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Gorgeous days, and certifiably gorgeous!

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Yesterday was incredibly gorgeous, reaching 8C/46F, bright and sunny. Things were melting all over the place! I’m loving the longer days, too. My daughter was able to slog through the snow to do a perimeter check I haven’t been able to do for some time, and tells me she is seeing signs of new growth all over the place.

As I write this, we’ve reached our expected high of 6C/43F, with a “feels like” of 11C/52F The outside cats are in heaven with these temperatures!

There’s the cat with the messed up eye, which seems to be doing better. I counted 32 this morning. I did not see Sad Face anywhere.

Speaking of messed up eyes, Wolfman’s eye really does seem to be looking better to me. I got a call fairly late last night from the Cat Lady about him. She’s just gotten a call from the vet! He’d felt bad about not really answering her when she showed him the pictures of Wolfman and he kinda blew her off. So he took another look at the pictures. He thinks there is still vision in the eye, and it can be saved. There’s a non-steroidal drop I don’t know the name of that he thought would be the right treatment. The Cat Lady told me has a cat she’d used this stuff on before. She had been sure this cat would lose it’s eye, as it was all shriveled. When this stuff was prescribed to her, she had been shocked. She’s never seen such a tiny amount before. A single drop is applied, every 2 weeks, for a 6 week treatment. So, 3 drops total – at about $100 a drop! However, after just the first application, the next day the eye looked almost completely recovered, and the cat is still doing fine. The vet is aware of the situation, though, so if Wolfman in brought in, under her name, he does have samples he can give her for free. !!! Technically, he’s not supposed to give them out to the general public, but she’s a rescue, and they’ve got a good working relationship. They are a business, though, and need to do things the right way.

So next week, I’ll meet up with her with the Wolfman, she’ll take him in for the usual shots and blood tests, and he’ll get his eye properly checked out. Who knows. He might not need this stuff, after all. The main thing, though, is that the vet thinks there is still sight in the eye, and it can be saved. At least that’s what he can say based on just looking at the (rather horrifying, I thought) pictures of the eye.

After all the usual vet care and assessments, Wolfman will then be officially put up for adoption. I told her, I would expect him to be adopted out fairly quickly. He is such a gorgeous cat, with this massive, fluffy tail! Talking about him with her family, it seems they are already bracing themselves, though. So many cats from us have become permanent members of their household, they’re half expecting to fall in love with him and keeping him. 😂😂 He’ll be going into the “cat room” part of their house, for the adoptables, with other cats, but if he ends up in the regular household…

They know themselves too well!

That got us to talking about some updates she got from other cats they found homes for, for us. She sent me a picture of one bonded pair that were adopted out together. One had been so very ill, but is now fully recovered. They are currently hanging out at their winter home, in North Carolina, where they had been flown out first class (!!) and are living in the lap of luxury.

Can she find people like that to adopt me, please?

Then there was another pair they adopted out for us. One of them we’d named Plushy, because she looked like a gorgeous, fluffy stuffed toy. She has another name now. Shortly after adoption, she had a sudden emergency surgery that everyone was surprised by, and ended up having a portion of her small intestine removed. There had been zero sign of any problems, then boom, this happened. She recovered very well, though, and the couple that adopted her and her buddy just dote on them.

They also entered her into a cat show. The show was for Norwegian Forrest cats and Maine Coons, but of course there is no lineage for Plushy, so she was entered in the “long haired house cat” category.

She won third place!

So she is certified gorgeous!

I’m absolutely delighted that these former yard cats are now in such loving homes, and living their best lives.

The Wolfman is not even a year old yet, but he’s already a stunner, and I think we’ve got another David happening – we think he’s going to be a big, fluffy boy! So different from his siblings. Soot Sprite is getting bigger, but he’s still a very slight cat. Tiny, The Beast, on the other hand, looks like she’s going to stay pretty tiny! She’s another stunner, too. They are both short haired cats, and absolutely sleek.

Oh, I almost forgot. The Cat Lady has been talking to the vet at the clinic that still does cheap spay days. While they will also do males on these days, they’re looking to do a males only day in the near future. That’s good news for us, because among the outside cats, the most socialized ones that we could easily get into carriers, are all male. If we could manage to get Sad Face in there, that would be amazing, but getting him into a carrier would definitely take some doing! He’s such a big boy, too, there’s only one carrier we have he would even fit in. We can easily find 5 outside cats for our 5 hard sided carriers, if the Cat Lady can things out. We’ve also got the 2 soft sided carriers, so we could potentially bring in 7 cats, but with outside cats, they might actually tear their way out of one of those. They may be more socialized, but stuffing them into a carrier is something else entirely!

We shall see how that goes. We’re still waiting on our tax returns. I hear these are delayed because Canada Revenue had to fire several hundred people who inappropriately got CERB money during the illegal lockdowns. Not very encouraging to know so many tax department employees had no problem committing fraud, but not very surprising, either. Hopefully, the refunds will be processed soon. Aside from potentially paying for cheap neuters, it’ll be nice to finally get the pill switch replaced on our septic tank, so we’re not having to turn the pump on manually several times a day!

Ah, well. It is what it is. It’ll work out.

Meanwhile, I’m still giggling over the updates on our adopted out yard babies. I knew we had some really gorgeous cats, but now it’s official; some of our yard cats are show quality gorgeous!

😁😁😁

The Re-Farmer

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This and that – cats and seedling stuff

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It’s been a quiet, homey sort of day today. Not much to write about.

I head-counted 31 while feeding the outside cats this morning.  Then, as I was returning from my morning rounds, I saw Broccoli and Sprout had arrived – they, at least, are very distinctive! – making 33 in total. 

I heard back from the Cat Lady about Wolfman.  She talked to the vet about his eye, but the vet would not comment either way without seeing Wolfman directly.  I was hoping to at least get a ballpark figure on what a removal might cost, if one is needed.  So she will let me know the next time she needs to be near our usual half way meeting point to pick up Wolfman and pass on some kibble donations.

