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Got a Camera

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Hungry Girl and Barbecue visited again this morning.  I didn’t even try and take photos with my phone.  Instead, I just enjoyed watching them.

After they left, the birds came back in full force, including a total of 5 blue jays!  Usually, it’s just two or three.  There were also the massive numbers of redpolls (which I’d mistakenly identified as chipping sparrows, previously), lots of pine grosbeaks, chickadees and nuthatches.  Squirrels made their appearance, too.

After a while, I broke down and finally asked my daughter if I could borrow her Nikon D80.

After a bit of maintenance (lens cleaning, battery checking, etc), I set it up and tested it, using the 18-55mm lens she had on already.

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Ghost bird!

Then I took it off the manual setting. :-D

Though ghost birds are rather neat photo subjects.

I then switched from her 18-55 lens to the Nikkor 70-300mm lens we were using on the old camera.

2018-02-16.bluejay

Blue jay

Blue jays are one of my favourite birds.  I love their incredible colour!  It’s interesting to see how they try to pack so many seeds into their beaks at once.  I didn’t realize they did that until I started taking photos of them with the zoom lens.

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Pine grosbeak, male

It’s a real challenge to get photos of the birds when they are in the bush nearby.  Usually, in the time it takes for me to notice them, then swing the camera around on the tripod, they are either gone, of have moved to another branch.  One of these days, I’m going to get a picture of a nuthatch perched upside down on a twig.

The grosbeaks tend to hang around on the branches a bit longer than the chickadees, nuthatches and redpolls – they’re too big to hop around the way the little guys do.  So I was able to get a pretty decent shot of a male grosbeak in the trees.

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Pine grosbeak with redpoll

There tend to be a LOT more females than males among they seeds, but even they are usually outnumbered by the redpolls.

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Downy woodpecker

Getting any images of this downy woodpecker was a challenge, too!  It kept moving around, then went behind the branch in the foreground.

My daughter just swung by to let me know she got pictures of the woodpecker while I was posting this.  I’m glad I made sure the camera still had a memory card in it when I took out the one with the above photos to upload!

The Re-Farmer

 

My Non-traditional Slow Cooker Chili

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

I do love my slow cookers!  I’ve got two 8 quart sized cookers, and have found they are the perfect size for us.  Especially for making something like chili; it’s enough to feed us for a couple of days, making life much simpler!

The chili I make is not at all traditional.  In fact, I’m sure it would horrify true chili aficionados!  :-D  I’ve looked through various recipes and they either use ingredients I never tend to have – or ones I can’t use.  My chili has no heat to it.  At all.  You see, for some reason, I have these massive crevasses in my tongue.  It seems to be a hereditary thing, as my father had them, as does one of my daughters.  The oils that cause that spicy heat gets into them, and once there, there’s nothing I can do to alleviate the pain of it.  So as much as I love the taste of spicy food, I can’t actually eat it.

Which makes me sad.  Because I love Indian food.

Ah, well.

So here is my non-traditional, totally mild (though you can make it spicy, if you want), slow cooker chili.

Remember; this is for a big slow cooker, so feel free to cut the recipe in half.  I’m pretty loosey-goosey with the quantities, too.

chili-groundbeef

First up, start browning the ground meat.

I like to use lean or extra lean ground beef, but I’ve also made it with combination of beef and pork, or beef and turkey, since those three ground meats are all pretty inexpensive at Costco.  I used a family size pack of lean ground beef, which was about 5 pounds, and browned it in batches and transferred it to the slow cooker liner using a slotted spoon, so what little fat there was in the pan, stayed in the pan.

chili-onion

While the beef was browning, I chopped up a large yellow onion.  I like leaving the chunks a bit on the large side.  Just because.

I added the onion to the last batch of browning beef.

chili-carrots

Next on the chopping block; 4 or 5 small carrots.

I usually use about 5, but used only 4 this time.  I finished off one bag and didn’t feel like starting another.  I like to chop carrots smaller, too.  This made just under a cup of chopped carrots.

chili-sweetpotato

Then I chopped up 2 small sweet potatoes.

