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Only one

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Well, having Frank and Pinky in the isolation shelter overnight (with a fluffy feral kitten) almost worked.

We were able to get Pinky into a carrier, but Frank escaped while we tried to get her into the second one. My younger daughter had been helping me while my older daughter distracted the other cats by feeding them. When the three of us failed to catch Frank, we couldn’t grab a substitute, since they had all eaten, and they need to be on an overnight fast.

*sigh*

So, my younger daughter and I headed out with just one cat instead of two for spay.

I made sure to open the gate before we headed out, so that we wouldn’t have an extra stop once Pinky was in the vehicle. The sky was just starting to get light in the East, when I spotted something interesting. Forgive the poor quality of the image. The best picture I could get was quite zoomed in.

That is a sliver of a moon, in the sunrise!

I absolutely hate driving at sunrise, and sunset. That half light makes it so hard to see. Especially with oncoming headlights. My daughter was on deer watching duty (she did see some, thankfully out in a field, not about to run across the road!). The visibility was so poor while we were traveling east, I never did make it to the posted speed limit. Once we were driving south, it was better, but when I ended up behind a slower moving truck, driving with its hazards blinking, I really didn’t mind slowing down. Not that passing would have been safe for quite some time. I was not the only one okay with driving slower, either!

It was full light by the time we got to the clinic parking lot, just before the clinic opened. Which is when my daughter saw that I had dried blood all over the side of my hand! Frank got me good, when I tried to pick her up!

Thankfully, we keep wet wipes in the truck.

Pinky was very quiet for the entire drive in, which was almost scary after a while. She had been scrambling to get out of the carrier before we put her into the truck and then nothing for the entire ride!

After we checked her in, they took her carrier to where they could keep her in a larger kennel until her surgery. My daughter and I then headed out, first to get some gas, then grab breakfast. We went to the McDonalds in the Walmart, because there really wasn’t anything else for that time of the morning.

Then we did some shopping. I had to pick up more kibble for both inside and outside cats, plus I got extra wet cat food, as kitties recovering in the isolation shelter get treated extra special while they are stuck in there, and that includes their own wet cat food. By the time I got the cat supplies, plus some household supplies, my budget was pretty much done. One thing I needed to get, but didn’t have much budget for anymore, was new work boots suitable for the winter. Both my regular work boots and my steel toed shoes are falling apart and are just not wearable anymore. My daughter, however, went looking for different boots for me to try on. When I saw the price, though, they were out of budget. Not by a lot, but enough that I wasn’t going to get them – but my daughter insisted that she would buy them for me! That was really sweet of her. She’s getting a disability income now, but it’s a paltry sum.

Aside from that, I had a few smaller items for my husband, such as more distilled water for his CPAP humidifier, while my daughter had her own shopping list. We took our time about it, since we knew it would be a while before the vet clinic called.

After the shopping was done and in the truck, we sat in the truck for a while and talked. Which is when I realized I’d forgotten a few things. Things we could get at the nearby Dollarama. So we went there next. Along with my forgotten items, I found some things for my mother. The one thing I knew she wanted, we couldn’t find in either store; a sink plunger. Her kitchen sink drains very slowly. She’s called about it before and they sent someone to pour drain cleaner down the pipes, and that was it. The problem never went away. So she’s been asking for a sink plunger for some time, and this time I actually remembered while I was out and about.

We didn’t find one at the Dollarama, but I did find an affordable cat cave; one with wire supports on the outside, that would keep cats from crushing it!

That done, we headed across the street to the Canadian Tire. We actually found several tyles of sink plungers there! I picked one that I thought would be easier for my mother’s mobility.

Another thing I remembered I wanted to pick up were more furnace filters, as we are on our last 3 pack. Canadian Tire is the only place I’ve been able to find the 20″x20″x1″ size our furnace needs. I just about lost it when I found them – and saw the price! A 2 pack for $42.99! Singles were $31.99!

I remember getting 3 packs for under $10.

After looking around, I found some off brand filters that were exactly like what we’ve been using. A three pack for only $7.99 What a difference!

By the time we were done there, it wasn’t even noon yet. It could still be a couple of hours before they called us. So my daughter and I went for lunch.

At McDonalds. Because that was what I had a budget for.

Twice in one day is a bit much!

After lunch, we decided to just go back to the clinic and sit in the parking lot to wait. We both ended up leaning our seats back and napping! My phone kept going off, though, so I didn’t get much of a nap. When it was getting closer to 2pm and we hadn’t gotten a call yet, I figured I would go in and ask.

Pinky hadn’t gone in for surgery yet!

That just blew me away. They’d never been this late before! In fact, knowing that I’m hanging around town because we live so far away, they’ve always made a point of getting our cats done as quickly as they could. Usually, I would have been on my way home by 2, or even earlier. Poor Pinky would have been so very hungry by then! I was assured they would call me when she was done.

So we waited some more – and fretted. They must have gotten her in shortly after I asked about her, because I got a call just before 2:30, saying she was done and recovering, and that I could pick her up after 3.

We ended up going in early, as we needed to use their facilities before our drive home, and they were able to get Pinky out right away. All I had to do was give them the marked envelop for the donated, and they gave me an after care printout.

Poor Pinkly was pretty upset when my daughter tried to put the carrier into the back of the cab. In the end, she held the carrier on her lap for the drive home. Pinky was quiet, but she would try to claw and bite at the door to get out. Most alarming was that she frequently stopped to just pant.

I did manage a picture before we got her into the truck. Not a very good one!

In the first picture, you can actually see that she’s panting.

The next picture, my daughter had taken for me earlier, of the damage Frank did to my hand – after I’d cleaned the dried blood away! That one didn’t hurt at all. Oddly, it was a less deep scratch under my thumb that actually stung more.

In the last picture, Pinky is all tucked into the isolation shelter, with the fluffy feral. They quite enjoyed their wet cat food that my daughter gave them, while I distracted the other cats with their softened kibble feeding.

After they were fed and everything was put away, I set up the new cat cave. It was immediately explored!

Havarti is almost too big for it! The little ones could certainly fit in there. They currently like to crowd into the blue striped one. That one is taller, but has a smaller base than this one.

Of course, we’ve been checking on Pinky and her companion often through the evening. Usually, all looked well. However, as I was writing this post, I paused to go into the kitchen. I heard a commotion out the window and feared Pinky was trying to escape.

Nope.

I found three or four big raccoons, trying to break into the shelter! There wasn’t even any food left inside, but they still were trying to get int! Two or three were on the roof, and one was at the ramp door below, when they all scattered as I stepped outside.

This is not good. I really don’t think the shelter is raccoon proof! Those buggers have hands. They might be able to open, or pull out, the sliding windows, or tear apart the roof panels.

While I was finishing things up outside, before it got dark, I did see Frank.

It’s going to take a while to regain her trust. She won’t let me near her anymore! We really need to work on that. We have two cats booked on the 28th. We really want to get her spayed. She is so small, and I remember how bloody she was the day she had her kittens.

Meanwhile…

Before we got home, my husband sent a note saying that my mother had called and left a message. When I checked the answering machine, though, I found a message that had been left earlier.

Much earlier. While we were still on the road.

It was home care, saying they had a list minute cancellation for my mother’s morning med assist. The scheduler did at that they had someone that could eventually do her med assist, but it would be so late that it would be about the same time my mother was getting her lunch meal assist. The scheduler even left a number for me to call.

