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Morning harvest, kitty cuddles, and a lovely day

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It has been a bit longer than usual since I’ve actually done a morning harvest. With all the stuff going on for the past while, I lost track of time! I do try to harvest at least every other day. Since I’m in the habit of taking pictures what I harvest, unless it’s just one or two tomatoes or something like that, I checked the dates on my photos. Turns out, I haven’t done a harvest in 4 days!

Well, I got a pretty good one, this morning!

In the photo are a few San Marzano tomatoes at the top, some black cherry tomatoes, and a nice bunch of Forme de Couer tomatoes. I had to battle some very spiky stems to reach those G Star patty pan squash! With the beans, there are all three varieties in there, including a very decent amount of the Royal Burgundy bush beans – but this is the first time I picked any of the green Seychelle beans from the main garden area, and not just from the trellis over the Crespo squash. I had planted some Seychelles in the gaps where the purple Carminat beans failed to germinate, but I think only 3 Seychelle germinated. However many there were, there’s only one plant left, and it’s finally producing beans!

Among the Carminat beans, I found a couple that had gotten too big to harvest; they would no longer be tender, so I left them on the vine. There probably isn’t time enough, but who knows. They might fully mature and give me a few seeds I can plant next year! This is definitely a variety that grows well here, and we do enjoy them, so we do want to grow them again.

Of course, along with checking on the garden, I checked on the kitties. After setting the food out, I tried to do a head count.

I counted 34 cats and kittens.

*sigh*

I don’t even want to think of how many there would be, if we hadn’t lost so many kittens this year, and at least one adult. There are other adult cats that I haven’t seen in a while, but they may come back and stay for the winter. Some of them, anyhow.

Eye baby is pretty active among the kittens, but also has her favourite place to hang out, in the cat cage.

Which she can’t do right now, because I took that cat bed out to give it a wash!

So she made do on the blanket, instead.

Her cuddle buddy doesn’t seem to care, either way! This bigger kitten seems to be rather protective of eye baby.

Or just likes to use her for a pillow.

~~~~~ pause for interruptions and treating of eye baby~~~~~

I’m back!

We just gave eye baby her daily dose of antibiotics, and a feeding of cat soup from the modified bottle. I did something a bit different, this time.

I remembered we were gifted one of those mixers, where you can make individual size smoothies or whatever. I used that to make the cat soup. It worked. We had zero issues of bits paté clogging the nipple.

Why didn’t we think of this before? 😄

I still don’t know what to make of that eye. I think it’s getting better overall, but I also still think the eye itself is lost.

Oh, and we have determined something else. At least I did, only just now, when I let eye baby back out in the sun room.

She, is a he.

The girls had been able to determine that when they took care of the cats outside recently. A couple of the kittens, including eye baby, decided to roll onto their backs and give a good view. The other kitten was female, but eye baby is definitely a little boy.

But I am getting ahead of myself!

Aside from my usual morning routine, I had a day “off” today. A friend of mine from another province is in town right now, and we had a lunch date!

After getting one of the girls to distract the outside cats away from the truck with some treats, I headed to town a bit early. There was a store I wanted to check out, but I didn’t find what I was looking for. What I did get, however, was clear Gorilla tape. That will be very useful in setting the “greenhouse” around the eggplant and hot pepper bed. I’m hoping that the two clear shower curtains, or the two clear table protectors, with be long enough to go all the way around the box frame, and I had been wondering how I would join them together. This should be strong enough to hold.

I then went to the dollar store and ended up getting a several packages of angle braces that can be used to reinforce the donated cat shelter, instead of the triangle blocks of wood I was intending to use. These would be much better for the size of wood the shelter is made out of. I also got a few more things to use on the shelters, plus new sonic deer/wildlife screamers for the truck. I was down to one, and they’re not much good if there isn’t a pair of them.

I had just finished putting them on the truck and started heading to where we had arranged to meet, when my friend caught up with me. Perfect timing!

We had intended to go to a fish ‘n chips place for lunch, at 1pm, that had reopened recently. They’d had a fire some time ago, and it took quite a long time to get things up and running again, and I wanted to see the renovations. They were so incredibly busy, though, we barely got in the door, and saw that every table was full (granted, there isn’t room for a lot of tables anyhow) with lots of people waiting to place orders at the counter. So we left and walked up the block to a Thai place. I’d thought this place had closed and moved to the city, but I guess they’d opened a second location, instead. I haven’t been there in years, but my friend has been going there regularly since she’s been in town.

We have a very lovely, quiet, lunch, with excellent service!

It was really great to be able to sit and talk and get all caught up with each other.

After lunch, we just walked around and went to different places, checking out the marina and the local art club’s art gallery, and stopping at other restaurants for her to collect take out menus for her mother, who still lives out here. One place didn’t have any take out menus and the guy I asked said it was all their website, but her mother isn’t online, so that was of no use for her!

Town was really busy, as a lot of people use this long weekend to close up their cottages for the winter, and spend one last weekend on the beach before their kids go back to school. It wasn’t too bad, really, but neither of us enjoy crowds! All in all, though, we spent a couple of hours just hanging out together, and it was grand!

After we finally said our goodbyes – we may or may not have a chance to get together before she has to leave – I made a quick stop at the grocery store before going home. My husband has a birthday this month, so we’ll be doing things for him over the next week or so. We never celebrate birthdays on the actual day. 😄

I picked up some snacks he likes for now, and the girls tucked away the ice cream I got for later. My younger daughter plans to bake him a cake. His take out meal of choice was Chinese food, and I confirmed their hours while I was in town and got a fresh take out menu, just in case anything had changed.

They don’t have a website. 😄

We will be able to do the take out on Tuesday – after the long weekend is over!