Yes, sweet potatoes.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a chili recipe with them in there, but it was something I decided to try some years ago, and it’s been a permanent addition, since.  I like to chop these even smaller than the carrot.  The idea is for them to be so soft that they disintegrate into the chili when you mix it at the end.  There’s something about the creamy smoothness of it that really appeals to me.

chili-crockpot.prep

After the meat and onions were browned, I added the chopped carrots and sweet potato, then 1 can of mixed beans and 1 can of white kidney beans (both 19 oz cans, drained and rinsed).

I like to change up the can with one type of beans, but I always include 1 can of mixed beans.

chili-crockpot.ingredients

Next up is a large tin of crushed tomatoes, a small tin of tomato paste, seasonings and water.

The seasonings are typically whatever I have handy; usually a steak spice mix and garlic. Slow cookers are where dried foods are in their element, so I used dehydrated garlic pieces that I’ve been able to find.  Strangely, I hardly ever saw them before our move, but our local grocery store carries it!  In refill packages, too, so it’s really cheap. :-)

The 4 of us have very different preferences when it comes to seasoning, so I tend to use a light hand with it, then everyone can add their own later on.

chili-crockpot.readytocook

Then mix it all together!  Not an easy task, with the crock so full!

Add more water, if needed.

The water is another one of those loosey-goosey measurements.  Food in slow cookers release their own moisture, so they need less added to begin with.  How much to add is a judgement call.  I find it’s safer to add less at the start, then check after it’s been cooking a while.  If it seems to need more, I’ll add boiling water, so it won’t cool the slow cooker down too much.

I then set the slow cooker on low for 5 hours.  I did end up adding more water part way through.  In the time it took to finish adding the water and stirring everything, I increased the time a bit to compensate for lost heat.

chili-crockpot.withoutcream

This is what it looked like when we got back from town.  There was a bit over half an hour on the timer at this point.

This would be the time to give it a taste and adjust the seasonings, then give it a good stir.

I then stirred in my final ingredient.

chili-crockpot.withcream

Whipping cream.  About 3/4 cup.

That was another one of those “Hmm… I should try this” experiments I’d made some years ago that stuck around.

At this point, I like to stir it very thoroughly to break up the sweet potato pieces.  I then returned the cover and left it for the last few minutes to make sure the cream was warmed through.

Between the sweet potatoes and the cream, we have ourselves a wonderfully rich and saucy chili.

chili-bowl

Top your bowl with some shredded cheese, sour cream or some yogurt cheese (which, sadly, we are now out of), and enjoy!

Here’s the recipe:

Non-traditional Slow Cooker Chili
for: 8 quart slow cooker
cook on low for 5 hours

Lean or extra lean ground beef (family pack; about 5 pounds)
1 large onion, chopped
4-5 small carrots, chopped
2 small sweet potatoes, chopped small
1 tin mixed beans (19oz), drained and rinsed
1 tin white kidney beans (19oz), drained and rinsed
1 tin crushed tomatoes (796ml – 26oz)
1 tin tomato paste (170gm – 6oz)
4 cups water (to start)
Seasonings to taste (steak spice mix, dehydrated garlic or garlic granules, salt, pepper, etc.)
hot water, as needed during cooking
3/4 cup whipping cream, or to taste
shredded cheese for topping (or sour cream, or yogurt cheese)

  1. Brown beef and onions.  Drain and transfer to slow cooker liner.
  2. Add chopped vegetables, beans, crushed tomato, tomato paste, 3 or 4 cups of water and seasonings.  Mix. Cover.
  3. Set slow cooker to low for 5 hours.
  4. Check after a couple hours to see if hot water is needed.  Add if necessary and stir.
  5. Shortly before done, taste and adjust seasonings as desired.
  6. Stir in whipping cream.  Cover and let warm through for final cooking time.
  7. Serve topped with shredded cheese, sour cream or other toppings of choice.

 

 

Happy Valentine’s Day!