Neither my husband nor daughter had heard the call come in, and the scheduler never tried to call my cell phone.

I thought that maybe my mother still got her med assist later, but when I called her back after hearing her message, she told me that no one showed up for her morning med assist. I told her about the message I got; that they did try to call me, but I was not home, and they never called my cell phone.

What my mother had wanted to talk about was a call she got from the hospital about her upcoming MRI. They asked all sorts of questions to make sure that my mother had nothing metal on or in her body. She had forgotten to mention her dentures. The form they sent for her to fill out did include dentures, which we checked off, but my mother doesn’t remember that and is now all worried about it.

Aside from that, though, her main reason for calling me was because neither I nor my siblings have called her in a few days. I’d spent most of Friday with her, so it hasn’t actually been that long – and I did mention to her that I had an appointment today, but she forgot. When I updated my siblings about the missed home care visit, my brother mentioned he’d just done a 13 hour day, and still didn’t finish what he needed to do, but had to call it a day. I’ve told my mother as often as I can, that my brother works very long hours at his job – sometimes odd hours, due to time zones – but she still expects him to be able to drop everything to tend to her. Even today, when I told her about the call I got from home care, she was asking “why are they calling you?” I don’t know how many times we’ve explained to her that I’m at the top of their list of people to call. Next on the list would be my brother, and there’s no way he’d be able to leave his job and drive out from the city to do something like a med assist. My sister is technically retired and works only part time, but she has a late shift, so she tends not to get up until much later in the morning. Plus, to be honest, I don’t know that my sister’s health is all that good, either. She isn’t saying anything, but even my mother is seeing signs that something is off. My sister is approaching 70 though, like my mother, she doesn’t look anywhere near her age. Anyhow, there are many reasons why I’m the one they call. If not me, I’m not sure who else my mother thinks they would be calling!

After talking to my mother, I sent an email to the home care coordinator. I did a reminder about my mother’s MRI on Sunday, adding that I plan to be there earlier, then my brother will be driving us to her appointment in his car, so we’ll be able to take care of both my mother’s evening med assists. I also mentioned the message I got this morning, and that I never actually heard the message until evening, so my mother missed her meds. I asked if they call me on my land line and it goes to the answering machine, to please try my cell phone after leaving a message. They know we live in a cell phone dead zone, but if I’m not there to answer a call to the land line, chances are good I’m out and about and can get a signal. Even if I’m just outside in the yard, I’m more likely to have a call get through than if I’m in the house.

We’ll see how that works out.

For the next while, I actually get to stay home until it’s time for my mother’s MRI. I asked about doing another grocery shopping trip for her on Friday, but she said no. The daytime temperatures are expected to be fairly warm, which I plan to take full advantage off, as much as possible. It will also be good for Pinky and her fluffy companion in the isolation shelter. Though, after what happened with the raccoons, I’m thinking we should look into getting an outdoor security camera that will allow us to keep an eye on the isolation shelter more easily. Considering how much use it will get in the winter, it might be worth the investment. Something solar powered. I’ll have to do some research on that.

Anyhow, that’s how things worked out today. It’s unfortunate Frank managed to escape this morning, but at least Pinky is done and seems to be doing quite well, so far.

As long as we can keep the raccoons out of the isolation shelter!!

The Re-Farmer

Gorgeous sunrise, and the bone broth is done

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While doing my morning rounds, I just had to try and get pictures of our very dramatic sunrise! I think this one turned out rather well.

The light fog we had really made things glow!

I also remembered to get a picture of the bone broth I made, before tucking it into the fridge.

I started off by roasting the meaty bones, lightly drizzled with avocado oil (it was handy) and sprinkled with salt. Those went into the slow cooker with chunks of onion, celery, carrots and ginger, plus salt and pepper. The slow cooker was set on high for 1 hour, then on low for 8 hours.

Then it sat on “warm” for quite a while, as I wasn’t able to get to it right away. Once that was shut off, I allowed it to cool before trying to take the big pieces out. I have a large slow cooker, so it took quite a long time to cool down to a temperature that wasn’t dangerously hot. I am losing my grip strength as I get older, and I didn’t want to risk burning myself if I dropped something.

I took out as much as I could with tongs, first. The meat had fallen off the bones, and that got separated out (and became a snack, later on). Then I set up a stock pot on the stove and strained the liquid through a fine mesh sieve into the pot. All the strained out solids got tossed.

At this point, I would estimate there was a little over a gallon – maybe 5 litres – of broth. I then started reducing it, which took a few hours.

I considered reducing it to the point where I could set it in the oven for a final dehydration, which would have given me “portable soup”.

In the end, I decided against it, because I had the other ingredients added with the bones. Though, according to the video, the “keep warm” setting on my oven can’t go low enough to dehydrate it properly.

By the time I decided it was reduced enough, what was left fit into two 750ml jars. These were meant to go into the fridge to use right away, rather than being canned, so I just used regular lids, not canning lids, loosely added until they cooled down completely.

Which took all night!

Here is how it looked by this morning.

I’d say there’s roughly 5 cups of broth and maybe 3/4 cup of fat on the top between the two jars. The fat can be used for any high heat cooking. Since the broth was reduced so much, we now have a concentrated broth where just a little will go a long way.

Now I’m trying to think of what I want to make with it, first!

The Re-Farmer

Progress outside!

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I wasn’t sure if it was going to get done. When I headed out this morning to feed the outside cats, it was decidedly unpleasant.

I also counted 38 cats. I haven’t seen that one tabby that I didn’t recognize, but none of the ones I did see were unfamiliar. Which means the crowd was congregating all at once!

I didn’t soak the kibble in the morning, because I knew it would freeze, so I saved that for the afternoon. I counted 32, that time. Including this little fluff ball.

Tomorrow evening, we are going to get Frank and Pinky closed up in the isolation shelter, so that they can have their fast (after a treat of wet cat food) and be easier to catch in the morning, for their spays. The other cats and kittens are not going to be happy with not being allowed in the isolation shelter for a month! We’ve got the first two that will be in there until it’s time to switch them out for about 10 days, and then we’ll have the next two set up in there for their recovery period. Assuming we can catch two more females. If we ended up with males, they won’t need that much time for observation and recovery.

After the second feeding, I did my evening rounds before it got too dark – these are being done earlier and earlier! Today, I made a point of checking the asters. I’d left the flower bed untouched, so that the Cosmos could shelter the memorial asters from the frost, and hopefully give them time to go to seed.

It worked!

I collected some to bring inside for planting next year. I left others to self seed. I’m so happy they had enough time to develop seeds before the deep freeze hit!

It was nice enough out that I grabbed a rake and collected leaves to do some mulching, then did a bit of winterizing.

The first picture in the slide show above is where the tiny strawberries were transplanted. I have no idea if they will survive in their new location, but it is worth a try. In the next picture, you can see that the strawberries transplanted into the retaining wall also got mulched with leaves. Next was the saffron. I don’t know if I am being too early with this, or too late, since they are showing new growth. The one flower bud that is still there looks like it froze before it could open, so I left it. I had considered leaving those until later, as we are supposed to warm up a little bit over the next week, but then I saw cats digging around them to leave “presents”, so the mulch is to keep them away, too.

I didn’t mulch the little herb bed, as we are still able to harvest from them, but I did get a pile of leaves ready for when it’s time.

