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How things went and, a new addition?

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Good grief, I can’t wait until the days start getting longer again. I keep thinking it’s closer to midnight, but it’s barely past 5:30 as I start this!

This morning was the first morning where I could actually say it was cold. We even had some snow on the ground, though not enough to cover much. For the past while, I’ve been giving the yard cats their morning feeding after softening it with some really thin, warm “cat soup”, but it’s been freezing faster than they can eat it, so I did just dry kibble this morning. They very clearly were expecting different and weren’t too happy not to get it!

I was heading out soon after to do my mother’s morning med assist, after being called yesterday about a cancellation. She now has 20 minutes scheduled, so they have time to do a meal assist and, if she’s willing, to help her get washed up or dressed on top of her regular assist.

When I got there, she was still in bed and really struggled to get up. I encouraged her to stay in bed while I made her breakfast, but she made her way out and did her morning washing up routine. Once she was settled with her meds and food, I took care of her commode, etc.

Since she has a lunch assist now, I asked her what she wanted, in case there was something I could leave out or set up for the worker that came for her lunch assist. In the end, I just brought out a can of chicken noodle soup, because the rest of what she wanted had to stay in the fridge.

Overall, things went well, though my mother seemed quite down and a bit depressed about how she was feeling. She said she thought she was going to the hospital today, but did acknowledge that she tends to feel better after getting up and moving about, and is usually feeling pretty good by the end of the day. What did catch my attention and showed me how much worse she was feeling than usual is that she did NOT do her usual complaining, with the whole “I’m dying!” thing, then launching into what she wants us to do for her before she dies. She was quiet about it, and that’s way more of a red flag.

Yes, I did send an email to the home care office when I got home, as this is something they need to know. The care aides also pass on things like that, as they observe them.

The only time things started to go south was near time for me to leave. She remembered something she wanted to tell me, then started going on about how she didn’t want us using her pension to pay for things here at the farm.

…

Yes, she paid for the door, and I told her again (when I had the chance) that I appreciated it, but I had never asked her to. It was my brother that talked to her about it because, for the past while, she’s been talking about how she wants to help me and my family out more. She’s also been hinting about helping with the door before, too. So something has changed.

Before I could figure out, she started talking about how, she doesn’t live here any more, it’s not her responsibility, then started complaining about how much doing the roof cost. She is convinced we were cheated, because it shouldn’t have cost $14,000. I told her, that was just how much things cost at the time. If it had been done three years earlier, it would have cost $9000. I didn’t get a chance to remind her that I’d gotten estimates from three different companies then, and they were all pretty much the same cost. She had said no.

She started telling me, I should have gone to other companies to find a better price, and I told her, I went to 5 different companies (3 responded, but I didn’t even try to bring that up). Then she started complaining that they charged for clean up. We shouldn’t have paid for that. We should have done it ourselves. I said to her, do you know just how much there is to clean up from a roof?

She was talking about the door.

It seems that when my brother talked to her about it, he’d brought printouts, including the original estimate with details on what was included in the cost. Clean up was part of it. My mother said that we could have “saved some pennies” by doing it ourselves.

*facepalm*

I just did not want to go there. Instead, I started getting ready to leave, because I still had to go to our own pharmacy to pick up some refills. I double checked his message about how they’d be ready for pick up today, to see if there was a time I had to wait for, as it was still early in the day for that sort of thing. As we were talking, I read out “pick up injections”, and my mom was all “injections!” then going on about my poooor husband that he has to take injections, and oh, we have it so hard, we suffer so much…

…

I told her, he’s been on two injections for years. (She knows that; she reacts the same way, every time) Doing injections is not a big deal these days. She still tried to play the pity game, and how she feels so sorry for us. I told her, yeah, we have problems, but so does everyone, and a lot of people have things a lot worse than we do. We have a lot to be thankful for.

Even with this stuff, I’d say it was a good visit when it comes to my mother.

From there, it was off to our pharmacy, where I was also able to get my vitamins that I didn’t get at Costco. Different budget. Then it was just getting some gas and going home. I wrote off my planned trip to the dump today. I want to avoid extra driving as much as possible until we can get that leaking seal fixed, next week, and we’ve got a trip for a doctor’s appointment in between.

