Woke up and discovered I’d lost most of my voice, and what speaking I could still do had me sounding like Barry White.
It was a beautiful day, though. My husband actually made it outside. Not only that, but he was able to walk to the end of the driveway and back. Twice!
Okay, that second time was pushing it a bit, and he did have to stop and sit in his walker a couple of times, but it’s the first time he’s been out of the house, aside from doctor’s appointments, in months.
While out, I took a look at the area in front of the shed where we are storing my mother’s stuff. Right around it, things are clear of snow and dry, but there is a large area of water and ice that I’d have to drive through to get to it. We probably could still do it, but I’d rather not deal with all that water while hauling household goods. I’ll check it again in a few days.
Not feeling well meant getting some quality time catching up on projects – I finished a rope basket I was making and got it blocking, along with another basket I’d made a while back, with a lid. I’m testing out a stiffening method that uses Epsom salts.
Blocking 3 dimensional objects is definitely a challenge. The round basket and its lid have a forest of bamboo skewers sticking out of it!
I also got a couple of beaded bracelets done. Need to get my Etsy shop going again, and new inventory is always a good thing.
Which all meant I was near the living room window for much of the day, and finally got photos. Along with the deer, I got cats, cats and more cats!
And a story, in pictures.
Nasty Crime Boy: So there I am, munching on a rodent, minding my own business…
Nasty Crime Boy: … when suddenly BAM!!! I get attacked! Like, out of the blue, Man!
Nasty Crime Boy: And then he was gone, just like that. And I was like… whoa. What just happened, Man?
Squishum: I know nothing.
Squishum: The leaf! I caught it! I have vanquished mine enemy! Bwahahahaha!!
Trüllbus the Crime Eater: I am not associated with those guys over there. I just want my sun spot.
I didn’t get a single photo of the critters out the window today. In fact, it’s almost 9pm, and I still haven’t had my first cup of tea!
I did get a photo last night to share with you. Nasty Crime Boy came to the window upstairs for attention again. :-D
“Touch me, now. Don’t touch me or I’ll scratch you. Touch me, I said. No! I’ll scratch you! Touch me. I batt at thee!!!”
He didn’t really let my daughter pet him. He kept batting at her hand while still wanting her to reach out to him. Too funny!
I ended up awake until about 5am, unable to sleep. My chronic cough is tickling again, and I spent much of the night listening to my trachea squeaking. Inhale. Exhale. squeeeeeeeeaaaaakkkk. Inhale. Exhale. squeeeeeeeeaaaaaakkkkkkk. Inhale. Exhale. squeeeeeeaaaaakkkkk. All night.
Then I woke up to this, over my head.
Good Morning.
It was another really bad pain day for my husband, too. He’s have a very rough time right now. :-( I did make it into town to pick up prescription refills for him. Then I tried to stop at the department store to see if I could find him some new undies. There is one basic store in town, with clothing, shoes and accessories. There are a couple other stores that have clothing, but that’s not their main thing, and one of them caters more to the touristy, trendy stuff.
I just about choked when I found the men’s underwear. A single pair of briefs in his size cost $15.
We’re talking your basic gitch, here. Not some name brand, fancy-shmancy stuff. The next size up cost $17.
For one. Just one.
We walked around the store some more and saw things like an ordinary t-shirt – something I’d expect to find at Walmart or the like – for $50. Even the higher quality T’s in Walmart cost less than $10.
I realize that it costs more to run a business in smaller towns, where it takes more resources just to GET inventory, but this is ridiculous, even for here. My daughter and I wondered how anyone could afford to shop there, and how they stayed in business. Then we realized that some people might not have any other choice. Which is a rather depressing thought.
We tried going to a discount, kinda-like-a-dollar-store-but-not, store, thanks to my daughter remembering that they had clothes, too, and while they had better prices (we could get 3 pairs for $15), they didn’t have the size I needed.
So that’s going to have to wait until the end of the month, when we can finally get to the city to shop.