As for Wolfman, if we were to go strictly by his behavior, you might miss that there is anything wrong at all.  Just a little while ago, I saw him dashing around me, and it does seem like he can still see through that eye.  Given what it looked like in the photos I managed to get, that’s surprising.  He may simply have gotten used to it.  She still sometimes squints with the one eye, but that’s about it. There is no appearance of discomfort, and he’s his usual playful self.  He’s even still play fighting with his adopted siblings, which may well be how the eye was injured in the first place!

In other things, I’ve decided to try sprouting the seeds I got soaking yesterday, before potting them.  They are now between layers of damp paper towel in a take out container.  With large seeds like this, I covered the semi-transparent lid to reduce light exposure, and I did also scarify their outer shells.  

While tending the seedlings, I noticed a strange thing with the large tray that has the eggplant and hot peppers.  Most of them are getting nice and big, but a few seem to be wilting, and are more stunted.  The stunted ones are all on one side of the tray.

I need to look up my old post about starting these.  This tray may be the one where I ran out of one brand of seed starting mix, and opened a bag from another brand.  Most of the cells in the tray would have a bit of both, but one end would have had only the second brand.

What I didn’t do was mark which side that was!

If this tray is the mixed brand one, then the San Marzano tomato tray is all the second brand. So far, they seem fine. In fact, I’ll be needing to add more mix to top up the cells around their stems soon. I’ll leave them in these cells a while longer, before I thin by transplanting.

Ah, I just went and looked up my old post. Yes, this is the tray with the two different brands of seed starter mix. Considering that I had the tray mostly full before I had to open the second bag, there would be fewer cells with the second mix, only, and the others would have had the first brand in the bottoms, and then just got topped up with the second brand before the seeds were sowed. Which means the smaller number of cells that have stunted seedlings in them would most likely be the ones with the Miracle Grow brand of seed starting mix. I believe the other brand was Jiffy, but I’m not sure.

Dangit. I should have taken better notes! Ah, well.

We have more seedlings that we need, so if some don’t do as well, that’s okay. At long as we have at least a few of each that survive transplanting, we’ll have enough for our needs.

It’s always a learning experience, isn’t it?

The Re-Farmer

Our 2024 Garden: getting next seeds ready

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I had a much interrupted night last night, so the girls took care of the morning rounds for me, so I could sleep in.

Well. As much as the suddenly cuddly cats would let me! 😄

I did end up having to go to the post office to pick up some packages, and ended up going into town to run some errands while the post office was closed over the lunch hour. I finished too quickly, so I used up time by going to the local dollar store – I forget which franchise it’s actually part of.

The tomatoes and peppers on the heat mat are ready to be moved aside, so today I prepared the next batch of seeds to start.

Oops on the labels on the left and the centre!

The packages across the top of the photo were my dollar store find. After watching the Gardening in Canada video about useful Dollarama garden finds, I went looking to see if they had clear plastic drop cloths. They did, so I picked up three of them; one for each of the raised bed covers we have, with the curved tops. This plastic is quit thin – about half the thickness of actual greenhouse plastic – so I don’t expect them to last more than a season but, at 12′ x 8′, they should be just the right size to cover the frames. If we can get at the frames and cover them early enough, they will made nice little greenhouses for the three low raised beds next to the spruce grove. The sooner we can warm up the soil, the sooner I can direct sow those seeds that can be planted before our last frost.

Until then, I got my gardening fix by preparing Crespo squash, drum gourd and luffa seeds, all of which have a long growing season. There were only 6 luffa seeds left in the package and they’re pretty small, so I’m using all of them. With the drum gourds, I still had some left in an open package, plus I have an unopened package. Because the seeds are so large, I chose only 4 of the drum gourds and the Crespo squash seeds. There are still more seeds left in the Crespo squash seed package, too.

Yes, I did catch on that the plant labels are under the wrong seeds! The smooth seeded Crespo squash’s bowl is on the correct seed package. The drum gourd seeds look like they have a rough texture, but have a soft surface that’s almost fluffy.

Usually, I would scarify the seeds and plant them after only a short presoak, mostly because I would forget to let them soak overnight. Last year, I had such trouble with them and had to reseed the pots several times. This time, I am making sure to do a longer pre-soak. I got them going in the mid afternoon so, by morning, they should have about twice the soaking time compared to leaving them overnight.

I plan to split the seeds between two pots per variety. Hopefully, we’ll have decent germination. If only one seed each manages to germinate and survive transplanting, I’ll be happy!

Now that I think about it, this would be a good time to try doing it the way Maritime Gardening suggests; leaving the seeds on wet paper towel until the start to germinate, the planting them. Hmmm… Yes. I think I’ll do that – after they’ve had their overnight soak. With big seeds in particular, I think that would be especially helpful.

I really look forward to seeing how these do!

The Re-Farmer

Critter count and April fools.

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First the cuteness!

We had visitors yesterday afternoon. Three of them!

They were very curious about that cat, too! They hung around for a while before coming into the yard and checking out the compost heap.

This morning I counted either 28 or 29 yard cats. I’m not quite sure.

It’s not actually the black cats I loose track with. It’s the “printer babies”. All the white and greys!

Here, you can see the one cat’s messed up eye. That inner eyelid is making it harder to tell, but the pupil has a cloudy spot on one side that seems to be clearing up, while the other side is still looking brown.

On the topic of messed up eyes.

We’re going to have to change focus for when my tax return comes in. We still have to get the pill switch replaced on our septic tank, but we’ll have to wait on the pipe clearing. We need to get the Wolfman to a vet. After talking with the Cat Lady and showing her pictures of his eye that looks like it got scratched by another cat, we treated him with the last of our Metacam and monitored him. The rescue’s donations had run out, so even though Wolfman is on the list for adopting out, there’s nothing for vet care. Any donations they do get are quickly used up with spays and neuters.

I have the hardest time seeing the condition of the Wolfman’s eye, but he was opening it more often and blinking, so I thought it was getting better. The inner lids are still pretty swollen, but we can’t get more Metacam without a prescription, we can’t get a prescription without an exam, and we can’t get an exam done until we have funds. The girls seem to have better luck with seeing the eye, and this morning, they told me it was looking deflated.

*sigh*

Which means when we go bring him in, most likely the eye will need to be removed. I have no idea how much that will cost. I don’t think it’ll be as much as an amputation, of course; those both cost in the $1300 range. Still, it is a surgery, and that’s always expensive.

