My daughter came to me last night with some concerns over strange and severe dizzy spells.
Of course, my plans got changed.
We are now sitting at the nearest walk in clinic, a 45 minute drive away. We’ve been waiting for almost anout 1 1/2 hours, now.
On the plus side, the doctor she will be seeing is accepting new patients. Depending on how things go, she may later book an official meet and greet appointment. I’ve heard good things about this doctor.
I still need to pick up more kibble and a few groceries. Where we do that will depend on how things go here, and how my daughter is feeling.
I’m just really glad the weather and road conditions are good. Other parts of the province got hit with a storm white out conditions, still ongoing this morning. We are currently clear, and the highways are dry.
A large weather system has been slowly moving over us since some time last night. It’s been raining all day, and is expected to continue to rain through to about 4am. Some areas were getting rain and snow, but mostly, it is rain. Our temperature has remained steady at 4C/39F since the wee hours of the morning, so even though it feels like -2C/28F, there’s no snow right now, and the overnight low is supposed to remain above freezing. While there have been storm warnings for some areas, we’re just getting a steady and constant rain.
Image created by WP AI.
A good pajama day.
Not least of which because I got zero sleep last night. I don’t even know why! I was just awake and, strangely, feeling excited. Like something really great was about to happen.
Not a bad reason to be awake all night, I suppose!
I finally got up to join my daughters at about 5 or 6am. This is the time of the day when my older daughter is winding down from her work night, and my younger daughter is getting up to start her day, so they like to make a meal together – breakfast for one, supper for the other! They made a potato soup, using potatoes we still have left from our own harvest. It made the house smell so good! Since I didn’t sleep, I was, of course, already feeling hungry.
Once it was light out, past 7:30am, my younger daughter went out to do the morning rounds. I enjoyed some soup for breakfast, then managed to get a couple of hours of sleep. Which would be a lot easier if I didn’t have so many cats that like to use me as a bed! 😄
So it’s been a quiet day overall. Just the usual household stuff. Tomorrow, I’ll be heading to the town north of us to pick up more kibble and a few things at the grocery store. The day after, I’m taking my mother for her eye treatment in the city. I almost forgot about that! Things must be improving, because she has not been complaining about her vision, at all, for quite some time. I do hope she doesn’t try to cancel at the last minute, because she thinks she’s dying, again. Based on her last visit, her next treatment might be 5 or 6 weeks later, rather than 4 weeks.
For now, I just want to get a full night’s sleep for a change!!
I was able to get out with the chainsaw and work on that dead spruce tree.
It was still damp out, but more because it’s not warm enough for things to dry than because of any rain. We’re under a weather watch right now, as a large system is being blown almost straight North from the US, so the southern and eastern parts of our province are expected to get a storm. Locally, we’re expected to start getting rain at about 7am tomorrow morning. It’s then expected to continue to rain, off and on, through to the next morning, when it is supposed to become a mix of rain and snow.
Based on the current forecasts, today was pretty much my last day to get this done.
The first two pictures were taken before I got started. That’s basically how it has been since my daughter was last able to work on trimming away branches.
Which was the first part of what I had to do. I had my baby chainsaw (electric pruner) for most of that job. This part took the longest, because I took the time to break down the branches to fit into the wagon, then dumped them on the big branch pile in the outer yard. A lot of these were branches from the diseased crab apple tree, so they need to be burned. Previously, we were able to get the branch pile chipped, but this year we’ve been piling up diseased branches as well as things like squash plants that had powdery mildew on them.
While cleaning up the branches, I found the remains of an old bird’s nest.
When I finally got things clear enough to start using the chain saw on the crab apple tree, Syndol decided that would be a good time to climb the tree! I even cut away a broken section while he was up there, hoping the noise would have him jump down, but nope! In the end, I dumped another load of branches and came back before he finally made his way down.
Then it was more cutting and clearing and cutting and clearing. Crab apple tree branches are so bent and twisted, they took a remarkably long time to deal with. The wood is so much heavier, too. The difference is quite noticeable when I had pieces of apple tree cut quite short to load into the wagon and haul away, then tossing them on top of the pile, then started working on the spruce tree. I cut sections that were much longer than the apple tree trunk pieces, and the spruce tree’s trunk was at least twice as think at the top section of the tree, yet were so much lighter!
