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Taking a break from good progress

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Today, I started on cleaning and organizing the basement.

Again.

A few years back, we were able to clear out all sorts of things from the “new” basement – the part that’s under the addition added in the 70’s. Lots of stuff went into the barn for storage until we could figure out what to do with them. Lots went to the dump. Eventually, we got it to the point that we could scrub and sanitize the concrete floor, and set it up into a useable space. We were even able to turn a table down there into a work station that I was able to use for wood carving and other general small building projects.

Then we used it as a maternity ward when Butterscotch and Beep Beep were both pregnant at the same time again.

Then we blocked off access to the old part basement so we could let the case into the new part basement. It became where we kept most of the litter boxes and and food bowls.

The cats, being cats, ended up using pretty much the entire space, as litter boxes. Sadly, that included my work station, causing damage to some of my tools, including some of my carving tools.

Then we had some wet springs and discovered the weeping tile was no longer doing its job. As water seeped through and fans needed to be set up, we had to start moving things wherever we could find the space, to get them out of the water, even though they were already on top of things like floor tiles that we found, to keep them from having direct contact with the concrete.

Eventually, we had to stop allowing the cats in the basement at all, and it’s been quite a disaster ever since.

Which meant we could move the barrier between the basements (there is no door; just a vaguely door shaped hole in the old basement wall), so we no longer have to go upstairs and around to the other door to go from one basement to the other.

It also means we have a large, cat free space.

Right now, my goal is to set up a space where I can start seeds in the last week of March. My original thought was to reclaim the work station and use that.

Well, that didn’t quite work out.

Because of how disorganized things have become, I need to work in stages, and that table was the first stage.

The table itself is a bit rickety, and has a larger sheet of not-plywood on top. After clearing the surface, I decided to take it off completely to see why the the table was so unstable.

It turned out that the surface was two wide boards nailed to the frame. The frame itself has extra cross pieces that allow for long items to be stored underneath – something I’ve found quite handy. There were still a few things under there, so that got taken out, too.

In moving the table around, I found the corners of one board were lifting, so I decided to secure both boards with screws. I used the old nails as guides on where to drill the pilot holes, since the frame they were on hid the supports they were nailed to. On one side, while drilling the pilot holes, I discovered gaps and had to drill new ones about an inch over. Then I had to add a couple more screws at each corner to secure it to the outer part of the frame as well as the supports I couldn’t actually see, underneath.

Securing it with screws did improve the ricketiness, but one corner still seemed to be lifting somehow. I finally tipped it on its side to see what was under there.

Which is when I could see just where these boards came from and, to be honest, it broke my heart a little.

Years ago, my parents bought some property as an investment. The building used to be a general store in the front, with living quarters in the back. The general store itself closed some time in the 60’s. There was a semi-detached storage building (which is now here at the farm), and I remember finding old inventory lists from 1963.

Most of the wall shelves were removed. I have a large section of one against the wall in my bedroom right now. Smaller sections were turned into dividers between the living and dining rooms. Other parts and pieces of them have been turning up in various places around the property.

The wood that was used to make these shelves is really excellent – and very distinctive in their size and colour.

The underside of the table had that distinctive colour. I couldn’t see it on the top, because it had been so scoured and damaged.

Even the larger board I moved looks like it came from this old store. Once I saw the underside of it, there were “shadows” showing it was part of something else. I even remember what it was. There was a multi-tiered display shelf in the old store, and this was the top of it.

Which also explains the cut off corners.

There is another sheet of this same wood that’s even larger that we found while cleaning the basement, and I now realize it would have been a lower level of this display shelf.

It’s such a shame that someone took apart these shelves and used this excellent wood to basically make a scrap material work table, and the surface got so damaged.

I never did find why it still seemed rickety, though. In fact, it handled being moved around quite well.

Once I had it upright again, I realized the narrower size of the table was much easier to reach around, and I considered not putting the sheet of not-plywood back on. However, my husband had picked up a huge self healing cutting mat for the work station, and it was finally going to be used – and it was wider than the table!

So, the top sheet went back on, and it turned out to be just a fraction wider than the cutting mat.

Then I put stuff back on the table, and I now have a work station again.

Yes, that’s a re-purposed gun rack.

There is an outlet on a pillar opposite this wall and I’ve got a power bar running from there, across a floor joist in the ceiling, and a number of hooks to hold power cords up and out of the way. This allowed me to use my Dremel and wood burning tool, and now the charger for my drill and driver batteries. The power bar has USB ports, so I can set up a charger cable for my phone, too.

That top board is not attached in any way, so when it was time to put the vice back, I didn’t want it over the cutting mat. It is now on one end and holding the top piece to the table surface together. The top piece is almost exactly the same length as the table.

Before I’d put the table back and starting returning things, I made sure to clean the floor underneath as best I could without actually mopping it. I could see that the bottoms of the table legs had water damage. After looking around for something to protect them, I found my stash of old sour cream containers. I’ve been cutting those up to make plant markers, and had a bunch of them waiting to be used for that. It turns out the table legs fit in them, so we now have protection from water, if we get another wet spring.

Once that was done, I was happy to have a work station again.

However, I still don’t have a place to start seeds!

So I started working on the next section of the basement, at one end, clearing it out and mopping it. We have a low-to-the-ground twin size bed frame one of my nephews made that we painted and have been using for all sorts of things, inside and out. Once the end was mopped, I set it up under the counter was what was supposed to be a bar my late brother started building when he was in his teens and never quite finished. It has an outlet on the “outside” of the counter that we have found quite handy.

The bed frame is now set up under the counter, on bricks to keep it out of any water should we have issues again. I will be storing larger stuff on it, but made sure to plug an extension cord for us to use, as we won’t be able to access that outlet once the things are moved onto the bed frame.