Damn.

Today, I got a call from the tax preparer. They just had one question for me, and then our files were done. I’ve already made the drive over to pay the bill, brought my husband’s form home for signing, and got it back right away. I didn’t even look to see what the final numbers were until I got home. Mine was exactly as I expected. I have no income, so I’m getting my caregiver tax credit, and that’s it. My husband qualifies for the disability tax credit, but his private disability and his CPP Disability combined bumps him into a different tax bracket. Without the disability tax credit, he’d be owing. Instead, he typically gets less than $20 back. That changed this year, though, and he’s actually getting more. Not much more, but enough to be helpful.

What isn’t helpful is that as of today, appropriately on April Fool’s Day, yet another Trudeau carbon tax has kicked in, which will make the cost of everything go up. I’ll let Quick Dick McDick explain it, as only he can. Language warning.

Not only is the idea that taxing “carbon” is somehow going to make the weather gooder laughable (keep in mind that we are carbon based life forms on a carbon based planet, so taxing “carbon” is taxing life itself – oh, and if you take into account Canada’s vast Boreal forests, we are actually CO2 negative), but we keep getting told that we will somehow get back more than we paid in.

Our Prime Dictator has openly admitted that he can’t do math, but you’d think even a trust fund baby born with a silver spoon in his mouth would know better. Which I’m sure he does, but the psychologist in my recognizes a narcissistic psychopath when I see one.

We’re told that we are supposed to be getting these quarterly rebates to make up for the new tax. My daughters get them, along with the GST rebate. Paltry sums, really, considering how expensive everything has become because of these taxes. My husband and I don’t get either. Apparently, he makes too much money on disability, which is insane. Since we’re a married couple filing our tax returns together, that means neither of us get any federal rebates. Sometimes our province will throw out a bone, but even then, I get it but my husband doesn’t. No doubt there are plenty of other families in our position that will keep seeing our costs increase, but never see any of these “getting back more than you pay” rebates. Then the powers that be will and their propagandists blame the eeeeeevil capitalists and the Conservatives for everything, right on script.

For those of you who have been following Karlyn Borysenko, who has been deep diving into the “woke left” for years now, you know that this isn’t really a politically left or right thing, but the result of decades of neo-Marxism.

I don’t want to go too far into this sort of thing on my blog, though, but this is something that affects all of us directly. Even us, in our little corner in the boonies, and the choices we need to make, so I feel I have to talk about it at least a little bit.

Looking at just the past few years, on top of the carbon taxes, they’re also punishing the use of nitrogen (which makes up almost 80% of our atmosphere) to grow food, they’ve declared that home gardeners are actually causing more “climate change” damage than large scale agriculture, and cow farts are heating up the globe, so they’re trying to get rid of cows in favour of ultra processed “plant based meat”, even though they know this stuff is worse for both our health and the environment, and so on.

What it comes down to is that people like us – people who just want to be as self sufficient as possible, and produce as much of our own food as we can – are going to have a much harder time of it, unless there are massive changes in the next few years. Having homeschooled our daughters, we’re already used to autocrats either trying to make what we were doing illegal or, failing that, making it so they control what, when and how we did it. During our final homeschooling years, we came very close to losing so much in the province we lived in at the time, as the NDP and the teacher’s union tried to push legislation that would have literally controlled what parents could talk to their kids about at the dinner table. They tried twice, actually. They learned from the first time, so the second time, they framed it as a way to “fight hate” and “homophobia”. A remarkable number of homeschoolers fell right in line, and they succeeded in pitting homeschoolers against each other. I don’t think people realize just what a disaster it would have been, had the proposed legislation passed, it was so broad and ambiguous. It’s just another step to see the same thing being tried to control our ability to grow our own food and live self sufficiently. I mean, it’s already illegal for a lot of people to grow food in their yards or keep a few chickens in their back yard. Hell, the mayor of Toronto is pushing to tax rain, for crying out loud.

Of course, we’re already seeing the effect of this new tax, and it just kicked in today. When I was in town to see the tax preparer, I saw gas prices had gone up another 4 cents per litre. Honestly, I expected it to jump higher than that.

Meanwhile, the price of groceries is going to keep going up, tradespeople like plumbers and our septic guy are going to have to increase their prices again, and the value of our dollar is going to keep going down due to this artificially created inflation.

Which makes what we are trying to do here, just to feed ourselves, all the more important.

At least while growing and producing our own food is still legal.

The Re-Farmer

An extra guest

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I counted 31 yard cats this morning. I even got the same number twice, so I think it’s correct. 😄

The cat with the messed up eye is still staying in the sun room and around the cat shelters, which I’m happy to see. He wouldn’t let me close enough to touch, though. Broccoli, however, did let me give her back scritches while she was eating! As I continued my rounds, I found myself followed by Judgement, Driver and Rolando Moon. 🧡

From how dirty I found the dregs of water in the bowls this morning, it looks like we had racoons visiting again. Yesterday afternoon, while I went out to give the cats a treat of leftovers, I found a couple of skunks, but they don’t mess up the water bowls. I spotted one skunk as it disappeared under the cat house. A second remarkably small one was eating kibble on the tray under the water bowl shelter. I managed to shoo it away, but it did NOT want to leave! Neither skunks nor racoons truly hibernate in winter, but go into a low metabolism state called torpor. They’d still be pretty hungry when they come out of it, I’m sure! While I don’t want any animal to go hungry, I don’t want them eating up all the cat food, either! At least they don’t attack the cats, and even seem to get along pretty well.

While I was switching out the memory card on the sign cam, I heard noise from across the road, and found a guest emerging from the trees.

I can see from the tracks in the snow that we do get deer in the yard, but since we stopped putting food out next to the house, they mostly just pass through. Mind you, they sometimes come up to the house and eat the cat kibble, too! I haven’t seen any tracks lately, though.

On another note; today is Holy Saturday, and we will be putting our basket together for blessing soon. Overall, it’s going to be a quiet day, though. In fact, right now, I’m fighting the urge to burrow in between the cats on my bed and napping! 😂😂

The Re-Farmer

The morning so far

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So far, so good, I can say!