In the end, I had to stop because it was getting too dark. I left a section of the crab apple trunk alone, so that we could easily see it when we can finish cleaning it up later – likely in the spring. I was able to load three sections of the spruce tree’s trunk into the wagon to haul away (my apologies for the very fuzzy picture!) – that will NOT be going onto the burn pile, but will be stacked near the old garden shed – while a couple of larger pieces were left for later. The main thing is that there is now a cleared land that we can walk through – or drive through, if necessary.
Once the cut pieces of trunk are cleared away, the rest of the tree can be left for the spring. It’s going to take a lot more effort to clear that out, since it is in between other trees and in underbrush in the spruce grove.
In the end, I messaged a daughter to come out and help me put things away, because I was losing the light so fast, so the remaining logs have been left where they are until tomorrow. Hopefully, it won’t be raining too hard, and we can haul them away and stack them. We may be able to use these pieces for when we make a new garden shed as our cordwood practice building. We’ll need a lot more, but the walls for the practice building will probably be only about 8 inches wide, instead of the 12 – 16 inches more typical of cordwood building. I still want to use the method for when we build an outdoor bathroom (NOT an outhouse over a pit), but we need to clear some very large dead trees before we can work in the area I want to build it in.
We still have lots to do to collect and prepare before we can start building, but these logs could at least be a start, if the wood is in good enough condition.
All in good time.
For now, I’m just glad I was able to get that tree cleaned up and cut up enough to get that lane open again.
My daughter did the morning rounds so that I could sleep in, but I woke with the morning light, anyhow, and never got back to sleep.
Instead, I got all the last of our bell peppers together, cleaned them up and set them to dehydrate in the oven. I didn’t make slices, this time, but just removed the cores and cut them along one side so they could lie flat in large pieces. By the time they’re fully dehydrated, we’ll have bell pepper chips! 😄
Later, I ended up making some hot chocolate mix for my husband. I’d bought some at the grocery store because it was on sale, but it was just a small can, and he never had any of it. We happen to have the ingredients, so I made our own mix. It’s pretty basic. 2 cups powered milk, 1 cup sugar, 1/3 cup cocoa powder and a 1/4 tsp salt. I measured it all directly into the quart sized jar it will be stored in, and gave it a shake until everything is combined. After that, it’s the same as the commercial stuff. Three tablespoons of mix into a cup, mix in some hot water (I prefer to mix in some milk), then top with boiling water.
My husband is very happy. 😊
Otherwise, I’ve been in my pajamas all day, watching YouTube videos and working on my Singlade ball Christmas decorations. It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to work on them.
Today being Sunday, it’s supposed to be my day of rest, anyhow, so I’m good with this!
My plans for today were mostly thrown out the window. I completely forgot that today was Saturday.
We had a date this afternoon!
Which worked out, since it turned out to be a damp, then rainy day. So much for two days without rain that I could have used to get work done outside!
We did still have time to get a few things done in the morning, which is when we had another surprise.
My brother called to let us know he was on his way! The last time they were out here, he was not able to finish unloading a trailer. He needed to get that done before snow arrived, and snow was already hitting some cities to the south west of us.
My daughter and I headed outside to get the truck ready and I went to open the gate for him. I was in the process of opening it when he drove up. Talk about perfect timing!
While my daughter fired up the compressor, topped up the tires on the truck, then pumped up the flat on my mother’s car, my brother and I went to check out the new expeller. He was so thrilled and relieved that they came out before winter. He was afraid we might get ghosted, like the other company we’d originally thought to go with, partly because they were closer. That may have been the problem, as our vandal does visit the town they are in, and we’re pretty sure he would have known at least someone who worked there. As with other businesses to the North of us that we’ve tried to hire, they just stopped responding to our calls. The company that did the job is South of us, and our vandal just doesn’t hang out in that area.
We can’t prove this, of course, and it’s entirely possible the other company ghosted us for some other reason, but it is still the most likely reason. It has simply happened too often, and always with companies in towns our vandal spends a lot of time in, and knows a lot of people in.
As my brother and I looked over the work done, I learned a few things that I did not remember from when the system was originally installed. For example, the trench that was dug was done by my father, using a claw excavator. I have no memory of that! I only remember the trench, already dug, from where it was by the house and the new well.
