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They’re open!

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While doing my morning rounds, I found that Brussel had left her babies and gone outside. This gave me a chance to take a peak at them before she returned, and I gave her her wet cat food treat.

The babies are a lot more mobile now, and their eyes are now open!

You can see the calico’s eyes in the first image, and the black and white kitten can be seen blinking in the video at the end.

I went to my mother’s today and was gone long enough that it was time to feed them again when I got home. I started that before even going inside, and asked my daughter to bring a jug of warm water for them. I was coming back into the sun room when she warned me about the stinky kitty!

She says this little guy had been hiding under that shelf all day!

This is the little one I’m not sure what to make of. He seems… lost, somehow. He’s quite a bit smaller than the couple of others that I’ve been seeing. He and the cats don’t seem to mind each other. I’ve sort of given up trying to chase him out, since he just goes under that shelf instead of out the door. The others will leave the sun room when I go to chase them out, sometimes even just by telling them to leave through the intercom on the critter cam, but not this little guy.

That crunching noise they make when they eat the kibble is very distinctive!

Anyhow…

Today has turned out to be a lovely day. Which was appreciated since my mother had to actually go with me for some of her errands. I’d made a point of eating breakfast before I left, since I wasn’t planning to eat at her place with my current Lent restrictions. I have given up sugar, but my mother gives up meat on Fridays. She did ask me to pick up some wedges for her, forgetting that she got her Meals on Wheels today. They tend to have fish on Fridays in general; today, it was a tuna sandwich for the main protein portion. She had enjoyed most of her wedges before it got delivered, so she just ate the soup and saved the rest for later.

This time, I remembered to take her blood pressure, though I had to ask her where she’d put the machine. It should be left on the table, tucked away behind her telephone’s base, next to the lock box, but she decides it takes up too much space, and hides it. This time, it was in the linen closet.

As she was eating her wedges, I went into the lock box to get her lab requisition paperwork for this month. The printouts had ended up on the bottom of her lock box and I had to really did to get them out.

Which is why I found the pill.

One of her medications – a pill she takes once in the morning, and again, just before bed – was loose on the bottom of the box. I checked her bubble packs in there to see which medication it was. There is no way to know how long it’s been in there. Even before we got the lock box, the home care aids are supposed to empty the bubble pack capsule for the time of day into a tiny bowl with a lid I’d given my mother, specifically for this. When she first started getting med assists, there were a couple of times when a pill was almost lost, just on her table, and another was found on the floor when she was sleeping. That’s why I brought the tiny bowl. It’s a sauce bowl made to look like a miniature tagine, so it has a conical lid. I ended up putting the found pill into the bowl, along with a note for the next home care aid. The pill would need to be thrown out, but they need to know that this happened, even if we have no idea when. Their job is to make sure my mother takes her meds properly. For them to start losing pills and not even notice is a problem!

My mother had other things she needed help with today, and I was able to get some things done before we left for our first stop, the lab at the nearby hospital (that doesn’t really have any doctors!). I had my own requisition forms from my doctor, which I’d left in the truck, yesterday. Which was an oops. It turns out my blook work required fasting. I was able to get my EKG done, though.

From there, we went to her bank for some cash, then to the pharmacy to get her bubble packs. They were going to be delivered later in the day, but she wasn’t sure if there would be money owing on it or not. It turned out there was; the fiscal year for her pharmacare deductible has flipped. She had stayed in the truck, so when I came back to tell her house much it would be, she was surprised and said she’d never paid that much before. Which just means she doesn’t remember, since it would have been a year since she’s had to pay. I explained it a bit, as she thought that getting charged for her meds was some random thing. She would not have understood what a deductible is, but she did understand that she’d have charges every April.

Not that she’ll remember, next April! Hopefully, by then, she’ll be in the supportive living situation she wants to be in.

After that, my mother was ready to go home. Once I got her inside and settled in, I got a couple of loads of laundry started for her, then headed to the grocery store with her shopping list. It turned out to be timed perfectly. By the time I got back, her wash was ready to be loaded into the driers.

I had to make a few substitutions on her shopping list this time, and I always go through everything with her while I put things away. I even made sure to open the milk carton for her. Her local grocery store only carries the 2L cardboard cartons now, instead of the plastic jugs. They can be difficult to open at the best of times. The last time I opened one for her, I had to use a knife to separate the carboard! This time, it opened properly, but my mother still would have had a hard time with it.

While waiting for her laundry, I had time to do some more housekeeping stuff for her.

Which is when we talked about a gift bag that was set aside when I first arrived.

From our vandal.

It turns out he had come over this morning, not long before I got there. She had told him I was coming and he apparently completely lost it and started saying some really horrible things about me. My mother didn’t want to repeat what he said, but confirmed that it was “the usual”. She said she told him that his hate is why he’s so sick now. He won’t let her talk, though. If she tries to stand her ground and respond to what he says, he just leaves.

The bag turned out to have a small head of cabbage, a couple of onions, and a jar of soup wrapped in paper towel to insulate it.

My mother has told him repeatedly, not to bring her soup. She says the terrible things he says and does makes it taste bad.

There was also an envelope, with written instructions that what was inside was only for her to read.

Which, of course, is the last thing she should actually do.

I ended up opening the envelop for her, then handed it to her to do as she wanted. There were some copies of a photo of our vandal in there, clearly taken while he was at the hospital, though not in a hospital bed. Then she started trying to read the letter, out loud.

After a while of her struggling to read it, I offered to read it to her.

Once I saw it, I could see why she was struggling! It wasn’t just because English is not her first language, or her eye sight. It wasn’t even because his writing was messy; in fact, it was somewhat more legible than usual. Just looking at the shakiness of the writing, he clearly is having a hard time controlling the mobility of his hands. No, it was the content and some of the very strange spellings of things. He had some terrible things to say about me, of course. According to him, I’m to blame for his cancer – and his doctor and counsellor agree, 100%. He also claimed I told my mother the soup from him is poison. ???!!!??? Plus a few other things that had us wondering where his mind is at, because they were complete inventions.

We talked about him for a while. Thankfully, my mother was able to handle the contents of the letter better than in the past, and she didn’t try to defend or make excuses for him.

