going to get hit harder than we are. My nephew and his family will have to drive through that to get to my brother’s.
After this, things will start to warm up a bit and I expect that, locally at least, the snow will not stay. Which is good, because we still have some winterizing to do out there!
Things have been pretty hectic, the past couple of days. First, with our trip to the city hospital for the angiogram, which went very well (and my husband is recovering very well, too, though he’s still not supposed to lift anything heavier than 5 pounds for a while longer), then we took advantage of what seems like will be our last day of warm weather for the rest of the year, and got stuff done outside.
Which means I have lots of photos to up load and several posts to write.
I have not, however, been able to upload photos. For some reason, my uploads are failing, and I’ve been trying repeatedly, for hours. One two different accounts and two different browsers.
I can’t eve blame it on our internet connection, which seems to be fine. It may be a WordPress issue. I can’t tell.
Meanwhile, the severe weather predicted has been increasing in severeness, and the timeline has been shortening. We went from predictions of snow tomorrow (Thursday), to snow starting tonight and blizzard conditions for Friday and Saturday, to getting weather alerts right now saying to expect up to 25cm (almost 10 inches) of snow tonight. However, when I look at the local forecasts, it says to expect 3cm tonight and up to 4cm tomorrow, with a mix of rain and snow.
One thing is for sure, we’ve got the winds!! As I’ve looked out my office window throughout the day, I’ve been watching the maples getting stripped of their leaves.
Whatever snow we do get, if any, it’s still early enough that we could expect it go be gone soon. I certainly hope so, because I still need to get some straw to cover our septic tank before it freezes. Technically, for the type of tank we have, it isn’t necessary, but I’m not about to take any chances! At least we got it emptied yesterday, so we’re set for another 6 months.
So if posts are a bit light over the next while, it’s because I still can’t upload my photos, or the weather has kicked out our internet! I’ll just have a lot of posts to make up for it, when I’m able. :-)
Wherever you are, I hope you’ve got better conditions than we do right now! :-)
It feels like it should be much later than it is, but it’s only just past 10am as I write this. My husband and I started our day early, so we could leave by 4am for his angiogram.
All went well. He is currently in recovery and monitoring, on a real hospital bed and everything! We got the lowdown on aftercare, and a nurse is coming by regularly to check his wound and his vitals.
We are looking at a mid afternoon discharge. The one thing that is a bit of a wringer is that he can’t use the arm at all for 48 hours. That means he can’t use his walker. He always has a cane handy, though (it just happens to be my cane at the moment! 😄), so he can use that.
Getting in and out of the van will be … interesting.
The doctor was able to let is know right away that they found no blockages. Which is good news. We just still don’t have an answer as to why his heart got so weak. Our guess is, it’s all the medications he is on, and for so many years.
He has to see his doctor for a follow up in 2 weeks, but we will have to find a new doctor ASAP, since the doctor, with another doctor, is leaving the province at the end of November, and the clinic has no idea when, or even if, they will get new doctors. We might be going to another town, 40 minutes from home, to get a new doctor. We shall see.
While cleaning up yesterday, under where the last chimney block had been sitting, having picked up the broken glass and other garbage I could see, I walked over the area and stepped on something buried in the dirt.
I figured it was either a rock or a brick, so I pulled it out.
As soon as I saw the distinctive colour through the dirt, I knew exactly what it was, and childhood memories came flooding back.
I brought it in and gave it a good scrubbing, but after probably 3 or more decades in the dirt, it will need more. The main part of the stone is a surprisingly bright greenish blue colour, and the layer on one end is a bright, creamy white.
This was one of those things that was found around the farm; probably in a field somewhere. I don’t know what type of rock it is, but it is completely different from any other rock typically found in the area. I remember, as a child, holding it and admiring the colours, textures and the abrupt contrast between the white and green portions. It absolutely fascinated me!
Today, things warmed up and got rather pleasant out there, so I took advantage of it to do the annual winterization around the house.