By the time I got home, it wasn’t too much longer before I was heading outside to take care of the outside cats and switch out the trail cam cards, before it got dark.

The cats were very happy to have the softened kibble again!

After I put the food out, I was topping up water bowls with warm water when I spotted one of the older grey tabbies eating at the feeding station under the shrine.

Then I realized that cat I thought it was, was by the house – and this one was much bigger!

Also, shier. I didn’t try to get any closer, as he was clearly ready to take off if I did, but he also watched me from behind the shrine’s pedestal base, rather than running away.

Just in case, I did a head count and got 35. Which means we have several more than my last highest count.

So it looks like we have a newcomer. This was the only one that seemed a stranger. I think the other “extras” were cats that didn’t usually show up at the same time as others at feeding time. With the colder temperatures, more are coming closer to the house instead of waiting until later.

Later on, I headed outside to check on some noises the girls were hearing through their windows (they can hear a lot more than I can!). I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but I did spot this crowd.

There are four cats in that cat bed! You can barely see the little tabby.

Frank is the one looking right at me, and the little white and grey draped over her back end is the one that has been sick for the last while. It has discovered the heat lamp and spends most of its time in the isolation shelter lately, and it looking much stronger.

They’re going to have to get used to it being closed up, soon.

Thanks to a generous donation, the rescue we’re now connected to is going to book us for for spays and/or neuters. The goal is for four cats, two at a time. With keeping the isolation closed up while females recover from surgery for two weeks, two adult cats is the limit. Though if we are able to get Frank and Pinky in there, I’d probably keep that little white and grey in with them, too.

I’ll have the dates sent to me later, but they will be booked some time after the 16th. I would hope we can get other females after that, but they’ll do neuters are well, if that’s what we can catch. I would love to get Adam, Slick, Sprout, Sprig or that white one with the grey tabby patches, but that would involve trapping.

I should maybe talk to them about the possibility of taking the friendliest outside cats for adoption, some of whom are already fixed. More than a few times, I’ve almost been able to touch one of the more feral cats, only to have a super socialized cat or three, push their way in, demanding attention and scaring off the more feral ones.

We’ll work it out.

So, that’s how things have been today. Tomorrow is Sunday, and it looks like it will actually be a day of rest for a change. We’re expected to have some snow in the wee hours of the night, but tomorrow’s high is supposed to be just below freezing. After that, we’re supposed to warm up again, with highs above freezing for almost two weeks. More time to get as much done outside as I can, while the weather is good.

But not tomorrow.

The Re-Farmer

Well, we’ll see if this works!

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According to the weather apps, we’re currently at -5C/23F, with the “feels like” at -9C/16F.

I don’t know where the weather station for that reading is, but it’s been mostly sunny today and feels much warmer than that, to me!

Warm enough that I decided we should go ahead and cover the portable greenhouse with the tarp so graciously gifted to us.

In retrospect, we should have removed the torn up plastic over first, but the tie downs are attached to it, so I didn’t think of it.

I had already adjusted the tie downs so that they no longer stretched away from the corners, creating tripping hazards. Instead, I wrapped them around the sides and and was able to secure them around the corners at the opposite end. They are long enough that the ones from the back corners wrapped around the doorway and were secured on the inside. Which meant there were no tie downs to work around while adding the tarp.

Gotta love the sexy rhino.

So this is a really high end tarp, which is so appreciated. It also is black on one side, so we decided to have the black facing out, so that it could warm up more in the sun.

As you can see in the second photo of the slide show above, the tarp is a fair bit bigger than the portable greenhouse frame!

I had the help of a daughter to get it unfolded, then up and over the frame. After that, I worked on it on my own, since I was figuring things out as I went along.

I deliberately put the tarp off center so that I could secure the side facing the kibble house to the ground, right at the base of the frame. I spend the next while trying to figure out how best to origami it in a way I thought would be least likely to get caught up in the wind. Once I secured most of it, I ended up tucking the excess on the side facing away from the kibble house, under the frame itself.

From the back and sides, it made a nice little package.