The bed frame’s platform needed to be mopped, too.

After that was done, I set up a blower fan facing that end of the basement and am taking a break while it dries.

Oh! Break time is over! My brother is now here and in the old basement, figuring out how to set up the bypass valve so we can switch between the ejector and the emergency septic bypass. as needed – and not have to remove and switch pipes every time!

My brother is the best!

The Re-Farmer

Partial birthday celebration, and other things

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As a family, we’re not really dedicated to birthdays. As in, the actual date. Before my husband went on disability and he was still working, we would celebrated birthdays on the weekend before or after the actual date, depending on which was after pay day. The entire week, however, tended to be when the birthday person would get little gifts, or extra special treatment. The day itself was recognized, of course, but we liked to spread it out.

Now that my husband is on disability, his payments come in at the end of the month, so we budget accordingly. Which means we tend to have more birthday months than birthday weeks!

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My older daughter’s birthday is this month. She is really hard to get things for! One regular thing we would do is have the birthday person choose a special celebration dinner. When our income was higher, this was a time when we might go to a specific restaurant that we normally wouldn’t, but dining out for four people hasn’t been something we could afford for a long time. Now that we are out in the boonies, we generally don’t bother and will order takeout from somewhere.

I had already done a birthday take home meal earlier this month, but my older daughter wanted Pizza Hut – and she was paying. Yeah. She insists on paying for her own birthday meal!

It’s still early, but today was when we decided to do pizza day. The birthday girl placed the order online with a pick up time late enough that other stuff could be done first. My younger daughter came along to help out. After a quick stop at the post office to pick up one more package, we headed to the town our doctor’s clinic is in. We got there about an hour early, but there’s a grocery store in the same area, so we could just park and go there, first.

The only thing I needed for general groceries was milk and eggs, plus my daughter spotted some dark coffee; they’ve been running out. The rest was birthday related. I ended up choosing two cakes; a tiramisu cake and a Pina Colada angel food cake trifle. We picked up some ranch and blue cheese dressing to use as dips for the pizza. We got drinks, some Cotton Candy Ice Cream, and their last box of mango Melona bars. As an extra, I decided to try some frozen finger foods for later on. Breaded pickle spears, Italian Mozza Bites and Tempura Yams.

I was going to treat my daughter for her birthday, no matter how much she balked! 😄

By the time we were done and the truck loaded up, we still had almost half an hour before the time set for our order. The location is take out only, but I figured they’d have seating for people waiting for their orders, so we made our way over anyhow. Which worked out, as they were almost done with our order!

Good grief, pizza has gotten expensive. Four large pizzas and three chicken bites bowls, and the total was just under $200 – before tip! A few years back, it was almost half that, and we were getting extra large sized pizzas.

Well, we only do this once a year. Plus, it will feed us for a couple of days, at least. Still… *choke*

Since it is a special occasion, I’ve taken a break from my Lenten fast of sugar and simple carbs.

In other things, I had a chance to chat with the Cat Lady earlier today. She sent me a post made by the woman who was able to provide us with so much donated cat food. It was very generous and much appreciated – we still have wet cat food left from that! The Cat Lady did warn me, though, not to share to much. As the Cat Lady put it, her heart is in the right place, but she causes problems. A few months back, she was “helping” someone caring for a colony, got the province involved, and most of the cats ended up being euthanized. Sadly, it seems to be happening again. There’s a call out for various supplies, fosters, donations for spays and neuters, and so on, for a colony that sounds about the same size as ours, though the number of cats we have showing up can change considerably from day to day, and even feeding to feeding. All great stuff being called for, except for on thing.

She got the province involved again.

The post had mentioned that the cats have winter suitable shelters, but not much else. Well, the Cat Lady knows of this colony. She says the cats are well cared for, and they have lots of excellent shelters. While help would certainly be appreciated – especially with spays and neuters – with the province involved, the person that’s been caring for them is going to get pressured a lot before the province finally steps in and simply wipes them out.

I know that in our municipality, their procedure to “help” people caring for colonies is to simply shoot the cats. It’s pretty much the main reason we don’t try to do any local fundraising drives for spays and neuters. We don’t want it to be generally known, how many cats have been showing up (I’ve seen another tabby that looks like a stranger recently. He has a distinctive Nicky the Nose face; that old tom hasn’t been around for years, but this cat looks like it could be one of his decedents). I want to adopt them out. Not kill them off.

Speaking of spays and neuters, the Cat Lady hopes to book us for three cats, as soon as she gets a chance to call the clinic we’ve been going to. She’s been spending a lot of time at another clinic in the city. The vet that saved Cabbages sold his clinic and went back to India for a while. He has since returned and opened a new clinic, and she’s happily been going to him again. She’s currently dealing with a rescue case that is quite severe. I was quite surprised when she said for three cats. The last we talked about it, she was hoping to be able to get two done. Hopefully, that means donations to her rescue have started to go back up again. Otherwise, it means she’s paying for it out of pocket, which they have done before. They are so amazing!

Meanwhile, I also got a note from my brother. He plans to come out here tomorrow morning. Along with needing to do some stuff among their stored items, he plans to set up “that bypass valve” on the septic diverter. He must have thought he had already talked to me about it, but I had no idea about this. He said that we’ll be able to test out the ejector to see if it’s frozen and, if it is, can switch back to the emergency bypass. Which is an awesome idea! I don’t think the ejector is frozen, though. I think there’s something stuck in the venturi valve. Either that, or there’s a clog somewhere in the pipe to the house. To be able to switch from the ejector to the emergency by pass through a bypass valve instead of having to attach and detach hoses is a brilliant idea! I look forward to seeing what he’s come up with to do this. With all the issues we’ve had with the septic in the 7+ years we’ve been living here, having that bypass is a godsend.