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Hello, all, and Happy Valentine’s Day!  I hope those of you who take part in it had a wonderful day. :-)

This year, today also happens to be the first day of Lent, which we each observe in different ways.  My “fast” will be the same as the last couple of years; I am giving up Facebook for Lent.  I spend way too much time on there!  I’ve already caught myself almost going onto it when I sat at the computer (I removed the shortcut on my phone), just out of habit.  I only went on this morning to post my usual note letting people know that if they wanted to reach me, they’d have to use something other than Facebook for the next while.  And wish people Happy Valentine’s day at the same time.

We’ve never been big on Valentine’s Day.  I suppose I could always be cheesy and say that we don’t need to, because every day is Valentine’s day, but the truth is, we’re just not particularly romantic.  :-D  Very early in our relationship, I told my (future) husband that, while I enjoy things like flowers, I’m more of a kitchen appliance kind of woman. :-D  Since then, it’s expended to things like yarn and tools.  Nothing like a sweet, sweet skein of gorgeous yarn, or a set of calipers, to make my heart go pitter patter!  Still, we basically just wish each other Happy Valentine’s day, then get on with our day.  After almost 30 years of marriage, we’re pretty laid back about such things. :-D

Unfortunately, yesterday was hard on my husband, so he had to deal with the fallout from that, today. :-(

My morning still started out with some aggressive cuddles, though.

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“You weren’t planning to get up, where you?”

Our mama cat was all over me this morning, draping herself over whatever limb she could get at, and trapping me!

Her boy does the same to my daughters.

I honestly don’t know why she likes me so much.  Even when she isn’t cuddling hard, she still tries to be near me all the time.

Not that I mind, except that we haven’t been able to trim her claws for quite a long time.

It was a warm day today – about -7C when I went to feed the outside cats.  Which made it a relatively rare day when all 7 of them were out at the same time.

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My daughters were kind enough to lay out a new piece of cardboard for me yesterday, while we were gone for so long.  The first time I laid the cardboard out, the cats weren’t sure about going on it for a while, but this time, I think they were quite happy to have something a bit warmer on their toes!

It was warm enough that I stayed out after putting the deer feed and bird seed out and dug out the ice chipper.  The packed snow was starting to encroach in spots.  One of the areas I cleared was a side section of the concrete steps.  Strangely, the cats loved it.  After I moved on to the sidewalk, I looked back to see Rolando Moon rolling ecstatically on the freshly cleared concrete.  Then Beep Beep and Nasty Crime Boy took turns, all in that same section of step!  I have no idea what was attracting them to that one spot.

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“You may touch the royal paw.”

Rolando even let me pet her a bit.

A bit.

Meanwhile, my husband was able to call in some prescription refills today.  Being warmer today than it will be for a while, I was going to take advantage of it and install those new headlight bulbs before my daughter and I headed into town.

Now, I’ve changed automotive light bulbs before, but not on this vehicle.  We’ve had it for less than a year.  Our previous van was pretty straightforward.  You could just look at it and figure out how to open things up.

Not so much, this one.  After looking around and not seeing how to open up the casing, we decided to do it later.

I did get out the new gas cap and put it on, leaving the tethered old gas cap in place while I turned on the engine to see if the “check gas cap” alert still came on.

It did.

*sigh*

So it’s likely a faulty sensor.

I put the old gas cap back for now, since I want to make sure I can remove the tether without having to cut it.  I’m sure I can, but just haven’t had the time to fiddle with it.

While we drove to town, my daughter dug out the instruction manual and found the section for replacing the bulbs.  Turns out there was a pin somewhere in there that needs to be pulled out, first.  I never noticed a pin anywhere when I was looking.

She also looked up the “check gas cap” alert.  It says that when it comes on, it means that gas cap is off, so go put it back on.  (*duh!)

The gas cap is on just fine, so that’s not the problem, but it confirmed what I already thought.  I was just hoping for a bit more information for, say, why the alert would continue after ensuring the cap was on.

Once we were back from town, I started working on the headlights while my daughter took our stuff in, then shoveled her way back.  It had started to snow by then, so she shoveled the path to the burn barrel, too.  It was finally a warm, wind free enough day for a burn to be done.  It’s been quite a while since we’ve been able to do one!