It looks like I’m going to be doing a lot of running around over the next couple of weeks. We’ve got not only my husband’s birthday stuff going on, but the girls and I are taking my mother out to a nature reserve as part of her 93rd birthday celebrations – sort of. My mother said she didn’t want any fuss for her birthday this year, but she did want an outing to the nature reserve with my daughters, so we’re going to do both. Then there’s at least one appointment for my mother that I will be driving her to, and hopefully another in her home with the home care guy. My husband has to get to a lab for some bloodwork. I will hopefully see my friend one more time before she leaves. I also need to get back to the town my mother lives in to pick up kibble and lysine at the feed store, and will likely be back another day to pick up the clear plastic roofing material I’d ordered from the hardware store.

All of that in just the first two weeks of September, and I’m sure I’m forgetting something!

Meanwhile, I still don’t have the date for the spay/neuter the rescue has set up for us! I’ll have to contact her again. They’ve been insanely busy, too.

A couple of weeks from now, we should have someone coming in to excavate and repair the expeller on our septic system.

This is going to be a really crazy month!

After that, things should settle down, though.

I hope!

Pretty much all of this is good stuff, though, so no complaints!

The Re-Farmer

Stock up Shopping: This is what $825 total looks like

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I am so, so tired.

I’m really not sure why. I got sleep. It could very well be just the accumulation of things. The end of the month always involves a lot of running around, but this month we had a few extra stressed thrown in – both positive and negative stresses, but stresses, nonetheless.

Still, that’s just a guess on my part.

The morning was pretty typical. I wasn’t in any rush to get to the city, and did my morning rounds as usual. Then I grabbed the bag of ice packs and headed out. I didn’t even need to stop for a bit of gas along the way, as I’d put a bit in while in town yesterday, before meeting up with the Cat Lady and bringing home the donated cat shelter. It did mean I was below half a tank when I got to the Costco gas station, and filling up was the first thing I did. Regular gas at Costco was $128.9/L Everywhere else was either $1.379 or $139.9 It still cost me $80.94 to fill the tank!

Before I went to Costco, though, I did make a stop for breakfast (it was well past 10 by the time I reached the city). I decided to stop at a mall and try the food court, since the last time I tried to have food at Costco, I couldn’t eat it. My complete intolerance for spice heat in food means I can’t even have the Costco chicken strips meal. I figured, the food court would have more choices.

I can’t remember how long it’s been since I’d gone into this mall, but it was long enough that the food court was completely different, with mostly different vendors. I ended up going for Chinese food. A 3 item meal was quite a bit more expensive than where I got Chinese food last time, in the international grocery store, a few days ago! I was, however, able to get a taro bubble tea with it. I don’t think I’ve had bubble tea since before we moved out here! If I have, it’s only been once, and years ago, but I don’t remember having even seen somewhere to get bubble tea since we’ve moved.

The total bill for my breakfast was $24.62. It was good, but I don’t know that is was worth the price, to be honest.

Since I was in the mall and the food court was right next to a Dollarama, I checked that out before leaving. I ended up getting two more table protector sheets – the ones I got earlier are meant to protect the eggplant bed, but these will be to actually use on our dining table. I got some hemp rope that will be used to make scratching posts inside the cat shelters, and a small paint roller that will be used to paint the donated cat shelter’s wire mesh. Last of all, I found a cat toy that I wanted to see if the cats would actually like. It’s got the captured jingle ball, but it’s quite small and on a rocker base that, for the most part, can right itself, plus some feathers on a string out the top. The question of whether they like it is mostly due to its small size.

They like it. If I find more like it, I definitely will pick up more.

The total bill at Dollarama was $19.32

Then, it was off to get gas and do the shopping.

Since I already got some kibble at the feed store, and will be getting more later, the only cat food I needed to get today was for the inside cats. So it was just a couple of bags of kibble, plus wet cat food and puppy pads. The rest was for us humans!

I did get the pet supplies on a separate bill. This is what both bills together, $735.23, looks like.

Well, kinda. Quite a few things are hidden in the image.

The pet supplies receipt is on the bottom. Two cases of wet cat food, two 9kg bags of kibble and one box of puppy pads. Grand total: $182.51

The stuff for ourselves totaled $552.72, but this did include some more expensive purchases that are not at all usual. One of those is something that’s hidden in the photo above. I got a shop light, which cost $39.99 Now that both basements are cat free zones, we’ll be setting the workshop up again, including the giant self healing cutting mat that is currently covering the dining table. My husband will be bringing some of his leatherworking supplies down there. The light will be hung above the work table.

We got a flat of Coke Zero, but the other unusual thing we picked up was a flat of Monster energy drinks, in three flavours. Both my daughters and I drink them, so I figured it would be worth trying a case. That was $44.99.

The other “bottom of the basket” stuff includes a bag of flour – we weren’t out, but at $9.99, I grabbed one, as flour is rarely such a good price, even at Costco. I got a bucket of ghee, as we were getting low – it’s not the same as what we got before but, for the amount, the price is still insanely better than elsewhere. There’s a 9 pack of pasta, two flats of eggs (60 eggs), frozen perogies and toilet paper.

Along with those, there are packages of pork chops, fresh sausages, a panini variety pack and – a treat for the girls – a package of fresh pink salmon! Salmon is usually extremely expensive, but there were three or four salmon in there, for only $24.09. Usually, we’d pay that much for a single frozen fillet, and not a very big one!

I got another 3 pack of Spam for the pantry, and a 3 pack of all beef wieners. There is a big jar of mayonnaise and another of peanut butter. I got a 2 pack of rye bread, and two 2 packs of tortilla wraps. I also got their last 2 pack of hot dog buns. Not enough for the amount of wieners I got, but the shelf was empty. The only reason I got the one package was because someone left it in with another type of bread.

There are also blocks of mozzarella and Old cheddar cheese, plus two 4 packs of cream cheese. My daughter wants to do some baking! There are 5 pounds of butter, a 1L of whipping cream and a 2L of lactose free milk. There are a couple of 2 packs of salad mixes, and finally there are containers of ibuprofen, acetaminophen and house brand lactase.