Part way through the job, the transmission on the claw excavator gave out. They ended up having to drag it into position, my dad would dig out a section, then they’d drag it into the next position so he could dig out the next section, until it was finally done!
That must have been insane – but, you do what you can with the tools you have!
That sounds like a rather familiar situation… 😄
I also learned that the cattle fountain behind the barn was installed later, not at the same time as everything else.
After we checked it all out, my brother got to work, while I joined my daughter. She was done with the truck, so I moved that into the yard, so it would be closer for my husband. Our date this afternoon was to meet his father in town – and be introduced to his girlfriend! My older daughter was not going to be able to come with us, so we only needed to get one back seat ready in the cab. Then we moved things out so that we could put my husband’s walker on the other side, rather than into the truck box.
At one point, my brother came over with some stuff they wanted to pass on to us, including a case of spice bottles! They’d bought them for their own use and ended up not needing them all, so there was an entire unopened case, plus one, they passed on to us. They thought we might be able to use them to store seeds in, and they are absolutely right. There are so many, we’ll be able to use them for our herbs and spices, too, and have lots left over!
He also got to check out how we have the isolation shelter set up for the winter. The last time he saw it, it was still sitting out near the well cap. He also thought that the new location was a much better spot.
The first photo above is the first time I’ve been able to get both Kohl and Rabi in the same shot in months! 😂
Once the truck was ready, I did a few things around the yard, like putting away the last garden hose and covering the septic tank with the insulated tarp. I was never able to hose down the other side of it, but that was really just to remove damp leaves that were stuck to it, rather than having to actually clean it. The big hose that my brother lent us, in case we needed to divert the septic while the new expeller was being installed, got tucked away into the barn. The garden tools, wagon and wheel barrow got put away, too. I don’t expect we’ll be able to do much more in the garden beds. It would be good if we can – anything done now is one less job that needs to be done in the spring – but there is nothing essential. If we do get another nice, dry day, it’ll be chain saw time to get that dead spruce and the crab apple tree it fell on, cleared. That could be left until spring, if we have to, but I’d rather get it done before the snow flies. Weather willing!
My brother was still here when it was time for us to head out. He was really taking advantage of being able to come out, to do as much as he could. I don’t expect he’ll be able to move the farm equipment to where he intends to store them more permanently before the snow hits, but we’ll see.
Before leaving, my daughter made sure to feed the outside cats and get them away from the truck, so I could safely drive it out of the yard. 😁
It had been arranged that we would meet at the new Dairy Queen in town. That last time my FIL was in the area, that lot had a garage on it, and that burned down years ago!
We got there early and got some snacks and drinks while we waited.
Then it started to rain.
They ended up arriving late, but got there safe and sound. Not so much because of the rain, it turned out, but because my FIL wanted to take the “scenic” route – a shorter and more direct route, but one that goes through a number of small towns, so it’s slower. He hadn’t seen the area in years, either, so his “adopted” daughter (my SIL’s closest childhood friend) was happy to oblige.
We then had introductions and an absolutely grand visit. My FIL’s new girlfriend is awesome, and they are both so happy! They’re like a couple of teenagers in love. 😊 Like my FIL, she is widowed, and neither ever expected to find love again, this late in their lives. My late MIL would definitely approve.
We ended up visiting for almost two hours! Thankfully, it was between the lunch and supper rushes, so we were never taking up needed table space. Plus, we would get more food every now and then, too.
The down side is, because we were there early and they got there late, we were there for almost three hours in total.
Which was really too much for my husband. Not that he was going to show any sort of discomfort in front of his father. He hasn’t seen his dad in so long, and this was a rare opportunity. Neither of them are able bodied, though my FIL has improved his own mobility. Largely due to the extra exercise he gets, using his walker to get to his girlfriend’s apartment (they live in the same assisted living complex). He’s under orders from his physical therapist: she doesn’t go to his place, he goes to hers! Even the health care aid that helps him put his socks on in the morning has commented that his legs are getting noticeably more muscular!
My husband, on the other hand, is in a very different situation, and by the time we were heading out, he was having trouble standing up straight. Once we got home, he immediately got out the TENS machine, and he is currently wired up and getting zapped. He’s going to really pay for this outing, tomorrow, but he says it was worth it to be able to see his father.