Aside from that, I’m planning to make a dump run tomorrow. Time to finally get rid of that broken microwave! I’m glad we replaced it with the multi-function toaster oven. The girls have been using it more than they’ve been using the oven! Very handy! Tomorrow we’re expecting to have a high of only -8C/18F. Not bad, but quite a drop from today, where we ended up hitting 4C/39F, which was higher than was forecast. Things were melting all over the place! It’s expected to be almost a week before we see highs above freezing again. Nothing to complain about, though.

I look forward to seeing my brother tomorrow. 😊

The Re-Farmer

Enjoying the quiet

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It seems so very strange to be sitting here and realizing it’s almost 6pm right now, and we’ve got bright sunshine outside. I’ve gotten so used to the sun setting between 4:40 and 5pm, it feels almost wrong for the sun to still be up. Of course, we just had daylight saving time a few days, which would account for some of that, but I was getting this sense even before the switch.

Before I go on, though, we must have the cuteness!

Would you look at those adorable faces! Clarence and Cheddar.

You’d never know from the photo that Clarence is quite the troublemaker. 😁😄 One of his favourite things to do is run and jump onto my office chair before I can reach it to sit down. He will then roll onto his back and look at me, like he’s all innocent. 😄

Anyhow…

Today has been a pretty quiet day, though I made a discovery this morning, while I was outside feeding the cats this morning.

For some time now, I’ve been finding frozen throw up on the ground here and there, with roundworms in it. Surprisingly large and distinctive looking things! On learning that Button needed to be treated for worms 3 times before he was clear of them – and then he suddenly grew to the size he should have been for his age – I just sort of figured it was from one of the tiny cats. There are three small ones, plus one more that’s a bit bigger, but not by much. My bets were on The Grink, a black and white, but the other three white and greys were candidates, too.

While going to the isolation shelter with kibble, I just happened to be in time to see a cat that had finished throwing up, and yes, the throw up had worms in it. The cat, however, was not any of the ones I thought it would be! It was a tabby that’s about the same age as my suspects. It’s the one that was all sick and stuffy, and allowed us to treat him, last fall. He is now somewhat socialized. He’s quite a bit larger than the suspects, which is why I hadn’t considered it might be him.

In a way, I’m glad it’s this one, since he is socialized enough that the chances of treating him are much higher. The Cat Lady was going to try and get some medication for us, but 1) we weren’t sure which cat needed to be treated and 2) if it turned out to be one of the more feral ones, we wouldn’t be able to use it anyhow. Of course, it’s also possible more than one cat has been leaving evidence of roundworms frozen in the snow, so that may still be true.

We had a Colorado Low making its way up today which, for our area, meant we did get a pretty good snowfall shortly after I’d gone back inside, but nothing major. The south part of the province got a lot more than we did. My husband’s bubble packs were delivered late this morning, and it had been snowing a while by then. The current pharmacy delivery driver is also a school bus driver; I see him go back and forth past our place, every weekday, on the trail cam files. He starts his deliveries after he’s parked his bus in the morning, and told me about the different areas he’d already been to, and still had to go to. By the time his deliveries were done, he would be going straight back to the bus for more driving! Deliveries are only one day a week, but it does make for a long day of driving for him! Thankfully, the road conditions were still pretty good, and the snow stopped not long after.

I did end up going out later this afternoon. Several packages had arrived earlier than tracking said they would, including a large one for my husband, so I got a daughter to come along and help load it into the truck. It was not at all heavy, but awkward – and fragile! My husband was able to get himself a larger monitor for his computer. It’s a gaming monitor, with a curved screen, but he got it mostly for reading electronic books. With his disability, he spends a lot of time on his computer, and he was having a very hard time being able to see on his old monitor. This one is much, much easier on his eyes. The other monitor is still good, though. My daughters both have dual monitors for their desktops; an essential for my older daughter as she works on commissions. One of her monitors is quite old and starting to die, so she will have a much newer monitor to replace it.

Speaking of which, my older daughter has a birthday this month. She has chosen Pizza Hut take out for her birthday dinner. It’s a bit early, but we will probably be doing that tomorrow. While I’ve given up sugar and simple carbs for Lent, exceptions are made for special occasions – like birthdays!

As I write this, we are at -4C/25F and haven’t reached our high of the day yet – and it will not get any colder through the night. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to have a high of 2C/36F, then it’s supposed to drop below freezing again. So tomorrow will be a good day for the drive to pick up birthday pizza! We’re trying a different location this time, and will be going to the town our new doctor is in. In fact, the Pizza Hut is right near the clinic – and a grocery store. So I’ll be taking advantage of that to pick up a few things, including a birthday cake. Or a cream pie. Or cheesecake. My younger daughter will be with me, so she will help me choose. 😊

All in all, I’ve been quite enjoying another nice, quiet day! I admit, though, I’ve been procrastinating terribly. I want to set up an area in the basement to start seeds, but I just haven’t been able to get to it. There isn’t a lot my daughters can do to help me, since I haven’t quite decided how I’ll be setting up – I need to consider that, if we have a wet spring, water is going to seep through the concrete even in the new part of the basement, which has weeping tile, which isn’t doing its job anymore. That means setting up pedestal fans, box fans and blower fans all over, again.

The main issue, though, is the stairs. Stairs and my knees are not a good combination. Especially if I’m going to be carrying anything.

Ah, well. I’ll figure it out.

I just need to get my butt in gear about it!

The Re-Farmer

Morning watchers!

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I was finishing up my morning rounds and coming back to the house, when I realized I was being watched.

By many, many eyes!

I couldn’t get them all in one photo! There’s so much reflection on the windows, the camera doesn’t “see” inside very well. I tried counting and there were at least 13 in there at the time.