If you click through to the next couple of pictures, however, you can see the front was a very different challenge. I had considered and tried a number of options, and even considered turning that end into a sort of tent. Which probably would have turned into a wind tunnel, so it was probably good I decided it wouldn’t work . We need to be able to walk through there, shovel snow, etc, and it would have blocked things way too much. I ended up folding quite a bit of it under, tucking the edge back over the frame to secure it. Which left me with no grommets I could use to secure that anything around the doorway from the wind.

I had set up an old bench we found… in the spruce grove, if I remember correctly – that I’d had against the back to keep the wind from flapping the torn cover around. I also had our wire mesh door and folding table along the more exposed east facing side, for the same purpose. Those got put back, once the sides and back were done.

The doorway needs to be kept available, of course, and there was no way to shelter the doorway and still be able to get in and out as needed. I had to find another solution.

The solution was, twine.

I tied one end of the twine to the frame on the inside on one side, wrapped it around the back, then secured the other end to the matching part of the frame on the other side, making sure all was snug and tight. If you click through the next couple of pictures, you can see how it was secured by twine, bench, wire mesh door and table. The bench has to be lying on its side, as it is too broken up to stay upright if there is any wind, or even if a cat just jumps on it. 😄

The door is wide open, and wind and snow will get into it. There is no getting around that, at this point.

As I was working in it, cats and kittens were very curious and checking everything out, so I am confident they will be comfortable using it for shelter. It is definitely warmer in there, too. Having it black side out is going to make a big difference, I think. Enough to make up for losing the greenhouse effect. It’s now quite dark in there, but the cats don’t mind that at all.

Now, if only we could find a way to make sure no cats try to jump up onto it! The tarp may be 10mm thick, but cat claws could still cause damage.

So that’s a bit more winterizing we found ourselves needing to do. I think it will work out all right for the most part. It’s only the front that concerns me. We don’t have any high winds in the forecast right now, though, so it will be a while before it gets a litmus test!

The Re-Farmer

I just can’t… (updated)

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Not what I normally post about, but what happened here ultimately affects all Canadians, but especially rural folk like us.

I’m horrified.

Language warning for this FB link. WP won’t allow embedding for some reason. Probably because its on FB.

Rebel News is the only one that has been on the ground, following this the whole time.

I’ve been watching on social media, late into the night. Within minutes of our Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal, the shooting started, at night, for hours.. Watching live streams of the owners wailing and crying as shots rang out was heart breaking.

This came out this morning.

I just can’t…

The Re-Farmer

Update and warning. Some of this is just so hard to watch. I heard her screaming during live streams last night. They will haunt me.

Costco shop: this is what $791 looks like

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Well, I finally made it to Costco!

With some side trips, first.

My first stop was at the post office to pick up my daughter’s new office chair that we couldn’t pick up yesterday, because I forgot they closed at noon on Wednesdays. I had another surprise package, but I’ll cover that in another post. I dropped those off at home, then headed out right away and stopped at my mother’s. She had a letter from the regional health authority she wasn’t understanding. I confirmed that it was indeed an appointment for an MRI she was on the waiting list for, for more than a year. There was a form with it I helped her fill out as well.

We talked about her new home care schedule and I asked if she was letting them help her with meals. There is one home care worker that she has a lot of issues with. When my mother asked if she could put water in the electric kettle my brother got for her, because she has a hard time doing it herself, she balked, saying she was only supposed to do her pills, nothing else. Mom told her, this is new stuff (the worker should have known). She did put the water in for my mother, but didn’t close the lid nor start the kettle. My mom pointed out that she didn’t finish. The worker said that my mother is the only person she has a problem with – and that she didn’t do it because my mother didn’t say please or thank you.

Now, my mother has her issues, but right now, with her cognitive decline, she has trouble finding the words to ask for help. Expecting her to remember to say please and thank you under her circumstances sounds awfully strange. They had what my mother called a bit of a disagreement. The worker then apparently took the little container her pills had been counted out into, which my mother had not taken yet, into the lock box, saying she would make a call about my mother, and left.

???

She locked my mother’s pills away.