Which made our day quadruple awesome. We got to see my brother, my FIL, my husband’s “sister”, and finally meet the woman that has made my FIL so happy, all in one day.
We are truly blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives.
Good grief, it’s just past 10am as I start this, and things are already done!
As we were expecting the septic company to come out this morning to fix the expeller on our system, my daughter and I headed out together to do the morning rounds. Today, that included opening the main gate, as well as moving the chain and electric fence across the gate by the barn, for the equipment to get through.
Syndol did, too, but they were both moving around so much, I barely managed to get one decent photo of Judgement!
I just realized; one of his eyes looks more dilated than the other. I’ll have to monitor that.
Once the gates were done, my daughter went on to to the inner yard routine, while I went around to check some things in the outer yard. I’m glad I did! One thing I found was one of the missing cat collars. This time, the break away buckle was actually open. The last one I found, it turned out the stitching can come loose at one end and slipped off the buckle. The buckle itself is still together, so no missing parts. I’ll just have to sew it up.
As for the one I found this morning, I spotted Nosy in the sun room as I was coming back in and was able to get it on him.
After checking things in the outer yard, I made my way back into the inner yard through the gate by the fire pit, and started checking the maple grove for fallen branches.
The winds finally broke two of the three rotting trunks on the ancient willow. They’re hung up on other trees, still. My daughter joined me while I was checking it out. As we were going over it, we could hear popping noises and, every now and then, another branch would break off and fall down.
How it is right now is quite dangerous. We’ll have to find a way to safely pull it down the rest of the way. One of the trees that’s holding it up is another willow with a rotting trunk, and it may well pull that one down with it, too.
It was just a matter of time for this to happen and, to be honest, I’m just surprised it was this part that fell, and not the trunk with a super long branch extending horizontally over the fence.
While we were checking it out, my cell phone started ringing. We get a better signal outside than in the house!
It was the septic company, asking about where we were. Turns out, they drove right past us. I’d told him, “first driveway on the right” – and he even had that written down on his printout – but he was looking left, instead!
There are no driveways on that side of the road, other than into hay fields!
So I went to meet him at the driveway while my daughter quickly went inside to use the bathroom before they started work.
As I was talking to the guy (the company owner), I brought up about not using water in the house, and he said it should only take about an hour or two.
?!!!?
I was expecting at least four to six hours, based on what the other company had said.
As we were talking, the truck hauling the excavator made its way over, but parked on the road to unload.
I went along to show them where the expeller was, and explain to them what direction the pipe was running underground. Normally, it would have had a pipe going straight to the house, but this pipe followed the water pipe to the cattle fountains and barn, first. Which meant it was basically at right angles from where they would have expected it to be.
The job was a repair by replacement. The leak would have been at the bottom of the expeller pipe. How the pipe was leaning back like it was, instead of being straight up, would had contributed to the damage. They then dug a hole about ten or so feet away from the existing expeller.
When I mentioned, I thought the pope would be maybe twelve feet down, the owner said it was more likely about six feet. That would have been typical, I guess, and with how much of the original expeller pipe was showing above ground, that would have been a logical conclusion.
After the guys got started, the owner left them to it.
It was definitely more than six feet down.
There were also a LOT of rocks.
The excavator was able to pull a few larger ones out, but there was one huge boulder that was not going to move.
Every now and then, the excavator would stop, a ladder would be put down, and a guy went down with a metal tool to poke around in the clay and gravel, trying to find the pipe. Then he’d climb out, and the excavator would dig some more.
That process got repeated a couple of times before they found the pipe, and then had to dig more to access it.
Watching the excavator operator was truly amazing. He was making that thing dance! It was beautiful to watch.
By the time they found the pipe, there was water on the bottom of the hole. I asked one of the guys about it, and if he thought they’d just hit water, or if he thought it was from the leak.
He said it was most likely from the leak.
The guy that went into the pit was eventually able to clean the pipe of clay residue and start cutting it.
There was a whole lot more water after that!
The excavator went back to work, clearing space for the water to drain away to. Then the guy went back down and finished cutting the pipe. The new expeller’s end was lowers, and he used a torch to soften the plastic of the pipe, so he could insert the brass fitting before tightening it with screw strap bands.