Both Costco bills together came to $735.23

There were a couple of things on my list that I couldn’t find, though, so I decided to hit a nearby Walmart before leaving the city. I chose to go to the Walmart only because it was physically easier to get to and from than my other options.

I ended up getting more!

Click on the images to see them full size.

One of the things I was looking for was zucchini, for my daughter’s baking. We don’t have enough summer squash in the garden for the amount she needs. The other thing was soy milk. I got the lactose free milk, but my daughters had requested soy milk, and I couldn’t find any at Costco.

The big winner were the bags of salad mix. They were only $3.77 each – normally, they’d be closer to $6, even at Walmart, and closer to $7 locally. I try to get one bagged salad for each of us – it’s just easier that way – but they only had three bags left of the Mexican Corn mix. My husband likes Caesar salads, so I got one of those for him. I also got four bags of Maple Bourbon mix.

I grabbed another 12 pack of mac and cheese, as it was only $8.97. Those usually cost closer to $13, or even $15. There’s a small wheel of brie, a couple of baguettes, and a small charcuterie mix of meats. I’d like to have another charcuterie and Columbo night, this time with both girls, now that my older daughter has hit her commissions deadlines. I got more hot dog buns, so we now have more than enough for the amount of wieners I got at Costco. Last of all, I got myself a cold energy drink for the drive home.

By the time I was ready to go through the checkout lane, I was pretty exhausted. I found a lane with just one cart ahead of me, being unloaded. It was two women, shopping together. One was talking to the cashier while the other was finishing emptying the cart.

As I started unloading my own cart, both women were starting to talk to the cashier, who was no longer scanning their items.

The cashier was trying to hard sell them a Walmart credit card.

And I do mean HARD selling!

Every time one of the women would say no, the cashier would be, Oh, but there’s this benefit, or this feature, or no fees… The women kept saying no, but also listening politely to the cashier, who just kept pushing them to get this credit card, waving around this printout she had with the details…

… and not scanning their purchases.

This went on for quite a while before I finally asked, “should I be going to another lane?” The woman looked at me, and I added, “I’m tired. If this is going to take a while, should I just go to another lane?”

The cashier tired to push the card in them again, the women said no again, and finally the cashier put away the sheet and started scanning their stuff again.

It took maybe a minute for them to finish after that.

When the cashier started scanning my stuff, I got no greeting at all. She basically ignored me until she was done…

… then tried to sell me on their credit card.

Funny. When I said no, she didn’t try to hard sell me on it.

Then, for some reason, when I tried to pay for my purchase by inserting my card into the machine, I got a message saying, customer canceled transaction. I hadn’t touched anything but the bottom of the machine as I pushed the card in. At least I don’t think I did. Given how tired I was, it’s entirely possible my hand slipped and I hit a button, but I don’t think so. She resent the total to the machine and I scanned the chip, instead, and it worked fine after that.

Grand total was $90.11

I was more than happy to be out of there.

So the grand total for stock up shopping, both Costco and Walmart, was $825.43

Add in the gas and the Dollarama purchase, and it totaled $925.60 Plus my breakfast, $950.22

Ouch.

I was very happy to be leaving the city after that. Thank God I won’t have to do this again until next month!

Unfortunately, that nice cold energy drink I got did not accomplish much.

It’s an hour’s drive to the city, plus the driving time inside the city itself. After about half an hour, my exhaustion was starting to catch up on me.

By about 45 minutes, I was looking all over for a place I could safely pull over. I was feeling so tired, I started to be afraid to blink, because my eyes did not want to stay open!

In the end, I wasn’t able to pull over until I reached the intersection outside of the town nearest us, with a gas station. I went in to use the washroom, bought a couple of small things to pay for the toilet paper I used 😉, then messaged my family to let them know where I was, and that I was going to close my eyes for a bit. I was only about 25 minutes from home, but I was just not safe to drive.

Once back in the truck, I cracked the windows open a bit, leaned my seat back and closed my eyes. I had the radio going which, with the engine off, turns itself off after 10 minutes. I turned it back on again once. I also had to close the windows on one side of the truck, as it started to rain and the wind was coming in from that side, blowing rain into the cab.

I didn’t think I’d slept much, but then my phone started to ring. It was my husband, giving me a wake up call.

An hour had gone by!

Before I got off the phone, I asked if someone could open the gate for me so I could drive straight in, and then set off for home.

When I got home, both girls were waiting for me by the house. Once I was backed up to the house, they ordered me to go inside and lie down, then started to unload the truck.

I went to the bathroom before going to lie down, which is when I first heard it.

Thunder.

By the time I got back to the entry, it was pouring rain. My younger daughter was outside, unloading the truck to my older daughter at the door. My older daughter asked if I could take over while she ran upstairs to close the window by their computer!

So I took over door duty, grabbing the remaining stuff my younger daughter was bringing over. She was laughing gleefully, while getting completely soaked!

Then, as quickly as it hit us, the rain was gone!

The girls took care of everything else while I tried to lie down, but sleep would not come.

Mostly because I had a very persistent Potato Beetle, demanding attention.

He does this by reaching out and grabbing and arm or hand or face, with a single, sharp claw!

One of my daughters rescued me but, by then, I needed to eat something, anyhow.

The rest of my evening has been one of recovery, while the girls take over things. As I write this, they just finished feeding the outside cats and tending to eye baby.

It’s almost 8pm right now, and I think as soon as I finish this, I’m going to try going to bed for real this time!

I am so, so tired.

The Re-Farmer

Change in plans!

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I’m happy to say, no flat tires this morning, so I was going to do the Costco shop this morning.

I slept in longer than intended, and didn’t leave as early as I’d planned.  Which is why I was still home when I started getting messages from the Cat Lady.

They had a change in plans, too, and needed to go to the town nearest us.  Could I meet them?  They had cat food for us, but instead of the cat tower, they had their old catio shelter.