Then I put everything back in the envelope, set it aside, and we moved on to other things.

All in all, even with the issue of our vandal, it turned out to be a really good visit. My mother was in good spirits, even if she was clearly really struggling to move around her apartment. The visit went well, the laundry and housework got done, and my mother is now well stocked with groceries and her medications.

Just before I left, my mother checked the time and realized that I was there for five hours! We got lots taken care of in that time.

It actually felt like I wasn’t gone that long, because it was still so bright out by the time I headed home. I am just loving these longer days!

It’s going to be extra nice once the snow is gone, and we can start getting work done in the garden!

Which I sort of started this morning.

Which I will share about in my next post!

The Re-Farmer

Some beautiful babies, and a visit with the doctor

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First, the cuteness!

I got this photo of Brussel, earlier.

I wasn’t able to push the cat cave back into the cube, and it didn’t take long for Brussel to knock it over onto its side. When it was being used by the inside cats, they were constantly knocking it over, too.

Gosh, Brussel is a beauty!

My daughter and I had our appointments with the doctor today. When we got back, it was well past when the outside cats would normally have gotten their second feeding of the day, so they were all over the place – including Brussel. Once the kibble was out, I took advantage of the opportunity to fix the cat cave. I was able to taker her babies out and set them on one of the cat beds on the platform above.

What an adorable pair!

Also, they didn’t hiss or spit at me, or act afraid, while I handled them this time. We need to be really careful about handling them, as it risks Brussel moving them somewhere else if she doesn’t like it, but they do need to get used to human contact if we want any hope of socializing them.

I was able to get the cat cave pushed into the cube in the cage, then used a broom handle to push it in even further, and settle it onto the blanket on the bottom of that cube. Hopefully, it won’t get pulled out of the cube again, and the walls of the cut will keep it from tipping over.

Once that was done, I went to park the truck in the garage and, by the time I got back, Brussel was in the cave with her babies, and I was able to give her her wet cat food treat. If nothing else, the extra food we give her might be enough to keep her from moving her babies. I’ve found the mamas tend to move their litters several times before they get too big – sometimes to the empty farm buildings across the road from us, and we really don’t want her dragging her babies through the garden, across a rather busy gravel road, ditches on either side, and around a pond on the other property, before crossing the farm yard to reach one of the buildings they can get into!

We do what we can to keep them close, but with the ferals, there’s just no real way to do anything about it. Even Butterscotch, before we finally got her spayed and indoors, would move her kittens across the road, and she was a socialized cat!

We shall see how it works out.

In other things…

My daughter and I had our appointments one after the other – having the same doctor is very convenient! – in the afternoon, but we left a fair bit earlier. We stopped at the feed store in my mother’s town to pick up a couple of 40 pound bags of kibble (we’ll need at least 2 more, but I’m hoping to get them at the feed store to the north of us) for the outside cats. Another quick stop for drinks and some beef jerky for the road, and we continued on to the town the clinic is in. We got there in good time and hung out in the truck for a while, chatting, before going in. My daughter had her appointment first, and I was waiting in the examination room next to where she was by the time she was done and making a follow up appointment for next month. I could even hear her at the desk and made a point of checking my calendar to let her know what dates/times worked for me. My own appointment was for a physical, so I was booked for a longer time.

Last month, I had brought my medical files from the other clinic over, and was able to keep the hard copies after they were scanned. I finally remembered to go through them last night, and I certainly had some things to discuss with the doctor! I was quite perplexed by some of what I read in there.

For a number of appointments, there was a list of “no this” and “no that” for various symptoms. There was one in there that should not have been; every one of the lists included “no joint pain.”

????

I’ve been dealing with joint pain and osteoarthritis for 30 years – and the OA was never even mentioned in there! After one appointment I remember, it mentioned that I brought up about going on disability, but that it was not recommended. It did NOT mention why I thought I should go on disability – which was my joint pain! More specifically, I had so much pain in my hands at the time that I couldn’t even grip the door knob to my bedroom to open it. We actually switch to a lever style handle to accommodate me. That was on top of everything else, like needing to use hand rails and arm bars, just to take two steps, and using my husband’s bath chair to take a shower. I mentioned a few other things that should have been in there, but wasn’t, like my chronic cough, and the mystery pain in my side that, while getting better, has never really gone away.

While talking about the arthritis pain, I remembered to ask if the painkillers she prescribed to me were something you could get used to. She had doubled my dose (basically, so I could take the full dose twice a day, instead of once a day), but it was no longer really working. Especially at night. Lately, my hips have really been bothering my, making it much harder to sleep due to pain and constantly have to roll over. She double checked. The general answer was yes; our bodies can technically get used to any pain killer, but also yes for this specific painkiller.

I was already at the max dosage.

So that was going to need to be changed.

She asked me how I felt about getting hip replacements. I told her, I’ve never been referred to anyone about that, but I’m still pretty mobile, even with the pain, so it’s not really something I think I’m ready for.

Then she asked me about going on disability. As in, was this something I’d be interested in starting the process for.

That rather surprised me, and I asked if she thought I qualified and she said yes; with my OA, I most definitely did.

I found out later that she suggested it with my daughter, too.

So I’ll need to go online to find the paperwork to fill out – I did that years ago, but there would be changes in the forms since then. I also need to find out why my printer started to print things squeezed onto the page in landscape orientation, as if for a 2 page spread. I’ve gone through all the settings and can’t figure out how to fix it. Technically, we can still fill them out that way; it’s just that the print is really tiny!

Once we have the forms printed out, there’s parts we need to fill out, then parts for the doctor to fill out. We went through this with my husband, of course, so we already know they will probably be rejected automatically, and we’ll need to apply again, which will get accepted. I think that’s how they weed people out, since many won’t try again. Or they die, first.

While I was getting my physical exam, she was palpating the area in my side with the mystery pain. Which got rather painful!

It’s also no longer a mystery.

She explained that, since it was determined not to be related to any organs, it had to be the muscle (when I first noticed the pain, years ago, I at first thought I’d pulled a muscle). Not the obliques, though. I just had to look it up; the Latissimus Dorsi. They attach at the floater ribs and around to the spine. Which would be why I feel pain at the bottom of my ribs, and why I have a tendency to hunch to one side.