Now that our septic tank is empty, it’s time to get that area ready for winter, too. We’ll be setting the emergency bypass up, just in case, so I stretched out the flexible hose so that it can warm up in the sun and straighten out. I ended up sitting a short length of pipe into the far end to flatten it, because it kept sticking up into the air. The two lengths of PVC pipe we set over the pipe from the basement got shoved into the flexible hose at the other end to help straighten that out, too. In a couple of sections, I leaned boards and bricks and whatnot to get them to straighten out and flatten to the ground.

We did not get the straw bale I was hoping to get this weekend. It might still get delivered in the next while but, just in case, I set the insulated tarp over the septic tank and weighed it down.

The forecast now says we should reach highs of 5C/41F next weekend, and that should be pretty much it for the winter. Time enough for a few last things, like covering the herb bed and, if the straw comes in, using that in various places. I’ll take advantage of every warmish day we have right now!

Little by little, it’s getting done!

The Re-Farmer

I know that feel

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Yes, indeed, Ghosty.

Yes, indeed. I feel much the same way.

Usually, her eyes are blood red. I think this is the first time I’ve seen them looking black.

Those are her back feet, of course. That box up by the ceiling is a favourite perch.

I can’t say I got a lot accomplished today. Certainly not outside. I at least got a dump run in. They have a different attendant now. A guy in a high viz vest and a clip board, even. I hope the older woman that needed a cane that used to be the attendant is okay.

After showing him the card that we have to prove we actually live in the municipality, and aren’t coming in from some other one where you have to pay to drop off your garbage and recycling, he asked what was being dropped off. When I told him it was just household garbage and recycling, he told me I might not be able to get the recycling in. The bins were really full, so it would have to go into the pit.

The bin for glass was overflowing, so our glass went into the pit, along with one of our bags of recyclables. I could only get two into a bin.

I’d hoped to get some stuff done outside, as we were supposed to hit 2C/36F today. Which we did, but the wind chill was significantly colder. As I write this, we’ve dropped to -1C/30F, and the wind chill is -12C/10F.

I did get some progress inside, at least. I got home so late from my mother’s yesterday that I didn’t start the beef broth I had meant to. I got that done started today. The meaty bones got roasted first, and then into the slow cooker they went, with onions, garlic, carrot, celery, ginger, apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper. And water, of course. That was left on high for an hour, and now it’s running on low for 8 hours, and there’s still another 4 or 5 hours to go.

While the bones were roasting, I took out the last of our peppers from the garden. The Sweetie Snack Mix peppers that I picked while still green took a while to ripen indoors. Some of them just withered, instead. We ended up with red, yellow, light orange and dark orange peppers. There was just enough to cover a parchment lined baking sheet with strips. After the bones were removed from the oven and into the crock pot, the pepper strips went into the partially cooled oven. They’re now dehydrating on the “warm” setting, at 150F/66C (our oven is the only thing we do at Fahrenheit instead of Celsius). Those will probably just end up as a snack for the girls, still warm from the oven, once they are fully dried.

That’s pretty much it for my accomplishments today. Tomorrow, at least, the winds are supposed to die down, so I might get to the things I hoped to get done today.

Good grief. It’s pitch black out and feels like it should be nearing midnight. Instead, it’s not even 6:30, yet!

I think I’m still in recovery mode from spending so much time with my mother, yesterday. I still feel totally drained!

The Re-Farmer

I am so tired

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The day feels way longer than it should have.

Today was set aside for me to go to my mother’s to do her shopping and errands and household stuff. I’ll start off by saying, she was actually on really good behaviour today, comparatively speaking. Things did go well.

The morning started off with the feeding of yard cats and doing my morning rounds. I tried for a head count this morning, and got 30. Last time, it was 35, including a cat I didn’t recognize. I haven’t seen it, since.

As I was heading in, I found this little crowd.

I moved both heat lamps lower, but this one is a 150watt ceramic heat bulb. The other is 200watt. I thought it was 250w, forgetting that I wasn’t able to find the ceramic heat bulbs at 250w. The lamp is rated to 250w, and there’s an incandescent 250w heat bulb in a matching lamp in the isolation shelter.

Speaking of which, that’s going to be used for its original purpose soon!

This morning, I got a message from the rescue. We have two dates to spay two cats each. I was sent a screen cap of a texted confirmation with two dates, one of which was for 3 cats. I was told I had two slots and someone else had the third, so I thought that was my date. I didn’t think the earlier date was also for me until I got a call while I was at my mother’s from the vet clinic to confirm the earlier date! It is straightened out now, though I did tell the woman who called me that, while we have two females we know we can catch for the first one, with the second one, we might have to just catch what we can, and see what they turn out to be! This isn’t very uncommon when it comes to strays and colony cats. I’ve brought in cats without even knowing for sure what gender they were, and they were fine with it.

But that got worked out much later.

I was able to head out a bit early to my mother’s bringing along my stock pot and a good knife, along with the prepped vegetables and herds, for the chicken stock was would be making for her. When I got there, my mother was back in bed, after her morning med assist. I noticed she had a garbage bag ready for the bin by the door, so I quickly dropped the stuff off, grabbed the garbage and headed out. Which turned out to be excellent timing. I passed one of her neighbours in the hall; someone who’s window faces the street. We ended up chatting for a while, and he told me he seeds me out his window quite often. He was very sweet. He mentioned that my mother clearly needs more help, and that he’d told her, if she ever needs anything, to just knock on his door.

When I got back, I told my mother about this, but she had no memory of him saying this to her! When I told her which apartment he was in, she even struggled to remember who lived there. She would recognize him to see him, but not necessarily connect him to any particular apartment.

It’s good to know she has some good neighbours.

When I got back to my mother’s, she was up and at her table. She joked about her being wrapped in a robe and wearing a regular shirt, because it’s been so long since her laundry was done, she ran out of nightgowns!

She was rather amused when I started unpacking my supplies and pre-prepared ingredients to work on her chicken stock. I just had to prep the chicken legs and thighs. My mother insisted I wash the pieces really, really well, to wash off the “chemicals”, then started telling me how the stores all spray meat with chemicals to make meat last longer. I told her that’s not quite what they do, and she got instant angry with me – but I was still washing her chicken for her, so she turned off the angry. I’m not sure if she was thinking of the CO that’s used to keep beef red in packaging, or she she was thinking of the chlorine rinse they used to do, to kill off bacteria like salmonella, though that hasn’t been done in years. No doubt, it was something she saw on daytime TV or read in a paper, many, many years ago.

After the chicken was in the pot, I started adding the mirepoix ingredients, then showed her the rest. I don’t think she has ever used ginger before, except maybe in power form. I know she was aware of turmeric, as she had bought a whole bunch for herself because she’d read about how healthy it was, but didn’t know how to use it. She ended up giving it to us! Apple cider vinegar is something she was completely unaware of.

She was oddly surprised by how many garlic cloves I brought – an entire head, so about 6 or 7 cloves. That was probably the last thing I would have expected her to be surprised about. “Polish penicillin” was always a staple ingredient when I was growing up, and she often brings up about how we should plant lots and lots of garlic. I remember how my parents would sometimes eat it. They’d pour some salt onto the table, then dip their cloves of garlic into the salt as they ate it raw!