Of course, I said yes.  I was heading that direction to detour road work, anyhow.

I ended up going into town early, got a bit of gas, and was going to wait.

I got a message saying they were leaving late, so I went for breakfast.

They have a short box truck, and apparently the cat shelter was really tall in it.  They were going to drive slow.

Then I got a message.

It fell off, onto the highway!

Nothing broke, though.

Some time later, I got another message.

Two roof panels just blew off!

After making sure everyone was okay, I went to the hardware store for ratchet straps, a tarp and tie downs.

I messaged them about it, and she told me they stopped to get straps, too.  The ones they kept in their truck had been borrowed by her FIL.

Oops!

So now I await them in our meet up spot.  I’ve already rolled back the box cover.  Once we have the shelter, I’m going home to drop it off.

I’m seriously considering doing Costco tomorrow!  But a Saturday Cos5co trip would be worse than a Friday one. 😆

The Re-Farmer

Just chugging along

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Today started quite late for me. For some reason, I was completely unable to sleep. I finally got up at about 5am, when I heard my older daughter come down for what, for her, would be her supper. After having a chat with her, and making myself a couple of sandwiches, I tried going to bed again. The girls, sweethearts that they are, took care of my morning stuff for me, including feeding the outside cats (they usually already do the morning feeding of the inside cats).

I managed to get maybe 4 hours of sleep and, apparently, that was all I needed.

The first thing I needed to do was make some calls. I tried calling the home care guy and left another message, letting him know I wouldn’t be home after about 2. He didn’t call me back.

Then I called the two septic companies that hadn’t responded to my messages. With one, I left another message. With the other, I tried their cell phone number instead of their land line, and actually got someone. Considering what town they are in, chances were pretty good their cell phone coverage wouldn’t be any better than hours, so I was glad it worked.

This company charges by the hour. We talked about our system and the problem. He didn’t even mention that these ejector/expeller systems are not supposed to be repaired anymore, but replaced with a septic field.

Given that they charge by the hour, he couldn’t give me a firm estimate, but figured it would be at least $1500. They charge $250/hour and that covers all costs, including transportation, parts, etc. After asking a few more questions, he thought it might take 4-6 hours. At 6 hours, that’s $1500 (before taxes).

I’m just going to assume it will take longer. That’s generally how things tend to be out here!

I greatly appreciated the information, and passed it on to my brother.

So we have one company that charges by the job, regardless of time, and the estimate was $2032 before taxes, for all the materials, labour and transportation (both companies are located about a 40 minute drive away from us). The other charges by the hour, regardless of what the job ends up entailing. Based on his time estimate, it could cost anywhere from $1000 to $1500 – though he did say that it would likely be “at least” $1500. If it took 8 hours, that would be $2000, plus taxes.

As for the third company, since we’re not hearing back from them, and this job really needs to get done soon, I figure they are going to be dropped from the list.

That done, I went outside and checked a few things. I didn’t bother taking any pictures, but I ended up picking what is probably the last of our corn. There are a few cobs left that are pretty immature, and are unlikely to have been pollinated. I grabbed a few Forme de Couer tomatoes, too. I probably could have left them longer, but I wanted to take some of the weight off the vines!

In the afternoon, I loaded the truck up with three empty 18.9L/5gallon water jugs to refill. I made a quick stop at the post office on the way out, and found that my replacement Mastercard was in, and just needed a PIN purchase to be activated. With Disability coming in tomorrow, I’ve already changed the info in my online banking to pay off the balance, then do the Costco shopping.

On a Friday before a long weekend.

May as well get it over with!

Oh, I forgot. Before I left for the grocery store, I had to pause and get a shot of Ginger.

That’s him on our dining table, which is currently protected by a giant self-healing cutting mat. Ginger is the only cat that is allowed on the dining table, because he still gets bullied by several of the other cats. My daughters even gave him his own bed.

He’s bigger than the bed. 😄

Now… where was I?

Oh, yes. The grocery store.

Since I was at the grocery store, anyhow, I got a few more things. My husband requested nacho fixings, so I got that – including lactose free cheese – and I found the last things to go with the fancy meats and cheeses I got yesterday. The girls and I can now have ourselves a charcuterie and Columbo marathon night again. 😁

When I got home, and my younger daughter helped me unload the truck, then I reloaded it with our garbage and recycling, in time to get to the dump just as it opened for this evening.

I now wish I’d left it for Saturday. It’s open longer hours on Saturday, but that’s not why I wish I’d waited.

When entering the landfill area, there is a little hut for the attendant, where I can show our card that shows we live in the area and can use the dump without charge. They had to implement this because too many people from rural municipalities with landfills that charged a fee, would come to one of the three landfills in our RM instead.

Next to the attendant’s hut is a row of recycling bins – those get emptied and the contents shipped to the city for processing – plus one bin for glass only. There are other sheds and areas set aside for batteries, oil, paint, etc. that we drive between, while on the way to the pit.

The first thing I noticed about the driveway to the pit – aside from it being half underwater, due to having rain almost all day today – were tracks in the clay, filled with garbage. There was no way to avoid driving over them.

The tracks were from the front end loader that was in the enclosure around the pit, which had literal tracks rather than wheels. It was going back and forth, pushing garbage into the pit.

Another problem is all the people who just dump their garbage on the edge of the pit, rather than into the pit. It builds up until there’s no more room for vehicles to turn around in, or pass each other.

So it was a good thing that the front end loader was pushing the garbage into the pit.

The bad thing was that its tracks were not only tearing up the clay heavy gravel, but dragging garbage all over.

Normally, I would drive forward, then back up and turn the tailgate towards the pit, but I didn’t dare drive over the area the loader had driven over. I could see all sorts of wire, metal objects, and things I couldn’t identify. I’ve already gotten a flat after a visit to the dump, once before, and did not want a repeat!