While she got her workout in outside, I was able to hang up a light and see what I was doing under the hood, thanks to the 200ft of extension cords from the house to the garage.  (That was so sweet of my brother to buy those for us!)  I found the pin, which was nowhere near where I expected to be, and managed to get it out.  Then I had to loosen a bolt.

To do that, I needed a wrench.

I found a couple of very old tools hanging about, but it turns out there are pretty much no tools left in the garage at all.  There’s lot of other weird stuff, but no tools.

I’m told there used to be lots of tools, not only in the garage, but in the basement of the house, too.

Not sure what happened to them all.

Thankfully, we have our own tool kits.

After much fin-angling, I finally got the casing off and the burnt out bulb out.  That thing did NOT want to come out!  But I got it done.  The second one went much smoother!  Only partly because I knew what I was doing this time. :-D

So we now have new, brighter headlight bulbs.

I’m kinda looking forward to our next night drive after dark, now. :-)

One more thing to tick off the “to do” list.

Later on, after I got supper in the oven and the girls were outside doing the burn, I heard a loud bang.  It seemed like something hit the house!  I even felt the floor shake.  I popped my head outside to look and asked the girls about it, but they heard and saw nothing.

I still don’t know what caused the noise.  Perhaps something in the basement fell?  I don’t know.

Looking out the dining room window, though, I saw this…

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A grouse, under the bushes.

Looking at the tracks, I kinda wondered if maybe the grouse flew into the house, fell into the snow, then tucked itself under the bush to recover.

Or it’s just sitting there, taking shelter from the snow.

I’m pretty sure a grouse isn’t big enough to have made that noise, though.  I’m still wondering what it could have been.

Also, my phone camera takes terrible zoomed in shots.  At least I had one decent shot I could drop down.

Interestingly, for all the animals I saw today, including the usual birds and squirrels at the feeding station, I haven’t see a single deer.  It’s possible I just missed them, but my husband said he hadn’t seen any, either.

I won’t be surprised to find the now-buried-in-snow feed is all dug up and eaten by morning, though.

It was good to get a break from the cold, today.  We had a high of -2C by this evening.  By midnight, we’re supposed to his -21C, with a windchill of -32C.

Tomorrow, by 8am, it is supposed to be -25C, with a windchill of -39C.

Talk about a severe drop!

Tomorrow’s high of the day is supposed to be -19C, with a windchill of -28C.  We need to go into town again for doctor’s appointments in that. :-(  That’s the coldest it’s supposed to be over the next few days, at least, but we won’t see temperatures in the single digits again for another week.

I think we’re going to be staying home as much as possible for the next while!

The Re-Farmer

 

 

 

Watching Each Other

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We got visited by Hungry Girl and Barbecue today.  Having been out all day, I was glad I got to see them at least a little bit.

The cats and Hungry Girl were very interested in each other for a while!

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Thankfully, mama cat has stopped growling at the deer through the window.  Instead, she joins her boy at the window, and watches them.  They get watched right back!

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They are so pretty!

The Re-Famer

Watching Over Us

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Today was a day when we could really tell that Someone is watching over us!

This morning, my husband had an appointment to get a CT scan.  For this, we had to go to a small city that is an hour’s drive away.  The hospital is at the edge of town, though, so we didn’t have any extra driving beyond that.

He had to be there for 11:30, but with the winds the way they were, we decided to head out early, just in case.  Our route took us though another town where we stopped to fill the gas tank, then we continued on.

Through this.

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When we tell people we live in the middle of nowhere, sometimes they think we are exaggerating.

The actual temperature today was quite mild – we warmed up to about -9C at home, and even warmer (-6C) in the city we went to.  The wind chills made it feel in the -26C range, making it potentially dangerous to be out in it for two long.

There isn’t a lot of snow, yet at times the road was almost completely obliterated, except for what I could see right in front of me.  I could always tell I was in the correct lane, for example.  The wind made it more of a challenge to stay on the road than the visibility did.