Once the chicken stock was at the point where I could turn it down to a simmer, I got the first two loads of my mother’s laundry going, then we went over her shopping list. She had added a few things to it since I started it for her a few couple of days ago – including wine! The pharmacy has a liquor section, but the wine she likes isn’t available anymore. In our province, the government controls liquor sales (which is one of the reasons our booze is so expensive; it’s mostly taxes). When Trump started talking tariffs, our premier ordered all US booze to be pulled from the shelves. This was already bought and paid for by the government, of course, and hardly anyone was demanding US booze get pulled. It was just an childish tantrum on the part of our premier. Canada has one Western province where alcohol sales are private. Some places did try to remove US booze from the shelves, but the customers complained so much, they put them back. People in our province have no such say in the matter. The irony of this childish display is that we’ve had tariffs on US products for decades.

Which means the wine my mother usually gets – a super sweet kosher wine my parents bought for as long as I can remember – is no longer available. She asked me to try and find something I thought would be close. 😄

The pharmacy was my first stop and I had to ask one of the staff for help. I don’t know wines. Nothing against them. There just aren’t a lot of alcoholic drinks that I enjoy. In the end, I had two staff members looking things up, trying to find something my mother might like to replace what she normally would have gotten. It came down to just one thing – without US products, their shelves were pretty empty – and there was only one bottle of it left. On sale, too, which was nice.

That done, I picked up a few other things on her list, then got her bubble packs. I got another nice surprise at the checkout. My mother has the loyalty card, which is on her file at the pharmacy. She had lost track of the card for a while, but because it’s on her file, any times she got her prescriptions, she was still collecting points. Only at the store counter does the card need to be shown to collect points.

My mother was able to get $40 off her stuff! Plus, she collected enough new points through her prescription refills that, next time, she’ll be able to get another $20 off. !!!

When I told her that later one, her response was, why didn’t they use that $20 right then?

*sigh*

That done, the next stop was the grocery store for a somewhat larger shop than usual for her. She even requested I picked up some of the deli chicken I would get for her for sandwiches. She didn’t want slices, though. She asked for a chunk about an inch thick. That certainly made it easier for the deli person!

By the time I was done the shopping and back at my mother’s, her Meals on Wheels had arrived and the empty tray was waiting on her walker, outside her door. Those get left in the common room for pick up, on the next delivery day. So I took care of that for her before heading in. I was quite surprised she was done so quickly, and commented on it. I did notice the container with vegetable soup was on the counter, though. Once a week, they do a “use whatcha got” soup using leftovers. My mother says it tastes like dishwater. !!! So that ended up getting tossed. Another moment where she suddenly got angry at me, this time because I couldn’t read her mind over just how she wanted it tossed. *sigh*

Once her things were put away, the rest of the time was spent tending the stock, her laundry and general clean up. I did stop for some tea and a bun as a lunch, before getting back at it. Once the stock was done, I took out the meat to set aside for a bit, then the large sticks of celery and carrots, because I knew my mother would want to include them in a soup or something. I found a little strainer that I used to get most of the big stuff out for the stock before salting it and letting it cook longer, while I deboned the chicken. That all fit into one of the freezer bags that I’d brought along with everything else. The vegetables went into a handy take out container my mother had.

The stock was a different issue. I should have brought jars! I could find only two suitable empty jars and started ladling the stock into them, through the strainer. My mother kept telling me to leave everything out to cool down, first. It took me a bit to understand that she didn’t like the containers being used, and especially when I put the lids loosely on the jars. She thought they would take longer to cool down than if they were just left out. The idea of covering them at least to keep dust out apparently never occurred to her!

I find myself wondering if she was expecting to leave my stock pot behind?

By this point, I was finishing off and starting to pack things up to leave, as soon as her last load of laundry was dry. I had mentioned to my mother earlier that I needed to swing by the garage before going home (she wouldn’t understand what getting a tire torqued means). When she started complaining that I was getting ready to leave, I told her, I still need to go to the garage on the way home.

Which is when she started getting mad at me again. Why was I leaving so soon? I told her, I’d been there for almost 5 hours. Didn’t she finish her Meals on Wheels first? Yes – before I came back with her groceries. She actually tried to claim I’d been there for barely 2 hours, instead of almost 5 hours!

One of the things she wanted me to do was cut her toenails, which I really didn’t want to do on top of everything else. It would have been good for her to soak her feet to soften them, first, too, which hadn’t happened. She basically started having a tantrum. It was as if I hadn’t done anything else for her at all, because her toenails hadn’t been done.

Then she started berating me, asking why I booked to go to the garage on a day I was going to be at her place. I told her, I didn’t; I brought the truck in yesterday. This is a safety thing to make sure my tire doesn’t go flying.

Some time ago, I’d brought over a good set of toenail clippers, because she only had fingernail clippers, and a micro-pedi grinder thing. She told me to take those home, and was angry about it for some reason. I told her, no. She has toenail fungus. If I take them home and use them, I would get her toenail fungus. Only she can use them, now. That made her mad, too.

In the end, I agreed to take a look at her feet. It turned out her nails were really broken up, and only a few had anything to be trimmed. I started using the clippers and she got angry again, demanding I use scissors, because the clippers didn’t work.

They worked find.

I think she may have tried to clip her own toenails and couldn’t manage it, because then she told me one toe had gotten so bad, she grabbed scissors and cut as much as she could, herself.

While I was doing her toes, I pointed out which one had the fungal infection. That lead her to complain about how she spent so much money on medication for it, yet never used it. So I asked her were it was and went looking. At first, the only box I found that was the size I remembered it came in turned out to be eye drops. My mother got angry again, saying she’s never bought eye drops before, so why was it there? She forgot that we did get eye drops for her, when she started getting treated for her macular degeneration.

I finally found the box, hidden way in the back of her cupboard, and applied the medication, but this is not something she can do herself, and it’s not on her care list with home care. I’m not sure if we can even add it to the list or not, partly because I don’t know that my mother would be willing to let them do it.

Ironically, for someone who complains about all the medications she’s taking, she once again brought up about how she thinks she should be using the inhaler – a prescription that was cancelled. I had to explain to her, getting this was a test to see if she had asthma. The alternative would have been to get on a waiting list to get tested, and it could take a year or more before she got to the top of the list. It was simply faster to have her try the prescription to see if it worked or not.

My mother doesn’t understand. She has trouble breathing at night, and she’s gone from complaining about “having” to take it, to now wanting to have it, even though it made no difference at all. Her mind has just latched onto it, now that the prescription has been cancelled. She’d been wanting to stop using it for a long time, too.

Anyhow.

I finally managed to head out, though my mother was still quite angry that I was leaving “so early”. I did manage to get to the garage in good time. I just had to wait until someone was available to do it. Then, since I was there, I popped into the grocery store across the street to pick up some bread, after my daughter told me she hadn’t had a chance to do any baking today.

By the time I left, it was starting to rain! We had reached our high of 10C/50F, too. Happily, I managed to get home before it was getting too dark. That half-light at the end of the day makes it so hard to spot deer getting ready to run across the road.

While things ended on a fairly negative note, I got a lot done at my mother’s. Her fridge is stocked up again, she has her meds, I got her chicken stock made and she has cooked chicken to last her a while.

It just took a really long time, and unfortunately, spending that much time with my mother, even on a good day, is pretty draining.

I am so very tired now.

The Re-Farmer

Truck is done and mid-month top up. This is what $155 looks like

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Today’s main thing was getting the truck to the garage to get that leaking seal replaced, along with the tire sensor, which would also replace the valve with the slow leak that was getting worse. I didn’t need to get there until 10, so there wasn’t too much of a hurry.