I told her, this is the first time any one has mentioned this to me in all these years. She told me, she wishes someone had, years ago! This pain goes back to somewhere around 2011-2012.

What I forgot to do was ask what I can do about it!

That’s okay. I’ll have a chance to ask her, next month.

It’s been ages since I’ve had my blood work done, so she wrote me up for that, along with an EKG. I got my regular prescription renewed, and the new painkillers to try. Since my daughter will be back next month, she said to double book with her again, and we’ll follow up on the test results, and on how the new painkillers are.

That done, I was going to do my blook work at the lab right there, but they had closed for the day by then. I’ll be going to my mother’s tomorrow, though, and will be taking her for her monthly blood work, so I can do mine – and the EKG – at the same time. My daughter had already called the pharmacy about her medications, including a new one, so I called ahead about mine. I told them where we were, so they knew they had more than half an hour before we’d get there, to have the medications ready for us.

So we made the drive in to pick those up, then run a couple of errands, since we were in town anyhow, before heading home.

I really hope those new pain killers work better. The last while has been particularly bad for hip pain.

I must say, I’m really happy with this doctor. More importantly, so is my daughter! It’s been so hard to get her to see a doctor – and to find a doctor that takes what she is there for, seriously. The last time she’d tried to see a doctor, it was for major upper back pain, and the doctor instead kept asking her about things like her periods – she quite obviously has PCOS, so that is legitimate, but it wasn’t why she was there! Now that we’ve found this doctor, she’s actually starting to be able to bring up various things she’s been ignoring for years, so it looks like we’ll be doing monthly appointment for quite a while. Which just happens to get me to finally see a doctor more often. I’m terrible for just not bothering. Especially after all those years of trying to find out why I have a chronic cough, or that pain in my side, and having test after test come back normal. After a while, the doctors start to look at you like you’re making things up, or that it’s all in your head.

So that is now done for this month.

Tomorrow, I’m off to my mothers to do her shopping for her, and get her to the lab for her blood work. She has an appointment already booked with her doctor in a couple of weeks, so we’ll be able to go over the results for that.

At some point, I have to get my husband to a lab for his blood work. He got a requisition in the mail, weeks ago, but between his pain levels, and both of us simply forgetting, it hasn’t been done yet!

He’s one that has pretty much given up when it comes to any sort of treatment or health care, even with his new doctor.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

My morning buddy

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Judgement decided to follow me around while I was doing my morning rounds today. Which is fine, except that he kept running in front of my feet, then flinging himself into the snow in front of me. I finally had to pick him up and carry him, to avoid stepping on him.

He may be one of our most socialized cats, but he’s not THAT socialized! He did not like being carried!

I tried to get a picture of him, but he was moving around so much, it was really difficult. So I am so happy to have managed to get this shot!

This may well be the best picture I’ve ever managed to get of him! He doesn’t even look judgmental, for a change. 😄

We’ve had a light snowfall through the night that is supposed to continue, off and on, throughout the day. Or not. The forecast has changed, again, and now it’s saying the snow should stop within an hour or so. Of course, it’s also saying we have snow falling right now and, as I type this, I’m no longer seeing any. Our high of the day is supposed to get a few degrees above freezing. What that is actually expected to be seems to change every time I look at my weather apps, but we’re supposed to reach our high of the day somewhere around 6pm

Looking ahead in the 10 day forecast, we’re supposed to stay just above freezing for a few more days, then get a couple of days where the highs are below freezing – and then we’re supposed to get highs warmer than 10C/50F. What I’m really looking forward to is when the overnight lows get consistently above freezing temperatures! Well get a few nights above freezing throughout April, but it won’t be consistent until May, at the earliest.

The outside cats are going to really love the warmer nights!

The Re-Farmer

The Cat Lady is awesome!

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The woman who runs the rescue that’s been helping us gets lots of coupons for cat food on Amazon. She recently got some for kitten kibble, so she ordered some for our colony.

I picked up the 5 bags of kibble at the post office today.

At the moment, the only kittens we have (that I know of) are the two babies in the sun room. Caramel looks like she’s about to explode, so I expect she’ll be having hers soon. It’ll be a while before we have kittens that can eat solid food. At that point, we’ll start including kitten kibble in with the regular kibble while feeding the outside cats.

The Cat Lady is so awesome.

Last night, while chasing racoons and skunks out of the sun room, a couple of cats got into the old kitchen without me noticing. The next time I went to chase a racoon out, I found a brown tabby sitting on the freezer, waiting! The inner door was closed, of course, and he stayed on the freezer as I opened it (most cats run away; even the socialized ones), then jumped out the screenless window.

Then Gouda slunk out from between the garbage bags, looking guilty! He tried to jump out the window from the floor, but didn’t make it, so I picked him up and let him out.

The racoon was gone by then, but not the skunk. I got it out. Both outer doors were tied off, so there’s just a narrow space for them to get in and out. The brown tabby was wanting out, but there was a cat on the other side, so he kept going for it, backing off, going for it, backing off. He was looking quite nervous, but I decided to try and pet him.

He suddenly became SO excited! He was weaving all around my feet, and even reaching up my legs, wanting more pets.

I got some rather bad pictures (it was kinda dark, and he wouldn’t stop moving) and sent them to the family, asking if they recognized him. My daughters said they have seen him around in the last few weeks or so – they get cats visiting their second floor window regularly – but that’s about it. I thought it might be the tabby that got sick as a kitten, and let us tend to him, as the face markings are very similar, but that tabby is more of a grey. This one is a lighter brown tabby. I’m pretty sure I’ve never touched this cat before.

Which means, he is probably a dumped former house cat. He’s too friendly to be from one of the neighbouring farms.

When I’ve tried to do a head count in the mornings, the highest I’ve been getting lately is 35, though some days it’s much lower.

This morning, it was 36.

Last night, I was chatting with the Cat Lady and told her about this cat I found in our old kitchen. Later in the conversation, I remembered to ask her how much she gets charged for spays and neuters. She has been working on getting us spots for 2 spays and a neuter. I was thinking that, if we could manage to snag three females instead, we might be able to pay the difference.