After a while, she came back and my mother did get her pills. She also had a different attitude. My mother said she did apologize and they ended up hugging before the worker left.

So very strange.

I asked and apparently this one worker never looks at her sheets, never fills out the form inside the lock box and, unlike all the other workers, never asks if there is anything else she can do for my mother.

I think I need to send an email to the case coordinator about this. I’m sure she’s already heard the other side of the story by now.

I also need to let them know what day my mother’s MRI is. It’s an evening appointment, so she won’t be home for the bed time assist. My problem is, I don’t know if Mom can even get into my truck anymore! I’ll have to talk to my siblings about that.

Once done at my mother’s I could finally head into the city.

When I got to the Costco, I didn’t even try to get gas first, like I usually do. The parking lot was shockingly full. I lucked out, though. As I decided to cut through one of the lanes to go back to the overflow area, someone started backing out. There was another car waiting and I was going to let them have the spot, but then another vehicle backed out, right next to them! So we both got spots. 😊

The store, however, was much less crowded than expected.

I didn’t find everything I had on my list, but I did end up spending almost $800

*sigh*

This is what $791.01 looks like.

*double sigh*

Because it’s been so long, I did get more than had been on my original list, when I tried to do the shop last week and ended up getting new spark plugs on the truck, instead.

The reciept was long enough I ended up taking two pictures.

On this part of the receipt, for the meats, I got a 3 pack of dry sausages, a large pack of drumsticks and two pork loins. I also got 2 panini packs for sandwiches, and a pack of farmer’s sausages. The Kirkland canned chicken was on sale, so I grabbed two. It’s been a long time since we’ve picked those up! We used to get them regularly.

There is also a couple of packs of wraps, 5 pounds of butter, a block of mozza and a block of Old cheddar cheeses, and a bag of Basmati rice.

On the flat cart, there was a flat of Coke Zero for my husband and I, and a flat of cranberry and blackberry Ginger Ale for the girls. They didn’t have any Monster, so I got a case of Celsius energy drinks. There’s a 9 pack of pasta, two cases of canned cat food, toilet paper, two bags of kibble and a box of puppy pads.

On the rest of the receipt…

There is a 4 pack of Pronamel toothpaste and a bottle of Ibuprofen (for the girls; I can’t take them because they are contraindicated with my anti-inflammatories) and lactase digestive enzymes, plus AAA batteries among the non-food things.

Then there is a container of dehydrated onion, popcorn, a 3 pack of Spam for the pantry, peanut butter, a 2 pack of lemon juice, olive oil, a 3 pack of oat milk, a flat of ramen noodles, two 2 packs of rye bread and a double flat of eggs. Nice to see those under $20 again.

So this will last us a while, but there were a few things I didn’t get. My own vitamins didn’t get included. I was supposed to pick up their big 2 packs of Head and Shoulders, as my daughter and husband now both use it as an anti-fungal body wash (which our doctor recommended to my daughter rather than an expensive prescription anti-fungal cream). I couldn’t find them and even asked someone to look it up. According to their inventory, they had over 100 in stock. The guy went looking but couldn’t find them, either. Which means they were probably still on a flat somewhere, waiting to be put on the shelves. So that had to be skipped.

After everything was unloaded, I made sure the pork loins were not put in the freezer, as we usually would. Instead, I cut them up, first.

I split one of them into three roasts. The other was cut into chops about 1″ thick. I filled two bags with 8 chops, and the third had 8 chops, plus two wonky end bits.

Aside from the in store shopping, I did make sure to get gas before I left. Regular was $1.199/L at Costco, and I’m glad I filled my tank there! As I was driving in, I saw gas prices all over were $1.249/L As I was leaving, everywhere had gone up to $1.339/L! So it cost me $65.18 for just over a half a tank of gas, instead of what would have been almost $73.

Thankfully, I won’t need to do much driving around between now and when I’m back at the garage to get that oil seal replaced. A trip to the dump on Saturday is about it, though I’ll probably do a grocery shopping trip for my mother, too. Oh, I forgot. My daughter has a doctor’s appointment on Monday. Not in the city this time, though.