Today is apparently not going to be as warm as predicted – just an expected high of 0C/32F instead of the 2C/36F predicted, earlier. It’s still warm enough to set the hose through the storm door window for laundry day.

Yeah. We’re still doing that.

Tomorrow was also supposed to be 2C/36F, but now they’re saying a high of -5C/23F tomorrow, and 3C/37F the day after.

At this point, I’m just happy that high winds have passed.

Of course, the temperatures had got me thinking of the garden again… but then, the garden is never really far from my mind.

I did end up making another seed order today. I’ll explain that in a separate post! Meanwhile, I got a email notification that my MI Gardener order has been shipped. I look forward to seeing those! The girls are particularly interested in the Turkish Orange eggplant, which we will need to start indoors around the end of March.

I’m really itching for the snow to be gone. I really want to see how the winter sowing experiment has turned out!

The Re-Farmer

They’re in, and holy smokes!

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First, the more fun stuff. I hit the post office on the way home and found more packages than I was expecting, including – finally! – the new clamp lamps I’d ordered. They were shipped by CanPar and the address we had to use was for the store the post office is in, because the system wouldn’t accept anything else. The benefit of living in such a tiny community. The postal staff knew exactly who it was for and there was a parcel slip in our mail box.

The first photo is everything outside the box. The second is assembled. These lamps are suitable for up to 250W bulbs, so we shouldn’t have the damaged bulb that we got with the heat bulb in the sun room. That lamp now has a 150W ceramic heat bulb in it.

The ceramic bulbs I’ve installed in the lamps are 200W, and they are ready to go. I can put one up somewhere in the sun room, without having to remove the one that’s already there, but I may want to move the one that’s already there and have the warmer bulb in that spot.

The lamp in the isolation shelter will take more doing, as the current lamp needs to be removed completely. We’ll need to open up the roof, remove the rigid insulation “ceiling”, then get the lamp out. The cord is wrapped around the support it’s hanging off of, to keep it out of cat reach. I’m hoping to get that done in the next couple of days, when it’s supposed to be warmer, so that it’ll be ready when it gets colder again.

In other things, today was my day to do my mother’s errands. I had asked her if she wanted me to pick up lunch and she ended up saying to just get food for myself, she would eat what she had.

Of course, I wasn’t going to do that.

I got to town early enough to pick something up before going to her place, but nothing was open until 11am, which is when she was expecting me. I was able to run another errand before parking and waiting the last few minutes before the restaurant I’d decided on, opened. While waiting, I called my mother to tell her I would be there closer to 11:30. She told me she was reheating some potatoes to go with lunch, and I told her, I’m bringing lunch. She doesn’t need to.

She was quite okay with that, and even joked about how spoiled she’s getting with not having to cook!

Soon, I was placing our orders, which were ready faster than I expected for them just opening, then made a quick stop at the grocery store for drinks.

When I got to her place and knocked at the door, there was no answer, but I knew she was home so I started walking in. She was in the bathroom and couldn’t hear me, which was pretty much what I expected.

What I didn’t expect was the strong smell of smoke.

While setting getting the food and drinks onto the table and getting plates, I found the source.

The potatoes my mother said she was cooking had burned. She’d salvaged them, and the carrots she was reheating with them, by scraping the burnt bits into the sink, and the rest were in a bowl on her counter. The burnt bitts were REALLY heavily charred. The frying pan she’d been using was also in the sink, soaking – and totally black!

When my mother came out and saw where I was in the kitchen, she told me about burning them. She said there’s something wrong with the element she was using, in that it stays on high, even when turned down to low.

…

Which may be true. However, this stove was installed brand new, after she moved into this apartment from the one she’d been in when she first moved into the building. She has never said anything about the element being like this before. She’s also never burned anything like this before!

I didn’t say much about it, though while we were eating, I was looking around for a fire extinguisher. Being a public housing building, I would have expected one and asked. She didn’t know what I was talking about at first, so I described what it would look like to her, and she said no, she had nothing like that. Granted, she wouldn’t have been able to figure out how to use one, but it would have been good to have one if an actual fire broke out, so someone else would have it available to use.

While talking about fire extinguishers and alarms, she pointed to the spot on the wall where her CO monitor that my brother got her, used to be. When we set up her place before taking her home from the hospital, my brother checked it and found it had no batteries. We had some issues getting fresh batteries into it and being able to close up the back. There were too many other things that needed to be done, so we took the batteries back out again, and my brother took it home with him to check on later.

My mother’s comment was that she had been “fooled” by it. It had started beeping, but she should the sound was coming from the fire detector on the ceiling, which is also a CO monitor. She’s called public housing and they send someone over. The fire detector was working fine, and the beeping was traced to the CO monitor on the wall.

Long story short, they took the batteries out so the beeping would stop.

…

So not only did my mother think this was some sort of “trick”, but apparently, she thought they were smoke detectors.

I tried to explain to her how dangerous CO poisoning could be, but she preferred to think my brother was somehow messing with her, instead.

*sigh*

I dropped it for now.

Once we were done lunch, we went over her shopping list, which included a trip to the pharmacy for some items this time, and I was soon off. When I got to the truck, though, I took the time to message my family about the things that happened at my mom’s. The burnt food is something home care had told us to watch out for, as it becomes a safety issue. While driving to the pharmacy, I remembered I had the home care coordinator’s business card in my phone case, so I called her when I parked and left a message about it.

Oh, there was another issue I’d tried asking my mother about, and that was getting a Life Line. She’d talked to the woman from the Senior’s Centre; they are the ones that arrange this. Unfortunately, she was confused about the 2 versions of it she can get and wasn’t sure which one to choose. More on that later.

