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The Costco shop that didn’t happen

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Oh, wow. What a day.

I don’t mean that in a good way, but I have to say that I am very grateful. Things went wrong in the best way possible, if that makes any sense!

Today was my day to go to Costco for our second stock up shopping trip. Shopping there on a Saturday is definitely better than on Black Friday! Still, I wasn’t looking forward to it. I just don’t like shopping in general. On top of that, while today was warmer than yesterday, the winds were still pretty high. But, it needed to be done, and it really wasn’t all that bad out, as far as winter weather goes in this area.

My mother called last night and we arranged for a grocery shopping and errands day on Monday. However, she mentioned being out of milk, so I told her I would swing by the grocery store in her town on the way out, and get some for her. She asked me to get her something to go with her tea, too. 😊

So that was my first stop of the day. While at the grocery store, I picked up a sandwich and a drink to tide me over until I got to the city.

I am so glad I did.

My plan had been to stop at a shopping mall near the Costco first to grab lunch at the food court, then do the shopping. As I was getting closer to the city, however, I began to notice the sound of tires on the road was getting louder. I had the radio on, and it was loud enough to be heard over the music, which is not usual.

I couldn’t think about it too much, though, once I made my first turn onto the highway bypassing most of the city. At this point, I was no longer driving with the wind at my back, but was getting blasted from the side. The truck was being buffeted quite a lot, until I finally reached my exit.

At this point, I turned off the radio and was listening to the tires. It still sounded like tires on the road. Just louder.

When I got to the mall, I found myself having to drive through the parking lot, trying to find a spot. It was really full, and I couldn’t find any, even far from the building. However, that sound was really bothering me. There is a Canadian Tire between this mall and the Costco, so I headed for the Canadian Tire. Just to make things even more interesting, by this time I was really needing a bathroom.

Thankfully, I found a parking spot near the Canadian Tire auto service area. When I got out of the truck, I quickly checked the tires. They looked find, but there was a lot of ice built up on the mud flaps. Could that be all it was?

I didn’t stop to find out and ran inside to use the bathroom, then messaged my family about the status of things. I messaged my brother, too. I had messaged them earlier about the possibility of meeting for lunch. My SIL had gone out of province and wasn’t back yet, and my brother was running errands. When they bowed out, I responded and said, just as well, and explained why.

After that, I went back to the truck and knocked the ice free from all the mud flaps. From the gouges in the ice, there was no doubt that it had been rubbing against the tires.

That is was pretty thick, too!

By the fourth tire, the scraper on my snow clearing brush broke off. That piece of ice beside it in the photo was probably the biggest of them all.

I then got into the truck and started backing out, thinking I could head back to the mall and get food.

Which is when the other noise started.

As soon as I started moving, there was a sort of screeching, rubbing, grinding noise.

I stopped and moved back into the stop, and the sound continued when I was moving forward.

I was not going to drive anywhere with that noise!

I thought that maybe it was just ice somewhere in there, but it wasn’t worth taking a chance. We only have the one vehicle!

Back into Canadian Tire I went.

After waiting in line for a while – there were a lot of people around – I told a guy what was happening and asked about getting it checked. He told me that they were really busy, and it was unlikely they’d be able to check it for at least 6 or 7 hours.

!!!

So I asked where the next nearest garage was and he told me about a couple of them.

I wasn’t about to drive the truck, though. After looking up on my maps app, I found which one was closest and headed that way.

Walking straight into the wind.

Thankfully, I was dressed for the weather, so I was fine. I made sure to wear my down filled parka today. It may be old and ratty, but it’s very warm.

I just checked, and the distance I walked was a little over half a mile.

I talked to the guy behind the counter, explaining the situation. Unfortunately, they were really busy, too. They closed at four and, even if we got the towed over, he couldn’t guarantee they’d be able to look at it before closing. The truck would be staying there for the weekend.

So I thanked them and decided, 6-7 hours isn’t that bad.

I was going to message my family but found my brother had tried to call me while I was walking, so I called him back. It turned out he was in the area – stuck waiting for a train! – and wanted to meet me. I told him I was going back to the Canadian Tire and why.

Amazingly, I got there before he did.

This time, I had the wind at my back, so it was a much more pleasant walk.

Once there, however, I found I was too late. They were now booking for Monday.

Meanwhile, I was concerned about the budget. There was only so much we could absorb. So I ended up calling my bank to talk about that. I ended up sitting in the truck to have the privacy and quiet to make the call.

I got an automated message saying how long the wait was expected to be and was able to choose a call back option.

I just finished on the phone when my brother called. He was in the auto service area, looking for me! When I told him where I was, he told me to stay there and he’d meet me.

When he got there, he asked me all sorts of questions, then got me to try moving the truck back a few feet, then forward again, while he listened.

He was able to narrow the noise down to the front tires (from the inside, the sound seemed to be all around). He also thought it sounded like metal on metal.

*sigh*

He wanted to try and look under, but didn’t want to lie on the snow. I had a tarp in the back, though so we brought that out. He looked, then had me move the truck back again, while he was looking under it.

After he got up and got me to more forward again, he told me everything that he could see looked in really good shape. The only thing he could think of that could be making the noise was the bearings.

I’ve had to replace a bearing before, and it didn’t sound anything at all like this.

If it is the bearings, he thinks it would likely cost around $1000.

!!!

He also said that when I was going in reverse, the sound seemed to come from the front driver’s side tire – but when I moved forward, it seemed to be coming from the front passenger side.

At that point, the only thing to do was to book the truck in. He said he would lend us a car – or I could possibly spend the night with them.

When we got back in and talked to the guy at the counter, my brother was able to tell him exactly what he saw for the notes.

Just checking the truck is going to cost almost $200 in total.

It’s now booked for 7am on Monday. I’d say that’s their earliest slot that no one else wanted. I won’t be in the city and the truck is staying in their parking lot, so it doesn’t matter to me. He did say that they will try and see it tomorrow, if possible. Otherwise, Monday it is.