When we lived in the city, I used to drive around a lot more often. I drove my daughters to work most of the time, because there were no buses to where they worked, and it wasn’t unusual for me to be driving somewhere, two or three times a day. Now that we live out here, driving somewhere two or three times a weeks is more than I want to be doing! 😄 I would be such a hermit, if I had the choice! 😂

Stock up trips like this do help reduce how many times I have to head out. Enough to make it worth the trip and putting up with things I would much rather avoid – like being around people for so long! 😁 Of course, it also saves us a pretty penny, as a lot of this stuff is much more expensive locally, if we can even find some of it.

Though that really isn’t much for almost $800, compared to what we could get for the same amount of money, when we first moved out here.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Not the day I intended

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I was hoping to go to Costco today. I didn’t make it, but not for the reason I was expecting.

I did check and the large payment I made against my MC was no longer “pending”. So I was mostly sure I could use the card for our Costco trip (Costco only takes MC, and using the Canadian Tire card helps build up Canadian Tire dollars, which paid for a whole bunch of stuff, recently). The freeze on the deposit of my mother’s check to cover the door was still there, though, so more than half the money is still inaccessible.

The thing is, I normally am able to use that card, even while the payment made against it is still “pending”. All I can think is that they froze the amount because it was over a certain threshold.

In the end, it didn’t matter.

I headed outside to do my morning rounds as usual. Fed the outside cats, checked on things, discovered the deer visited during the night…

Almost all the sunchoke leaves were completely stripped off the stalks, and even the tops of the stalks on the shorter ones were nibbled down! Sunchokes are related to sunflowers, which the deer like to eat, so I guess it was just a matter of time before they munched these down.

By the time I was finished my rounds, I decided I needed to stay home. My hip wasn’t hurting, but it was definitely unstable after a day of walking on concrete. If I were to go into the city and be doing all that walking on concrete while shopping, I know the probability of it wiping me out for days is very high. Better to give it one more day to rest.

Which was REALLY hard to do! We had a nicer day today and I was chafing at the bit to not be out there, working on various projects or cleaning up the last few garden beds. All of which would have stressed my hip out just as much, or more, than walking around to shop would have. At least while shopping, I could use my cart as a walker!

We did end up going out today, though. And by “we” I mean my younger daughter and I. This afternoon I checked Canada Post tracking and saw that her office chair that I got with my Air Miles was in and ready for pick up. Her current chair is badly broken, so we eagerly headed out.

I forgot.

Today is Wednesday.

The store the post office is in closes at noon every Wednesday for inventory.

Crud.

Since we were out anyhow, we instead headed to the town to the north of us. We stopped at the feed store to pick up a couple more 40 pound bags of kibble.

While there, we wandered around, first. I ended up getting a larger syringe that we could use to feed kittens with. It’s meant to be single use to give medication to larger animals, and they had all sorts of sizes available. Some were meant to have needles screwed onto their tips. The larger ones each came in their own container with a sealed cap for sterility, and the containers were only semi-transparent. We did manage to see enough to grab a type that wasn’t made to have a needle screwed on, but just an open tip like the small ones we have at home. The ones we have at home are made to dispense small amounts of medication. What I found would work much better for feeding sick little kittens. Plus, it cost less than $2.

My daughter, meanwhile, found the section for horse brushes. She ended up getting two small ones; one for her leather boots and one for her cowboy hat. You can get brushes specially marketed as boot brushes or hat brushes, and they are very expensive. These are pretty much the same, but since they’re marketed for horses, they were much cheaper!

She also made another find that she was so excited about. Leather gloves with wool lining. Most gloves have some sort of polyester lining; even the high end ones. She can’t wear those because her hands get all sweaty and they don’t absorb moisture well. She has the same simian hands that I have; a distinctive trait inherited from my father. Short fingers, broad, square palms. So the gloves she found that fit her palms were too long on the fingers, but that was a trade off she was willing to make! If she really felt up to it, she could undo the stitching and make the fingers shorter, herself.

Looking at them more closely as we drove home, after getting the kibble, she found that they are actually made by a company in the city! We’ll have to look them up. They are really high quality and cost her a pretty penny for something like gloves, but they will last her for many years. She wore them on the way home and was so thrilled. Her hands were roasty toasty, but not at all sweaty! While in the store, she suggested I try some on to get for myself, but I can’t do wool.