Heading out to do my morning rounds, I was happy to see the cat with the messed up eye curled up in the cat bed under the heat lamp again. Unfortunately, the garbage can in there got knocked down again, and he didn’t like me picking it up and cleaning around him much, so he moved away. Not far, though. In fact, I had to push him aside to be able to open the doors to go outside!

Because he moves so slowly, I was able to pet his back a few times. Then, when I was finishing up and going through the sun room to go back inside, I found him like this.

I’m happy to see him cuddling with the tabby. He actually seemed to be shaking a bit, as if cold. Definitely not a well cat.

I did get a good look at his face today, though. I was concerned that both eyes were troublesome, but the other eye is a bright and clear golden colour. The messed up eye’s inner eyelids seem to be swollen, so I could only see part of it.

I counted 30 cats in the yard this morning. While feeding them on the cat house roof, I even got to pet one of the tuxedos! I had the usual cats pushing in for attention, and he seemed quite curious about the whole thing. I got to pet him a few times, and he didn’t seem to be sure what to make of it! I even got to pet Caramel a bit, though she’s one that turns around and starts batting at my hand – claws out! – even as she comes closer instead of running away. A bit like how Rolando Moon will come in for pets, then turn around and try to bite or claw the hand the pets her!

After all the outside stuff was done, I got a loaf of bread for our Easter basket baking. I’m trying a new recipe for overnight, no-knead bread. It’s pretty basic; flour, yeast and water, with optional salt and sugar (I used both salt and sugar). I mixed the dough up late last night, then left it the oven to proof overnight. I prewarmed the oven before putting it in, just enough to make it not-cold. This morning, it was all nice and fluffy. It got scraped down and shaped into a round loaf, which got baked in a parchment paper lined cast iron pan. I also had a pan with water in it, on the lower rack, to add steam to the oven. The recipe said to bake at 425F for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. I ended up adding an extra 15 minutes!

So that is now cooling in the cat free zone.

While tending the seed starts and turning on the lights this morning, I shifted things again. The San Marzano tomato seedlings are now in the mini-greenhouse frame at at the window, where they can get a breeze from the fan to help strengthen their stems.

As of last night, the very first of the short season peppers broke ground, as well as our very first Butterfly Flower! Once more seedlings have emerged, I’ll move them off the heat mat to the other side of the tank, then get the luffa, Crespo squash and drum gourds planted and set on the heat mat.

It also seems like we have finally gotten ahead of the game with our slow drainage problem. When we were finally able to flush properly, we’d get gurgling noises from the tub drain, but now even that has pretty much gone away. The regular use of the bio maintenance stuff is really making a difference. We’ll have to make sure to keep a good supply of the stuff on hand, so we don’t run out and suddenly can’t find it again. One thing we hadn’t done since the tank was cleared was use the Septo Bac we normally do. This stuff comes in powder form, in premeasured envelopes. The contents get flushed down the toilet once a week, to inoculate the tank with bacteria and enzymes to break things down, including hair, food and grease. It does nothing for the pipes, though. I’m not sure that we want to use both at the same time. I’m not sure what having too much bacteria in the septic tank would do to it! I’ll have to look that up.

Meanwhile, we are making sure to turn the septic pump on and leave it running for about 5 minutes, particularly when we are using a lot of water at a time, like doing laundry or taking showers. So far, everything is working out.

My mother called me last night and we talked a bit about the plumbing issues. She was wondering why we hadn’t called a plumber yet, and I had to explain that we have to wait until our taxes are processed and I get my return. Getting the pill switch done, I’m going to assume will be in the $300 range, including the labour. Our plumber has a flat rate for drain cleaning that is almost $300 for the work and 1 hour. If they have to replace parts or if it takes longer, that gets added on. So I’m guessing we’re looking at a minimum of $600 for both jobs. My mother’s response was to start talking about how she never had to worry about stuff like this, because she had “the boys” to take care of everything.

That doesn’t stop her from trying to tell me what to do!

I reminded her of how it took us a while to find a plumber that had the equipment to clear the floor drain in the old basement that was clogged with roots and sand. She thought I was talking about the sump pump reservoir, at first, but that’s a completely isolated system. I reminded her of back when we had a wringer washing machine, and she would drain the tub into the hole in the floor, and then she remembered where I was talking about. Then she asked just how there could be roots in there, so I reminded her of how a rain barrel and been left to overflow for most of a rainy summer, before we moved out here. By the time my brother found the damage it caused, the corner of the new part basement it was near had water seeping through and mold growing. Now we can see sand and roots coming from the weeping tile through the floor drain towards the septic tank.

That got my mother to talking about the problem of trees growing too close to the house, and in particular, the one in front of the kitchen window. Shortly after we moved in here, we talked to my brother about the need to get rid of that tree. My mother objected to getting rid of any trees, most of which she planted. She planted that one to shade the kitchen window, because it got so hot in the summer.

I’m not sure why she didn’t just get blinds or a shade.

Anyhow, it’s taken a few years of explaining how the branches are endangering the (now new) roof, and the roots are lifting the patio blocks, plus cracks are starting to show in the basement wall under the kitchen.

Well, suddenly she’s now telling me I should get rid of that tree. We should just cut it down – I have her permission! 😄 I told her, because this tree is so close to the house and has branches hanging over the roof (despite our attempts to cut them back a few times), this is something we need to hire someone for. Someone with all the equipment to do it safely and not damage the roof. We can see where people have cut this tree back a few times, on the yard side, which means the heaviest branches are on the house side. We can’t just cut the tree down from the base, because it will want to fall towards the house, not away from it.

At this point, my mother started giving me instructions on using ropes to keep it from falling towards the house, and so on. Which, if the tree were not so close to the house, might actually be possible. I tried to explain that to make sure the roof doesn’t get damaged, it needs to be taken down in pieces.

That’s when she started telling me that my brother can take care of it!

I said no. Not even my brother has the equipment needed to safely remove that tree, without damaging the roof! I tried to describe to her what the tree removal company did when we had them come in to clear trees from the power lines and the roof on the north side of the house, but then she lost interest and just told me, I knew what to do! She’d leave it in my hands.