While this was going on, my phone vibrated but didn’t ring. I don’t know why my phone doesn’t ring for incoming calls. It is set to both ring and vibrate, but there’s never a ring. Anyhow, it was CIBC trying to call me back. My brother and I were heading for the doors when I felt my pocket vibrating, so I took the call.

Long story short on that one: I spoke to 5 different people for 1 hour and 11 minutes. During this time, I followed my brother to his car, we sat there for a bit until I was on hold again, he drove me to his place, made a pot of tea and got out a lunch to heat up, all while I was either on hold or being transferred and put on hold again.

In the end, though, it was done. If necessary, we will have back up funds to finance the cost.

*sigh*

Meanwhile, my brother still had errands to do – and was going to be meeting my SIL at the airport! She was in the loop with messaging and we even spoke on the phone while having lunch. I am so glad I got that sandwich earlier, or I would have been dizzy and nauseous from hunger by that point! The hungrier I get, the sicker I get, but the more I lose my appetite. It’s really weird. The more I need to eat, the less I want to eat.

Anyhow.

During the drive to their place, the weather got really bad. By this time, it was past 2, so going to Costco was not going to happen. We would be losing light, soon, so I wanted to go straight home.

My brother then moved the car he drove so I could take their other car out of the garage, and we went our separate ways.

I don’t know what I would have done without my brother’s help! I’d still have talked to the bank, but likely would have had to find a hotel or something, and I don’t think there are any in this area.

By the time I was heading home, though, the road conditions and weather were excellent, so I made a stop at the small Walmart along the way. I figured I could at least pick up some butter and toilet paper.

I messaged my family and my daughter added a couple more things to the list that we would need soon.

They were out of butter, other than the expensive stuff sold in sticks, but I got a few other things. I even got some more kibble, just in case.

Then I loaded the car and started messaging my family to let them know I was soon to be back on the road, when I realized, I forgot the toilet paper! 😄😄 We aren’t out, but it would have been good to have extra, just in case.

Meanwhile, I also got messages from the Cat Lady while I was driving to the Walmart. I answered her and told her what was going on.

Finally, I was on the road home again. Since I had the cat food, I had arranged for the sun room doors to be untied so I could go in that way with them.

Which is why I found the kitten.

The tiny little grey and white kitten that wasn’t getting any bigger, lying on one of the patio blocks in front of the shelf shelter.

😭

I can’t say it was a surprise, since she was obviously not thriving. With the cold we’ve been having, it was probably just too much for her tiny body. There was nothing obviously wrong with her. She didn’t seem sick, no injuries, just… not thriving. I knew that if we were going to lose any to natural causes, she was the most likely.

It still really sucks. Yes, we have too many yard cats, but it’s always sad when we lose them – and we lost so many this year!

I couldn’t even bury her. I had to put her in the branch pile for cremation.

*sigh*

So, that’s our situation now. I’ve got my brother’s car again – he was telling me that, at this point, I’ve driven their “new” car more than he has! – which is such a Godsend. The fact that I was able to get the truck parked right at the garage is another thing to be grateful for.

Meanwhile, we’re going to have to change things up next week, since we have no way of knowing when we’ll get the truck back. Even if they check it and find the problem, they may not be able to actually repair it right away.

The Cat Lady has already said she will reschedule the spays on Thursday. I may or may not have to reschedule with my mother on Monday, but if we don’t get the truck back on Monday or Tuesday, my daughter and I will have to reschedule her doctor’s appointment and my eye appointment, which are both on Wednesday. Which we might have had to do anyhow. My daughter still has her dizzy spells and might not be able to drive me home from my eye appointment, even if we had the truck, and my brother doesn’t want anyone but me driving their car.

Oof.

What a day!

For all the things that went wrong, I can still say, they went wrong in as good a way as possible. I didn’t break down on the road, or while I was running errands for my mother or.. or… or… There are so many ways things could have been worse.

Meanwhile, I am safe at home and, thanks go my brother, we have transportation.

Life is good, and we have much to be thankful for.

The Re-Farmer

A quick isolation shelter build

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

Yesterday, we had my husband’s prescription delivery and I headed out too early. It was cold, so I went into the garage to get out of the wind and started poking through the lumber and other left over building material my brother gave us while they were moving things out.

I struck gold.

I found a few pieces of plywood that looked liked they were the size I needed and brought them to the house, after the prescription delivery.

Today, I could have gone into the city to do our Costco shop. It is, however, Black Friday. I don’t know why we have Black Friday in Canada, since our Thanksgiving is in October. Truthfully, I was really confused about when the US Thanksgiving was, since these sales have been going on for about two weeks. Even so, this is the “big day” for sales which, for me, means, staying away from stores as much as possible! It’s not like we’d be buying anything different that we usually do, and that stuff tends to not go on sale.

I’ll be doing that tomorrow. Even shopping on a Saturday at Costco would be better than shopping on Black Friday!

So, today was a home day.

As I write this, we’re currently at -16C/3F, with a wind chill of -29C/-20F Our high of the day was supposed to be -13C/9F, but I don’t think we reached it.

With that in mind, I decided it was a good day to see what I could do with those pieces of plywood, and whatever else I could find.

What we have been wanting to do is build some sort of shelter over the isolation shelter opening. It’s a large opening and the winds can blow right in – and would blow in snow, as well. We needed something to keep the weather out. It needed to be easily moveable, but also heavy enough that it wouldn’t get blown away. The plywood I found looked like it would fit the bill for making a box that would fit over the ramp door.

All three pieces were exactly 2′ long, but one was slightly narrower. The narrower piece became the top. I made the 2′ the height of the box, since the bottom level of the isolation shelter is 2′ high. That does not count the pallet floor or wheels, though, so I knew I would need to keep that in mind, too.

The slideshow below is a couple of photos of the basic box shape.

That bit of a gap from the narrower piece would go against the isolation shelter. I didn’t take any measurements, so this was just in case it lined up with the top of the latch on the frame.