The items my mother had on her list for the pharmacy were easy to find, so I was soon done there and moved on to the grocery store. I was able to get everything on her list, with no substitutions, which was nice.

Today is Tuesday, which is when the common room of her building is used for group low impact exercises, arranged with the local senior’s centre, and people from other buildings come over for it, too. When I got back, they were already starting to gather, so I went around. I had told my mother to go ahead and join them and I could put things away for her, but she was still in her apartment when I got there.

After putting things away, my mother started talking about her bubble packs. It took a while to figure out what she was getting at, and then I had to open up the lock box to be sure, but my mother’s meds were completely out. She said they were going to be delivered, but then didn’t seem sure that they would actually be delivered – and was asking me if I’d picked them up while at the pharmacy! I had no idea about, and she was starting to get so upset, I told her I would just go back to the pharmacy and get them.

It’s a good thing I did.

The prescriptions were prepared for delivery later, so the pharmacist was surprised to see me, but since I was there, she brought out the annual form they need signed to continue doing my mother’s medications in bubble packs. Since they know I have my mother’s permission with this stuff, I was able to sign it on her behalf. My mother would have been very confused by getting that form!

This time, when I got back to her building, my mother was in the common room with the others. So I took care of putting things away, then doing some light house keeping. I hadn’t tested her blood pressure earlier, and it was while I was sweeping that I’d found the box with the machine in it.

My mother had hidden it under her table.

So, no testing her BP this visit! I did put it back on the table, though.

After I finished cleaning up and putting things away, I started heading out. My mother was in behind a table with someone next to her, so I was going to skirt around the group as quietly as possible to give her a hug and a kiss goodbye, but enough people recognized me and started saying hi that I just laughed and said I was going to interrupt, when right through the circle of people to get around to my mother and gave her hugs and kisses. They got a good laugh out of that!

Later on, my mother phoned me and thanked me for that. Apparently, doing this was “good for my reputation”. ??? She explained that the group talks about all sorts of things, and one regular subject is about how many of the seniors are either largely forgotten by their adult children, or treated badly by them. I got the impression my mother hear a lot of positive comments after I left. Which made her happy, so that makes me happy.

She also told me she’s talked to the woman from the Senior’s Center again about the Life Line, and she will be coming by to my mother’s tomorrow to start the paperwork for it. I told my mother that, if necessary, I expect to be home all day, so she can call me if she feels the need.

Meanwhile, I updated my siblings about how things went, including about the CO monitor. My brother soon responded. He found out what was going on. Once he was able to get the batteries in, it started to beep. A double beep every 30 seconds. The display screen also said “end”.

On the back of the monitor, it explained that the monitor needs to be replaced every 10 years and, as a reminder, it would start to double beep every 30 seconds and display the word “end”.

You’d think the public housing guys that maintain CO monitors would have caught on to that.

Or maybe they did, but my mother didn’t understand what they were saying to her.

I feel better about that, at least!

Not so about the burned food. My mother is always super cautious about that sort of thing, so it was *really* unusual for her to not just burn food, but burn it so badly.

As alarming as that is, this may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. My mother really wants to be in long term care. She is aware of how much she is physically failing, and she at least somewhat recognizes her own cognitive decline and it, understandably, scares her. I really hope this is what gets her into the care she needs!

Total change of subject.

I got a call from the Cat Lady while I was working on this. She had sent me some security camera images. The property they moved on to about a year and a half ago, backs up against a national park, where lots of people walk their dogs. Six off leash dogs suddenly showed up on their deck, just minutes after their youngest daughter had been out there with Button. Button is completely blind and deaf now, and their youngest daughter makes a point of going out there with him in a harness to get some fresh air when she comes home from school for lunch.

Her husband had chased the dogs off and they confronted the owner, who said outright she didn’t care. Even when they told her their daughter had been on the deck with a blind and deaf cat, the response was, that cat would have been eaten. !!! When they confronted her on that, her response was, I don’t care, I hate cats. !!!! She also called the Cat Lady rude names, and her very butch partner started looking ready to be violent.

They called the RCMP on them. This is not an off leash park, for starters, and they are on something like 10 acres, so that’s quite a distance for the dogs to be running around away from their owners. People that irresponsible with their animals should not have any, let alone 6 big dogs! I just can’t imagine knowing your animals are prone to violence, and not caring if the kill another animal or possibly hurt a child.

They were so relieved their daughter and Button had already gone inside, that’s for sure!

Which lead to an update on Button. His sight had been going for a while now, and then it was just gone. The vet thinks it was a viral infection, in utero. Any other kittens in the litter and the mother likely died, and they really don’t know how Button survived. It has effected his development in many ways. The Cat Lady tells me, they don’t care. They adore him. Even their dog adores him. He is in almost constant contact with a human, and they even take him out for coffee and other outings. And to think, he was supposed to be adopted by someone else entirely, who ended up backing out and adopting another cat, when his vet care kept getting longer and longer!

Meanwhile, she will be looking into booking a couple more neuters for us. I mentioned we might be able to get a female, now that Adam actually comes up to us for pets, so she will see what they can arrange. I told her, whatever they can manage, we’ll happily take. Beggars can’t be choosers! We’ve got so many friendly males, but we really need to get the females done.

She will get back to us when she has more information.

What a day she had, though! I appreciate that, in the middle of all this, she still thinks of us and of how her rescue can help us.

She is so awesome.

The Re-Farmer

Getting chilly again

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As much as I appreciate that we are slowly warming up and getting some really nice days, the weather whiplash of spring seems almost like an insult. 😄

With things warm enough to be melting all over, today’s high of -7C/19F (which we are already at) with a wind chill of -21C/-6F feels so much colder. A few weeks ago, these temperatures felt like spring!