I decided to not even try backing close to the edge of the pit. Instead, I tried to drive a bit further forward in an area that the loader had only partially driven over.

Which is when I heard a horrible popping sort of noise, and could actually feel that something broke under my front tired.

I stopped to take a look and discovered…

… I had driven over a glass jar and broken it.

There were some larger shards that I picked up and tossed into the pit, then I started checking the front and back tires that would have driven over it.

There was no obvious sign of damage.

So I moved forward a bit more, then emptied the truck box of garbage bags, without bothering to get closer to the pit.

The driver of the loader seemed to appreciate me keeping a distance, as it gave him room to drive along the edge of the pit, then go in reverse, dragging the bucket on the ground, pulling all the stuck garbage back with it.

Too little, too late.

I’ve never seen the area in front of the pit look so bad, and that was from the cleanup, not the garbage piles!

I checked the tires again, then found space to turn around. I stopped to unload the recycling and glass into the bins near the attendant’s shack, then checked the tires again.

Still fine, so far.

I did go to the shack and tell the attendant what happened, just so it would be known as a problem, and a thing that happened.

After giving the tires one more check, I finally headed home.

Once at home, I made sure to park the truck so that my husband can see it through his window, and let me know of we suddenly have a flat!

I am not a happy camper.

It’s been a few hours, though, and it’s still all right. I may have gotten lucky.

Meanwhile, I started to get messages from the Cat Lady, along with some photos. She just picked up a new cat tree – 9 feet tall! – for only $60 on FB Marketplace. In the first picture she sent me, I could see several cats all over the cat tree – but almost missed the tiny face of Button, barely visible on a bottom shelf!

He was all over that thing, along with the other cats.

He is also apparently becoming very fussy!

The Cat Lady wanted to know if I would be in town this weekend. She has some bags of kitten food that Button won’t eat. He’ll only eat one brand, now! Among the brands he now rejects is the very brand we usually feed the outside cats!

They also have a 5 foot cat tree that cats weren’t really using, that she wants to pass on to us.

The girls have already called dibs on it, for upstairs.

pause for interruption

I’m back!

My mother called, and I had a lot to update her on!

We talked about the numbers I have so far for the septic repair. She confirmed, she will pay the full amount. That is so awesome of her!!! There’s still the one company I had hoped to hear from, but expect that tomorrow, I will be calling the company that charges by the hour, and make arrangements for the excavation and repairs.

We also talked about her pending visit from the home care guy. I told her, he left a message while I was out, and we haven’t been able to connect yet. She couldn’t quite remember what it was about, but when I reminded her it was about her application for supportive living, she was quite happy. She would rather be in a particular nursing home, but to live somewhere that provides meals, snacks, laundry and light housekeeping is exactly what she needs right now – plus access to 24 hour home care support, if something happens. She was concerned about the cost, and I explained it will be 30% of her income (which is what she’s paying now), plus the package that includes the services (meals, etc.) She won’t have to cook for herself, though she’ll have a “kitchen” with a mini fridge, probably a microwave, a sink, and room for a kettle or or coffee pot. She won’t have to buy groceries anymore, unless she wants something to keep in her own apartment.

The application process, of course, will just get her on a waiting list. The website doesn’t say if there are any vacancies, and it’s unlikely there are any. There just isn’t a lot of supportive living housing out there, and the demand is high. There would be a triage process, I’m sure.

I’m glad she called, because it was getting late and I wasn’t going to call her to update her until tomorrow.

So there’s that…

Now… where was I?

Ah, yes. I was chatting with the Cat Lady!

As we were talking and she told me she wanted to pass on the kitten food and cat tree to us, on the weekend, I mentioned the possibility of going to the city tomorrow. She asked me to message her if I do end up going. Chances are, she’ll be able to meet me in the city, instead.

I hope I have room in the truck box for the cat tree, plus the shopping!

We shall see.

After we chatted, and it was still light out, I did my evening rounds, and I just have to share this picture with you.

The Crespo squash is getting so huge! The leaves reach about waist height on me. You can see a squash under the leaves in the foreground. In the distance, you can see the vines climbing a cherry tree – and there is at least one squash developing among the branches! It is also trying to climb the pole bean trellis, and there’s at least one baby squash in there, too, though it’s still too early to know if it got pollinated. With that one, I hope not, because the trellis was not made to hold the weight of squash!

What a difference from when we tried to grow it last year! Clearly, it likes having more shade than where we tried to grow before. Plus, this area gets much wetter, and stays wetter longer. Perfect for a thirsty plant like this!

While doing my evening rounds, I was checking on the San Marzano tomatoes in the main garden area and actually found a couple of red tomatoes! One was ripe enough to pick, while the other was not ready but close – and fell off while I was tending the plant! I also picked more Forme de Couer tomatoes that probably could have done to stay longer, but the plants are getting so overloaded with tomatoes, I wanted to take some of the weight off!

By the time I was done that, it was getting time to tend to eye baby. She was in the cat cage in the sun room and did not make it easy to reach her, but once I picked her up, she started purring like crazy.

Her eye is still in that terrible “she looks better, but her eye looks so awful” state.

My daughter got her all wrapped up in a towel and held her during her ministrations. She’s gotten very good about taking her antibiotics, though, and quite enjoyed a feeding of warmed up cat soup. She also seems to be okay with being held pretty restricted, the entire time.

We aren’t washing the eye anymore, as that would cause more injury, but we do try to get the fur around her eye at least somewhat clean of gunk. Then, after a snuggle with my daughter, she went back outside, where she can go back to her cuddle pile in the cat cage!

So that was the gist of my day today.

For now, I need to try and get to bed early – and hopefully get some actual sleep! I want to head to the city early – if I don’t have a flat in the morning – so that I have plenty of time to make a call to the septic company when I get back.

I guess it’s time to say good night.

Good night!

The Re-Farmer

First stock up shop and more: this is what $527 looks like – sort of

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$527.84 in total, to be more exact.