I still left early, of course. I always try to leave early! I’d rather be half an hour early, than 5 minutes late, for anything.

When dropping off the keys and talking about the work that was scheduled to be done, I asked if they could give all the tires a check, too. I freely admit, I’m paranoid about tires! There is one more that has a slow leak in the valve, but both rear tires will need their sensors replaced. Even the one tire that has been rock solid the whole time. The last time I got a sensor replaced, they checked the other tires and couldn’t get any readings off them, which meant the batteries were likely dead, and it’s repair by replacement for that. They were fine with checking the rest, too.

After that, I headed across town (all 6 blocks or so), with a plan of stopping at various places on the way back to look for things. I did have to stop for breakfast first, though. I forgot to eat before I left and was starting to get dizzy.

My first stop after breakfast was not productive; I didn’t find anything I was hoping to. I had some things I wanted to pick up for my husband that I wasn’t able to get yesterday, while in my mother’s town. I found some of those at the next stop. My last stop was a hardware store, were I was able to find a couple more things I needed.

By then, it was almost an hour past my appointment time, so I headed to the garage. I could see the truck hadn’t been moved, though. They had a vehicle stuck on a lift, waiting for parts, so they weren’t able to get to it yet.

At that point, I needed to just sit down, as my hip was starting to give out on my. Which was good, because I got to talk to the mechanic that was working on my truck. He knew he was from our area, and that he knew my brother, and really felt I should have know who he was. I finally had a chance to ask his name.

Well, no wonder he seemed familiar! He was the guy that helped us out on the road, when the truck started screaming at us and we discovered all the problems we were having with the oil system! That was two years ago! After having to replace the MAF sensor – twice! – it took this long to find where and why we were slowly losing oil.

They were able to get the truck in soon after I got there. The seal was replaced, then they worked on the tire sensor. Once that was back on, they ran the truck for a bit, then raised it back up on the lift to make sure nothing was leaking anymore, and everything was nice and dry!

Once it was at floor level again, they started checking the other tires. I could see them through the office window as they went around with their device, checking each tire.

Then doing it again.

Then they topped up all the tires for me, and went around again!

When they came back to the office and I was settling the bill ($226 and change, after taxes), we chatted about the tires. The new sensor was programmed, but they were not able to connect properly to the back tires. I was told that, after driving about 15km at speed, the new sensor should get recognized by the onboard computer and it would reset itself. The “service tire monitoring system” notice should go away, along with that one dashboard light for the tires, by the time I got home. If it doesn’t go away, they’ll need to check the back tire sensors again.

I told him I didn’t expect the light and warning to go away, and fully expect to have to replace both sensors on the back tires. When it’s in budget again. The tires are fine. That’s the main thing.

The warnings were still there when I got home. We’ll see if they’re still there when I leave for my mother’s tomorrow. I expect they will be.

Everything went well, otherwise, and the truck was good to go. My next stop was across the street to the grocery store. I still had one more thing on my husband’s list, plus I wanted to get ingredients for the chicken stock I’ll be making for my mother, tomorrow. I want to get it started before I leave to get her groceries, and planned to do the prep tonight, first.

I ended up making a much larger shopping trip than planned! Normally, I wouldn’t do a mid month top up like this, so soon after doing a Costco trip, but there were some really good sales I wanted to take advantage of.

This is what $155.69 looks like.

Which is actually quite a bit more for the money that usual!

Here is what I got – sorry for the poor photo quality. I didn’t realize how bad it was until I uploaded the image!

From the top: there’s a case of Fresca, which was the one thing left my husband had requested. On sale, but that just put it back to the regular price it was a couple of months ago.

The large bag of cornmeal was not on sale. When we first started buying these large bags, they were under $4. Now, they’re over $7! But, we were running low, and I’d like to bake some cornbread.

I remembered to get some white wine vinegar, as we were out. We were also running low on pancake syrup and it was on sale, so I got a bottle. The tea I got is something new to try. It has chicory root in it and is “coffee inspired”. We have chicory seeds, so I figured trying some in a tea would be a good idea.

The Monster was for the drive home. We were out of apple cider vinegar, and I wanted to use some in my mother’s stock, so I picked some up. I also got freezer bags that were on sale. One of them will go to my mother’s, so I can pack up the cooked chicken in smaller bags to make it easier for home care to prep her meals.

Lactose free cheese, mostly for my husband. The digestive enzymes I got at Costco don’t seem to be helping him, he tells me.

We did not need more eggs, but the 18s were on sale, so I got a couple. We’ll be hard boiling a bunch of them to keep handy for snacks, or to make egg salad with, now that we have so many eggs on hand.

The cabbage is for ourselves, but the onions are for ourselves as well as to prep for my mother, tomorrow. Same with the ginger root, carrots and celery. The 3 pound bag of apples was for home, though – and a really good sale! Apples have been insanely expensive lately. I look forward to having our own, but it’ll be a few years yet!

The salad mixes where the big savings. I’d already picked up some at my mother’s town yesterday at an excellent sale price, but these were even better. These salad mixes are usually over $7 a bag, but with the sale, they were under $4 a bag! Plus, extra points. If I didn’t know we wouldn’t have the room in our fridge, I would have gotten more.

Another good sale was on whole chicken, so I got a larger one. Normally, it would have cost almost $20, instead of just under $12. The pork sirloin roast was Buy One Get One Free, so I picked up a couple of the largest ones that were left. There was bacon on sale, too, so I picked up a package. Last on the receipt was a chicken salad sandwich to eat during the drive home. It was well past lunch time by then.

Then, when it came time to pay, I had enough points on my loyalty card to get $10 off – but got enough points with all the promos that I once again have enough points to get $10 off the next time I use it!

So with all the sales and discounts, not counting the sales on items priced by weight, since that’s applied before they get to the checkout, I had a total of $54.34 off. Add on the loyalty points discount, I got a total of $64.34 taken off my bill.

Not too shabby.

After one more stop at a gas station, I finally headed home. After my daughter helped me unload the truck, it was late enough to feed the cats outside. I even remembered to call my mother to remind her to take the chicken out of her freezer for the stock I will be making her tomorrow. I made sure to tell her not to get her own little pot and frying pan out again, as I was going to be bringing a bigger pot to use this time.

I was out again, about an hour later, to do my evening rounds, cutting some fresh herbs to use in my mother’s stock, before commandeering the kitchen. I now have a bag ready with our smaller stock pot, a good, sharp kitchen knife, and various ingredients that don’t need to be refrigerated, set aside. In the morning, I just need to grab some prepped ingredients from the fridge and that’s it.

Normally, my mother doesn’t do much when she makes her chicken stock. Last time, I included carrots, celery and onion, and she told me she only just used onion. I know she normally would not be too keen on trying new and different ingredients, like the apple cider vinegar, ginger and turmeric I’m bringing. She can get very angry over the idea of trying new things. She has been talking about problems with her digestion, though, and I specifically looked up a recipe for “gut healthy” chicken stock. I think it might help her be willing to try something new, if I explain it that way.

Meanwhile, I found we still had two last packages of meaty beef bones hiding in the chest freezer, from our last beef share purchase. I’ve got those thawing out with plans to make bone broth in the slow cooker.

All in all, it turned out to be a more productive day than I originally expected!