Uhm… yeah… that’s kinda why we’re living here! 😄

It’s funny how she will still try to control what my brother and I do out here, even though she made a big deal about washing her hands of the place when she moved away some 10 years ago. I even remember, after we moved in and the property was still in her name, she told me she didn’t want to ever come back to the farm again and didn’t have to worry about it anymore, because we were here! That didn’t last long. 😄 I am so glad my brother is our “landlord” now! She can get so enraged because we’re doing things differently that she did. Especially when it comes to the gardening. If she isn’t angry, she’s mocking. She mocks me for “wasting” money by buying seeds, for example. She never bought seeds, ever! She always saved her own! Well. Except maybe carrots. Or lettuce. I’m not sure where she thought I would get seeds from when there was nothing we could collect them from, but the fact that we bought seeds apparently means we are stupid with money. BUT, we should also have a huge and perfect garden, just like she did, and never have to buy groceries again…

Talk about selective memory! 😄

Now that we’ve got a few years of gardening behind us, she seems to finally be backing off, but she still gives me a hard time for trying to grow things she didn’t grow, or trying new things. Selective memory again. I know my parents tried new crops, along with the staples, pretty regularly! So why is it bad if I do the same thing? Ultimately, it’s a control issue. She just can’t let go of the place, and the idyllic memories she’s created for herself.

Ah, well. It is what it is. I just wish she treated my brother better!

Well, I sure went off topic, there… 😄

Later today, we’ll go through our baskets and decide which one to use. Oh… that was another thing my mother brought up during her call. Blessing of the baskets. She’s getting hers ready today, too, and basket blessings at her church will be at noon tomorrow. She was wondering when it was in the town closer to us, but I have no idea. I told her, she made it clear we and our basket are not welcome, so we’re just doing it ourselves. Her response was to offer to lend us a “cute” small basket (this after I’ve already told her we have a whole collection of baskets in various sizes). Another thing she can’t let go of. To her, our basket is just too big, and that’s wrong. I’m not sure where she gets this from. When I was a kid, sure, our main basket wasn’t quite as big, but it was still much larger than what she uses now. Plus, we usually had several of them. My late brother and I used to have our very own little baskets (I even found those old baskets while cleaning up the house, and we still have the one that wasn’t broken!). I’ve seen other families bring much larger baskets for blessing, too. Why it even matters to her, I have no idea. Just another thing where she’s decided that how she does things is the only possible correct way to do it, and everyone else is stupid and wrong for doing differently.

I’m glad she wasn’t this bad when I was a kid. It would have destroyed any joy in Easter and our traditions that I had. I even told her flat out, after she threw in a few more unfortunate comments, that she has done more to drive people away from the church than anyone I know. I think it went completely over her head. Ah, well.

We will continue our joyful traditions – including traditions we added ourselves – and remember what it is we are celebrating, instead of worrying about impressing other people, or what they think of us!

And that will include a nice big basket with the loaf of bread baked this morning.

I think the shallow round basket with the flat bottom will fit the round loaf and other contents the best. Then we can go through my collection of hand embroidered cloths and decide which to use as a cover this year. 😊

The Re-Farmer

Costco shopping: this is what a total of $550 looks like

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Today has turned out to be a gorgeous day! We’re supposed to reach a high above freezing, though I don’t think we have. No matter. The “feels like” temperature is much warmer, and things are melting all over the place!

First, an update.

We are still having troubles with our plumbing. Every time we think we finally got the toilet clear, it doesn’t last. So we’re keeping the honeypot set up, for those in between times when we have to let it sit with the bio maintenance stuff – which still does a much better job than the typical drain cleaners. I don’t want to do that hot water thing if we don’t have to, since toilets are not made for hot water, so we’re just going to have to be patient until we can get the plumber in.

On a completely different topic, my husband had a phone appointment with his doctor to go over his medications. He has one painkiller comes in two forms – fast acting and slow release – and one of those is simply not available. The supplier has no idea when they’ll get more. It seems almost as if my husband is the only person on it, in the country! Or at least the province. So he’s going to be going off that, cold turkey (his choice), and they’ll try him with another painkiller that’s just one step below morphine, when he gets his next bubble pack refills. Hopefully, it will do the job. With his pain levels, that’s just no way to live. He also asked about switching from a CPAP to a BiPAP. His CPAP is getting old and, for some reason, he’s having trouble getting his replacement hoses, etc. Some issue with his prescription. The machine itself is overdue for replacement. BiPAPs, however, are covered in this province, and would be better than a CPAP, anyhow. To get a prescription for one of those, though, he’ll have to get another sleep test done. His new doctor is going to arrange that.

In other things, when I did the morning rounds, I found the cat with the messed up eye, all curled up in a cat bed under the heat lamp! I was happy to see him. Judging from how he’s moving around, he may not have full vision in either eye. Or he might be sick. Not in any obvious way, other than the slow movement. Hopefully, he’ll stay close to the safety of the sun room. In total, I counted 30 yard cats this morning, including Sad Face.

Once all the morning stuff was done, I was off to Costco. My first stop was actually a gas station along the way, as the tank was just below half, and I try to never let the tank go below half. I put in only $30, as the price is $1.409/L there. In the city, most places are $1.399/L When I filled at Costco, it was $1.339/L, and cost me $62.75 to fill the tank, so total for gas today was $92.75

Then there was the Costco total.

This is a total $550.91

And we’re going to need to do another shopping trip, because I didn’t get everything on my list! That will be after we get the plumbing problems fixed.

I remembered to have the cat supplies on a separate bill.

Since I got 6 bags of kibble a couple of days ago, I got only 4 of the 9kg bags today. I also got two cases of canned cat food, plus another box of puppy pads.

I just got distracted while writing this, by a ruckus. Susan is on the cat shelf at the window, frantically chasing her own tail.

She caught it, too. Repeatedly!

But I digress!

Cat supplies alone totaled $232.66 for this trip. The dry kibble is probably a couple of bags short to last us the month, but at least we’re set for a few weeks.

Then it was stuff for us.