Then he got to hold the expeller straight while a couple of guys started shoveling clay down! The guy in the hole ended up taking one of the spades and digging clay and gravel from the sides while a guy on the surface used a tool to hold the expeller straight. Once there was enough clay and gravel around the base to hold the expeller, the guy climbed out and the excavator took over.
The first of the photos above is how it looks right after the guy climbed out.
This is an excellent visual cross section of what our Dark Grey Zone soil is like. There’s just a few inches of top soil, and the rest is a mix of clay, sand and gravel.
This is why we do raised bed gardening!
Filling that hole back again was when the excavator operator truly showed his skill! He had to carefully lay the soil around the expeller without pushing it aside. There was still a guy using a tool to hold it straight, but there’s only so much that can be done from a distance like that.
When it got close to the top, the excavator pulled down the old expeller, breaking the pipe and pulling out the venturi pipe inside. He then leveled that area and covered over the old pipe in the process, filling an eroded hole near it, while filling and building up the soil around the new expeller.
Which is much lower down than the other one was! I’m guessing the old expeller was on top of a vertical pipe, for it to extend that far above ground. These expellers only come in one length.
Once the hole was filled and leveled, the excavator operator moved aside some of the bigger rocks he’d pulled out. Then the guys put the sheet of metal roofing back and weighed it down, while turning the nozzle so the water would be expelled towards the low area it’s intended to drain into.
I checked the time stamps on the photos and video I took. From the time they started digging to when they were done filling the hole and leveling around the new ejector, was only about 45 minutes. From the time of arrival to when they left was maybe an hour.
I can’t believe how fast they were! It was amazing!
And here we were worried about having to set up the diverter, so we could use our plumbing and the septic pump could empty the tank into the maple grove while they worked. It wasn’t long enough to be even a slight inconvenience!
As for the bill, that will be sent to me by email, which I’ll pass on to my brother. Between him and my mother, it will be covered. The total, before taxes, was even a little bit less than the estimate I got over the phone. After taxes, is should total under $2300.
Getting this done is SUCH a huge weight off our shoulders! Especially getting it done now, before winter. We might have been able to make it through the winter, if this didn’t get done now for some reason. The pipe is well below the frost line, so the saturated area around the pipe probably would not have frozen, and the expeller did start working again, somewhat. The fact that at least some of the water was being properly expelled is the only reason they weren’t digging a hole in a quagmire.
I’m just so happy – and thankful that my mother offered to pay for it, or we would not have been able to get it done at all!
As for me… well… I’m going to be taking a nap. I woke up somewhere between 3:30 and 4am, and wasn’t able to get back to sleep. A couple of hours sleep, and I’ll be heading back outside to get some work done!
First up, I’m happy to say that I did NOT end up having a bad pain day today. With how I was feeling last night, I was rather concerned, but it seems to have worked itself out. Plus, my daughter is doing the morning rounds, and that allowed me to sleep in.
As for my potential plans to work outside, that didn’t happen. It was too wet out for the sort of work I wanted to do. It wasn’t even really raining, either. More fog and mist all morning.
So I was just about to start cleaning out litter boxes when I got a phone call from my mother.
She started out asking how things were going, so I told her about some of things I did yesterday, and things I planned to do tomorrow, which is supposed to be warmer and mostly sunny – though the predicted high keeps changing! At one point, my weather app was telling me we could get as warm as 10C/50F, but I just checked it, and it’s now saying the high will be only 7C/45F Which is still nice. More importantly, it’s supposed to be dry, so I should be able to get certain jobs involving power tools done!
Then I asked how she was doing.
Well… she’s out of milk, of course.
*sigh*
I keep asking her to please have me do her grocery shopping before she runs out of everything, but she refuses. If there’s food in the house, she says, she has to eat it. Temptation.
She wanted me to come tomorrow, of course.
It was barely mid afternoon when she called me (though it was already starting to get dark!), so I suggested I head over right away, instead. That threw her for a bit, as she thought it was much later. She wanted to go to the bank, and wasn’t sure it if would be open still.
It would be, of course.
So I updated the family, quickly changed and was soon out the door. When I got to her place, my mother was ready and waiting, with her winter parka on! We quickly went over her list, then headed out, first to her bank.