Once we got home and loaded things into the house, we went to the kibble and water bowl shelters and talked about some modifications I’m thinking to do. The water bowl shelter in particular has a lot of “wasted” space. I want to add a shelf about half way up. That would give the cats another place to perch, while also giving better coverage to the cat beds in the back of the shelter.

It would be good to do something similar in the kibble house, but that one is quite a bit longer. I built it so that the floor, which has rigid insulation under it, can be removed. We can’t add extra support in the middle without losing that ability, but without support, any shelf we make will sag in the middle. There is, however, a vertical support in the middle of the back wall, so we could attach angled supports to that. Something to think about. Mostly, I want to get the extra perch for the cats to be done in the water bowl shelter.

As we talked about that, we went into the garage, where we have scrap wood in a variety of shapes, sizes and types that we can use to do this. The back door of the garage is near the outhouse. Behind the outhouse is where we’ve been dumping the stove pellet litter to compost. With the number of cats we have and how many years we’ve been doing this, there is a large pile starting behind the outhouse, slowly extending further into the spruce grove. I’ve already scattered two boxes of wildflower seeds over part of it, but the oldest section still had the top of that tree that fell over the outhouse, that my brother managed to get off and save the outhouse at the same time, on top of it. I plan to use the pieces of that tree to make things, but even the smaller top of the tree is huge and heavy.

Well, with my daughter there to help, we got it off!

It was NOT easy. Not just because of the weight. This part of the tree had many branch nubs all around it. No matter what position we had the trunk, there were branch nubs digging into the ground – you can even see a gouged out trench in the soil from one of them, in the photo above.

The trunk had been straight across the pile, with a couple of old tires to keep it from rolling against the outhouse. We found we could rotate it almost 45 degrees, so that the heavy end was running more alongside the outhouse. I grabbed a rope we found in the garage some time ago, that has latch hooks at eat end (I think it was meant to attach to a horse’s halter) to put around the heavy end of the trunk. We also had a metal bar we could put through the hooks that was long enough for us to use as handles, rather than wrecking our hands trying to grasp the rope. With that, we could move the trunk about a foot or so, then I would go behind the outhouse to move the light end away from the outhouse a bit more, we’d move the entire trunk, I’d shift the top again, over and over. Sometimes, we would have to rotate the trunk to get whatever branch nub that was digging into the ground clear before we could move it more.

Once we got it clear of the pile and lying only on the ground, that was it. We couldn’t move it anymore. Somewhere along the bottom of the trunk, there’s a branch nub dug deep enough into the soil, anchoring it enough that, even with both of us, we just couldn’t move it any more. That was okay, though. I just needed it clear of the pile.

That done, my daughter headed back to the house to put things away, while I grabbed our last box of wildflower seeds and scattered them over the most composted part of the pile that the tree was on top of. Now that the trunk is where it is, it will be easier to get at it with a chain saw and work on it. I’m planning to use the parts and pieces to make some seating or maybe a table of some kind. We shall see.

Earlier, I had set up sheets of rigid insulation under the isolation shelter roof. They are the same pieces used last winter, and there are holes where the cats had scratched at them, so I ended up rearranging how to fit them in.

Last winter, I had a leftover piece of the insulation that was trimmed off and used it on the shelf inside. That ended up getting knocked off regularly, then broken. This year, I had some leftover insulating material that I’d used around the pipes on the emergency septic bypass, and it’s the right width for that shelf. So I put a length of that on there to try out for this year and, hopefully, tied it down well enough to stay there. That makes the shelf a slightly more comfortable place for the cats to hang out on, and warmer on the toe beans!

In the second picture of the slide show above, you can see where I tucked in a thermometer that was in the sun room. Hopefully, the cats won’t drag it out of there. While in the sun room, the thermometer read about 8C/46F. By the time I had set it up and paused to take a picture, it had already moved up to about 12C/54C. When I came back after we finished fighting with the tree, it was reading almost 20C/68F. The angle of the photos make the needle look off by a few degrees, though.