After we got home, I had to lie down for a much needed nap. Which is really going to mess me up for tonight, but I just couldn’t stay awake. Still ended up lying there, listening to my squeaky breathing, but I was tired enough to fall asleep.
So our daughters took care of things around the house, and my younger daughter even had a chance to block a project she recently finished.
Beautiful, but frustrating. She has made several lacy projects from this one crochet pattern book, and they’ve all turned out about 1/3 of what the finished size should be. My daughter does stitch more tightly than I do, but she also checks her gauge, and so on. Her stitching is meticulous and the stitches are always perfectly formed. It doesn’t seem to make a difference. Instead of a full sized shawl big enough to tie in front, she has a baby shawl that, before blocking, looked too small to even be a cowl or kerchief. It would have been the right size for her sister’s 18″ Josephina doll.
Blocking is making a big difference, but it’s still a fraction of the size it’s supposed to be. This particular piece is made in three sections; the 2 side triangles, then the middle strip, which is then used to join the side triangles together. That middle strip is actually about the size it should be, so it’s not just a matter of her stitch tension.
She plans to try again, using a larger hook and thicker yarn.
For now, it’s getting late, but I’m going to have at least one cup of tea before bed, dangit! :-D
Today was a day of rest from things like breaking down that wood pile in the garden. Unfortunately, it was also another bad pain day for my husband. With the weather getting warmer, he’s itching to get outside for a bit of a walk, but it’s not been working out lately. :-(
The outside cats were out in full force when I fed them this morning. All the regulars were out. Even The Hand came out, though she was still very stand-offish.
Yes, there are actually two food bowls with food in them. They just like to all be around one, I guess! :-D
My going back and forth to put away the bowl I use for the cat food, then getting the deer feed, was too much for her, though. She still didn’t go far, and watched me closely. Can you see her?
“You can’t see me!”
I look forward to when she is comfortable enough to at least not run away from the food when we’re around.
Butterscotch, on the other hand, has no such qualms.
“MY FACE! TOUCH IT! NOW!”
When she wants pets, she does get rather insistent!
Myself, I didn’t see a single deer, though they did come by. One, I just missed. Hungry Girl had been outside the window, while three squirrels were busily chasing each other through the branches, when Beep Beep suddenly made a flying leap into a tree after them, startling her away! :-D My daughter did manage to get a couple of photos first, though.
“Yo!”
I did notice a group of blue jays at the seeds and went over to get pictures, only to have them fly off into the trees. They used to stay when I went to the window, but now they don’t. I think something in the light has changed as spring progresses, and now they can see more movement through the reflections on the glass.
This was the best I could manage!
So uncooperative! :-D
My younger daughter and I got to take advantage of today being Community Day in Pokemon Go and went into town to play the game. That was enjoyable few hours together. :-)
Then we got home, and found this.
“I will haunt you in your dreams.”
Waiting for us.
Turns out my older daughter found it hidden away in the yard and left it for us to find.
I saw only one deer today, and it took off before I had a chance to take it’s photo.
Sadness.
Today was a day I ended up spending mostly on the computer, though I did manage some time outside enjoying some manual labour, working clearing up the pile of wood in the garden. It seems we can only go so far, then have to pause for the day, so that newly uncovered ice and snow can thaw, and we can get more out.
I do, however, still have some critter pictures for you to enjoy.
First up, this dapper little gentleman.
Oh, those adorable little hands!
Then I found these pictures on the card, that my daughter took. Too funny!
What, after I’ve posted these, and now that it’s getting too dark, a whole herd of deer will show up. :-D
So this morning got off to a rough start. I got a phone call from my mother, which is always touch and go. After chastising me for not calling her (we’ve been in contact rather often, lately, so that in itself was weird), she informed me that some of my siblings would be coming over to burn the wood pile in the garden area.
No. They are not.
It went downhill from there.
With the threat of fire hanging over us, my daughters and I went to start on cleaning up the wood pile. We had intended to wait until more of the snow was gone, but it seems we don’t have much of a choice.