But the drive went well and even with our stop for gas, we got there early.  My husband got registered into their system and sent to the appropriate area of the hospital to wait for his test.

Unfortunately, an emergency came up and all the scheduled appointments got delayed.  He got in about 45 minutes late.  I could see he was really struggling, and by the time he was called in, his shirt was wet and his face beaded with sweat from the pain. pain.scale

I saw an “improved pain scale” being shared on Facebook lately.  I liked it, but decided to make up one of my own.  It’s annoying to be asked to rate your pain on a scale of 1-10, when pain is so relative and subjective – something his previous doctor admitted was a problem.  Most pain scales I see are just smiley to sad faces, which doesn’t work.

So I came up with this version.

I’d say my husband lives in the 8-9 zone.  Seven, on a good day.  When my husband was asked to rate himself on the pain scale, my husband answered relative to how much pain he was in before, and put himself at a 5.

With the delay, I knew we would need to get some food before we headed home.  Seeing his obvious (to me, anyhow) discomfort, I did a quick search for a rare treat while he was being scanned; McDonald’s.  Yes.  It’s a treat.  It falls under the “comfort food” area.  Thankfully, there was one nearby.

When he was done, that’s where we headed.  It turned out to be inside a Walmart.  We would have preferred a drive through, but oh, well.

I tried to find a disabled parking spot for us.  This place has probably 18 of them, and they were all full!  As I was driving around to find I spot that was at least close, I ended up having a vehicle riding my bumper, enough to interfere with my ability to try and turn into any spots I found.

So I figured I’d just get away from the tailgater and go around.

Just as I accelerated, it started.

A sort of smacking/clapping noise from the engine.  Something was loose in there!

We quickly parked, shut off the engine and popped the hood, but I couldn’t see anything unusual.  Leaving it, we went inside to eat.  Once back in the van, I started it and…

… the noise was still there.

Leaving it running, I popped the hood again.  This time, I could see something at the belt smacking a hose.  Shutting off the engine, I could see a strip with a frayed end.

20180213frayed.belt

I took a picture of it, then we went back into the Walmart and their garage.  Showing the picture to the guy behind the counter, he said it looked like the fan belt, and that they couldn’t do that kind of work.  There was, however, a Canadian Tire across the road, and they could do it.

Just in case, I phoned up my cousin for his advice.

One option we had was to simply cut the loose piece, then drive home and hope the rest of the belt didn’t snap along the way.

Not an option we preferred!

The other option was to drive it across the street and, hopefully, get it fixed right away.

We took option number two.

He also mentioned that he had looked at the belt when he worked on our van, and it had looked fine. :-(

At this point, we had two things going for us.  One was that it happened while we were still in town.  If we had started to drive home, rather than stopping to eat, it would have happened while we were on the highway.  Instead, it happened right near a garage.

The other thing we had going for us was funds.  We had nothing in the budget for this, but the money we got from the moving company to pay for replacing our electric pole was there.  We could use that, and replace what we used at the end of the month.  If we hadn’t got that money when we did, we would have been hooped.  Big time.

So, off to Canadian Tire we went!

Once inside, I showed the picture to the guy and talked about getting it fixed.  Unfortunately, he only had two mechanics in that day; lots of people have been calling in sick lately.  However, he had a customer to call with info about a part.  Depending on what the customer decided, they might be able to fit us in, instead of working on that person’s car.

In the end, the decision was made for the customer.  The part needed couldn’t be delivered until tomorrow morning.

Which meant they could work on our van, instead!

That was the third thing going for us.

Once in, the first thing they needed to do was a diagnostic (about $70), to make sure the belt was the only thing that needed replacing.  Depending on what caused it to break, the serpentine belt might also be at risk.

It turned out to only be the belt.

It took maybe half an hour (labour rate posted: $112 an hour) to get fixed!  Altogether, it cost quite a bit less than we were afraid it would.