It turns out that the clinic she books us at charges her $145 for a spay, $120 for a neuter. These are the lowest prices I’ve seen in ages. Even when we first moved out here, a neuter was $175 and a spay was double. Spays everywhere else are always double the cost of a neuter.

When I asked about being able to bring in 3 females instead, if we can catch them, and pay the difference, she said don’t bother. They can cover three spays…

And the friendly male!

Which would be so awesome.

She’s out of town right now, arranging things by email and, so far, the clinic has not given her any dates.

I commented on the cost being so much lower than I expected (the last time we went to the clinic in town, a spay was about $350, and that was several years ago). She said this clinic gives her the best prices – it’s the treatment for ear mites, worms and infections that really add up! She told me of one case where she and the clinic had offered someone a free spay for one cat they were caring for, but with the ear mites, worms and an infected foot, the bill came out to $500!

With our cats, we just assume they all have ear mites, and we know that at least some have round worms.

I don’t know what we would do, without the Cat Lady’s help! Even with being able to get lower prices at this clinic, we couldn’t afford to cover the costs completely, ourselves.

Speaking of which…

I heard back from the garage about the truck door handle that broke off on me yesterday.

After taxes, it will cost about $400. Parts have been getting really expensive. While I’ve found the part online for about $60, that’s been in US$, so it would be a lot more expensive in Canada, just in the dollar difference. Parts in Canada have all sorts of extra fees, tariffs, taxes, etc. – all the extras our government has been adding on for years – so they typically cost about twice as much. Then there’s the cost of labour. The entire door panel will need to be removed. We had to do that when my brother found a replacement door on our van, to move the lock from the old door onto the replacement, and we never were able to get it back together again tightly. Once those clips were popped apart, they did not want to clip back together again as well, so this is not a job I would want to do myself.

We can’t afford a $400 bill at the moment. We just had a whole bunch of work done and need to pay that down more before we can charge another $400.

Keeping the truck repaired and maintains is a much higher priority on our budget than getting cats fixed.

Though, for the amount we’re spending on cat food these days, we could probably get two or three done a month, with ear mite treatment.

*sigh*

Of course, donations of cat food like this sure helps! Every little bit of help is greatly appreciated, that’s for sure!

The Re-Farmer

Seriously???

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Good grief… and it’s not even noon, yet.

Today is looking like it’s going to be a gorgeous day. It’s bright and sunny, with some cloud expected later, and we’re supposed to get a high of 0C/32F, which means things are going to be melting all over.

It’s also already been a WTF day.

First up, was finding this when I went outside to do the cat stuff.

The cat cave had been tucked into that cube, but it was pulled out like this, today.

Brussel and her babies are just fine inside, but I have no idea what happened.

Brussel did not leave her babies at any time while I did the outside stuff, even when I tried lifting the cave and discovered they were still inside. It made giving her her wet cat food more awkward. She seems fine with how it is now (I did move that loose piece of carboard aside). I was also able to reach inside and give her head scritches. She growled at me the entire time, but she did not pull away, nor did she try to attack me in any way. I got some squeeze treats to use to try and socialize her more, and I might actually be able to do that, now that the opening to the cat cave is easier to reach.

When doing the morning stuff, I go through the old kitchen (our buffer zone) and the sun room. We tie off the doors – sometimes just the outside door, if the weather is nice – so that cats can get in and out, but the sunroom has shifted. We can still close the inside door, I think, but I don’t think we can close the outside door anymore. The problem is, the rain barrel at the corner was allowed to overflow to the point that the sidewalk block it’s on was undermined and has sunk at the end. It looks like it has also affected the concrete pad the sun room is built on, which means the room continues to shift downwards at that corner. The door frame is no longer plumb, and it seems to be ever so slowly getting worse.

That’s the sun room, though, so not really that big of a deal.

Our main entry doors, however, are another issue.

We already had a problem with the door not latching properly; the door itself is splitting at the latch bolt, and the face place is loose. Sometimes, the door would just pop open on its own.

Lately, though, it’s become harder to open and close. It’s really stiff at the hinges and, when closing it from the inside, you really need to put your shoulder into it. When I was heading out today, I tried leaving through that door, but couldn’t close it from the outside. The bottom half of the door seems to be hitting the door frame. I had to go back in, shoulder it closed from the inside, then leave through the old kitchen door (we do have another door to outside in the dining room, but it is not mobility accessible for my husband, so we don’t really use it). We already know the entire frame and door need to be replaced, but that ain’t cheap!

I had just a quick run to the post office to make today, and was soon back home. After parking in the garage, I went to open the door…

It wouldn’t open.

I pulled on the door handle again…

It still wouldn’t open.

I tried one more time…

Yeah. It broke right off.

That left me in a pickle. With the console in the middle, it’s not like I can shuffle over to the other door. I ended up messaging the family, asking if anyone could come out. My older daughter answered, and I told her what happened, but I think she was already booting up and heading out and didn’t see the messages. She though I was injured or something!

Meanwhile, it occurred to me, I could just open the window and open the door from the outside. So I gave that a try.

It wouldn’t open.

I tried again.

Nothing.

When I opened the window, I noticed the door was locked; normally, it automatically unlocks when the engine is shut off. I’d unlocked it, but when I reached to the door handle outside, my arm pushed the lock down again. Once I realized what happened, I was able to open the door – just in time for my daughter to reach the garage.

So what I think happened is that I accidentally locked the door after parking the truck, so of course, it wouldn’t open when I pulled on the handle.

Instead, it broke off.

Looking into the opening with my phone’s camera light, I could see the edge of where it broke off, and that was about it.

I have since sent the photos to the garage, asking if this is the sort of work they do or not. They’re not an autobody place, so I might have to go somewhere else. I haven’t received a response, yet.

Until we can get it fixed, I’m going to have to get used to opening the door from the outside for a while.

What a bloody PITA.

The Re-Farmer

Stock up shop: this is what $719.89 in total looks like

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Today has turned out to be a gorgeous day. Nice and sunny and, while the temperatures hovered just below freezing, things were melting all over. Most importantly, the roads were clear and, for the most part, dry!

I went into the city today to do the Costco stock up trip, but I was also on the hunt for a heat mat for our newly potted up, pre-germinated winter squash seeds, down in the chilly basement dungeon. Now that they are potted up, I made sure to turn the grow light on for them before I left for the city.