I had some lumber left over from making the garden bed cover frames, so I cut 2′ of that to join the bottom of the box and stabilize it. That is meant to go under the ramp door. I might end up removing that, though. The wood split on one side as I nailed it in place. I found a skinnier but longer nail for the other side, and ended up splitting the plywood.

As you’ve probably guessed, this entire projected was made with scavenged materials.

Speaking of scavenged materials…

I had found another piece of plywood with a perfect circle cut into it that would have made a great “door”, but it was too small to fit the front of the box.

I did, however, still have a panel of the old tub surround in the house.

So, I laid that down and used the box itself to mark out a piece large enough to cover the front completely. I decided I would use that to cover the front and make a cat flap door. You can see progress photos in the slideshow below.

One the front panel was cut out, I found the center, the marked off four inches on either side, then … I forget if I went 10 or 11 inches from the bottom. That got cut out to make the door flap.

I then cut about half an inch off the bottom, and less than 1/8th of an inch off one side. I didn’t measure. Basically, I had a piece of wood I was using as a straight edge to cut against, and it was whatever amount looked right. The main thing is that the flap had to be able to move freely in the space. With a gap on the bottom, I figured it would be easier for the cats to figure out how to use the flap, as they would instinctively snuffle at the gap to try and get in or out.

All I had to create a “hinge” for the flap was duct tape, though. So I secured that as best I could, while still allowing for the flap to freely swing in both directions.

The next thing was to attach it to the front of the box, and secure it. Slideshow below…

I had some smaller nails that were white that I bought for something else quite a while ago, and those were perfect for attaching the panel.

I used a lot of nails, since I figured cats might end up dashing out and bashing into the sides when startled.

Which is also why I added a cross piece above the cat flap on the inside. I was able to nail that into place at each end, but I also wanted to attach the panel to the cross piece, and for that I needed smaller nails.

After scrounging around through various buckets we found while cleaning the old basement, I found three short little nails.

They would do!

I’ve kept a chimney block in the basement because it’s been such a handy work surface for various projects, and it came in handy again. I set it up inside the box, under the cross piece. It was shorter than the height needed, but a piece of scrap 2×4 was enough to make the difference. The panel is now secured to the cross piece above the cat flap, where I figured it would need the most support.

I then spotted a potential problem. All of this exposed wood that’s going to be in the snow all winter. Even if we had paint, I wouldn’t have wanted to use it, as it would need time to dry, and I wanted to get this out as quickly as possible.

Tub surround to the rescue, once again.

I made a roof.

That could only be nailed down on the sides, as the nails I had are 1″ and the plywood is 3/4″, so I used quite a few to secure it. In the first photo of the slideshow above, you can see that I also used more duct tape around the edges of the panel at the cat flap, plus added another strip above the flap, just in case.

The next image shows how it looks on the inside, with the cross piece, and the last image from the back. I’d laid the top of the box to mark out how large it was, on the back of the tub surround piece. This piece has holes in it from the arm bars, which didn’t matter for the front panel, but for the roof, I made sure there were no screw holes. This time, when using the piece of scrap lumber as my cutting guide (I just used a utility knife to cut it), I lined it up with my marks, then cut on the other side of the wood, to create an overhang on three sides.

It was now done!

Next year, when we get more paint for the isolation shelter, we’ll paint the exposed wood on this, too, but there is no urgency on that, now that there is a roof in place.

At this point, I needed to get this up the basement stairs and outside. Between the unfortunate way the door is hung (it swings over the stairs instead of into the entry) and the cats, I commandeered my daughter for assistance. She helped me get it outside and set up over the ramp door, lifting it so I could slide that back cross piece under it.

I foresaw a few potential problems, once the box was in place. I’d hoped to avoid them, but nope.

In the first photo, you can see the first problem. The patio blocks are not level, and one in particular has been heaved by the roots of the elm tree in front of the house, quite a bit. It actually cracked the front panel at the corner. In the next photo, you can see that not only is it lower than the frame between floors, but not at all level.

What you can’t see is that the cat flap could only swing outwards. Inwards, it was hitting the ramp. The extra height the pallet floor and wheels added were causing this problem.

All I needed was a raised the box higher by a couple of inches. Leveling it was not going to happen, but it at least needed to be raised up and supported enough to not wobble or anything like that.

Bricks from the old wood burning furnace chimney to the rescue! I found four that had the least amount of mortar stuck to them.

It was enough. The flap can now freely swing in or out. The bricks provided a stable enough lift that there is no wobble at all, even though it’s still not level.

In the future, we need to rip out this patio and redo it so it’s level again, but there’s no point in doing that until we get rid of the tree in front of the house. Not only is it lifting the patio blocks, but there are cracks in the basement wall.

While setting up the box over the ramp, there were several cats inside the shelter, very interested in the goings on. Others had already dashed out as soon as we started fussing around the shelter.

For the cats inside, it would be an easy thing for them to figure out the cat flap. What we need to watch for is if they can figure out they can push against it to get in. If it seems that this is an issue, we can prop the flap open, or even remove it entirely. That would allow some of the weather in, but it’s far enough away from the entrance that it should not affect much more than the ramp itself.

When we have cats isolated in the shelter, we’ll need to move the box away completely and close the ramp door. Once that is closed, the box won’t be needed to keep the weather out. There is enough space beside the shelter to store the box until it’s needed again – where it can double as another shelter for the cats. We already have a small food bowl beside the shelter for cats that aren’t willing to go inside it, but it’s completely exposed. Even if it’s for just a couple of weeks while there are cats recovering from spays inside, that would be useful, as long as it doesn’t block access to the sliding door we use to refill the kibble bowl in the second level.

What I’ll probably do in the spring is add legs to the box to raise it up a few inches, so we don’t need to use bricks. The bricks we are using now will be just fine for this winter, though.

When we first moved out here and started cleaning up around the yard, it amazed me just how many bricks I was finding, all over the place.