While doing my morning rounds today, little Magda decided to follow me around. She kept getting under my feet, so I picked her up. She doesn’t like to be carried and ended up on my shoulders – which she didn’t like, either! – but she was cold and shivering, and actually allowed me to tuck her into my jacket.

For a little while, at least.

There’s a weather system blowing from West to East, almost straight across the country, bringing snow and high winds. The snow is supposed to start hitting us withing the next half hour or so, and continue for several hours. Tonight’s low is supposed to drop to -22C/-8F, which means the winds will probably make it feel colder than -30C/-22F

This see-sawing of temperatures means our usual explosion of pot holes on the roads over the next few weeks! While we’re just getting a bit of snow today, it’s not unusual to have at least one big blizzard in March or April.

Tomorrow, we’re supposed to have a high of -7C/19F again, with a warmer overnight low. I’ll be helping my mother with grocery shopping tomorrow, then do some of our own errands as well. After that, we’ll be getting a few days above freezing, then dropping down again, for more weather whiplash!

Winter and spring will be battling out for a few more weeks, yet!

The Re-Farmer

A day of rest

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I’m happy to say that today has been a quiet, uneventful day!

I’ve learned to really appreciate boring days. 😄

I was even able to sleep in… sort of. The girls took care of the outside stuff for me, as well as taking care of the inside cats. This includes kicking all the cats out of my room except for Butterscotch and Freya, so they have have their extra feeding of wet cat food, and Butterscotch would get a chance to use the litter. I’m happy to say that she is starting to use more of the room, instead of just the quarter or so of it that she was isolating herself into, but there is still the problem of the young cats going after her when she tries to use the litter.

You’d think that would make it easier to sleep in, but after the other cats are done with breakfast, they want back in, and start scratching at the door.

Loudly.

Today was warm enough that, when it was time to do the evening feeding outside, I made their own version of cat soup by softening their kibble in hot water for a while. They absolutely loved it!

It’ll be nice, when the highs stay above freezing, and we can do this for them more often.

Yeah, feeding the cats was my big event for the day. 😄

It’s good to have a day of rest!

The Re-Farmer

Who did dat?

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I’m guessing racoons. For part of it, anyhow.

First off, going into the sun room, it looked like there had been a fight or something. What probably happened, though, is that racoons were digging around. Trays were pushed aside all over. Cat carriers on the shelves were pushed aside and half out of their shelves. The litter box was half way across the room. Even the cat beds and self-warming mat on the platform were messed up.

All the food trays and the heated water bowl were empty.

There is the big heated water bowl that no longer heats, but it still being used for water. Of course the water freezes. With the temperatures we’ve been having, it no longer freezes solid. This morning, I could see that the ice on the top had been broken through, and the water below was almost gone.

My guess is, racoons got into the sun room and, once the trays were empty of kibble, they just started digging around on the floor and shelf and the platform, looking for stray bits.

What really hit me, though, was the smell. It’s gotten really bad in there. Yes, we have a litter box, but it looks like it’s only been used to urinate in. Which means, somewhere in hidden corners, we’ve got messes thawing out.

It will be good, once things are warm and dry enough, to empty the sun room and give it a thorough spring cleaning! That’s something we’ve been trying to do every spring. It’s just easier to empty the whole room to clean it, than to try and clean it around the shelves and whatnot stored in there.

Outside, I found one of the food bowls from the bottom of the shelf shelter was on the sidewalk, but that one is always knocked out for some reason. The bowls on all three shelves were empty, though.

All the food trays in the kibble house, and under the water bowl shelter, were empty.

The heated water bowl in its shelter was almost completely dry.

Only in the isolation shelter, did I still find a bit of kibble left in the food bowl.

What I also found was this. It was not there, yesterday.

At least, not how it is now.

I noticed something had been digging into the snow pile a little while ago. My guess was that, when I last cleared snow off the top off the well cap, where some cats prefer to eat, old kibble was mixed up in the snow and a skunk or racoon was digging for it.

The hole was bigger after a while, and it looked smoothed out, like something had been lying in the snow cave created.

Today, not only was the “cave” deeper, but if you click through to the next image, you’ll see the other entrance.

The cave had become a tunnel!

I wonder if there is a “room” somewhere in there?

There are too many tracks in the snow to be able to tell what made this. Not the cats, of course. I don’t think a racoon did this, though. It’s too small. Which means it was probably dug out by a skunk.

I noticed cats snuffling about one of the openings, but none seem interested in exploring inside.

Can’t blame them for that! I don’t think it was occupied at the time I found it, but who knows what’s inside?

With the freeze-thaw cycle we’ve been in for a while, the top of that pile of snow has developed a pretty heft crust of snow that partially melted, then froze again, several times. I could probably stand right on top of where the tunnel is, and it would still hold my weight. Not that I’d try, since I’d probably slip and fall right on my butt. Just moving around to the other side of the pile to get a better look at the second opening was rather treacherous!

Inside that tunnel would probably be quite snug and even warm. Snow can be an excellent insulator.

We’re supposed to go above freezing today – we’re almost there already – and be slightly warmer tomorrow. There’s going to be quite a bit more melting happening! The paved roads are good, but it’s going to make portions of the gravel roads very touchy, when my daughter and I head into town to get her prescription. She wants to check out the second hand store I visited yesterday, too. I think she wants to check out that bucket of knitting needles! 😁

It should be a good day for it. Hopefully, the winds have changed. Yesterday was a good day for walking around, except for the wind coming off the ice covered lake. Such a warm day, only to be hit with bitterly cold wind at the same time!

But I will have my daughter for company today. Thankfully, she is feeling better. She had to use a cane, yesterday, and could barely walk from joint pain. PCOS really sucks.

We are such a household of gimps! It says a lot when we have days where I am the most able bodied person in the house!