Ah, the joys of living in someone else’s house. Even if that someone else in my mother.
Check this out, though…
This is the deer path running through the garden and the apple trees, leading to our feeding station. There is another one running through the garden in the other direction.
We got quite a bit of progress on the wood pile, sorting it into piles of twig, larger pieces that will be cut down after they are moved, and a pile of leafy branches that are still quite green.
After removing about half of the pile, we found…
Old fiberglass insulation.
Something else to add to the “why is that there?” list!
Of the piles we’ve been making, this is the one that interests me most.
These pieces are very straight, smooth and still quite green. I am hoping to get a good amount of wood slices out of them for various projects I have in mind. The rest will be fuel for the fire pit, once we get that cleaned out and set up. Looking forward to some late night wiener roasts! :-D I’m also looking to build a cinder block cooker, though that might have to wait a year. With all the clean up of deadwood, just in the yard, we’ll have plenty of fuel for that.
Much to my surprise, not long after we came in for the day, I saw Hungry Girl and Barbecue outside our window. With all the activity outside, and the changes in the garden area, I thought they’d stay away for longer. As I was taking photos (I’ll post some this evening), I was greeted by this, in the corner of the living room window.
So much ew. Can you tell that I’ve cleaned this window ledge recently? No, I can’t, either.
Last night, when my husband went to the fridge, he asked if I knew why there was a puddle of water on the floor.
I had no idea.
We’ve had mystery puddles show up in the area before. The fridge and the kitchen sink are opposite each other. We rarely look under the sink. It’s a tight space, and the cupboard doors tend to open on their own, so we’ve got a strip of painters tape keeping them closed. I’d only go under there when I needed to refill our dish soap dispenser from the jug we keep there. I noted it seemed kinda damp before and figured there was a leak somewhere, but then it would be dry for a while, and I’d forget about it.
With the new puddle, I checked it out and discovered the entire area under the sink was wet. I emptied the cupboard and mopped things up, then my younger daughter – the most able bodied of us all – took a look while I ran water. It ended up not being from the pipe at all, but from under one of the sinks, and it was more of a pour than a leak. The water would run down the pipe and drip in the middle, so we put a couple of buckets under the pipe, I stuck a label on the right side of the sink, so no one would accidentally use it, then we left it until today.
Which is when my older daughter went to take a look, and actually manhandled the pipe a bit, to get a better idea of where the leak was coming from.
That’s when we discovered this.
Wow.
How long was it like this? While it may have been leaking for a while, I don’t know when it started to get this bad.
This is what it looked like from above.
Yeah, that top part came right off. And look at that rust eaten base! Yikes!
I wonder if, when I went all out scrubbing with the new cleaner to get rid of the iron stains not that long ago, I had caused it to get worse? I’d scrubbed right into the opening, which is why the piece you see to the side is actually silver instead of rust. That was a while ago, though, and while we don’t use the right sink as much as the left, you’d think we would have noticed more puddles before now!
Today we made a run to the dump, which didn’t open until 4pm, so we combined trips. I had been planning to go into town to the pharmacy to pick up distilled water for my husband’s CPAP, anyhow. My younger daughter came with me, heading to the dump first, then to town. As we got into town, though, I was noticing the time – almost 5:30 – and decided to quickly hit the pharmacy first, because I figured they would be closing at 6. I wasn’t sure when the hardware store closed, but I figured it was more likely to be open late.
When we got to the hardware store and found the plumbing section, we were concerned. This is a small store to begin with, but there just didn’t seem to be any of the parts and pieces in stock. So I found an employee at the back counter, asked for help and showed him the video and photo I’d taken. It turns out what we needed came in a boxed kit, which is why we missed it. He took us over and found it for us. As we were talking, I asked if we would need any special tools for it. You’d think, somewhere around the decades of stuff left around, we would have a pipe wrench, but I’ve never seen one. A lot of the tools that my dad had just aren’t around anymore.