Now that we’ve been here a few years, we’ve found those bricks incredibly handy, and I even find myself thinking, we need more bricks! 😂

So that’s one more job done for the isolation shelter. Hopefully, the cats will be fine with it, because it will make a big difference in the conditions inside during the winter. Especially when we get hit with winds from the south.

I’m rather pleased with out it turned out, and really grateful for all that scrap wood my brother gave us. The pieces may have been too small for projects my brother needed to work on, but they are perfect for small projects like this!

The Re-Farmer

Morning kitties

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First up, a great big Happy Thanksgiving to our neighbours in the US. I hope you have an awesome day with friends and family and lots of delicious food! You have much to be thankful for, this year. 💕🦃

My daughter has not been able to get much sleep for the past couple of days, so she asked me to do the morning rounds today.

I got to indulge in kitties this morning!

Of course, there is always stuff to do, and this morning I did a bit of shoveling of paths and clearing of snow.

The first photo above is the little solar panels for the motion activated lights inside the kibble and food bowl shelters. They were completely covered with snow.

There isn’t a lot of snow on the ground, but enough that I made paths to the shrine and the catio. In the second photo above, you can see how some snow was piled up around the bottom of the catio. We tried to make sure the extra length of vinyl wrapped around the catio was tucked under the frame when we put it on, but of course, it can get loose. I wanted to make sure there was no chance of the wind catching the edges and pulling them loose. Of course, the snow will also act as an insulating layer and keep out any breezes that might get under. The catio is slightly elevated in the front, which did not get snow added, since the cats need space to slip into the door, and the door itself needs room to swing open if we need to untie it to reach inside.

The added insulation ceiling on the isolation shelter seems to have made quite a difference! Quite a few cats like to hand out in the upper level. The corner where the heated water bowl is actually gets condensation of the window and sliding door. The cutout for the extension cord is in that corner, too, and that’s where you can see a single spot where the snow is melted from below.

I’m quite happy with how this shelter is working out.

By the time I was heading back inside through the sun room, the cats had mostly finished eating and were settling in the various beds and cozy spots.

Adding that strip of insulation on the shelf in the isolation shelter is being much appreciated by little toe beans! They make full use of the spaces made for them in the sun room, too, including the cage under the platform – both in it and on top of it! Unfortunately, they do knock off the pieces of insulation in some areas, like one of the upper level cubes inside the cage, and even in the narrow space between the top of the cage and the platform. They knocked off the feed bag bed in the black shelf so often, I just left it on the floor. They seem to really like it on there, too.

What a bunch of cuties!

Surely, there are people out there that would want to adopt them!

Right?

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

First stock up shop: this is what $453 looks like

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$453.51, to be exact, plus $50 in gas and $18 for lunch.

Today turned out to be a good day to do our first stock up shopping trip to the city. The roads were clear, though some areas were wet with melting snow. The truck’s thermometer told me it was a mild -6C/21F while in the city, though our local high was supposed to be -4C/25F

I’ve discovered that our truck’s onboard computer not only flashes a text warning of “possible icy conditions, drive with care” warning, but it has a slippery conditions dash warning light that turns on. I’ve never seen it before, and this is our second winter with the truck.

It’s very distracting!

Even on the drive home, the road conditions were good, as I left the city early enough that the areas with melted snow weren’t freezing yet, even though my truck thought it was!

My first stop of the day (aside from getting $50 gas enroute) was Canadian Tire. The only thing on my list for there was the litter pellets.

During the drive in, however, I discovered I also needed washer fluid!

I got four bags of pellets at $7.99 each, and some super-duper, rated to -45C/-49F water fluid at $5.79.

The store’s layout has changed since I was last at this location, with one corner now a rather large Party City section. The pellets used to be in that corner, so it took a bit to find them again. When I did find them, I noticed I was near the outdoor supply stuff. On a hunch, I went looking for their lawn mower filter section. I’d been trying to find a new filter for our mower all summer – even after our push mower stopped working. It’s a Canadian Tire brand mower, so only they have the filter I needed, and every location I went to was out of stock.

They had some in stock today, so I grabbed one. If I had the budget for it, I would have grabbed two! They’ve increased in price since we got the mower, though, and now cost $22.99 Almost double what I remember them costing when I first bought the mower. 🫤

The grand total after taxes here was $65.79

My next stop was Walmart.

There were a few things not on my list that I ended up getting, because I was able to take advantage of sales. Here is what I got.

I got three loaves of rye bread. Rye bread is pretty much always on our list, since it’s a type we don’t make ourselves. I got a different brand this time, as the price was actually lower than the house brand I usually get.

I got some Q tips for now; later on, I’ll get the multi pack we usually get at Costco. My husband requested nacho fixings, and mentioned we were out of lactase, so I got the house brand version for my lactose intolerant family.

The 4L jugs of 5% vinegar was on sale, so I grabbed one. That’s something else we also usually get by the case at Costco. Next time, I’ll be looking for 10% cleaning vinegar.

I picked up four different types of cheese. I thought I was grabbing all four from the 2 for $12 selection, but apparently the Old Cheddar and Gouda were not. The Mozza and Havarti were, though.

I would have picked up a large jar of green olives, but the shelves were bare. So I got three small jars, instead.

I got two bags of the cheaper 7kg kibble for the outside cats and one 9kg bag for the inside cats to tide us over until we get more at Costco and the feed store. I did not get wet cat food because, thanks to the donation from the Cat Lady, we still have two unopened cases. I will get the bigger cases at Costco, later.

I notice cat food is never on sale at Walmart.

The nacho chips were 2 for $6, so I got four bags. I also picked up some deodorant for the girls that was on sale. Deo is really expensive these days!!! Canned beans were on sale at 3 for $5, so I got a case of them; three cans each in four different flavours. The coffee creamer is cheaper at Walmart, at 2 for $9, so I got some more of that for the girls. I was going to get them more coffee, but the shelves were empty of the dark coffee they like.