The guy talked to us afterward, saying that there was a leak in there; either oil or power steering fluid.  I told him it was the power steering, but that several people have looked at it already, and couldn’t find where it was leaking.  He told us we would have to find it, because it was getting right on the belt, which corrodes it.  It’ll happen again.  Which we knew.  I’ve got to get the van saftied, anyhow, so I’m hoping the leak will finally be found.  He said that one way it could be found is if someone puts a dye into the fluid.  They would then be able to spot the leak using a blacklight.

Interesting.

Since we were there anyhow, and the fix cost less than we thought it might, we took advantage of the situation.  I needed a new headline bulb, so we got a pair of bulbs, slightly brighter than what we already had.  I didn’t want to go to the brightest, as I have no desire to blind oncoming traffic while driving at night.  I’ve had that happen to me too often, and I would never want to inflict that on anyone else.

We also picked up a new gas cap.  Just a couple of days ago, my onboard computer started showing “check gas cap” warning.  That was another thing on my list of items to replace.  I’m guessing the seal on the cap finally degraded too much.  The cold certainly isn’t helping.  If changing it doesn’t fix the problem, it’ll be another thing on the list of stuff to get it to pass safety inspection.

I just have to figure out how to remove the old gas cap, which has a tether.  The new one doesn’t.

Changing the bulbs will wait a day or two, when it warms up a bit more.

That done, we drove the hour home.

All together, we ended up being gone 6 hours, when we expected to be gone maybe 3 hours.

I made sure to drive right up to the house to drop off my husband, and he went straight to lying down. :-(

What a day.

Then, this evening, I heard a knock at the door.

Which was very disorienting.  We never get casual knocks at the door out here!

It was the electrician.  He had intended to come out this weekend to check how frozen the ground is, but never made it.  He made it today, stopping on his way home from the city.  He’d tested his drill out, and the ground is just too solid.

We’ll have to wait until things start to thaw out, then contact him again to get it done.

Which is actually kind of good, since we would not have been able to replace what we used of the funds for another two weeks.

Yet another thing that worked out in our favour.

Yes, Someone is indeed watching out for us!

The Re-Farmer

 

Today’s pictures

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I happened to be around when the deer came to visit this morning.

Hungry Girl and Barbecue showed up first.

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Then Mama and the twins came by.

20180212.whitetail.mom.twins

I do miss our DSLR.  Zooming in with my phone’s camera just isn’t anywhere near as good!

It’s great for indoor shots that don’t need zoom, though!

20180212DaBoy

He is such a silly boy!

I love how his little front paws are tucked into his chest.

While in town earlier, my daughter and I took advantage of the trip to swing by the grocery store.  In a parking lot full of “winter parking” (where no one even tries to park in the lines, because you can’t see them!), I actually managed to park in a legitimate parking spot.  I could see just enough of the lines though the snow.  It was farther from the store, and there was plenty of room around me.

Or so I thought.

We came out to find this.

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That’s our van to the right.

Now, being a woman of generous proportions, it’s still rare for me to not even be able to get to my door.

I also wonder how the driver of the white truck got out of their vehicle, because there is no way that door opened even half way.  My mirror would have blocked it.

My daughter had to squeeze between the vehicles, open our door, and jam herself in.

So she ended up driving home.  An opportunity to practice for her road test.

The sad thing is, the only reason the vehicle was so tightly parked was because they pulled forward from the other side.  Which means they drove through an empty parking spot, and placed themselves right next to my door.

With our previous vehicle, a Grand Caravan, we’ve had this happen a couple of times.  I was able to just go through the other door and clamber across to the driver’s seat.

With this van, the only keyhole is in the driver’s door.  We don’t have one of those keys that locks/unlocks the vehicle remotely.  The ONLY way into the van when it’s locked is through the door that got blocked.

Why do people do that?

Has this happened to you, too?

The Re-Farmer

 

Un. Be. Lievable.

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Wow.

Just.

Wow.

Today, I finally was able to go into town to begin transferring my driver’s license, and our van, to our new province.

I’ve done this before.  Several times.  I even went back to the same company I’d dealt with before, when we were last living in the area.