Going in and out of the vehicle for that was the limit for her, though, so she stayed in the truck while I did the grocery shopping next.
By the time everything was done and her groceries put away, she wanted me to stay for a visit, but it was getting near sunset. I didn’t want to be driving home in the dark. Too many deer!
When I got to the truck, I checked my phone before I headed out. I’m glad I did! There was a message from my husband, with a phone number. The septic company had called and needed me to call back for a confirmation that they could come over.
Tomorrow morning!
I called them immediately.
The first thing they needed to confirm was where we are. He tried finding our physical address on an online map, found a road with the municipal number, but it ends well to the south of us. I had to explain that the part that goes past our place isn’t listed on the maps, and gave him country directions. Then we confirmed things like making sure the gate would be open. They should be here around 8:30-9am. I also told him about the other gate, with the chain and electric fence across it, that they’ll need to go through, but that just needed to be unhooked. The renter’s cows aren’t here now, so the electric fence isn’t powered.
That done, it was time to go home. I did take advantage of being her town, though, and stopped at the feed store for a 40 pound bag of cat food before heading home.
Now I’m doubly glad I convinced my mother to let me do her grocery shopping today!
What I’m hoping is that we won’t need to hook up the diverter for the septic tank. I really don’t want to punch a hole through the insulated opening and run the septic into the maple grove. So tonight, we’ll be doing as much of the water stuff as we can. Showers before 7:30am. Dishes washed. Cooking that included draining off water. The only thing we don’t have to worry about it the laundry, since we’re still running the drainage hose out the front door, anyhow.
As for how long things will take, it’s hard to say. If everything goes smoothly, it could take as little as 4 hours. If things don’t go smoothly, it could take 8 hours.
The fact that the expeller started working again, though not to its full capacity, may be a good thing. It means the area that was so saturated before isn’t a quagmire anymore.
This morning, my younger daughter took over doing the morning rounds for me. I was really appreciating it, as I’d had a sleepless night.
Mostly because of cats.
I don’t know what’s gotten into Ghosty, but she has been trying to get into all of the places she is not allowed. It got to the point that, even when I did finally doze off, I would hear something and immediately wake up saying “get out of there!” before I even knew which cat was getting into what. It was usually Ghosty digging under my monitor again, or Clarence launching himself on my craft shelf, chasing ladybugs. Or Shadow doing the same thing.
There are a lot of ladybugs in the house right now, and they are driving the cats insane!
Then there was Ghosty deciding that my face is delicious, and repeatedly trying to lick it, or Butterscotch and Potato Beetle, both wanting cuddles at the same time. Plus Cheddar, who has a thing for slamming himself against my back as he settles down for the night.
Then there are the mystery noises in other parts of the house that I end up having to get up and check. I was not impressed to discover a ball of fine yarn in the dining room, half unraveled and tangled up. I honestly don’t know how they got it. I have several balls of this yarn that I hid away long ago, to protect it from the cats. I honestly can’t remember where I hid them; it’s not where I thought I had put them.
As much as I appreciated my daughter doing the morning rounds so I could sleep, I’m afraid I didn’t actually got more than maybe an hour.
I did head out this morning, as I needed to go to the post office before the store it’s in closed for the afternoon, as they always do on Wednesdays. As I was going to the garage, I spotted this adorable scene.
The way things have been going these days, I’m enjoying the outside cats more than the inside cats! 😄
I’m happy to say, I got quite a lot done outside today. There is still more to do, of course, but I should be able to get most of that done in the next couple of days.
Well, yes, technically it’s warmer today. We are apparently at 7C/45F right now – the predicted high of the day.
The windchill is at -5C/23F
I just got back from giving the outside cats a light afternoon feeding and, to be honest, I’m surprised by the windchill. Yes, it was cold, but I didn’t even bother putting on a jacket or hat.
The winds are high enough that it has started to tear off the plastic wrapped around the bottom of the isolation shelter. I made the doorway larger for a purpose, but with the ramp down, it’s just too open.
The plastic is also just being held in place with push pins, because it is temporary, but this plastic is just dollar store dining table protector. It’s not particularly thick or strong. We will probably have to reinforce the edges somehow – not so easy, with it already attached to the shelter.