Today being Sunday, Costco opened at 10am. I left after 9 and my first stop was actually a mall, where I hoped to get some breakfast. Most of the food court wasn’t opening until 11, though, which left me with about 15 minutes to burn, so I checked out a Dollarama. I wasn’t planning anything specific to get there, but I did find things we needed.

This is what $41.16 looks like.

I got three clear dining table protectors, though I still have one unopened package left from last year. I will likely use these to put over the raised bed cover that I plan to move into the old kitchen garden, and turn it into a mini-greenhouse/cat barrier. I also grabbed two shorter over-the-door hooks for our entry closet door. We have a lot of things that need to be hung out of cat range, and these will fit over each half of the folding closet door. I was running low on masking tape, so I grabbed a roll. There’s a spray bottle I grabbed as well. We have so many of them, both for using with plants and for training the cats, and they all keep disappearing! I had to steal a cat training one for the seed starting set up, so I got one to replace it.

My favourite giant mug I used for tea started to develop cracks, so I’ve been on the hunt for a very large mug for a while now. I ended up finding a novelty Canada mug that is the largest I’ve been able to find, so I grabbed it. It’s still not as large as the one it’s replacing – that one held almost a full liter – but it’ll do!

When I headed out this morning, I was wearing a hooded sweatshirt with the hood up, and forgot to grab a hat. I felt naked without a hat, so when I found a white version of the blue sequin one my daughter bought for me a while back, I snagged it. Last of all, I got another hard sided re-useable bag to hold it all.

By the time I was done, it was past 11, and I was able to find somewhere to get “breakfast” that fit into my Lenten fast from sugar and simple carbs (which is remarkably hard to do! They’re in everything!). After that, my next stop was a nearby Canadian Tire.

I didn’t get a photo of it, but I got their last heat mat! That came out to $50.39 after taxes. It took me a while to find it!

That done, it was across the street to the Costco. Before going in, I filled my gas tank. The Costco price for regular gas was $1.339 Everywhere else was either $1.549 or $1559 What a difference! It still cost me over $60 to fill that tank, though.

From there, I could finally do the Costco shopping. This is what $678.73 after taxes looks like.

This is 37 items. My total discounts from specials was a whole $10.

Ouch.

The biggest expense in there was, as usual, the cat food. Four 9.1kg bags of kibble and two 48 count cased of wet cat food. And we’ll still need to get more kibble from the feed store for the outside cats! I always pick those up first, and was at almost $200 before getting a single thing for ourselves.

*sigh*

Along with the kibble, the stuff I left on the flat cart for them to scan, there’s 5 pounds of butter, two blocks of cooking cheeses, a liter of whipping cream, a double cream brie and a double flat of 60 eggs. Then there was a case of Coke Zero for my husband and I, plus a case of energy drinks for my daughters and I. My older daughter reimburses me for those. Plus, of course, the requisite package of toilet paper.

As for the stuff on the belt, there’s two cases of Sweet and Salty mix of granola bars that were on sale. One for my daughters, one for my husband and I, though I won’t be eating any of those until after Lent.

There’s a panini pack of sandwich meats, frozen pierogi, frozen pork buns and frozen Pizza Pops. I also picked up a couple of 3 packs of Spam for the pantry, and a large pork blade roast.

I was looking at the beef, but the prices were shockingly high. In the end, I did get a package of lean ground beef – normally, I get extra lean – that I will be splitting up into thirds and freezing. Even that cost most than double what it was, just a couple of years ago. We still have a bit of beef from the 1/8th beef share we got back in January, but it’s mostly steaks, and we’ve been saving those!

Let’s see… what else did I get.

There is some Lactase for my lactose intolerant family, a jar of pickled asparagus, two large jars of mayonnaise, two packs of tortilla warps and a case of baked beans. I also found a jug of the Platinum Dawn dish detergent. I usually buy the biggest, cheap dish detergent, and we do still have lots of that. Since we’ve had issues with stuff building up inside our drain pipe from the kitchen, and the plumber recommended using Dawn in a weekly treatment to keep the pipes clear, we’ve been using this stuff more. It’s more expensive, but it does actually clean better, and helps with the plumbing, too, so it’s worth the extra cost.

That’s it. That’s everything I got this time. I didn’t even go through all the grocery aisles, because I was getting close to my budget and hadn’t even picked up meats yet. Thankfully, I’ve been taking advantage of meat or bread sales when I could, so when we unloaded and put everything away, our fridge and chest freezers were both full.

Now that we’ve got that multi-function toaster oven, I’ve been on the look out for more heat-and-eat type stuff that will allow my husband to prepare things for himself, giving him at least a bit more independence, while also accommodating his pain levels and mobility issues. Most of the options are just too expensive, though. Even if I had the budget, I wouldn’t be willing to pay those prices! It does irk me that beef prices are so high. Especially knowing it’s directly because of the extra costs our own federal government has been putting on our farmers and ranchers. We’ve got an election coming up. Hopefully, it will be an honest one, and we’ll have a new federal government soon, but frankly, I don’t expect it. I’m pretty sure the results have already been bought an paid for, just like our media.

But let’s not go there, or I’m going to end up ranting about our ludicrously corrupt federal government.

Anyhow…

That is our stock up shopping for today. I did get a few extras for the house and the garden, but most of it was pretty standard stuff.

While I expect the cost to be high when we’re stocking up for an entire month, these trips are getting really painful on the budget.

I admit, though, it would be a lot easier if we weren’t taking care of so many cats!! There’s going to be another $200 or so spent on 40 pound bags of kibble at the feed store, still. That could buy a lot of groceries!

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden: pre-germination progress – plus the cuteness!

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I will start with the cuteness!

Brussel is such a good mama.

Also, she seems to now be more expecting and accepting of her wet cat food delivery. She didn’t growl at me this morning, as I used the food delivery back scratcher to drop it as close to her face as I could. She didn’t even bother leaving the cat cave while I was doing the kibble this morning, and simply waited, nursing her babies. Once the food was delivered, she didn’t hesitate to start eating, too.

This afternoon, she did leave her babies briefly after I came out with the second feeding of the day, but went back before I was done refilling water bowls. She didn’t growl at me until I stopped to try and get photos and video of her.