Cases of pop were also on sale at 2 for $14, so I got some Coke Zero for my husband and I, and root beer for the girls.

I ended up going through the self check out because the regular checkouts were going soooooo slow. There were plenty of them, but the lines just weren’t moving. Having worked as a cashier a few times over the years, I feel sorry for the staff. It looked like a lot of “I don’t work here, so I won’t use self checkout” Karens in all the lines. That and some “can I use this expired coupon from another store’s flier?” types. For a load like this, I would have preferred to go through a cashier, but after finding line after motionless line of customers giving the cashiers a hard time, taking forever to load their carts or slowly digging through their purses while ignoring everyone around them, blocking others from being able to unload their carts, I gave up, did it myself, and was out in no time at all.

There’s a reason the cashier position is a revolving door, and not just because it’s a ground floor position people move up from. I say this as someone who actually enjoyed the job!

Anyhow…

While finishing up at the till, I ended up adding a $5 donation to the Children’s Hospital, so the grand total, after taxes, was $219.91

By the time I got out of Walmart, it had started to snow, so I didn’t want to take too much longer. My next stop was the international grocery store, which is where I was also going to have lunch, first.

Normally, I would have had the dim sum, but the last time I was there, they had been over the steamer for too long, to the point some of it was falling apart. So I went to the Chinese buffet instead. It was very tasty! The only down side is that they no longer have plastic cutlery. Instead, it’s the “environmentally friendly” bamboo cutlery. I ended up eating half my meal with my fingers, because the tines on the fork couldn’t stab into the food, but if I tried to just scoop it up, it would fall off. Even the shanghai noodles were hard to get with it.

Anyhow; my large meal – which was both breakfast and lunch for me – plus a drink cost pennies over $18.

Then it was time to do some shopping.

There were a few things not on my list, too.

Since nachos were on the menu soon, I picked up some artichoke and asiago dip for my daughters and I – my husband requested the 7 layer dip. I got some frozen fish for my daughters, and the baby spinach was something they had asked for, too. For fruit, I just grabbed some bananas.

I picked up a pork line because the price was very good. We don’t need to get a lot of meat during our stock up shopping trips, as we will be getting our 1/8 beef pack soon, but extra for the freezer is always good.

The flavourings were on sale, so I got maple, caramel and rum. Teas were also on sale, so I got chamomile and Early Grey. There’s a 2L of 3% milk. With the rest of the family all being lactose intolerant, we don’t use regular milk enough to make it worth buying a 4L jug anymore, as my girls have been drinking oat milk lately. The soy milk we used to get has been going off really quickly, so we no longer get that.

The energy drinks were on sale, so I got 6 cans in 6 different flavours; two each for me and the girls.

I did get a new cheese to try: a smoked Irish cheddar. I also got a Redwood smoked cheddar, which we have had before. These are the only things that are more for our Christmas or New Year’s meals. I remembered to grab more powdered milk, as we were running low.

Oh! I forgot to grab cocoa. We’ve been making our own hot chocolate mix, so we’re running low on both the powdered milk and the cocoa. I should be able to get some at Costco, though.

I also remembered to grab some rolled oats, as we’re almost out of that, too.

Grand total after taxes was $167.81

Our grand total for the day, including gas and lunch, is about $521.51

Which is in budget, but … ouch.

By the time I was done, it was no longer snowing, so that was nice. The drive home was uneventful, other than my truck telling me to watch out for slippery roads the whole way.

Once home, I backed up to the house to unload. The sunroom doors were both tied off, so I couldn’t open them from the outside. I got my daughter to take care of that while I unloaded everything else at the main doors for her to bring in and put away, then started hauling the litter pellet bags to the old kitchen. The cats were all over the place, getting under my feet, waiting for their evening feeding! Once everything was in the old kitchen, including the new bags of kibble, I gave them a feeding so I could safely drive the truck out of the yard and park it in the garage. I think I counted 43 as I headed to the truck. When I came back, I counted 36 or so.

After wading my way through the cats in the sun room, I emptied the two new bags of kibble into the bin, then topped up the trays in the sun room again. The kibble in there disappeared fast!

We won’t be able to give them the warm and softened kibble in the mornings anymore. There was so much frozen kibble in their outside bowls! No wonder they were so hungry. It would be great if we could have heated water bowls for the warm, softened kibble, but we just don’t have anywhere to plug in more bowls anymore. At least they still have warm water. It looks like the heated water bowl in the sun room is working again, too!

Oh! I almost forgot.

While at the Walmart, I turned into an aisle and stopped to look at a display when a customer looking at soup cans on the other side said hello and asked how I was doing – then asked for help! He was trying to figure out the different displays (it turned out someone had stuck what he was looking for in the wrong spot, which he didn’t realize) and the prices. Of course, we started talking about how expensive everything is getting (condensed soup that used to be under a dollar a can not long ago is now almost $2 – and that’s the cheaper Walmart prices!) and he mentioned he’d read that a lot of house brands are the same as the name brands, made by the same companies, but just a different logo. You’re paying extra for a label. Which is true for some things, but not everything. As an example, I pointed to the kibble I was getting. I told him we are caring for a colony of cats, but even the outside cats won’t eat the no-name kibble from Superstore, if they could avoid it.

Well, that got us to talking about cats!

It turns out, his kids are asking for a cat, so he’s looking into adopting one. I told him about the Cat Lady’s rescue, what her adoption fee is (which is ludicrously low), and that includes the spay/neuter, vet check, vaccinations, treatment for ear mites, etc. I know the Cat Lady has had to actually stop putting her number out because she was getting too many calls from people that were basically looking for designer cats, so I gave him the URL to the rescue’s website. It has an address and phone number on there, but the website hasn’t been updated in a long time, and I don’t think the address (it’s just a box number, not a street address), is their current one. The email should still work, though, and probably the phone number, too.

Who knows. If he follows through with it, he may even end up adopting one of “our” cats! 😄

All in all, it was a productive day. Our Costco shop may not happen until next week; we shall see how things work out.