Plus $80 in gas. As I headed out, I stopped in town to get $50 in gas, at $139.9/L, along with a sandwich (made by our one restaurant in our little hamlet) and a drink for breakfast while driving, but the food was out of a different budget, so I’m not counting that. I then got another $30 of gas at $137.9/L as I was leaving the city. I also got lunch later on but, again, different budget, so I’m not counting that, either.

I didn’t get pictures of everything. I ended up going to five different places – and still skipped Superstore.

My first stop was Home Depot, as it was basically across the street from the Canadian Tire I was going to. Mostly, I was wanting to see things I was looking up online, like the clear, transparent plastic I thought might be good for windows on the cat isolation shelter.

Good grief they are expensive!

Other stuff I wanted to see, they didn’t have in stock, but they were things I am thinking of for the permanent garden trellises, so that can wait.

What I did find was half inch hardware cloth. They were rolls only 5 feet long, so I got two. I also remembered we were pretty much out of CLR, so I got a bottle of that, too.

Grand total for the three items: $47.10

That done, I popped across to the Canadian Tire and got 4 bags of hardwood pellets for the litter boxes. On the way to the tills, I grabbed a couple of 6pc bungee kits that were on clearance, and a bottle brush. The cats kept stealing our bottle brushes and they had to be thrown away, so it was nice to see some on sale.

Hopefully, the cats won’t find these ones as delicious.

Grand total: $52.43

I was going to the Walmart next, but I forgot I’d already passed it, so I went to the international grocery store, instead. It shares a parking lot with a Dollarama, so I dashed in there to see if there was anything I wanted to pick up.

There were a few things.

I found a metal hanger that might be better for hanging my daughter’s bike than what I got last time. I also grabbed a pizza rocker knife. We don’t actually need it for pizza, but we do make quesadillas fairly regularly, and other flat things that will be much easier to cut with this type of knife. I’d seen it at Dollarama before, months ago, and didn’t get it, but when I wanted to buy one, they weren’t in stock, so I snagged it when I saw it today.

I also found clear, transparent shower curtain liners, and clear transparent table cloth protectors. I got two of each. They will be for the box frame on the bed with the eggplants and hot peppers, to create a sort of greenhouse protection around them. The nights are starting to get chilly, for heat lovers like eggplant. The plastic we tried before got absolutely shredded by the wind, so I am hoping these will be less likely to tear apart. I don’t know which will work best, but the ones that don’t get used will certainly not go to waste.

Grand total: $23.52

Then I finally made it to the international grocery store. By then, it was coming up on noon, and I was going to have lunch, first. I was originally going to have Dim Sum again, but the Chinese buffet lured me in. I was in line behind a pair of older women sharing a shopping cart. One just finished getting her 3 item meal (the largest size on their menu), and her companion started to order her 3 item meal.

Then another.

Then another.

A line started forming behind me, including a young man that was immediately after me. I noticed he was wearing the store uniform, so I asked him if he was on lunch break. He said yes, so I offered for him to go in front of me. He started to say no, he could wait – until the first of the two women in front of me said that her companion was “only” ordering 5 meals.

She was still choosing items for her third one.

At that point, the guy agreed to go in front of me!

The woman ordered two more dinners, and was just starting to order a 6th, when her friend pointed out to her that she already had her five. It was just that one of them hadn’t been placed on top of the buffet cover with the others, yet, so it looked like only four. So she stopped the guy behind the counter before he put anything in the new container.

The employee in front of me started ordering, while the two ladies were talking, and it turned out that no, the second woman really had needed six meals, not five! So they asked if she could order her last one ahead of me.

I said yes, but good grief! 😄 At least one more didn’t take very long. By then, a second employee was able to help me, so it wasn’t just one guy behind the counter anymore.

It was an excellent lunch, and worth the wait.

When I do my shopping, I prefer to put everything back into the cart, then bag things myself in the truck. Especially when there are things that I want to pack with ice packs. Today, though, I noticed they had hard sided insulated bags in stock, so I got one of those, too. It was also on sale, which was a nice bonus.

This is what $222.55 looks like – plus the hardwood pellets.

Most of what I got fit into that one insulated bag!

I got the Coke Zero for my husband and I, and the root beer for my daughters. Those were both on sale.

Hidden in the insulated bag are three $5 each packages of shaved sandwich meats – chicken breast, black forest ham and old fashioned ham. I actually got a package of top sirloin steaks – a treat! – that was on sale. For the girls, I got some frozen Coho salmon and frozen Basa fillets. From their cheese bar, I got some Austrian gruyere, forest mushroom gouda and beer gouda. I got a charcuterie trio to go with the chesses. A few more ingredients, and the girls and I will have another charcuterie and Columbo marathon. 😁

There’s also some thick sliced applewood bacon and unsliced smoked bacon, both locally made. The sliced was on sale, as was the package of pork tenderloins I grabbed. Last of all for the insulated bag was a couple of bottles of creamer for the girls’ coffee, which was on sale.

Among the other items, there’s a jar of dried rosemary – something I’ve been looking for for a while, but was been out of stock, all over! There’s a bottle of Polish raspberry syrup that the girls like to add to drinks, and the Philippine soy sauce my husband likes.

I also grabbed another box of pizza pops, even though I just grabbed one yesterday. This was on an even better sale – regular price $24.79, sale price $17.49. Having an extra for the freezer is a good thing!

As a treat, I bought a box of double yolk mooncakes. They were on sale. I don’t think I’ve had moon cakes since before we moved out here! I admit; as much as I like moon cakes, part of the reason I got them was for the tin. They are very handy, and very pretty. They had two different designs, and I had to resist getting one of each!

Last of all, I ended up grabbing four 4″x6″ ice packs to add to our collection. 😄 They were on clearance and only 90¢ each, instead of $2.99.

The down side of getting those pizza pops at such a great price is, the box is long and doesn’t fit in any of our insulated bags. I stuffed it into a soft sided bag with some ice packs, but couldn’t zip it closed.