The employee didn’t know about the tools needed. Were we planning to replace it ourselves?
Uhm. Yeah?
Well, he wasn’t a plumber, he told me, then joked that if he were, he wouldn’t be working there! He didn’t know. There was an older guy that came by, so he asked him. I thought this was another employee, since he had been at the counter, too. Nope. Turns out he was another customer.
A very helpful, knowledgeable customer!
They ended up taking the parts and pieces out of the box and putting them loosely together, as they needed to be on installation, and he showed us the two areas we’d need to tighten. After my daughter and I checked it out, neither of us knew of a wrench in the house that would work, and nothing in our own tool kits was big enough. So the guy – the customer, not the employee! – took us over the the tools section. He helped us find an expandable pair of pliers that would fit both areas, then walked us through how it needed to be installed. He even asked how old the sink was, just in case. Older sinks have a thicker metal, and we would have had to install it differently to make up for it. Also, how was the band on the pipe? We looked at the video to double check, but couldn’t really see if it needed to be replaced, too. We figured we’d get a new one, anyhow, just in case. It’s not like we’ll never need one at some point in the future. So he walked us back to the plumbing section and found the right size band for us, and gave us a few more instructions.
I was totally convinced this guy was an employee. He knew the store so well! My daughter assures me, however, that he was another customer. A regular customer, that’s for sure!
Everything we got cost us less than $50. Very reasonable!
As we were paying for our stuff, one of the staff members started fussing with the entry door, then propped the exit door half open.
Turns out they closed at 6 after all. We got there just in time!
Once at home, my younger daughter set to fixing the sink. It turned out to not take very long at all.
These are the old parts and pieces.
You see that part on the top right? The one with a chunk missing on one end?
Here it is.
Still very solidly attached – I tried pulling it off and it wouldn’t move!
All is fixed and tested out, though – no more leaking!
Check out the shiny new silver!
Just think; I had finally gotten all the iron stains off the sink a while back. You can actually tell it’s silver, now. Before, it was just rust coloured. But with that new piece, so shiny, so chrome, you can really see the difference!
Oh, and underneath?
Isn’t that lovely? She did a great job.
The band around the pipe didn’t need to be replaced, which was nice.
It wasn’t until I uploaded the video onto the computer that I noticed the old cobwebs in the corner. My daughter never saw them while working under there. Which is a good thing, because she’s arachnophobic!
As I was taking these pictures, I found myself wondering.
Why do we have flexible hoses leading to our taps instead of pipes? I’ve seen those hoses for things like running to an installed dishwasher or something, but not like this.
Well, that’s one more thing on the farm we’ve fixed! Too bad these fixes have almost all been unexpected ones!
This morning, I had an appointment with my cousin, who had replaced the water pump on my van a while back. That would be the one that the garage is saying needs to be replaced, and that it was loose.
The water pump is fine. And if it weren’t, it’s still under warranty, and he’d be fixing it, at his own cost.
Also, that small coolant leak?
Has stopped leaking. This one, I saw leaking myself. I guess it just needed some time after work was done.
I told him about what had been happening with the coolant, getting the thermostat changed, then discovering the coolant had been leaking out the back. He commented that it was too bad they’d changed the thermostat – but it still might have needed to be changed, considering the age of the vehicle.
Everything checked out fine. My alternator is making a slight whining noise. He told me that I only needed to be concerned if it started to get louder. Which might not happen for a year, even. It would be an expensive job to do, because of how difficult it is to get to, so there’s no point in doing it now.
I also asked him about the stalling problem. When we first start the vehicle, it sometimes stalls right away. I start it again, while giving it a bit of gas, and it’s fine. He talked to me about the sensor and how, on starting, the onboard computer checks all the sensors. It could just be reading a lack of oxygen or something, but if I just give it a bit of gas while starting it, it should be fine. Nothing wrong; just a bit inconvenient. Replacing the sensor would be very expensive.