Tomorrow, we’re expecting a high of 10C/50F, but I won’t be home to take advantage of it to get stuff done outside. The next couple of days will have highs of only 2C/36F, which is when I’m planning to do some final mulching and covering the septic tank for the winter. After that, our highs will stay below freezing for a few days, and then we’re supposed to warm up again, possibly reaching a high of 5C/41F by next weekend. Which means there’s still a possibility of getting more progress outside.

Once we get past the first week of December, the long range forecast is now predicting quite a drop in temperatures, including overnight lows of -28C/-18C, so the more I can get done before then, the better! It’s been harder to keep things stocked up, but I really want to have at least a month’s worth of supplies on hand, before the deep freeze hits. The hard part will be stocking up on cat food.

Oh, I just got a message from the renter. They do have a straw bale they can spare, and will hopefully be able to bring it over on the weekend. Perfect timing! We’ll have straw to cover the septic tank, instead of the insulated tarp, and it’ll be much better for mulch in the garden, too.

Little by little, it’s getting done!

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 Garden: they’re alive!

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Right now, there’s basically nothing in the garden. The herb bed, amazingly, is still chugging along, but everything else is done for the year. So, when I do my rounds, I don’t check the garden beds like I do throughout the growing season.

Which is why I had such a surprise today.

When the septic guy showed up to empty our tank, I stayed around on kitten duty, to keep them away from the open tank. A couple of cats wanted to hang out.

I had to pick up and carry Sir Robin most of the time, because he was so curious. When I put him down to look at things, he stayed close and even posed quite nicely for me.

Fancypants, here, is more feral, but still very curious, so I was keeping a close eye on him.

His going into the area fenced off from the deer, to protect the tulips and apple tree, is why I was there to spot my surprise.

First, it was seeing fresh green leaves poking up where the saffron was planted, two autumns ago. I’d seen some sprouting in the spring, but then they disappeared and I thought they died off. Their first growing season was much the same. It’s really hard to keep this area clear of the creeping bellflower that threatens to choke out the tulips. The crocuses are much more delicate. Plus, these are zone 4 corms, and we’re in zone 3, so I really wasn’t expecting much. Just hoping.

Today, I found fresh new saffron crocus leaves coming up! In November!!! These are supposed to bloom in August, never mind start coming up.

When I first started taking pictures, I actually missed it.

Yes. That is a spent saffron crocus flower laying on the leave litter!

The plant just to the right of it in the picture has what looks like a flower bud ready to open soon.

!!!

I opened up the makeshift gate in the fence wire to get better pictures, which you can see in the rest of the photos of the slide show above.

Yes, I picked the flower.

We have our very first saffron threads from our first blooming saffron crocus!

We’ll keep an eye on the flower bud over the next few days, to see if it opens or not. If it does, we’ll pick that, too, for a grand total of 6 saffron threads. 😁

The clusters of crocus leaves are looking strong and healthy, now that their competition is died off for the winter. They also look like they are spreading, even though they’ve barely survived their first two seasons.

I’m just blown away. I honestly thought they’d died off. I knew, when I bought these, that their chances of survival would be low, so this is just really awesome.

We’ve got a few more warmer days, but before the ground freezes, I want to put a nice, thick mulch of leaves over it. I don’t want to put it on too early, as that would smother them. If the long range forecasts are at all accurate, we could possibly wait as long as another week and a half, but I don’t want to wait too long, either! I think I might need to look at the overnight lows more than the day time highs when deciding when to cover them.

I can still hardly believe they survived!

The Re-Farmer

So much progress!

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I so love it when the weather is good and I don’t have to go anywhere. I got so much done today – and it’s not even 2:30, yet, as I start this!

First was a morning of phone calls.

Priority was to call about my mother’s Meals on Wheels being cancelled. I got through to the kitchen number and talked to a woman there. She told me she had listened to my message, but there is no management in today, so she couldn’t find out more for me. She did check their list, though.

My mother’s name is still on it.

Her service did not get cancelled.

So what was the phone call she got about? That is a question for when a manager comes in, tomorrow!

Needless to say, my mother was both relieved and confused when I called to let her know she would be getting her Meals on Wheels as usual.

I also got through to the septic guy.

Yup.

His truck broke down.

He’ll be here tomorrow to clean out our tank.

We’re good with that – the weather will still be good, too.

That all done, it was time to head outside.

One of the first things I worked on was emptying the rain barrel by the sun room and setting it aside for the winter. It had a solid layer of ice on the top, so I had to use the ice scraper tool to chip a hole through. Thankfully, the barrel was not completely full, and I was able to carefully tip it over to drain. It took some doing, since the hole in the ice was just off centre, but I was eventually able to get it empty enough that I could tip it completely upside down. Then it could be rolled to the spot by the honeysuckle where it stays for the winter, lying on its side. There is still a thick layer of ice in it, so I made sure that end was facing south. There’s a chance it will at least melt enough to break apart or fall flat. The barrel will serve as extra potential critter shelter in the winter, so it would be good to get the ice out.

That done, I went and dragged the insulated tarp over to the septic tank, just in case we don’t get a straw bale soon. I’m not hearing back from the renter, who is the one I usually get it from. They did give me the names of others I might be able to get from, but I’d rather get it from the renters.

Bringing the tarp over meant going past the pile of bricks that used to be the chimney from the old wood furnace that isn’t used any more. When the new roof was done, that chimney was removed and I asked them to leave the bricks, rather than haul it away with the junk. The plan had been to use them as part of a path we plan to make along the back of the house that will eventually be part of a shade garden. They piled it all on an old tarp they could leave behind, and it’s been sitting there, ever since.

I didn’t want to move the pile twice, but I don’t know when we’ll be able to make that path and it’s in the way. So I cleaned that up, next.

That old chimney needed to be replaced back when my parents bought this place, before I was born. The chimney blocks I am now using as a retaining wall and for planters were meant for that, and it just never happened.

Those bricks were in terrible shape! Most were broken. There were a few whole bricks. I stacked those, and the larger broken pieces, against the pile of logs still sitting from when we had trees cut away from the roof, years ago. The tarp was intact enough that I could use it to drag away the collected debris and pieces too small to be worth keeping. That’s now with the junk pile for hauling to the dump.

It means moving the pile twice, but it’s now out of the way, and even sorted, more or less, so they’ll be easier to work with when we finally get around to making that path.

We’ll need more broken bricks, though. 😄

That done, it was time for the big job.

I was going to wait until after the tank was emptied, but decided to take my chances and clean up around the ejector today.

Grabbing gloves and tools, I headed out to the gap in the fence closest to it. This meant going through where some old farm equipment and various outbuildings are.

Plus some really massive burdock.

I started cutting back the burdock when I got distracted. There’s an old Farm Hand tractor that I’d cut clear of self seeded maples a few years back. They were growing back. Since I had the loppers with me and was using them to cut the burdock, I cut the maple suckers away from the tractor. That didn’t take very long, though, so I was back to cutting away the burdock. Several of the burdock stems were thicker than the maple suckers I’d cut away from the tractor! Try as I might, I couldn’t avoid getting burrs stuck to me, so pulling those off was fun. Not.

I didn’t clear it all away, though. Just enough to make a path to the opening in the fence. There’s just the renter’s electric wire across it. There are some huge willow trees there, so the cows don’t seem to try to get through the opening here, unlike the old gate opening, which has a chain across it, as well as the electric wire. They do go under the willows enough to graze the tall grass on that side of the fence down, though.