We got the big Kirkland brand package of toilet paper, and I got two double flats of eggs – 10 dozen in total. We’ll be boiling some for Easter, to go with the ones that are pickling in the fridge right now, but mostly these are just for normal eating. I got 5 pounds of butter – they had salted butter in stock this time! – canned chicken, their big Kirkland brand jar of mayonnaise, frozen perogies, basmati rice, and salad mixes. The salad mixes come in two packs, and I got two of those in two varieties, because they’re about half the price as at regular grocery stores! I got a larger container of whole peppercorns, a block of Old cheddar cheese, cream cheese, a couple of 2 packs of rye bread, 4 packages of tortilla wraps and a large jug of laundry detergent. Oh, and two hot rotisserie chickens, one of which is for supper today.

And there we have it. Our second stock up shopping trip for April. Add in the gas, and the grand total for today was $643.66 A couple of days ago, we spent $623.68, plus $30 in gas. Between the two trips, it’s a total of $1297.34 in supplies and gas for April, and we still didn’t get everything we’ll need for stocking up. That doesn’t even count the fresh stuff we’ll be getting as we need them, locally throughout the month!

Ouch.

Thank God for my husband’s private health insurance! If he had only his CPP Disability, there’d be barely over $100 left for the rest of the month. If you’re fortunate enough to have a job with a good health plan, please make sure you’ve got the best possible option for disability coverage! Hopefully, you’d never need it, but things can change in a heartbeat.

Once again, I digress!

We are not getting a lot for our money, that’s for sure.

Meanwhile, on April 1, the new carbon tax kicks in, so we can expect prices for everything to be quite a bit higher, by the time we do our next trip.

The only thing we have left that we need for our Easter basket is a special loaf of bread. I could have picked up some babka, which would be traditional, and they did have some. Huge ones in two packs. Too big and too much for our needs. So instead, I’ll be baking bread for the basket, tomorrow.

I’m quite looking forward to putting our basket together. It’s always been one of my favourite traditions. 😊

The Re-Farmer

Can this day be over, please?

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Good grief, what a day.

Right from the start, it was like everything was going wrong. Just little things, but so many of them!

Not everything was bad, though, so I’ll start with the cuteness.

Both water bowls were bone dry this morning, even though I topped the sun room one up last night.

I also chased a skunk out. The only reason I don’t think we had any racoons last night is because the water bowls were dry, but not dirty. The racoons always leave the water bowls so very dirty!

Of course, a dry water bowl is a warm spot, and the outside one was being taken advantage of by a cat I would really like to see more of. This is the one with one messed up eye, and he seemed to be warming his paws while I was putting the kibble out. He wasn’t sitting or lying in it, like I usually see other cats doing. Just standing in it. He didn’t run away while I put kibble in the tray under the water bowl house, either. When I came back with water, I watched him slowly, cautiously walk down the board we have as a ramp and move aside.

Meanwhile, I did a head count.

33! And I didn’t even see Sad Face anywhere! We’ve definitely got some strangers among us, but honestly, with some of the more feral cats that look so much alike, I really can’t tell which of them are new. Very few of them have distinctive features like one messed up eye.

After I finished with the water and went through the sun room to put away the container, I was very pleased to see One Eye in the sun room – that’s a first, that we’ve seen! He was moving slowly and cautiously, but he did not run off when I came in. Then, after I finished my rounds and came back to tie off the doors and go inside, I found him curled up on one of the cats beds, under the platform.

Before I started this, I did the evening feeding. He was still in the sun room and still moving about cautiously. I was actually able to reach out and put a hand on his back. He slunk away, but didn’t run away, which is very encouraging. The thermometer in the sun room was reading 18C/64F, so I do hope he comes back to enjoy the warmth, some cozy beds, food and water.

So that was one of the highlights of the day. I’ll take what I can get.

Among the things that went wrong today is, the toilet started acting up again. I was in the middle of doing several things at once, so the timing was frustrating! But I got it clear – I thought – cleaned up and went back to the other stuff I was doing.

One of those things was starting some pickled eggs for our Easter basket. I boiled more eggs than I was after, and only the ones that peeled the nicest got done. I ended up doing three different types; one with beet brine from our own pickled beets, one with turmeric and one with soy sauce. Those are now ready and sitting in the fridge until we put our basket together for blessing on Saturday. I won’t be taking it to church for blessing, since my mother gives me grief for having such a big basket. I should just have a tiny one, like hers. 🙄 So we will bless it ourselves.

Anyhow.

That got done little by little, with other things being chipped away at while waiting for the eggs to cool, then to cool down in cold water, etc. Finally, I was able to make myself some breakfast, which I ate in the cat free zone, aka: the living room.

Which is when my husband showed up to let me know that one of our daughters had been trying to plunge the toilet for the last 15 minutes.

I’m not sure what he expected me to do about it. He probably was just letting me know, but his timing really sucked! 😄

Once I was able to, I went into the basement to check on the septic pump. I know it’s supposed to take a long time for both tanks to fill, but between everyone’s water use, doing laundry, dishes and, of course, the phantom flush we still haven’t found the cause of, I know it’ll fill faster than typical. I turned it on only long enough to confirm I could here no water going through the pipe.

Meanwhile, my daughter used drain cleaner. We’ve got the “max gel” type that’s supposed to be able to handle the worst clogs, letting it sit for the maximum recommended time, and so on.

It didn’t work.

It will drain, eventually, but not enough for a proper flush.

Meanwhile, I still hadn’t been able to pick up more of that enzyme drain and pipe maintenance stuff that worked where the drain cleaner didn’t. The town where I knew they had some in stock is also where we went to get our taxes done last year, and we need to get those done so we can use my caregiver tax credit to pay for a plumber to clear the pipe that’s causing all these problems, and to get the pill switch replaced in the septic tank.

We just had one last thing to print out, from my husband’s medical insurance provider, which is not the same company that his disability payments come from. It used to be the same company, but his employer changed providers after he went on disability, so his disability payments still come from the original company, but his health care coverage is now with the new company.

So he logged on, found the information he needed, and tried to print it out.

The printer is in my “office” corner of my room, which is on wifi.

It didn’t work.

After trying several times, my husband finally saved it to pdf, put it on a thumb drive, and I tried to print it from my computer. Then we did it again, because the first file he saved was 22 pages! The correct file was only 4 pages.