Ah, well. It is what it is! We just deal with whatever the day brings us!

The Re-Farmer

Cats, cats and more cats!

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I got to spend some extra time with the outside cats this morning. We had a chilly night, and it was still pretty cold, but they didn’t seem to notice! It’s going to be a decent day today, and then just keep warming up, so they’re going to be all over the place!

While putting kibble out in the sun room, I got accosted by a tuxedo, who wanted all sorts of pets.

We have a few tuxedos, but I haven’t seen most of them for a while. I’m actually not sure if this is one of our regulars that has come back from exploring, or if this is a new cat. It cats hard to keep track when they come and go so much.

I’m thrilled to have caught him in a tongue blehp, though.

He was incredibly friendly, though, and eager for both food and attention. So he’s probably one of ours that has returned. I suspect that if he were a dump, he would have been more skittish. He could be visiting from another farm, too.

Once outside, there was a crowd of cats on the cat house roof, waiting for kibble, so I went over and got an absolute thrill.

Adam came to me, wanting pets!

I was able to get some video.

The tabby in front was named by the girls because he apparently always goes for their toes. He nips when he wants attention. He’s not the only one that does that!

Before I got my camera out, not only was I able to pet Adam, but I was able to give her full on, two handed, face and neck scritches. She looked like she was in heaven! This is so awesome! We have been trying to socialize her for 3 years, with virtually zero success. No, suddenly, she has decided she likes us. 😄

She is one of the cats that went into heat early, but she doesn’t seem to be pregnant. Given how long it’s been, I would have expected her to start showing by now. There’s no real way to know right now, though. However, now that she had decided to let us actually pet her, we should be able to get her into a carrier, rather than having to trap her, and get her spayed. Hopefully, the rescue would be able to arrange something, soon. It’s getting warm enough that I would be willing to try trapping cats soon. It’s those overnight temperatures we have to keep an eye on, since we have no way to monitor a trap.

As I was finishing up my rounds and passing by the isolation shelter, I had a whole crowd of faces, watching me!

There are eight in this photo, including one mostly hidden by the lamp. There were at least two others out of frame, too.

Once inside the sun room, I was greeted by this fluffy boy.

He looks so angry! 😄 He was actually being very friendly and wanting attention.

Just like this little girl, who followed me from the isolation shelter.

Magda is one of the cats that is just too smol. She’s almost a year old, but looks like she’s just a few months old. There are several littles like her, but she is the only friendly one – and even she has her making strange moments, still. She would be an easy one to catch for spay and adoption through the rescue, but I’d be afraid to do it. With her small size, that tells me she’s probably going to need extra medical care. Whenever that happens, it seems they end up keeping the cats permanently, and they already have so many unadoptable cats right now!

I tried to do a head count this morning, and I think I counted a total of 30. It’s hard to know for sure if I got them all, or if I double counted some.

So many of them would make such great indoor cats, if we could find people to adopt them!

The Re-Farmer

Almost there!

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Today was my day to get the truck to the garage, but not until 10am, so I had plenty of time to do my morning rounds.

Where I found these…

I just had to include my hand for perspective, though the kitty prints help, too. That is one big raccoon was had visiting us!

It’s doing a good job of cleaning up the old kibble that cats won’t eat anymore, so I can’t complain. I haven’t checked today’s trail cam files yet, so I don’t know it it was caught, but a few days ago I saw him going in and out through our gate, and he is a big’un!

While putting kibble into the isolation shelter, I got tackled.

That little tabby has been after attention pretty much every morning, now.

Colin wanted attention so much, he forced himself into my hand while I was trying to get pictures! Lately, I’ve typically had about 5 or 6 friendly males, pushing for attention, in the mornings. Plus Magda. I have to be careful trying to pet her. She’s so small, the big boys push her around without even noticing!

As usual, I left for my appointment early, remembering to leave the gate open for today’s prescription delivery. My husband would get his meds faster that way, than if I went to the pharmacy to get them myself.

While dropping off the keys, I asked for a general idea of how long it would take. The best he could tell me was “a few hours”. Thankfully, it’s warmer now (we are still at our high of -6C/21F), so it was a fine day to walk around town.

The first thing to do was find somewhere to get breakfast. I was still early enough that not a lot of places were open yet, but also, I needed to find somewhere were I could adjust my order to fit my Lenten fast from sugars and starches. I ended up walking across town, almost to the lake, to a hotel cafe where I knew they would be open for breakfast. I don’t often go there, partly because they are not accessible, and I don’t do well with stairs. But, it’s got reliably good home cooking type meals, and they open early in the day. I also knew that I would be able to take my time while there, and not feel like I’m taking up a table they needed for any sort of rush.

All their breakfast meals include home cut hash browns and toast in your bread of choice – both things I wanted to skip. I told the waitress what I was needing to cut out, and asked if they could just add an extra egg or something, instead. She said she would talk to the kitchen staff, and that’s what they ended up doing. I got their “Farmer’s Breakfast) of eggs, bacon, ham and sausage. The hash browns and toast would have made it a really huge meal! It was very good.

My tea without sugar, however, was … tea without sugar. 😄

When I was done there, I went to several nearby shops to look around. One of them was a dollar type store, and I did find a few things, including a long pipe cleaner style brush for our bathroom sink. When we had to take stuff out of the bathroom while replacing the taps, faucet, some pipes, and the old tub surround, we had to take pretty much everything out of the bathroom. That included one of these pipe cleaner type brushes. It’s the only thing that can clean out the bathroom sink properly.

Unfortunately, it disappeared at some point. We figure a cat had to have dragged it off, but to where? It’s been months, and we still haven’t found it!

I was happy to see they had some in stock and made sure to grab one!