The situation was quite different, last year!
I was amused to look back at old posts and find we put the insulation around the house exactly a year ago today!
Just in time for the weather to turn. Raining ice pellets? I’d forgotten about that!
By the end of the day, we had tree damage and the power had gone out, and I was going around knocking ice off what I could reach, to prevent more damage.
The mead was left in its second fermentation for longer than 4 weeks, but it seemed to have stopped fermenting much earlier. It’s really hard to see the airlock where we kept it – we basically had to shine a light at it – but there didn’t seem to be any bubbles in the water.
This being our first attempt, we didn’t want to mess with it and just let it be.
Before going in to town to pick up 3 cases of bottles, however, we did take the carboy out to check it.
It’s been cold, wet and raining for the past while (with snow, in some areas!!), which meant it was the perfect time to stay indoors and finally make sauerkraut.
While I remember my mother making sauerkraut when I was a child, and I know I helped at least a little, I have never made it myself before. In fact, it was my mother’s sauerkraut that had me believing I didn’t like the stuff at all. She made incredibly strong kraut, and it was many, many years before I tasted any other and found it… okay. LOL Then one evening, while we were hosting a home schooling historical pot luck set in a pioneer theme, one of the families brought a fresh jar of sauerkraut. Fresh as in, just made that day and no fermentation. I was surprised by how good it tasted.
Cabbage, however, was one of those things I just didn’t tend to buy. In fact, it wasn’t until we moved here that we started to pick it up regularly.
I have an old friend from high school that has shared on social media about the sauerkraut she has been making, and with all the food preservation stuff I’ve been getting more and more into, I found myself wanting to try my hand at it. I did some research and found that it is incredibly basic – but it didn’t sound like what she was making. So I messaged her and got her recipe. It’s more like fermented vegetables, with added probiotics, than sauerkraut.
I decided to do both.
This post will be on the basic sauerkraut I made first.
Yesterday I was finally able to grab the step ladder and pick some of the last apples that are pick-able for my mother.
The cats were VERY interesting in the bag! Especially Cheddar! :-D
I was able to pick all the crabapples from the one tree, where the apples were the biggest and they had finally gotten sweet. Previously, they had almost no taste at all; not even the usual sour taste of crabapples, but now they have that delightful sweet/sour taste crabapples are the best for. There weren’t very many, so I picked some from the tree next to it. You can really tell which apples came from which tree! This tree had quite a lot of little apples that are more sour, but still quite edible.
Since I was there, anyhow, I took advantage of the ladder and cut away dead branches. The one tree with the bigger apples has a main trunk that is basically dead, but I did see some leaves on some of the branches at the top, so I just cut away the ones I knew for sure were dead. I pruned dead branches off a couple other trees, too, but I will save a major pruning for the spring.
I was able to bring the crabapples to my mother pretty much right away, and even get a little visit in. She was very happy to see them. Usually, there is someone who leaves their extra apples in the lobby where she lives, free to whomever wants them, but there were none this year. So now she will be able to make herself some apple sauce and compote that she likes. I also brought one each of the different flavoured jellies I’d made. I even remembered to bring an extra knife sharpener we has, as she was looking for one while we were out before. She was looking for a file, actually, so I brought her what I thought would be much easier for her to use.
I didn’t realize she wanted it for the hoes provided for the little community gardens where she lives. LOL I have, however, discovered that she has a knife sharpener with an antler handle, that matches the meat fork we found here. She tells me there used to be a knife as part of the set, but it’s one of the things that disappeared over the years.
I’m glad I was able to bring the sharpener I have, though. In the process, I discovered my mother has no good knives. At all!
Something to take care of for her, soon!
The cold, meanwhile, is already starting to show.
For the past while, I’ve been doing my rounds in grass sopping wet from dew, but this morning, it was all frost! The furnace has even been turning on regularly during the night.