My younger daughter has been having a rough time getting sleep (with both cats and high pain levels to blame), so she ended up awake all night. This morning, she was a sweetheart and shoveled the plow ridge away, and cleared the end of the driveway before going to bed for the day. We haven’t bothered to try and clear the rest of the driveway, or the turn around space in the yard to back up to the house. Though our high of the day was just below freezing, it was bright and sunny, and things are melting all over. I considered doing the Costco run today, but decided against it.

I did make a quick trip into town and stopped at the hardware store to pick up a heat mat. Unfortunately, they were all out. I did stop at the grocery store for a few things, but I will do the Costco run tomorrow. There is a Canadian Tire across the street from the Costco I go to, and I’m hoping they will have a heat mat…

… because our pre-germinated seeds need to be potted up!

The first image has the 4 Sunshine squash and the 6 Mashed potato squash. As you can see, their seed leaves are emerging from the shells.

In the second image, with the 2 Arikara squash and the 5 Baked Potato squash, are just going wild with their roots, as well as the seed leave emerging!

In the last image, the luffa now has 3 out of 4 seeds showing radicals.

I have everything ready to pot these up, except a second heat mat. The eggplant and peppers won’t start showing for a while, yet, and those need to be on the heat mat. The luffa will go into peat pots, so they can fit into the tray with them and be warm, but the rest of the squash will be going into the large celled tray. I might have to just hang out in the basement with the heater on and warm things up. I can also use hot water in the tray to help warm up the seed starter mix, too. The basement, however, was at only 10C/50F when I went down this afternoon. That would be really warm, if I were outside in the sun, but in the basement, it feels cold!

Those germinated seeds need to be put into the seed starting mix, though.

I think I’m going to take the chance and just do that today, then go hunting for a second heat mat for them, tomorrow.

The Re-Farmer

That’s more than 10-20cm…

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So… we got a bit of snow, overnight! 😄

It’s still snowing a bit as I write this. According to the weather radar, we are pretty much in the middle of the system that’s passing over us, but I’m just barely seeing snowflakes fluttering around at the moment. We are still under a snowfall warming, and they are now saying to expect a total of 15-25cm/6-10 inches of snowfall.

I think we already hit that.

Unfortunately, the wind direction was blowing snow right into the kibble house, and the space between the kibble house, the cat house and the water bowl shelter was deep with snow.

On the plus side, there is no longer a big puddle of water on the bottom of the catio! I haven’t returned the food bowl into there, though, and have been leaving kibble on the replacement hammock we put in to replace the damaged one. I can reach that with my scoop of kibble without having to untie the door.

As you can see in the second photo of the above slide show, the cats are quite enjoying the catio!

In the last photo, taken after I shoveled around the shelters and cleared some paths, you can see how much snow accumulated on the shelter roofs. I didn’t go all out on the shoveling, though. We’re going to be warming up again and, even when the temperature is just a degree or two below freezing, things will start to melt.

The yard cats were certainly appreciating the cleared paths around their shelters – and the shelters themselves.

They also seem to really appreciate that I left those box nests under the shrine for them to use. Since one of the kibble bowls under there has disappeared, I started to put kibble inside the box nests as well as the one kibble bowl that’s left. If nothing else, it keeps the snow off the kibble! The cats seem to like eating out of them – and sitting on top of the boxes, too. These cat been built to be used inside the isolation shelter, they seem to be quite useful in other places, too!

Speaking of the isolation shelter…

There was no way to get them all in a photo, but I counted 13 cats inside the isolation shelter! Including Syndol, lounging on the hammock which, I’m happy to say, is no longer being constantly knocked loose from its hooks. Simply adding a cord joining the two hooks closest to the ramp to the second level seems to be enough to keep it from happening.

I didn’t even notice what The Grink was doing in the second picture above, until now. She’s got her face right up at that heat bulb!! (Yes, it is confirmed: The Grink is a lady.) I’m glad the new clamp lamp has a guard around the bulb, but she’s so tiny, she could easily push her face past it. I don’t think she will, but it’s a possibility.

Brussel seems to have picked up on my new routine for her. At first, when I came out to do the kibble and water, she would jump out of her nest and eat outside. I would wait until she was back with her babies, then use the long handled back scratcher to deliver wet cat food into the cat cave. Since she would be nursing her babies, I tried to drop it close to her face, so she could eat and nurse at the same time.

Lately, she hasn’t bother leaving the cat cave when I come out with the kibble. She growls at me when I take her food and water bowl out of the cage in the evening, then put it back, refilled, in the morning, but she doesn’t leave. She also grows when I deliver the wet cat food next to her, but she now immediately starts eating, without waiting for me to leave. This is encouraging, since one of my concerns is that she will take her kittens out completely, and who knows when – or if – we’d see them again. The mamas don’t bring their babies to the house until they’re ready for weaning and, by then, it’s a lot harder to socialize them.

I’m going to be on the lookout for another small cat cave like the one we brought over for Brussel. If we can fit another one in the cube where she originally went into labour, perhaps one of the other more feral mamas that went into heat really early will have her litter in it, instead of somewhere in the outer yard. We do have another cat cave in the house, but it’s far too big to fit into the cube. Plus, that one is in pretty constant use by the inside cats!

Looking ahead in the long term forecast, it seems this will be the last big snowfall for our area, and April is looking to have daytime highs above freezing consistently. In fact, we are supposed to start getting daytimes highs of 13C/55F and up by the middle of the month.

Of course, forecasts that far ahead are never a sure thing. What we’ll really be starting to look at as the season progresses is the overnight lows. Once the overnight lows are consistently 6C/43F or higher, the soil should be warm enough for cool weather crops. With my winter sowing, that means taking the mulch off the beds so the soil can warm up, and give the seeds we planted in the fall a chance to germinate. Those overnight temperatures, though, are unlikely to hit until the second half of May and into June.

With the current 10 day forecast, the snow we got should melt fairly slowly, which will be good for the garden beds. So far, it looks like we won’t be getting any serious spring flooding. Of course, that could change very quickly, if we find ourselves with an April blizzard. We shall see!

For now, I’m happy with the snow we got. We didn’t have a lot of snow over the winter, so this extra moisture will be good for the farmers’ fields, as well as our gardens.