His recommendation? Change nothing. If there’s a problem with the water pump, which he can’t find, he will change it, at no cost to me. There is nothing to prevent us from taking longer trips, like going to the city and back. Not that we can do that, since our budget has been completely blown by all the work done on the van, but it’s a relief, to be sure.
I’m going to have to have a talk with the garage about that water pump recommendation.
As I was typing this, my husband just updated me. We got a notice in the mail from our satellite internet provider. They have access to a new satellite, which can offer increased upload and download speeds and less stuttering in service. There is also the option to upgrade plans with higher data. Which we don’t need right now, since we got two accounts to get the higher data that we do have. I don’t mind that too much, since one of the accounts will be something my daughter can claim on her taxes next year.
In about a week, we’ll get a call from a technician to come over and align the satellite dishes to the new satellite.
So that’ll be nice.
After I got home from getting the van checked, I was in my crochet corner, working on a new basket, when I noticed Hungry Girl coming up to the feed. And oh, look – there’s Barbecue over by the trees.
No. That’s Barbecue coming up now…
They brought a new friend with them!
A strange new friend…
My first thought was that was an odd sun dappling pattern.
Where there is no sun to dapple.
Wait a minute…
Sure enough, it turned out to be a piebald deer!
Clearly, a deer they were completely comfortable with. There was no animosity of any kind, like we see when Mama and the Twins or Detail and her boy come by.
There’s even a little big of it on her other side.
What a remarkable looking deer! I’ve never seen anything like this before. I’ve seen photos of albino deer, but that’s it.
Eventually, they left because of the cats. I hope the new one comes back! We’re thinking of calling her Patches. :-D
While it may have been a day of the cats for the most part, it was also a day of silly faces from Hungry Girl!
And one pretty one for the mix… :-)
I missed out on seeing what other deer came by today, besides Hungry Girl and Barbecue. My younger daughter and I went into town today, and when we got home I drove into the yard, scaring away at least two deer that were at the window.
Today, outside our window, it was cats, cats, cats!
I got to see Beep Beep trying for a bird. She did not succeed. Nor did the several of them that were interested in the very noisy squirrel! :-D
We got a couple of pictures of Nasty Crime Boy enjoying a nap in his favorite place, while Rolando Moon was on her favorite place on the junk pallet pile. Beep Beep and Butterscotch came to play, Trülbus made faces at us, while Squishum got rude and turned her back on us! Only The Hand neglected to make an appearance – at least when we were there to see.
This morning had already warmed up to -3C when I went outside to put feed out. T-shirt weather! Yay!
Which means I’m also leaving the inside door open more often. Our indoor cats like to look outside through the screen door (which doesn’t actually have a screen in it).
Walking past to feed the deer, I found this…
“Watcha doin’ over there? You cheating on us with those other cats again?”
My brother had come by the other day, followed by his beautiful, shy dog. If you look at him, the dog will avert his gaze while still looking at you from the corner of his eyes. He’ll come up behind us to sniff our fingers, but if we turn to look at him or try to pet him, he runs away.
When he saw the cats in the window, however, he came right over. He likes cats – the ones at my brothe’rs, as well as the ones here. To him, these are clearly new friends!
Our cats, not to much! *L*
With no screen in the door, I opened the window just a bit. With a door in between us, his usual shyness disappeared, and he immediately stuck his nose into the opening to sniff at our mama cat. DaBoy ran off. :-D Our mama cat ended up hissing and spitting at him before running off, which actually seemed to hurt the dog’s feelings! He looked so sad!
So I opened the window enough that I could reach through – and he let me pet him! This is the first time he’s let me do more than touch him since we’ve moved out here. Through the window, however, I was able to give him a good, long scritching under the ears. Then my younger daughter came by, and he let her pet him, too.
At some point, we’re going to get this dog to accept us as new friends. :-)
Speaking of new friends, my daughters saw the new cat again – peaking through their window upstairs! They accidentally startled it before they realized what they were seeing in the window, and it ran off across the roof.
Wherever this cat came from, it seems we might have another regular visitor!