The cows were moved off some time ago, so the electric fence is not hooked up to a power source right now.

Here are the “before” pictures I took.

In the first picture, I’m standing in the lower area the grey water is supposed to be draining towards. You can just see the small trench I made to help it flow through. The whole area was really rough after the excavator buried the new ejector, so that needed to be worked around.

Those boulders and all the other rocks you can see were from the hole they dug to reach the pipe.

The second picture in the slide show above is where the problem lies. Instead of draining down the slope, things are pooling at the end of the old sheet of metal roofing that’s there as a diverter. The snow fence is something my brother had put around to keep the renter’s cows from accidentally trampling the new ejector. It’s nowhere near as tall as the old one was.

The third picture is of the inside of the fenced area, where the diverter is. Yes, there is a long sheet of metal hiding under that mess!

The last picture in that series is the view from just inside the “gate” of the snow fence.

I had to cut my way through burdock to get to the fence and access the area. To get to the rigged gate of the snow fence, I had to cut my way through Canadian Thistle. Those were as big as the burdock, and getting stuck on those was a lot more painful!

Inside the snow fenced area, it was mostly old nettles I had to get through, plus some young burdock and a LOT of crab grass. Plus a few burrs.

This is what it looks like, after I cleared all that out as best I could.

One of the main concerns with laying that sheet down as a diverter was that it might get blown away, so we put some logs and a big rock on it, to prevent that from happening. In the first picture, you can see the logs at the end.

The second pictures shows the first part of the problem. So much debris had lain over the metal, it actually flattened it on one side that the grey water was, at least partly, draining off of their instead of all the way to the end.

In the third picture, you can sort of make out the other part of the problem. The soil is rough and there’s a bit of a lump on one side. It seems to be just enough to keep the grey water from flowing to the lower area. Instead, it’s draining to a different area, where it is pooling, first.

Worse, it was also flooding back under the diverter.

Last year, we had to use the emergency diverter for the grey water to be pumped into the yard, far from the house, because the new ejector froze. With the ground around it saturated, because the grey water isn’t flowing away as it should, there is a risk of that happening again.

The first thing to do was to get those logs off (the rock didn’t need to be moved) and clear the debris off the diverter. The logs then went under the sides of the sheet to create more of a channel, which you can see the start of, in the first picture below.

There was still the problem of things pooling at the end, instead of flowing away. I’d already opened up the trench more, but there was still that lump of soil that prevented the grey water from draining straight to the trench. There was no way I was going to be able to level that whole area enough with just a spade. Plus, the soil is already partially frozen.

The diverter needed an extension.

I went over to the pile of stuff nearby, where we’d salvaged this sheet of metal from in the first place, and looked around. There are still cast off pieces of metal roofing in there. I found a shorter one that I could use.

It took some fussing to get it under the snow fence, then under the big diverter sheet. The smaller piece was already curving on its own, so I could take advantage of that. I set it at a bit of an angle, then used rocks to flatten it more on one side, while raising it up on the other – then added more rocks on top, to make sure it didn’t blow away.

This left a corner of the metal sticking up, and that was something the renter’s cows could get injured on. I needed to make some sort of barrier.

Well, there are those willows nearby, and willows are known for dropping their branches. I had lots of deadwood around to drag over!

In the third picture, I tried to stand in the same place is when I took the first “before” picture. There’s a willow branch that does off to the left. Out of frame, it’s actually still attached to the tree. I dragged it across, but it wouldn’t break all the way, and I didn’t have the tools to do anything about it. I decided to take advantage of it, instead, and it added to the deadwood barrier I was making.

The fourth picture is the “after” shot from just inside the makeshift gate. Looking so much better!

The fifth picture is after I adjusted a bit more at the end. It looked like there was still a possibility of grey water flowing back under the long sheet, after pouring onto the new extension, so I put more support under one side that will hopefully prevent that from happening. I also stepped on key points, on both sides of the snow fence, to bend the metal and make the channel more defined. You can see that on the outside, in the last photo.

With the tank not emptied yet, this whole time I was working, it was possible that the pump would be triggered and I’d have grey water to deal with while I worked. All it would have taken was someone flushing a toilet or washing some dishes. It seems the pump’s float had been triggered recently enough that it didn’t happen. I did consider asking a daughter to turn it on manually, so I could see how it flowed with the new set up, but in the end, decided against it. If the tank was recently pumped out, there might not have been enough greywater to run through, and I didn’t want the pump running dry. I can check on it later and will be able to see.

Once the septic guy empties the tank, it will be a while before the grey water side is filled enough to trigger the pump. Hopefully, that will give the soil enough time to drain. It shouldn’t need long, since it’s all sand and gravel, but we do have a lot of clay, too, so it’s hard to say. Between the cleaned up diverter, the heat tape that’s still on the above ground portion of the ejector, and the wind shelter my brother built around it, hopefully it won’t freeze again this winter!

So that was the main project I wanted to work on today. I still want to head out again later to see what else I can get done while it’s still light out and warm enough. I don’t be digging up and cleaning any garden beds, but there’s always something that needs to be done! Since I’m taking the truck in on Thursday and going to my mother’s on Friday, I basically have today and tomorrow to get as much done as possible. After Friday, the day time highs are expected to just barely rise above freezing, so it’s hard to say what progress can be done after that.

I can’t believe almost half of November is already gone. Where did it go???

The rest of the month is expected to be relatively mild. With or without progress outside, I am appreciating that. The older I get, the less I enjoy winter. My hands are cracking and splitting from the dry cold already, just for starters. Winter is just rougher on everything, from our bodies to the house to the truck to the yard cats… everything!

So I am enjoying and appreciating every bit of mild weather we can get!

The Re-Farmer

Too much wind! Also, a mystery

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Good grief! As I write this, we are supposedly at only -1C/30F, but the wind chill has us at -18C/0F.

It feels colder than that!

I head out earlier this morning to do the cat feeding and my morning rounds, while it was still dark, so that I could open the gate. The wind was already really bitter by then, though it had to have been calm during the night, as everything was covered in hoarfrost. The septic guy said he would be here in the morning and, sometimes, that has meant right at 8am, so I figured I’d better get it open early.

When he didn’t show up before my younger daughter and I had to leave, I called and left a message saying I would be gone (he would see the empty garage as he came in), but that there would be someone home, so just knock at the door as his payment was ready.

In the end, he never made it. I’ll have to call him tomorrow and see about a reschedule. The last time that happened, their truck broke down!

I headed to the truck early to warm it up and noticed that front tire with the leaky valve was pretty low, so I fired up the compressor to pump it up. Then I headed back inside, out of the wind, to text the garage. The leak seems to be getting worse, so I asked if they could order the new sensor and replace it when I come in to get the oil seal replaced later in the week.

After that’s done, there’s still two more sensors to replace.

My daughter and I had to go into town for the pharmacy, first, as she had to pick up a prescription she needed for her medical appointment. I had called in one of my own for refills, too, but their delivery from the city wasn’t going to be in until the afternoon, so I told them to include it with my husband’s delivery. I’ll be in town that day, but it’ll be to drop the truck off for my appointment, and I don’t want to be carrying meds around while it’s being worked on.