Tomorrow evening, I’m taking my husband to the hospital for his rescheduled CT scan. Hopefully, the weather will be good, because we’re going to be leaving pretty much at sunset, which is now earlier than 4:30 these days.

Hello, Little One – also, confirmation!

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I headed out to do the morning rounds today. My daughters have been doing it so I can sleep in, but as much as I’m not a morning person, I was really missing the yard cats!

Like this little one, who followed me up the driveway.

This is the one my daughters have named Magda. She is happily socialized, except for on thing.

She does not like to be carried.

I tried picking her up to carry her so she wouldn’t be walking in the cold snow, but she didn’t like that. So I tried again and managed to accomplish this.

As long as I wasn’t holding her in my arms, she was good, and she stayed in my jacket until I poured her out in the sun room when I was done.

I tried to do a head count this morning. I got either 38 or 39.

Last night I repaired a cat collar that we found a while back and brought it out with me. I was happy to see Collin still had his – he’s the fixed cat that is the hardest to tell apart from the other white and greys. I got the collar on Nosy. We’ll see how long that lasts.

Then I found a collar in one of the cat beds on the platform. Looking around, I discovered the Judgement no longer had a collar, so I got that back on him.

Giving the cats warm, softened cat food in the mornings is something they really enjoy, but we’re starting to have a problem. The food outside freezes before they finish it! Last night, I was able to break or knock loose most of it, but there was one tray that it was really stuck to. Once it’s loose, they can eat it, but… well… it’s frozen.

This morning, I found ice in the heated water bowl in the sun room.

*sigh*

That was the one my SIL passed on to us that was left from when they had dogs. It was working fine when I checked on things last night.

We do still have two working heated water bowls; one in the water bowl shelter and one in the isolation shelter.

Anyone out there that has used these for a long time? Is it normal for heated water bowls to stop working for no obvious reason? We’ve had some last only one year. Brand or size doesn’t seem to make a difference.

Anyhow.

Not long ago, I got some messages from the Cat Lady. We are not confirmed. On Dec. 5, we are two bring two females in to get spayed, vaccinated and treated for ear mites.

I know we’ll be able to get Kohl in – among the kittens, she’s the only female we can get that’s at least 2 pounds in weight. We have a couple of adult females that we should be able to get into a carrier. We give the cats their last feeding of the day before it gets dark, which is around 4:30 right now, so fasting will not be an issue. Of course, if they do any hunting during the night, we have no way of knowing that, but there isn’t much to hunt out there this time of year, either.

Hopefully, the rescue will be able to help us get a couple more done each month over the winter, and we can trap more of the adult ladies before they go into heat. Many of the kittens are so small, we have a bit more time for them, but there are some larger ones we don’t know the gender of, so it’s hard to say.

It just occurred to me. I haven’t seen Broccoli for a while. I’ve seen Brussel and Sprout, but not their mom.

Hmmm.

Well, it is what it is. Sometimes, they disappear for weeks or months. Sometimes, they don’t come back at all. We just do the best we can.

Which is all any of us can do, isn’t it?

The Re-Farmer

Stuffed winter squash experiment: a successful fail?

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Last night I went down to the root cellar to grab a winter squash and ended up grabbing two. One was needing to be cooked immediately, with some of it needing to be cut away for the compost pile.

The squash was a nice round one, and there was still about 3/4 of it that was perfectly fine – it looked like it would make an excellent bowl, in fact.

So that’s what it became.

I decided to fill it and roast it.

I’ve never done this before and didn’t bother looking up a specific recipe. I browned some ground beef, adding a packet of onion soup mix for seasoning. I also added about half a cup of leftover tomato soup, two cups of water and one cup of uncooked rice. After mixing it all together, it went into the cleaned out squash bowl.

I roasted it at 350F for an hour, stirred the filling, added another half an hour, stirred the filling and added another half an hour. At that point, I just shut off the oven and let it sit for a while.

This is how it turned out, after giving the filling another stir.

It looked pretty good to me! Some of the rice at the top was a bit undercooked, but not by much.

It was past midnight by the time it was done, but I had to at least try it! So I grabbed myself a bowl, got some of the filling, then scooped out some of the squash to go with it.

I found it a bit low on salt (I did not add any seasonings out than the onion soup mix and the leftover tomato soup), but that was an easy fix. I found it quite tasty. I even had some for breakfast, and the undercooked rice was no longer undercooked. It made a great breakfast.

Unfortunately, it looks like I’m the only one that will be eating it.

The first problem is the filling.

For many years, ground beef and rice was basically what we ate the most. Sometimes with an added can of mushroom soup, sometimes with some added frozen vegetables, etc. Whatever we had at the time, but the base of many meals was ground beef and rice. It was our poverty diet, to be honest, but my husband really likes it, too, so I kept making it even when things got better, financially. The rest of us got pretty tired of it, but my husband still loves it.

My daughters, however, hate it now. In particular, the texture of it. It makes them feel ill.

While this stuffing is mostly ground beef, there is enough rice in there that they will not eat it. They might eat some of the squash, once more of the filling is gone and they can get at it.

My husband, meanwhile, doesn’t like winter squash. He won’t eat it.

I thought he’d at least still enjoy the filling, but nope. He won’t even try it.

*sigh*

I can understand food likes and dislikes or intolerances – I’m the one that can’t eat fresh tomatoes or any peppers at all, after all. As a family, however, it’s getting very hard to find things we will all enjoy! I thought most people got less fussy about food as they got older, by my family has all gotten more fussy! Add in things like me being the only one that is NOT lactose intolerant, it does make grocery shopping a challenge. It also makes deciding what to grow in the garden more difficult, too. Winter squash is a great staple crop that can store well (if the squash get to mature enough to be cured properly). The girls like them, but my husband doesn’t. My family likes tomatoes, which I can’t eat. Some of us like peas, some don’t. Some like carrots, some don’t. Some like corn, my younger daughter can’t eat it. On it goes!