All is good!

The Re-Farmer

First stock up shop for April: this is what $770 in total looks like

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Wow! We got home just in time! My daughter and I headed into the city for our first stock up shopping trip. It took longer than usual, and by the time we were driving the last couple of miles to home, we were driving into the first signs of snow. As I write this, it’s starting to come down pretty heavily, though there’s little wind, so it’s a pretty pleasant looking snowfall. It’s supposed to keep falling through the night. We’re are looking at possibly 10-20cm/4-8inches by tomorrow evening.

I’m quite happy we got this trip done!

Today was our trip to multiple places all along one street in the city. Canadian Tire, Walmart and our favourite international grocery store.

As we headed out, we made a stop in town to get some gas ($40 worth, at $1.549/L). Since neither of us had had breakfast yet, we got some drinks and beef jerky for the hour’s drive in, where our first planned stop was somewhere for breakfast. We ended up going to a shopping mall right next to the Canadian Tire we go to, and went to the food court. I haven’t been in this mall in… I honestly can’t remember. Several decades, at least. My daughter had some A&W for “breakfast” (it was past 11 by then), while I hunted around for something I could eat. Giving up sugar and simple carbs for Lent makes it challenging. I was going to get Chinese food, and they were willing to do a meal and skip the standard rice or noodles, but all the options they had available were covered with sweet sauces. I ended up going to a Korean BBQ place. When I asked to skip rice or noodles, they gave me extra stir fry vegetables instead, which was quite appreciated.

After we finished eating, we decided to check out a Winners. This is a store we haven’t been to since before we moved out here, so more than 7 years. We didn’t find anything worth buying. On the way to the exit we were parked closest, to, we passed a Dollarama, so we went in. I wanted to see if they had those garden stakes I was looking for in stock, yet. They did! These are 6′ long plastic coated metal stakes that each some with a strong, reusable plant tie. They were only $3 each. I’ve seen similar at Cdn Tire, but those were much more expensive, didn’t come with the plant tie and are actually a lesser quality.

I bought 10.

Between these and the ones I already have, it should be enough for this year’s garden.

That done, we moved the truck to the Cdn Tire. The one thing on my shopping list was 3 bags of litter pellets but, of course, we looked at other stuff.

This is what $181.85 looks like.

The litter pellet bags are only $7.99 each. We have been looking for frying pans to replace some we have now that have warped bottoms and are no longer non-stick. After much searching, we finally broke down and bought a 2 pan set that was on clearance for $49.93

Then there were the three recycling bins. The set up we have right now is just large bags over wire frames that hold them open. They take up a lot of space, but the real problem is that the cats tear into them. Especially the one for aluminum, since it has most empty cat food cans in it.

After looking at our options, we settled on taller, narrower bins. They won’t hold as much as our current set up, but will save us a lot of space, and the cats won’t be able to tear into them. We do have smaller recycling bags that should fit them, too. This style of bin cost $29.99 each.

Our next stop was the Walmart. The main things on my list was wet and dry cat food, plus things like nail clippers and other things we don’t normally by every month. My older daughter had also sent funds to cover things like energy drinks, until we can pick up a case at Costco.

We got quite a bit more than usual this time!

This is what $361.47 looks like. Well… minus $10, which was a food bank donation, so you can’t actually see it.

We got three 9.1kg bags of kibble, at $34.97 each. The cases of canned cat food was $28.77. They also finally had the big 30″x36″ puppy pads, so a grabbed a package. Cats peeing/spraying in places other than one of the many litter boxes is still a problem, and I don’t know how to fix it! The puppy pads are saving us a lot of mess and potential damage.

Other things we got today include large bottles of shampoo and conditioner. Including extra ones, and selective bars of soap. Since discovering she is allergic to most deodorants, my daughter realized she was also allergic to shampoos and conditioners. She thought she was having fungal infections on her scalp. It got so bad, she basically just shaved her head, so she could apply anti-fungal cream. After doing some research, she tried a particular brand of shampoo and conditioner and, lo and behold, no more scalp issues. It turns out one of the common ingredients she is allergic to is coco butter – which is in the shampoo and conditioner I chose for myself and my husband. She still has the one she knows she doesn’t react to, but we got a different brand she researched for her to test out. It’s the same with soap. Shea butter, at least, is okay for her to use!

Let’s see… what else did we get.

The energy drinks are a lot cheaper at Walmart compared to other stores (except the cases at Costco), so we got a bunch for the three of us. For my husband and myself, we got a case of Coke Zero that was on sale. Then I spotted the Ginger Ale brand ginger beer, which is new. We got a case for my daughters to try. I’m not a fan of ginger beer myself, but they like it.

We also got two types of herbal teas and coffee creamer. Distilled water for my husband’s CPAP humidifier. Oh, and a couple of boxes of bandages in various sizes and shapes.

After we loaded everything into the truck, we used the wet wipes I keep in the truck at all times to clean my hands. Then my daughter helped me put small bandages on my fingers where the skin was split and bleeding, because my hands are so dry! I do lotion them, regularly, but it doesn’t seem to help much.

There was one thing we got at the Walmart that didn’t get included in this. I needed straight edge toenail clippers and, while I was looking at other stuff, my daughter went looking for them. She found them locked up in the cosmetic section, so she had to get staff to get them out for her (the only option was a pack that included smaller nail clippers). The employee then took them straight to the till that was practically barricaded, and my daughter hat to pay for them right away. The employee then put them and the receipt into a little clear plastic bag that got tied off with a knot before my daughter was finally allowed to touch them!

Ya gotta wonder just how much theft there was for all this!

Once done there, our next stop was the international grocery store. By then, we were both getting hungry again, so we stopped in their restaurant section for some dim sum and, for my daughter, steamed pork buns.

Our list for here was pretty vague, and mostly we just go through the entire store and pick things. There were a lot of sales, plus I used my loyalty points for some things, so what we actually got would have cost a lot more.

After all the discounts, etc., this is what $227.24 looks like.

Some things are completely hidden.