Thirteen + years, and the place looks exactly the same! :-D

The van will have to wait.  I was kinda expecting that, since one of the requirements to transfer the registration is a provincial license, so I have to do that, first.  I also confirmed that it is now required to have the vehicle safetied, first.  We’ve had a lot of work done on the van before coming out here, but I know there are still little things that would prevent it from passing safety, but I don’t know what this province requires anymore.  So I will have to talk nice to my cousin again. :-/

I needed several pieces of ID for the driver’s license.

Birth certificate?  Check.

Medical card? Not in yet.  So I would need mail, such as a bank statement or utility bill, with our new address on it.

Utility bill with our address on it.  Half check.  Our electric bill has our box number on it, but not our “street” number (the driveway marker number).  Our service address, which is basically the coordinates for the location of the main quarter section of the farm, was not enough.

Bank letter.  Just across the street is the bank I’ve had an account at for several decades.  After we moved, I didn’t bother closing the account, because they said it could only be done in person.  Kinda hard to do when living in another province, and when we did come to visit, it just wasn’t a priority.  However, as modern technology and online banking improved, it became irrelevant.  So I walked across the street and asked for something I could give the public insurance company to open an account for me.  It’s good I did, because changing my info online apparently didn’t take.  They still had our out of province address in there.  So that got updated (the electric bill came in handy again, confirming our postal address) and a letter was printed off, signed and stamped for me.

Back across the street I went, and we continued.

Bank letter identifying my physical address. Check.

Then a glitch happened.

By the time we were done, I had three people trying to help me out, giving me different options and providing me with a form I might need.

The problem?

My married name does not match the name on my birth certificate.

Seriously.

A birth certificate is supposed to have my BIRTH information on it.  That’s whole point of it.  It’s as if they now expect women who change their name after marriage to apply for a new birth certificate with the name change.  Which is ridiculous.

They agreed.

At one point, I turned to my younger daughter who had come with me and told her, “don’t change your name!”

To which one of the women helping enthusiastically concurred.

I didn’t even completely change my name.  I hyphenated (now people can spell my name wrong in TWO languages! :-D ).  So my birth name is still part of my married name.  But because the birth certificate doesn’t match the name I use everywhere else, they knew that if they proceeded with opening the account, they would get a letter back about it; and if it took too long to fix, the partially set up account would just get cancelled.

Now, if I also had my marriage certificate, they could have included that, but I don’t.  I mean, I have it.  I just haven’t seen it in 25 years.  It’s in one of those boxes that got dragged around, move after move.  After move.  After move.  For 14 of my 18 moves, to be exact.

So my choices are;

  1. find my marriage certificate
  2. contact vital statistics and have them send me a copy of my marriage certificate
  3. get someone to fill out a form, vouching for my identity.  It has to be someone who’s known me for at least 2 yrs, and among a long list of acceptable persons, including MLAs, MPs, judges, police officers, Chiefs, a lawyer and…

… a postmaster.

Now, the postmaster would be an easy one.  This is the town I grew up in, after all, and while the original owner of the store that was also the postmaster died some years ago, it’s still in the family, and the person who runs it now has known me for decades.

Except.

She’s not the post master.  I believe it’s her daughter who is.

Now, her daughter also knew me, but considering she wouldn’t have seen me since probably 2004, she may be too young to actually remember me.

It doesn’t have to be someone in this province, but getting someone from another province to do it would take weeks.

Which means I can’t transfer my driver’s license until all this gets straightened out.

At least it will be better for my husband and daughters; especially once our medical cards come in.  My daughters will still need to get a letter from a bank.  One will only need to update her banking information, since she’s not bothering to close her own account to open a new one, locally.  My older daughter, however, had an account with a credit union, and they don’t have a branch out here.  So she’ll have to open a new account locally.

For which she will need some kind of ID with our current address on it.

Un. Be. Lievable.

The ladies at the company were very apologetic, even though they had no control over the situation.  They certainly understood what a problem it is.

At one point, I commented that I have NEVER had this problem before.  Ever.  When did this start? I asked.  Basically since 9/11, I was told.

*sigh*

We were living in this province when 9/11 happened.  We’ve moved 3 times in between then and our current move, including our initial move out of this province.   It still has never been an issue until now.