I spent enough time looking at things and checking out other stores that when I got closer to another restaurant, a fried chicken place, it was actually a good time to stop for lunch.

They had a new sign out front. They are now open for breakfast, too! Until recently, they didn’t open until 11am. Something to remember, should I need to in the future.

It took a while, but I finally settled on one of their “snack” meals, that came with only one side and no bun. Instead of the usual fries, I chose their coleslaw. I like their coleslaw better than their fries, anyhow! So that worked out.

Again, I was able to take my time about it, as much to make it easier on my hips and knees as anything else! I knew I would have a lot more walking ahead of me.

Once I was done there, I made my way to another shop where I found a few more small things to pick up. The pharmacy was across the street, and I remembered to go there to get the printouts for our taxes.

We paid over $1400 in co-pay for my husband’s meds last year. His private insurance covers 90% and, once the $3000+ deductible is covered, some of his medications switch to the provincial prescription insurance, which then covers 100%. Most of his meds aren’t covered by the provincial insurance at all.

Thank God for private insurance!

My prescription co-pay amount is miniscule compared to his.

From there, it was more walking – and finding a clean bench to sit on for a while. Last of all, I stopped at a hardware store, where I finally found a metal dish rack to replace the plastic coated one we’ve been using since moving here. It was here before us, and pieces of the plastic coating was already starting to break off. After 7 more years, it was definitely time to replace it! It was surprisingly hard to find a non-plastic dish rack in the size we needed.

I mightily resisted picking up grow light kits today. One would have done will for our plants in the living room. The other would be great for starting seeds. I have decided I do want to use the new part basement for seed starting, but we have to do some re-arranging, first. I do have a nice, bright shop light down there now, but it’s not the kind where a timer could be set. I can still use one of the big aquarium lights, though, and it does have a timer, so that could work. We shall see.

At that point, I was just a couple of blocks from the garage. I hadn’t heard from them yet, but I was done with walking, so I headed over. I knew I could stay in their office waiting area, at least for a while.

When I got there, the truck was up on the lift.

There were 3 mechanics under it, the owner/mechanic had something in his hand, and they were all looking slightly perplexed.

Hmmm.

Once I was in the office, one of the first things I noticed was a bag of take out food on the desk, still all closed up.

The owner soon came in and told me they would have to change the oil plate gasket another day. He had the wrong one! He ordered a new one immediately.

He went out and was back again. The only thing left to do was the wheel alignment, and he suggested doing it at the same time as the gasket, rather than today. The bay with the equipment to do the wheel alignment had another vehicle on it still. They’d have to finish that vehicle first, then move the truck, which would make it another 2 1/2 hours! They were so busy, they had all three bays full, plus smaller vehicles/equipment tucked in spaces in between that, even with three mechanics, they hadn’t been able to stop for lunch, yet! It was well past 1pm by the time I got there.

By stopping at this point, though, it would only be a few more minutes.

So I paid for the work they did today. When he mentioned that the gasket he’d ordered would be in tomorrow, I asked if I could come back tomorrow, and he fit me in for the afternoon.

Just one more day, and the list of small(ish) fixes will be done!

It was just a bit longer as they lowered the truck and tested it out before it was ready.

Today’s work was replacing a front left axle seal, the new oil pressure sensor, a new cv boot and new front links. The parts totaled $216.35. Shop supplies cost $36.99. Three hours of labour cost $299.97 After taxes, the final bill was $619.71

I’m expecting tomorrow’s work to be in the $200-$250 range, after taxes.

That done, I still had a couple more stops to make, now that I could use the truck to do them. First, a quick trip to the grocery store across the street to refill two of our big water jugs. We didn’t need anything else, but I looked around anyhow, and did get a few things that were on sale – specifically, cheese and lactose free cheese, plus some salad kits that I can eat. The ones I got at Costco have dressings that are just over my tolerance level for spicy heat.

Before leaving town, I got some gas at the one gas station where the prices have started to go down. $1.519/L instead of $1.569/L

My husband had let me know a parcel had come in, so I stopped at the post office on the way home. The 250 watt ceramic bulbs I ordered were in. However, the pair of clamp lamps I ordered that can handle 250 watt bulbs are not in yet. Once that package reached the Canadian side of the border, it switched to CanPar for delivery. I think we might actually get delivery to our physical address with them! Tracking information says March 14 for delivery, but I do know it’s in our province now, so it shouldn’t take that long.

Once it’s in, I want to replace the fixture in the isolation shelter. The new fixture has a wire guard around the bulb, so no cats can burn themselves. The current fixture has no such protection. Granted, it would take a lot for a cat to end up that close to the heat bult, but still, I’d rather not take the chance! Plus, the current heat bulb is incandescent, so there is light in there, day and night, which can disrupt sleep patterns. Considering they cluster together right in front of the bulb to stay warm, that can potentially be an issue.

The clamp lamp in the sun room has a 150 watt ceramic bulb in it right now, and I’m thinking of still using that, but setting up a second 250 watt heat bulb nearby, somewhere.

I’ll figure that out, once the lamps come in.

Meanwhile…

Look! No check engine light! And the oil pressure gauge is working again!

The tire light is for the three remaining tire sensors with dead 14 yr old batteries that need to be replaced. Those can be done, little by little. We’ve had that light on for over a year, now. I think we can last a few more months! We need to focus on paying off the credit card for the work we’re getting done right now, first.

The trip meter shows how many kilometers I’ve driven since filling the tank at Costco. Which is about twice what it normally would be, this early in the month!

Oh, I just realized. I need to go read the meter for our electricity, while it’s still light out enough to see it!

My last task on today’s “to do list”.

It’s been a pretty darn productive day.

I’m going to feel much, much better once the final work is done, tomorrow!

The Re-Farmer