There was an excellent sale on coconut milk, which my daughters like to cook with, so we got four cans. Asparagus was also on sale, so we got two bunches. One sale we really took advantage of was a big frozen block of Ahi tuna. At first, we were going to pick some fresh “steaks” of them, last thing, as the packages were on ice, but when we found the frozen chunk (top right corner in the photo), we went with that. My daughter found some frozen pork bao on sale that we got. We picked up some blue brie cheese we’ve been wanting to try, but it was always too expensive before, but they were almost half price today. We also got a regular brie on sale, and an Irish Whiskey Cheddar on sale to try. I even picked up a “snow man cheese” – some caiocavallo for my husband. He absolutely loves it, just to snack on, but it’s gotten very expensive over the years, so it was nice to finally get some for him.

Then, because we got the lovely cheeses, we got three loves of French bread, some charcutier meats, and a sausage (the meats were on sale) to go with it. We also picked up some prosciutto to make prosciutto wrapped asparagus.

The prosciutto was actually free, because I redeemed points for those. There’s also a frozen turkey I got for free with points.

Other things we got was a frozen fillet of salmon for the girls that was on sale, some regular smoked slab bacon, plus an applewood smoked slab bacon with a “enjoy tonight” coupon, so that’ll need to be used up tonight. We picked up some Wagh Bakri tea on sale to try (we’d had the ginger tea version in that brand before that was enjoyed), as well as some instant milk tea on sale. Even the toilet paper was on a massive sale, so I had to get at least one package.

Finally, we grabbed some food that we could quickly heat and eat when we got home. Almost. For my husband, we got half a Lumberjack sandwich (which is still huge), the girls got themselves taquitos in a flavour that they like that we almost never see in stock, and I got some cold dim sum that I’ll be steaming for my supper later on.

Then, when it was time to pay for it all, I was able to use more points for another $15 off the sub total.

Looking at my receipt, it tells me I saved $91.65, however that only reflects the loyalty card savings. Some of the items that were sold by weight rung up at the sale price rather than being discounted later, so our actual savings was higher than that. The savings on the Ahi tuna alone would have put that total to over $100.

All in all, we had an excellent haul for our money here!

Then, on the way home, we swung by a Domo to get gas again. Today is Thursday, which is one of their 4¢ off/liter days, so we put another $40 in, and it pretty much filled our tank.

Next stock up shop will be our Costco trip in a few days.

Which means we won’t need to be driving anywhere in the new snow that’s falling on top of all the ice from yesterday’s melt!

Bonus.

The Re-Farmer

Ah, spring… the moats are forming!

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Today was in incredibly gorgeous day! We actually hit 10C/50F this afternoon!

So, of course, we’re now getting weather warnings for a major snowfall coming. It’s supposed to hit our area tomorrow evening, and we could get 10-20cm/4-8 inches of snow.

I’m still waiting on a blizzard to hit around our anniversary in the beginning of April.

Why?

Because it’s spring in Canada, that’s why! 😄

Meanwhile, the thermometer in the sun room was reading about 23C/73F, which was wonderful for the new babies.

Brussel is such a good mama!

I didn’t get a chance to sneak a pet today, though. Gotta work on that!

Of course, with things melting all over the place, the moat around the garage has started to form. Only the remaining deeper snow and packed ice is keeping it it in check. The path I use to reach the litter pellet compost behind the outhouse is getting pretty deep with water. I’m going to have to dig out my rubber boots at this rate!

The usual low spots are also filling, including the moat that completely encircles the storage house. The gap the cats use to get under it is a big puddle. I’m still seeing cats go under there, which is a bit of a surprise, since the entire “basement” space gets pretty full of water, too.

I did find water in an unexpected place, though.

Inside the catio.

It is likely because I piled snow around three sides to act as insulation. Between that and the area being a bit lower, what has been little more than a puddle this morning has become quite a pool by late afternoon!

I took out the two box nests and the big bowl that used to be a heated water bowl that I used as a kibble bowl. Somehow, water actually got inside the bowl itself! The opening where the power cord used to run through allowed water to get inside, so I ended up setting it on the catio roof in such a way that it will hopefully drain.

The insulated box nest was still partially frozen to the ground, so it took a bit to get that loose. The uninsulated one was resting on top of a couple of pieces of rigid insulation, so it was easy to lift – except for the edge of the blanket inside that had slipped out and was frozen to the ground! Once the box was removed, I hung the blanket over the edge of the catio roof to drip and dry, making sure to weight it down, so it wouldn’t blow away.

In the second picture of the above slide show, you can see where I set up the box nests. Their bottoms were damp on the inside, but these have no “right side up”, so I just flipped them damp side up and set them under the shrine next to a kibble bowl.

There was another kibble bowl under there, but it disappeared a few days ago. I have yet to find it! I assume it got dragged off by a raccoon, maybe?

Magda immediately showed her appreciation for a new surface to stand on. 😁

With the bottom of the catio flooded, she still found a way to enjoy it. She used the brick I have in the doorway, to make sure it doesn’t close all the way by accident, as a dry surface to jump up onto one of the floating shelves inside the catio. From there, she could jump across to the other shelf, where she obligingly posed for a photo. The door was tied off again by the time, so I was sticking my phone through to take a picture, being VERY careful to not drop it into the water below!!

With the protective plastic around the side, plus the clear roof, it’s quite warm inside that catio during the day. Not as warm as the sun room, of course, but still a very noticeable difference.

I’m really glad we were able to give the catio a paint job before putting the roof on. That will protect the wood from the water at least a little bit. The original frame was painted, but the wood lathe I added in places could possible get water damage, since the water would be able to seep between the old and new wood on the bottom. We won’t be able to check for damage for probably a few more weeks, though.

In other things, my younger daughter and I went into town today. We had to go to the pharmacy for her to pick up a prescription, plus a couple other things. I was able to cash in a digital lotto ticket and my win not only paid for her purchases, but lunch and a quick stop at the grocery store to get drinks for the ride home, too – and I still have a bit of cash left over. It’s always nice to win more than just a couple of bucks, or a free play – though I won a couple of bucks and a free play, too! 😄

I also made sure to stop at the post office on the way out, as it closed at noon today. The seed packets from my Vesey’s order came in today, so as soon we were back at home and things were put away and settled, I headed down to the dungeon… er… basement, to start some of them.

Which will be the topic of my next post!

The Re-Farmer