Meanwhile, we’re supposed to have all this done within 3 months of moving.

That’s not going to happen.

The Re-Farmer

What Road?

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I was able to head into church at the next town this morning. I quickly managed this shot while at a stop sign on the way home.

There is a highway in this photo.

We got weather alerts for severe cold due to high winds today. Wind chills expected to hit -40 to -45 Celcius.

I’m really looking forward to the end of winter.

The Re-Farmer

A Pleasant Surprise

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We had an unusually heavy “people” day today. :-D  It’s amazing how quickly I got used to not being surrounded by people all the time.

Aside from an unusual amount of phone calls from different family members, my sister and her husband were able to come for a visit!  They picked up their carpet shampooer, and were kind enough to lend us their record player – and a box of records!

Also, they gifted us with more potatoes.  Another big bag of them!  That was sweet of them. :-)

Oh, I discovered something from them.  They maintain a bird feeder by their dining room window, and after checking out my set up, they corrected me.  The chipping sparrows?  Turns out they are redpolls.  Which weren’t even in my bird book. :-(  We do have chipping sparrows in our region, but not this time of year.

Dang.  I’m going to have to fix all my old tags and posts, now.

After they left, I found an outlet I could plug the record player in, and the first thing I did was break out the old 78s.

20180210record

It’s one of those new players that can play cassettes, CDs, is Bluetooth enabled, and has the ports to use USB and headphones.  It even has a remote control.

There was also, thankfully, a record cleaning cloth.  Those 78s were shockingly dirty!  We will have to take some time to very carefully clean them.  Until then, we used the cloth, then, after doing a bit of research, the carbon brush for our camera lenses.  It’s just enough to get the big, loose stuff off, but they are so bad, they’ll need more work.

The 78s we have are in a book of sleeves, and this is the first time we’ve actually taken any of them out.  Sadly, two of the ones we did take out had chunks broken off of them!  We could still listen to parts of the songs, but it was a sad thing to see.

I’ve come to realize my family is extremely rough on things!

After listening to several 78s, I then brought out the 45s, including…

Who Stole the Kishka.

Oh, did that ever bring back memories! :-D  Going to socials with my parents at the old hall, dancing the polka and the butterfly, with a live band (all locals, playing drums, violin, guitar and, of course, the accordion!) on the stage, and the guy that would walk around in between the dancers, scattering those wax granules on the floor, so dancer’s feet would wax the floor, but would send people’s feet skittering around for a while first!  I recall seeing a few people go flying, and I know I did a few times!

Our parents were real party animals!  They really loved to dance.  And drink.  Then dance some more!

I am pretty sure I saw the Chicken Dance among the albums.  Oh, how much fun I remember we had, dancing to that!  I can’t wait to play it for the girls!

My daughters are quite amused by my recollections!

After listening some 45s, we moved on to some 33s, including this gem.

20180210beer.parlor.songs.front

Interesting to read the “Arrest Warrant” for Mickey, where it says “Divorcing Bunny.”  There are two records in my mother’s stack from Mickey and Bunny. :-D

Check out the songs list!

20180210beer.parlor.songs.back

I’m pretty sure the “Recipe for Homebrew” really is a recipe, but it’s in Ukrainian, so I can’t quite understand it.

I think we’re going to be listening to records a lot over the next while. :-D  Among the discs my sister brought is some Queen and David Bowie, and in my Mom’s stack, there’s an album from Danny Osmond!  There’s quite a variety of classical music, which I’m quite looking forward do.  For today, we listened to some German Brass from my sister’s stack.

I especially want to check out those post card records I found.  I’m not sure what speed they’re supposed to be played at, but I figure they’re most likely 45s.

Should be interesting!

The Re-Farmer

 

 

Crochet Buddy

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Our younger daughter has been working on a crocodile stitch shawl for some time now.  She has set up her own crochet corner on the second floor.

DaBoy likes to keep her company.

20180209peek

He is so tolerant.  She draped an end over him, and he just stayed there.

Also, he likes this yarn.  He keeps trying to eat it.

The Re-Farmer