Also, without health insurance, we would have paid over $8000 for my husband’s medications. That’s actually down from last year, since at least one of his meds, Ozempic, is now covered 100% by our province’s pharmacare program. His health insurance covers that one only for “reasonable dosages”. My husband’s dosage is so high, they won’t cover it. This is expensive stuff, even at lower doses. Gotta wonder about all those people taking it for weight loss!

But I digress.

So I open the file on my computer and try to print it out.

First, I kept getting “not responding”. Then it wouldn’t print, and just said “error.” What error? Who knows.

Now, I have printed things out since getting the new computer, and had no issue connecting to the printer at all. Now, suddenly, it just wouldn’t.

My older daughter came over to help out, since this printer is actually hers. We even tried to print direct from media, but for some reason, the option to print a pdf no longer exists! Just for photos. She kept trying with the printer, while I kept trying to figure things out in the settings on my computer.

Windows 11 really sucks.

Windows 11 control panel really sucks.

I tried troubleshooting it and, while it was going through that, a message popped up saying the troubleshooter has been moved and would soon not be available…

So… why was it even there as an option? And how are we supposed to troubleshoot something if we have to figure out how to find the new location for the troubleshooter it?

Not that it mattered. It “fixed” the problem, but in the control panel, it still just said “error” under the printer. Of course, we kept trying to print in between all these different things, and again, all it would do is tell us “error”.

Finally, I decided to try removing the printer, then adding it back.

Printer removed, select add device…

The computer couldn’t find it.

We went through so many different ways to try and add the printer back, but the computer just wouldn’t “see” it anywhere.

One of the options was “my computer is older. Help me find it” followed by a “next” button, but that didn’t work, either.

So we fussed with both the computer and the settings on the printers, and I kept trying again.

Then suddenly, it was there. The computer could “see” it!

I have no idea what I did that made the difference.

I didn’t care by then. I just selected it, and the computer installed and finally connected with the printer.

Then it was crunch time: would it actually print?

It did!

Sort of.

This time, I had a different problem. A problem I had the last time I tried to print something out.

The software printed on the page as if it were landscape, instead of portrait, squeezing everything to fit on one side.

It did this when I tried to print out a knit pattern for my daughter. No matter what I did to the settings, when it came time to print, it was turned the wrong way and squeezed to fit on side of the page.

After all this time fighting with it, I didn’t care anymore. The data could be read, and that was all I needed.

That done, I called the tax preparer and arranged to drop off our stuff, then finally headed out.

This town is about a half hour drive from us, so not too bad. The weather is nicer today, at least, though that wind is still brutal. At the tax place, I saw they had a drop box for all the people doing like we are; just leaving our stuff with them to work on later. We’ll get a call then they’re done. I’ll have to pick up the paperwork and bring it home for my husband to sign, but that’s the closest thing to a delay we’ll have.

Then it was off to the hardware store. I go here so rarely, I took advantage of it to just look around.

They have an excellent and well stocked canning section! 😁

When I got to the display I was looking for, I decided to get three bottles of the stuff. They had others for maintaining the tank itself, and even another brand of the drain and pipe maintenance stuff but, in the end, I stuck with what we already know works!

It’ll be so good when we can finally get a plumber to clear that pipe!

Then I kept wandering around the store. I did completely avoid the power tools section, though. Too many things there I want to buy! For me, being around power tools is a lot like going to a yarn store. I want to buy all the things! Power tools are a lot more expensive, though! 😄😂😄

It turns out it was a good thing I took my time. After I was all done and about to message my family to let them know I was about to head home, I found a message from one of my daughters. I’d used most of a flat of eggs for the pickled eggs, and she was letting me know she was about to finish the rest of them. So I made a quick stop at the grocery store for a dozen – I’ll be getting more at Costco tomorrow – and even remembered to grab some butter. I probably should have grabbed more; they house brand was on sale for $4.99, and not even Costco’s butter is that cheap. No surprise that they had a quantity limit! I decided to just get one, though.

When I got home and was pulling into the garage, I saw my younger daughter coming out. My husband had a prescription refill ordered for delivery, and they guy had just called to let us know he was close – something we requested, since our gate is usually closed and locked. So my daughter met him at the gate, and closed and locked it for me.

The girls kept fighting with the toilet while I was gone, and hadn’t had much luck. The honeypot was set up again! Since I got three bottles of the stuff, I want to use it in the drains for the tub, kitchen sink and laundry drain, too. For “slow drains”, the instructions say to use 8 oz, three days in a row. After that, daily maintenance is a couple of tablespoons, if I remember correctly.

Hopefully, it has done the job by now.

Excuse me while I go see if we are still stuck using the honeypot or not!

Well crud. Toni just puked a hairball on top of a sleeping Cheddar’s belly, on my bed. Who didn’t wake up until I cleaned the mess. At least he was on top of their big towel, and not directly on my bedding!

Ew.

I really want this day to be over!

The Re-Farmer

This is what $624 combined looks like, plus an update

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$623.68 to be exact.

Ouch.

Today I did our first stock up shop in the city. While our temperature is a balmy -6C/21F, the windchill is brutal. My weather app says it feels like -22C/-8F, but at least a few times I was walking in it, it sure felt much colder!

The drive in was good, though. Swirling snow on the highway, but the wind wasn’t letting anything accumulate.

I decided not to do Costco today, in order to take advantage of some sales that end tomorrow. My first stop was at the international store, where I could first enjoy some dim sum for breakfast.

I didn’t feel like bagging at the truck with this wind, so I brought bags into the store with me, for a change.

I balanced the weight in the insulated bags poorly, though, so I shifted things around a bit. This is what I got.

For our Easter basket, I picked up a flat of eggs. We’ll get more at Costco, but I want to get some pickling right away. I also got a Polish sausage, a cheese ball, a jar of cheese stuffed olives and a small dinner ham for the basket. Oh, and the whole cloves, which are used as a decoration. We’re running low.

The frozen turkeys were on an excellent sale, so I grabbed two – and then got one of them for free with my loyalty points. The Honeycrisp apples were also an amazing sale, so I got two bags of those. They were $1.99 each instead of $6.99.

The Stash teas were also on sale, and I ended up getting 4 boxes of those altogether. We normally buy our toilet paper at Costco, and we still will get their big house brand package, but the house brand TP here was also on a good sale, so I got one for our stock up supply.