I’d received a response from the garage, confirming that they could get the sensor ordered in and done at the same time. I asked if they needed any info off the tire but when they didn’t answer before we were done at the pharmacy, we just swung by and I ran in to ask. They didn’t, so we were soon back on the road.

Headlong into the wind.

We had left early enough that my daughter and I could stop for lunch at a Subway right near the clinic. We timed it perfectly, as there was a huge rush starting, just as we were paying for our food. We were able to take our time to finish before heading into the clinic.

One of the things my daughter wanted to bring up is that she will NOT be going back to that endocrinologist again. I still think she needs to make a formal complaint over how she was treated and manhandled.

Her appointment wasn’t very long, so we were soon heading out again, this time to the nearest Walmart in the smaller, nearer city.

I was no longer driving headlong into the wind, but the route was mostly open fields at this point, so I was instead fighting to not be blown off the road!

My daughter and I had out own shopping lists, and I had one from my husband, but we even altogether, we didn’t need a lot. It was just stuff we either couldn’t get locally, or was so much more expensive locally, it was worth the gas and the side trip to get them there.

Before we left, I got a message from my husband. My mother had called. She had gotten a call from the Meals on Wheels office saying that her deliveries were cancelled, and she was wondering if I had cancelled them.

?!?!?!?!!!!!

Obviously, I didn’t. Once we were home, I called her up as soon as I could, to get as much information as I could, before calling Meals on Wheels. It was past 4 by then, and I had no idea if they would even still be open. The meals are cooked and assembled in the kitchen of an apartment building similar to my mother’s, except they offer meal service and a few other things. My mother has actually been on the waiting list for that place for a few years now.

I called my mother and she immediately started talking about what happened today, and it was a bit confusing. Basically, her Meals on Wheels delivery came at the same time as her lunch assist person. there was some sort of confusion. Why, I have no idea. This is not the first time she’s had both since her increased service. Home care is aware that she gets Meals on Wheels and were good with it. I think maybe it was the first time they arrived at the same time.

After they left, she got a phone call from the Meals on Wheels office (they don’t actually have an office) saying that someone had cancelled her service, and that there would be no more dinners from them. My mother was wondering if I had cancelled it. Of course, I hadn’t. So she wondered if my brother hand, and of course, he hadn’t either. I didn’t even have to ask him about that!

Part of what was confusing is that as she was trying to describe what happened and the confusing of her lunch assist and Meals on Wheels coming at the same time, she started talking about how she doesn’t need both. If she had people coming every day to do her meals, why have Meals on Wheels?

I told her, these meals are more complete than she would make for herself, and require more preparation than home care is able to do for her during daily meal assists, so it would be better if she kept it up. I didn’t really get to say more, but these are also the most nutritionally complete meals she has all weak.

Then she started taking that she didn’t need… and here I lose it on the words she used, because they were more implying than saying outright, but basically, she’s trying to suggest that these meals are so big, they are making her fatter, so she should probably stop. She’s been getting to the point of saying she should practically stop eating entirely, so I needed to cut that off, quickly. I told her, she’s 94 years old. She doesn’t need to be worried about her weight at this point. Who cares?

I told her I needed to call Meals on Wheels right away, because I didn’t know when they closed, but then she launched into how she takes the “pink stuff” (Pepto) and Tylenol and started going on about how she thinks her problems are her digestion (this after years of blaming her insanely healthy heart) – so basically, she was working herself up to blaming everything on the Meals on Wheels meals. I had to cut her off and say I would call her back after calling Meals on Wheels.

I was too late. They were closed.

The number I called was directly to the kitchen, but I noticed another number in my online search, so I tried that, too. That was the building’s management office. Their answering machine gave office hours, and they are open only 3 days a week, and the message added that if it was about Meals on Wheels, to call the kitchen number.

Tomorrow is Remembrance Day and I normally wouldn’t expect a call back until the day after, but they do cook daily meals for the residents, so it’s possible I’ll get a call back tomorrow.

I called my mother back and told her as much as I could. Thankfully, she didn’t try to blame her various issues on the Meals on Wheels meals again. It frustrates me to hear her trying to blame all her problems on her food, but she knows nothing about nutrition. Half the time, she’s basing things on something she saw on TV 30 years ago, or some women’s magazine that the ladies from the Senior’s Centre drop off sometimes, or something her neighbours have said, to just leaping at associations with no real connection. All the more reason for her to have those Meals on Wheels! If it were up to her, she would be seriously malnourished while convinced she is eating “healthy”.

Anyhow, I told my mother I would get back to her as soon as I knew something. I have, of course, updated my siblings about it as best I could.

I’ll be at my mother’s on Friday to get her bubble packs and do her shopping. I’ll stay to do other stuff for her, too. I should remember to ask her to take the chicken I got for her a while back, out of the freezer so I can make up another stock for her. That will give her cooked meat that the lunch assist people can use for her meals, too. This time, I want to bring one of my stock pots from home. Last time, I had to split things up between a small pot and a frying pan! I should bring a proper knife, too. She has been using what look like cheap “as seen on TV” steak knives, and is happy with them, but they really are terrible. At least for full food prep. I had to use one to butcher a whole chicken for her a while back and it was so bad, I ended up using the only other thing she had – a bread knife!

Hopefully, the Meals on Wheels thing will be straightened out by then. I’m really at a loss as to who would have cancelled her service. Unless my mother gave specific instructions, they would not have had any authority to do so. It doesn’t sound like my mother did anything like that, but she talks in circles so much, someone may have misunderstood her? I just don’t know.

I am just noticing one of my weather apps that I have on display at all times. According to that, we’re now at 0C/32F. We should keep warming up all night, to a high of 6C/43F tomorrow. It’s not supposed to be as windy as it still is right now, but still pretty windy. On Friday, we’re supposed to reach a high of 8C/46F! That would be a great day to get a few more things done outside, but I’ll be at my mother’s. Ah, well. I’ve at least got the next two days at home to work on things. Once the septic tank is emptied, I want to head over to the ejector to cut away all the weeds grown up around it, then dig more of a trench to drain the greywater towards the low area, rather than forming a pool just 10 or so feet away.

Hopefully, the septic guy will be able to come in soon! This is not a job I want to work on when it gets colder again.

Gotta take advantage of every warm day we get. It won’t be long before anything left will just have to wait until spring.

I would really love it if I could just hibernate all winter!

The Re-Farmer

They look so sweet

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They lie.

Ghosty loves that cat bed so much, she’ll curl up with any other cat that’s in it! This time, it’s Beep Beep, one of the originals cared for by my late father. She is very likely Ghosty’s great-great-great-grandmother or aunt.

Ghosty is probably the most intelligent cat we’ve ever had – and the reason why I feel like crap today, due to lack of sleep. Once we’re all in bed, she starts getting into all the things she knows she’s not allowed to while we’re up, and I’m the only one that can hear when she does. Particularly when she starts digging into things at my desk in the wee hours. She does it when she wants the kibble bowls topped up, because she knows it will wake me up, and she doesn’t stop until it’s been done. This morning, she dug into my organizer tray, pulling out all sorts of stuff and knocking one of my speakers half off the desk, which I discovered hours later.

I actually got the girls to do the outside stuff this morning, so I could get back to sleep, but it just wouldn’t happen, mostly because of the cats! Then I had the disorienting feeling that it was about 4pm, only to look at the time and see that it was noon. My daughters are feeling the same way, today!

I really, really need more sleep.

The Re-Farmer