After re-tacking the plastic with the push pins already there, I came about out with more and spent some time adding more, including some more strategic places. Hopefully, it will hold until we can find some way to shelter that entrance.
It took a while for me to do that, which is part of why I’m surprised by what the wind chill was. I was directly in the wind the whole time and yet, it was chilly, but -5C/23F? I knew my tolerance for cold has increased as I got older, but still…
Except my ears. I should have dug out the ear muffs. Getting wind in my ears causes headaches, and I can feel one coming on now.
Well, tomorrow is supposed to be a bit warmer, and Friday is now projected to reach a high of 10C/50F, with no high winds predicted, so I might be able to get some stuff done out there, after all.
Until then, it’s another inside day.
Last night, I got another tomato sauce started in the slow cooker. I had more ripe tomatoes this time and had to really pack them in there to get anything else in. Along with the tomatoes I included the last of our eggplant, some onions, a shallot, some garlic and a couple of carrots – we had to actually buy carrots this time – whatever seasonings struck my fancy, some olive oil and apple cider vinegar. That was set on low for 10 hours, and then is stayed on warm until we could get to it again.
This morning, I blitzed it with the immersion blender until smooth, set it on high for about an hour, then back on low for a few more hours. At this point, the lid was propped slightly to let moisture out, and it was stirred frequently, as the sauce thickened.
Earlier today, I cooked up a big batch of pasta, then used some of it as the base for a pasta sauce, adding it to some cooked pork bits and melting in some cream cheese, then tossing the pasta in it. I made just enough of the sauce for my husband and I, as the girls have very different tastes.
The sauce is now being left to cool, and whatever is left from what we use today will be put into freezer bags and frozen.
The sun will be setting pretty soon – it’s setting at 4:44pm today – so I’ll be heading out to do one more light feeding for the outside cats before it gets fully dark. This gives them a better chance to eat it all before the skunks start coming out. Maybe racoons, too. I haven’t seen any in a while, but that doesn’t mean they’re not showing up!
This morning, my younger daughter joined me for my morning rounds, so I could show her my full routine, for the next time I have a morning where I’m in just too much pain to do it myself. She knows I’m not a morning person. She also tends to go to bed a lot earlier, and wakes a lot earlier, so she offered to take over the morning routine for me!
I might actually take her up on that.
We shall see!
Oh! A skunk just showed up on the critter cam… gotta go!
This Big Boi was loafed in a sun spot against the old garden shed. To get the photo, I had to zoom in through three layers of glass and Lexan in my window. I’m actually surprised I got as good a photo as I did! 😄😄
I don’t know that I recognize this cat. We have a lot of similar tabbies, which always makes is harder to tell, but this particular beast seems unusually chonk for an outside cat!
There is that distinctive slash of white fur through the black line running along the side of his nose. That’s the only thing that seems at all familiar to me. This may be a cat that has returned for the winter. Chances are, if I go through my old photos, looking specifically for that distinctive marking, I might find him there.
I just got back from doing the last outside feeding of the day, and did not see him among the other cats, though. Perhaps he is a visitor from one of the neighboring farms.
In other things, I’ve had a pretty non-productive day. I had a very interrupted night, so very little sleep, and was in a lot of pain in the morning. I got the outside cats fed with their warm, softened kibble, then took some pain killers and tried to go back to bed.
That didn’t work any better than last night.
I did eventually get some inside stuff done, at least. We have another batch of mostly San Marzano tomatoes that are ripened, so I went through those to pick out any of the damaged ones that started to go bad, then set the rest to soak in some vinegar water. I’ll set up the slow cooker for the night to make another sauce. We have plenty in the fridge right now, so this will be for the freezer. There are still green tomatoes in the old kitchen, and I’m still regularly picking out the ones that are starting to show a blush and setting them in one container. Once it’s full, I’ll bring them to the living room to finish ripening.
Mostly, though, today has been another enforced day of rest. Which, I suppose, is not a bad thing. Today was a bit cooler, and there was a smattering of snow on the ground in the morning. The next two days will be warmer, so that will be a good time to get outside and get some more stuff done before winter really sets in.
All in all, we’re having a very lovely and mild November. Last year was a mild fall, too, but around this time last year, well…
The Re-Farmer 