There’s some cleaning vinegar (10% acidity) and laundry detergent. Normally, I’d by detergent at Costco, but I don’t normally do the laundry and hadn’t realized we’d run out completely! I got some marble and Old Cheddar cheese as well, because the sales were good, but will likely get more at Costco. We use cheese a lot.

The Soy and Oat milks are for my lactose intolerant daughters, along with the coffee creamers, which does bother them, but they don’t use enough of it at a time for it to be much issue. I got a smoked ham for general eating, plus a slab of salmon for the girls that was on sale. There’s a slab of smoked bacon, the soy sauce brand my husband likes, and some bananas.

The grand total, after taxes, was $216.10, after just over $50 was taken off for the sales and deals.

My next stop was Walmart. I was really after just two things there. Cat food and supplements.

I did have a few extras that weren’t on my list. My “splurge” of the day was a small plastic shelf and 4″ plastic plant pots. I really didn’t want to use peat pots again and, with the larger seeds I want to be starting next, I went with these. I do have similar plastic plant pots that we found while cleaning up the basement, but they’re pretty old and the plastic is getting brittle, and the price was right on these. They had the giant bottles of shampoo and conditioner in stock, so I got one shampoo and two conditioners.

Then there was my supplements.

*sigh*

I got two boxes with 32 tins each of wet cat food, plus 6 bags of dry. The two more expensive kibble bags were about 9kg, and the others were 7.24 and 7.5kg in size. I also grabbed a couple of small bags of chocolate eggs for our Easter basket – our one non-traditional basket item is a bit of chocolate. I had run out of my supplements almost completely, so I got my magnesium, B12, Zinc and D3. D3 is the only one that was cheap! With the others, I did get the ones that were the best deal, so they should last me a while, but… ouch.

Those plant pots were a really good deal, and not even on sale. A package of 6 was $1.24, so I got four packages.

Aside from all that, I got a bottle of water for the road, for a grand total of $410.22 after taxes.

*sigh*

I’ll be doing our Costco shopping in a couple of days, and I want to make sure to tank up and get everything we can squeeze out of our budget, because on April 1st, our Prime Dictator’s new carbon tax is coming into effect, and the price of everything is going to go up. Another tax on top of a tax on top of a tax. Meanwhile, all our MPs are getting a raise on the same day! Because, of course. 🫤

On the way home, I made sure to hit a bank machine and take cash out, then stopped at the septic guy’s place to pay him for emptying out our tank yesterday. Including a tip. I will always tip the septic guy!

While driving on the highway, on the lookout for his driveway, a thought occurred to me. When I called him to do our tank and arrangements were made, he never asked for our address. He’s been here often enough to remember where we are!

When I got there, I met the lady of the house and had some questions. The guy was in their shop out back, so she called him and he came over to talk.

I told him that the septic pump it still not shutting itself off and asked what he could see while emptying the tank. The first thing he confirmed for me is that he saw nothing at all out of the ordinary. The float was not stuck.

Then he told me, it’s the pill starter. It has to be, because there’s nothing else it could be! I mentioned I’d talked to my brother about it, and that it had been changed relatively recently, but the septic guy said this is actually a pretty common problem. He was able to tell me that a new pill starter costs about $250. We won’t have a budget for that until I get my caregiver tax credit in, so for now, we’ll have to just turn it on manually every now and then. He told me that we shouldn’t need to turn it on for at least a week. That’s about how long it takes for both sides of the tank to fill. I’m glad he told me that, because I was concerned about running the pump dry, but I don’t really know how big the two sides of the tank are. Given our use of our plumbing system in general, I would still expect it to be filled faster than a week. He said to just take a look on Monday and see if both sides are full, then turn it on if it is. I won’t be doing that. Every time I look down into there, I’m afraid my glasses will fall off! And no, they are not loose or anything. I get that feeling every time I look down from a height. 😄

Then he mentioned that he could come out next week and replace it for us, before we’d need to turn the pump on again. I didn’t realize he did that sort of thing, too! I thought we’d have to call a plumber! Nope. Apparently, it’s a pretty easy thing for him to do. I suspect he wouldn’t be doing it the way my brother changed it out, before we moved out here, which was through the basement.

No matter. I would much rather get the septic guy to do it than call a plumber! I’m just really happy with this guy. He’s come out here when we’ve had septic problems several times now, and always been really fast about it. The last time we called to book the tank to be cleaned, my husband accidentally called a different company, and they wouldn’t have been able to come out for 2 weeks! They would have been a lot cheaper, but I’d rather pay extra for a guy that’ll come out when we actually need him. The cheaper rates are made possible because they arrange their schedules to do a whole lot of people in one area at a time, so there’s less driving around for them.

So that was done, and now we have more information to work with.

After I got home and everything was unloaded and put away, I assembled the small shelf I got. It’s for the cats. There’s a space in my room that currently has a stool over a circulation vent that has a cat bed on it. I want to replace that with the shelf, and set up four cat beds on it.

I found a problem as soon as took the straps off the package.

Along with the side pieces, there are foot pieces that each have a cap piece tucked into them.

There’s only three foot/cap pieces.

Without all the legs, I can’t put it over the circulation vent, so I ended up putting it on top of the foot stool that’s already there.

This must be pretty common, because it came with a sheet saying, “missing parts? or questions? DO NOT RETURN TO THE STORE to obtain replacement parts.” 😄 There’s a website to go to instead. This isn’t the first time this has happened. A few years back, after we finished clearing out the old basement, I got larger plastic shelves to use down there, to replace the wooden ones that were rotting from the floor getting wet every spring. I wrote to the company and got the missing parts very quickly. I’m pretty sure it’s the same brand.

Once we get the missing parts, we’ll set it up without the foot stool under it, and secure it to the wall more effectively. We’ll probably wrap the verticals with jute twine, too, for the cats to scratch at.

Meanwhile, I’ve got cat beds, caves and blankets on it now, and the cats have been exploring it. sometimes, even staying on it for a while.

They still prefer gathering into massive cuddle piles on my bed, though!

Which is fine. That’ll give me a chance to wash the cat beds and blankets, so they’ll be fresh and clean for tonight.

But first, I need to contact that shelf company about the missing leg/cap piece!

The Re-Farmer