So while this experiment was a success, as far as cooking goes, it was a fail when it comes to being something the family can eat.

Ah, well. More for me, I guess.

On another note, I just had to share this.

Remember the forecast for December that I posted yesterday?

This one?

Note those temperatures on the 6th and 7th.

For those in the US, we’re looking at -20C/-4F as the high, with -33C/-27F and -34C/-29F for the overnight lows.

This is what the forecast looks like, now.

They now have a forecast of 1C/34F for the 6th and -3C/27F for the 7th. The low for the 7th is still expected to be a bitter -27C/-17F. They no longer have a 8C/46F predicted for the 20th, but we’re still expected to be above freezing.

Long range forecasts can really be all over the place!

I do hope the warmer forecasts end up being the correct ones, though. I still plan to add a ceiling of rigid insulation to the isolation shelter, for when the ladies get spayed. It’s the overnight temperatures that are the main concern. During the day, the windows will allow for passive solar heat even on an overcast day, but they will little to keep the cold out once it gets dark.

In fact, that’s what I plan to work on next.

After I have some of the squash bowl for lunch.

The Re-Farmer

Quiet day today

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Well… as quiet as cats like Tissue allow!

She posed for a picture, but don’t let her deceive you. Tissue: Destroyer of Cars is just resting in between rampages!

Unfortunately, that usually involved chasing other cats around. Especially Tiny and Ginger. Yet, today, she was super cuddly with me. That’s unusual. She prefers my younger daughter!

It’s just a few degrees below freezing today, and just starting to snow a bit. The “real feel” or whatever any particular app calls it, is actually warmer than the thermometer says. According to the forecast, these milder temperatures will last a few more days, and then we’ll be getting highs in the double digit minus-Celsius.

The long range forecast into December is downright strange.

Check out the 20th of December! They’re actually predicting 8C/46F!

Yeeeaaahhhh…. I don’t think so. But, you never know. This is the prairies. Wild fluctuations in temperature happen pretty often.

Personally, I’m hoping the forecast for the 6th and 7th is wrong, and it will be much warmer. If things go to plan, we will have a couple of cats in the isolation shelter during that time. Even with the heat lamp in there, that’s going to get cold. If we get temperatures like that, we might want to at least put sheets of rigid insulation as a ceiling, under the roof.

I’m also trying to wrap my head around the fact that we are now into the last week of November. The month just flew by!

We’ll be doing our first stock up shops for December in a few days, but with all the holidays, my husband’s disability payments will probably both come in before Christmas. CPP Disability, for sure. That always messes up our stock up shopping for January!

I haven’t even thought of what we are going to do for Christmas. Meanwhile, messaging with the Cat Lady last night, she mentioned Cabbages had already knocked down their tree. They have their tree up already! With almost 30 cats in the house! Our first “official” day of the Christmas season is November 27, the Feast of St. Catherine. In my husband’s family, the tradition was to make pull toffee on that day, but we haven’t done that in many years. Too much cat hair drifting around!

Even my Christmas decoration progress has been slow. I’ve got four Slinglade balls stitched up, with two more to go. I haven’t quite decided how I will attach hangers on them, yet. There’s no hurry. We will be having miniature trees on the piano in the cat free zone (aka: the living room) again this year, so they wouldn’t be used for that, anyhow! We do like to hang garlands near ceiling level around the dining room and have decorations hanging off of those, so that’s likely where we’ll end up using them.

I think this year will be a lot quieter than usual. Especially for New Year’s. Last year, we decided to do a fondue, using both our oil fondue for cooking meat, and our ceramic one for a cheese sauce to dip into. It ended up being way more expensive than expected. I think this year, we’ll just do lots of finger foods again. 😄

As for Christmas, which we start celebrating after sunset on Christmas Eve, we already have a turkey in the freezer, though I’ll probably pick up another, just to take advantage of cheap turkey season. We’ll get our 1/8th beef pack in a couple of weeks, so we will have other options. A lot will depend on what we end up getting during our stock up shopping trips. As we get older and are now happily in the boonies, we’re quite content with very quiet holidays!

In fact, I’m good with quiet every day.

Like today!

Hold on… what was that noise….

*goes to grab paper towel to clean up the latest cat mess*

What was I saying again?

…

The Re-Farmer

Feeling thankful!

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Yes, we finally connected!

This morning, I headed out to meet with the Cat Lady to pick up a kibble donation. I got a message that she was running a bit behind, but that was not an issue. It takes me 45 minutes to get to our meet up location, anyhow.

I intended to get there anyhow, but as I was leaving, I did a quick sidewalk shovel. Then, when I got into the garage, I discovered the cats had knocked stuff off the wall shelves above the counter in front our truck, and I had to clean that up before I could move the truck. This stuff all predates us, and we have yet to get to the point where we can go through what’s in the garage, figure out what to keep and what to get rid of and organize it. It’s pretty low on the priority list of things that need to be done, but the cats do use the shelves to get up into the rafters, so sometimes I make discoveries.

By the time I was actually leaving, I ended up being late for the time we’d arranged, so I sent a message to let her know I was on the road and would be 45 minutes.

Well, it ended up taking more like an hour! The roads where clear, except for one section, and that one has a slower speed limit, anyhow. I think I might simply have got the time it takes to get there wrong.

It worked out, though. The Cat Lady had vehicle troubles, so she was even later than I was! Which was rather funny, since it’s a much shorter drive for her.

She brought out a bunch of bags of kibble for us. These were the ones she ordered for us on Amazon that were delivered to her place instead of us for some reason. With the postal strike, that turned out to be a good thing. These were small bags – under 2kg (5lb bags) – that she was able to get a really good deal on.

After they were loaded, I thought we were done, but nope. She came out with five more small bags of another brand! She’d gone couponing.