My next stop would have been Superstore, but with things thawing out in the truck, even with ice packs around them, I went straight to the Walmart.

The main thing I needed there was enough kibble to tide us over, if we can’t get to Costco or the local feed store until after the long weekend. I ended up getting two 9kg bags of Whiskas and one 7kg of their house brand. I also got a 32 pack of wet cat food.

The KD was on an excellent sale, so I grabbed a box. I also grabbed more distilled water for my husband’s CPAP humidifier. It wasn’t on sale, but their regular price is almost half what it costs, elsewhere, so I grabbed a pack of four bottles.

The other thing I was looking for was a mattress bag. We may not have a spare bedroom for my brother, but we can set up a bed for him in his van, as a surprise. Since it will be in a van, though, I want to make sure the spare mattress is in a bag, to help keep it protected. I had a couple of choices, and selected the one that was heavier duty.

Then there were some hygiene products for my daughters and a bottle of cold water for the drive home. It took a while, and asking several people, before I found a larger insulated bag that I hoped would be large enough for the pizza pop box, then picked up a couple of bags of ice to put in it. Last of all, I added a donation for a school lunch program.

Grand total: $182.24

The new insulated bag wasn’t quite large enough. The squareness of the box’s end made it tight to snap the bag closed, and as soon as it was moved, it started popping open again. Still, it was better than before. It had ice packs with it, and the bags of ice went into the soft sided insulated bag we keep the ice packs in – which had been set inside an insulated hard sided bag, to make extra sure they were still frozen when I needed them! – with the remaining ice packs. I just made sure the new insulated bag had its top folded over and push against another insulated bag, while the bag of ice went on top.

At that point, though, I needed to get stuff home. Just a quick stop at the gas station for a bit of a top up (I’ll fill when I get to Costco), and it was straight home to get things into the freezer!

While unloading, there were cats just everywhere, so I paused to put kibble out and get them away from the truck. They were quite hungry!

Also, eye baby’s eye is looking both absolutely horrible, and so much better, at the same time! She’s running around with the other kittens so much that it actually takes me a moment to identify her now. Gotta see that messed up eye, and her adorable ears with the turned back tips.

After the litter pellets were loaded into the house, I still had to deal with kittens, exploring under the truck. That was a good time to get the hose and rinse the dust off the truck, so I could move it under the trees in the yard.

Until I’m finished using the garage as a workshop, the truck is still parked in the shade of the yard. The major downside of this is, cats like to lie under it, and kittens like to explore the undercarriage! Every time I go to use the truck, I make sure to walk around it once or twice – three times, if I’m unsure – banging on the hood, the sides, and the box cover, to make sure no cats are under it – and especially not under the hood!

So there we have it.

Five places, and more than $500 later.

Between yesterday’s unexpected stock up trip, and today, there’s no hurry to do a Costco trip. My husband’s private insurance disability payment – the one that pays almost all the bills – comes in on Friday.

It’s Labour Day weekend coming up; the last long weekend before school starts.

Costco is going to be insane.

I have zero problems waiting until Tuesday to do a Costco trip!

The Re-Farmer

An unexpected stock up shop: this is what $140 instead of $210 looks like

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Tomorrow is my usual first trip to the city for stock up shopping, but we were completely out of a few things. I had a very short shopping list, but my daughter sent me some funds, so that allowed me to be on the lookout for some good deals.

Well, it turns out the local grocery store was having some Dollar Days sales, and I took advantage of it!

This is what $140.14 looks like.

Without the deals, this would have cost $214.43

The only things on my list were bread, eggs, butter and toilet paper. The TP deal was with using a Scene points card, giving $4 off per package, so I got two. The eggs were not on sale, nor was the butter, but the butter was the house brand and the price was not much higher than the price for butter at Costco.

We don’t normally buy boxed cereal, but these were $4 each, which was $1.99 off per box. Along with the Cinnamon Toast Crunch visible in the photo, I got Oatmeal Crisp Maple, which is buried under the bread.

I also got 6 different flavours of energy drinks. That was a 2 for $7 deal, and the savings was only 49¢ per can, but it also got me 100 points for every 2 cans. I could have gotten cases, instead, but the cases came in only 2 flavours, and we like variety.

I got a couple of packets of lemonade and strawberry powdered drink mixes. They were not on sale, but they were only 65¢ each, and sometimes we just want something not-water. It’s something to try and see if we like.

The whole milk (1L) and soy milk (2L) were not on sale, but if I was getting cereal, we were going to need more milk.

The box of pizza pops is an occasional treat that I usually get at Walmart, as they tend to have the best price, but these were $5 off, making them a better price than Walmart.

The bag of Mandarin oranges was $3 instead of $6.99, and the bananas were 59¢/pound ($1.29/kg), instead of the usual 79¢/pound.

The pork was an excellent deal. One package cost $4.76, with a savings of $6.16, and the other was $3.91 with a savings of $5.03

The hot dog wieners were $2 a package ($3.29 off), so I got three, to go with the three packages of hot dog buns that were also $2 each ($2.99 off). The whole wheat Texas Toast and sandwich bread was also $2 each ($1.99 off), so I got two of each.

So I got 35% off in savings, plus 300 points extra. I had enough point to get $10 off my bill, too, but chose to save it for another trip.

Most of the bread and 2 packages of wieners went straight into the freezer.

Meanwhile, CPP Disability comes in tomorrow, and I should be doing our non-Costco shopping trip in the city, which will mean going to at least three different stores. Four, if I have the energy to do Superstore, too. The international store that we got to has some good sales on right now, and tomorrow is the last day for them, so I don’t want to skip that. Plus, I’m looking forward to some Dim Sum for brunch!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: a little harvest, and a little friend!

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Today turned out very different than I expected, but I’ll cover that in my next post.

My morning routine was pretty much the usual, and I even got a little harvest in.