Then she brought out almost two full flats of canned cat food. It’s turkey, which The Wolfman is allergic to, and he’s the only one that wants to eat it. Twenty nine cats, and twenty eight of them will not eat this flavour of cat food! Not even Button, who was an outside kitten until he went to them, and used to eat whatever we could give them. It was that, or not eat at all, but now he’s become incredibly fussy!

Then she brought out a kibble bin that was almost completely full. This was kibble that had chicken in it, and The Wolfman is able to break into it, so they’re getting rid of everything with wings that he might be able to get into. Then she apologized, asking if it was okay to give us what are basically their discards.

Okay??? I was ecstatic!

As we were talking, she told me she was going to go through their “cat tree inventory”, and see what they could pass on to us, and is it okay if she doesn’t vacuum them first?

I was still processing the “cat tree inventory” concept. Cat trees are something we just haven’t been able to afford, unless they were really small and cheap or on clearance prices, and it’s a rare time when this comes up while we have a budget for them. Apparently, they have cat trees that their cats don’t use, so they’d like to get rid of them. Are we okay with that?

Yes, please!!!!

Then she started talking about a spay day in December, but I’d never gotten a confirmed date on that, so she will double check with the clinic and get back to me. If all goes well, we’ll have two spayed ladies to keep in the isolation shelter for 2 weeks, in the beginning of December.

With the donations gratefully accepted, we parted ways. Since I was so close, anyhow, I popped into the Walmart for a few things I didn’t realize we were running out of, the last time I was there – and one 7kg back of cheap kibble, because we can never have too much kibble!

That done, my next stop was the town closest to us, to hit the pharmacy with my daughter’s prescription. I was able to fill it, though they didn’t have it in the dose my daughter was prescribed, so she will have to split them. She is to take them “as needed” for up to three times a day. The question becomes, what does “as needed” mean, since she is now dizzy, all the time. At which point, it would just be morning, afternoon and night. At three times a day, she has enough for 10 days, so she’ll have just enough to last until her follow up appointment.

After the pharmacy, it was home to unload. I didn’t feel like dragging a wagon through what snow we have, so I backed into the yard to unload. The stuff for the outside cats went straight through the sun room to the old kitchen, while my daughter took care of the few groceries and the inside cat stuff for me.

It was while I was unloading the outside cat stuff when my right patella suddenly popped. Thankfully, I was next to the open tailgate and could use that to keep from falling. I was able to get the last load in, then had to hobble around, putting kibble out to get the cats away from the truck, so I could park it in the garage. Then I limped my way back to the old kitchen and filled the kibble bin with all of the bags I brought home, including the 7kg one.

It’s a pretty big bin!

That gave my knee a bit of a break, but it was still a struggle to walk through the house from the old kitchen.

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: I am SO thankful this house has arm bars all over the place!

After catching the family up on things, my daughter took care of making cat soup for the inside cats while I pain killered up and sat down.

Not before getting a picture of our little voidling, though.

Soot Sprite is so adorable!

The camera on my phone hates, him, though. It has the hardest time being able to focus on him, instead of what’s around him! At least this time, it could focus on his eyes!

Soot Sprite is such an appropriate name for him. When it’s darker, he’s just a black shadow with eyes moving around. 😄

I’m am so glad that I was able to meet up with the Cat Lady. She and her rescue have been helping us out so much. I don’t know what we’d do without her! She and her entire family are just so awesome. The world needs more people like them!

I’m also glad we managed to get together today, since it’s supposed to start snowing tonight and continue through the next two days. Not a lot, but enough that I wouldn’t want to drive in it, if I don’t have to. There’s going to be a lot of driving starting next week, so I’m hoping to hibernate at home until then!

We shall see!

The Re-Farmer

A real snowfall, this time!

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This morning, I was expecting to meet up with the Cat Lady to pick up some donated kibble.

That’s going to happen tomorrow.

In our area, it wasn’t too bad. We had quite a bit of snow coming down in the morning, while my daughter was doing the morning rounds and feeding the outside cats.

This picture is their afternoon feeding. That’s all the snow we got.

You can tell where the heat lamp is, on the inside!

Yesterday’s forecast had gone from just an hour or so of light snow today, to snow continuing until noon, this morning. That forecast was for the whole province, though, and it was mostly the southern end of the province that got it. Our snow stopped by about 8 or 9am.

The Cat Lady, however, had gone into the big city already and, on her way home, the roads were very icy and drivers were being stupid, so she postponed. Which I’m fine with!

So I got to stay home, indoors, nice and warm.

Not as cozy as this dude, though.

It’s a Boy in a (pasta)Box!

David is not happy with us. We’re treating the cats’ ears for ear mites again, and he does not approve of the daily cleaning and treatment! Four more days to go, Buddy. 😄😄

The outside cats are being cozy, too.

So far, so good, with the new shelter! We do still need to find something to put around the entrance to protect from the south winds, which would blow straight into the main opening. When I look out the kitchen window, I can see a melted spot in the snow above where the heat lamp is hanging, so we know that is working, too.

With three sheltered heat lamps going, the cats aren’t all crowding into the sun room anymore. Even in the sun room, they prefer the platform the heat lamp is hanging off of, rather than under the lamp itself, though there’s always a few curled up under it. We get maybe a dozen in the sun room at a time, at night – it’s hard to tell, when they’re all piled on top of each other, when we used to see far more, before. They are using both the cat house and the isolation shelter, though some of the more feral ones have their hidden places in the outer yard and only come to the house to eat. When I did their afternoon light feeding, I tried to do a head count. I think I got 40, but I’m not sure. If so, we haven’t had a count that high in a while.

Tomorrow is supposed to just be cloudy, then we’re supposed to get some snow over the next two days, so rescheduling with the Cat Lady to tomorrow works out better.

It isn’t a lot of snow so far, but it does seem like it’s going to stay, though the long range forecast actually has us going above freezing in the week before Christmas, for a few days! If that turns out to be accurate, we might still end up with a mostly green Christmas!

I’ll take it, thankyou very much! 😄

The Re-Farmer