I have what have become the usual beans – all three kinds – G Star patty pans and Forme de Couer tomatoes, but today I picked the largest of the purple Dragonfly peppers. There are quite a few more, but I’m giving them more time to ripen.

Of course, I also fed the outside cats and, as I was going around the sun room door, I found a little green friend.

This little guy was not much bigger than the top of my thumb! He was above the rain barrel, where I have a board for the diverter to rest on, this rock, and a brick on the other side, to hold it in place.

In yesterday’s sudden, severe storm yesterday morning, the brick actually got knocked right off, and the diverter almost did, too!

Gosh, I love these little tree frogs! I like all the frogs, but these ones are just too adorable!

That was about all that was usual about today, but the update will need its own post, next!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: a harvest before the storm!

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I was in a world of hurt this morning, after all the stuff done yesterday. The girls took care of feeding the outside cats. We gave eye baby her medication and a modified bottle feed last night, but then she went back outside. She’s getting too active to keep her in a cat carrier all night. Since we can’t wash her eye anymore – it’s not leaking, but is still insanely swollen – and no longer have eye drops, we didn’t take her in this morning. She seems to prefer kibble, anyhow. We’ll bring her in for her antibiotics in the evening, then let her back out again.

I tried to get more sleep, but got messages from my brother and couldn’t fall asleep after that. I’ll get to that part, later.

It was late morning before I got outside to check on the garden and see what could be harvested. We were supposed to get storms last night, but only got a brief rain. We were now being told to expect thunderstorms in the late morning, but very briefly. While I was in the garden, I could hear thunder in the distance.

This is what I was able to gather today.

That big G Star patty pan squash grew so much, just overnight! Yesterday, it wasn’t much bigger than the other one!

I finally picked our first yellow zucchini.

Those are all Forme de Couer tomatoes; no others were ready to pick. The beans are mostly the Royal Burgundy bush beans, which I did not pick at all, yesterday, with maybe a half dozen Carminat pole beans.

I do have to share about the enameled tub the harvest is in. It has been hanging on the wall behind the warming shelf of the wood cookstove for I don’t know now many decades. I brought it out and washed it, thinking we might need to use it for sponge baths, if we couldn’t get the septic going again.

I actually remember my mother bathing me in that, when I was a wee one. She had it on the table in the kitchen, close to the stove, with its reservoir of warm water handy. It was probably used for my late brother, too. Which would make it older than I am!

I hadn’t brought a container with me while going through the garden, and just used the bottom of my shirt to carry the produce. As I was transferring them to the tub, I could hear the thunder and figured I would top of the cat kibble outside, but just in the kibble house and sun room, so the cats would be sheltered next to food. I was in the process of putting the kibble out when the storm hit.

Hard.

We went from basically hot and muggy with no wind, to driving rain and winds strong enough for things started to get blown around, and I was half expecting branches to start breaking off! I got completely soaked in seconds!

Once back in the sun room, I made sure to tie off the outer door and partially close the inner door – normally, during the day, both are kept wide open. Cats where running all over the place, trying to find shelter. A number of kittens that normally run away from me ran into the sun room, saw me there, and panicked – but didn’t run back outside into that driving rain!

The storm has already passed, though. The system is continuing to the north east, and it looks like we got it pretty mild, compared to other places.

I’ll still be waiting a while before going back outside!

I need to go check out the expeller for the septic, out by the barn. I remembered that the septic guy had suggested that, if we still had problems, to take the cap and inner pipe of the expeller out completely, and leave it off for about a month. The grey water would build up in the outer pipe and overflow it, eventually, clearing out any collected gunk from inside the pipes that might be clogging the pipe. I was thinking of taking it out and seeing if there was any outflow.

My brother had had the same thought, and messaged me this morning about it. I’d told him about the septic guy suggesting leaving it out for a month, but my brother wasn’t too keen on that idea; that cap is there for a reason. But it might we worthwhile to do it for a few days, at least.

I was going to do that after topping up the cat kibble, thinking I had time before the storm hit.

I was wrong.

😂😂

So I will have to go out there later today, and see what there is to see!

The Re-Farmer

Snoozy Lady

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As usual, our weather forecast has changed. We’re still expecting the heat, but now the storm warnings are back, too. Today, we’re expected to have a high of 30C/86F with a humidex of 38C/100F, and tomorrow is supposed to be much the same, temperature wise. At around 3am tonight, storms are supposed to reach us, continue all through tomorrow, and into Monday night.

Which means I was out in the garden early to give it a watering before things get too hot. Yes, we’re supposed to get rain tonight, but that won’t help the garden any during the day. With the soil we have, it’s almost impossible to over water – it drains very quickly through all that sand and gravel.

I have company when I do the watering.

Usually, it’s Syndol, following me around everywhere, wanting attention in between trying to catch frogs.

Today, I got to see this bit of cuteness overload.

Rolando Moon, the grand old lady, loves the grass clipping mulch. Apparently it makes an excellent bed!

Meanwhile, I got a message from my SIL. With the upcoming storms, they will be bringing more equipment to store here at the farm. My SIL will be driving the truck with the loaded trailer, but my brother will be driving the tractor with the rotary mower. They need to clear the overgrown areas they will be storing things on.

It’s going to take four hours to drive out here with the tractor.

My SIL will stick close to my brother on the tractor, just in case. Problems are unlikely, but you never know.

It’s past 10am as I write this, and they haven’t even left yet. They would still be loading the truck and trailer, most likely. My brother knows we have next to nothing out there, so he always makes sure to bring any tool he thinks he might possibly need.

It’s going to be a long, hot day for them!

The Re-Farmer

Shimmer

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It was still very wet out while I was doing my morning rounds. I think we got actual rain during the night!

This spider wed was just shimmering in the morning sun!

It actually became harder to see, the closer I got to it, but I did manage to get a decent picture!

The Re-Farmer