Meanwhile, there is a little sick kitten I’ve been monitoring. I can’t get near it, unfortunately. I would call is a semi-feral kitten, since it will not run away if I walk past it, but if I stop to try and pet it, it runs off.

It does seem to be getting better, though. For a sick kitty, it gets around quite a bit!

In the first picture, it was hanging out inside the shelf shelter, enjoying a sheltered, sun warmed cat bed. In the second picture, it’s hanging out on a step in front of the new door, and in the third, it was hanging out on top of the trap we’ve been leaving out for them to be used to, so that it will be easier to trap cats for spay or neuter, later on.

Well now.

I got a phone call while I was working on this post, from my mother. I guess it was a good thing I didn’t make it to the city, after all!

My mother got a letter from our regional health authority. She doesn’t understand what it is saying, but from what she could read to me, I think it is an appointment for the brain scan she’s supposed to get as part of her paneling for a nursing home. She was able go get the required chest Xrays and EKG right away. The lab and Xray is right across the waiting room from her doctor’s clinic, and those are all drop ins. The scan, however, has a waiting list and, if it is what I think it is, she finally got to the top of the list.

It’s been more than a year, or is it almost 2 years? since she got on that waiting list.

Since I can go through her town on my way to the city, anyhow, we worked it out. After picking up my daughter’s office chair when the post office opens tomorrow morning, I’ll drop that off at home so she can start assembling it, then head back out right away. I’ll stop at my mother’s and go over the letter with her and then continue to the city for the Costco shop. No extra trips needed.

After tomorrow, our daytime highs are expected to be below freezing for a while, and then warm up again. Those will give me a chance to work on more outdoor projects before the hard freeze hits. Everything depends on the weather.

As for today, it may not have been the day I originally planned on, but it all worked out for the better, because of it!

Funny how that can happen.

The Re-Farmer

Truck, garden bed and cuteness

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This morning, I did my rounds after feeding the yard cats (I counted 32 this morning), as usual. I even remembered to take pictures of the finished garden bed in the old kitchen garden.

Hopefully, the leaves will at least somewhat keep the cats from digging in it but, when I looked at the section of the wattle weave bed I cleaned up and covered, I noticed evidence that at least one cat had gone through it, leaving flattened patches behind.

And dug through to the soil in one spot. I did not see any “presents”, though, so it’s safe to click through to the next picture.😄

I headed out early to drop the truck off. Along with the keys, I gave them the printout from Canadian Tire that showed what they worked on. As I was heading out, I remembered the recommendation with the wires. It wasn’t in the printout, because I declined the work, so I headed back.

It’s so funny to bring something like that up with three mechanics in the room! I think one was actually a customer, but he clearly knew what he was talking about. When I mentioned that they recommended replacing the spark plug wires, all three of them started talking shop about why that might be. They agreed to check the wires, too.

I also asked them to replace my headlight, letting them know I’d bought a bulb and where it was. They were also going to look for the source of the oil leak while changing the oil. That there was oil on the spark plugs gave them an idea of where to look. My brother said it was likely a gasket, but I didn’t think to mention that at the time.

Then I headed out, first for a quick lunch, then to run errands. I stopped to take care of renewing my driver’s license in person, since the postal strike meant I hadn’t received the letter about it, yet. The vehicle insurances rolls over to monthly payments automatically, so she gave me a printout of what those would be. The cost to renew my driver’s license went up by $10, but my insurance went down by a couple of dollars per month.

Then I walked to the other end of town (about 5-6 blocks) to the dollar store to check out their craft section. I’ve made my decision on what I want to make for my annual hand made Christmas ornaments and wanted to look for Christmassy yarn, a sparkly contrasting yarn and maybe some little decorative embellishments.

There wasn’t anything.

Oh, they had their Christmas section up, but in the crafts area, there were no Christmassy materials. There was a time when, every year, these sections would get a whole bunch of items for Christmas; yarn in Christmas colours with metallic strands in them, baubles and beads, cordage, blank ornaments, etc. I haven’t seen anything like this in craft sections for years. Only Michaels, the only craft store franchise we have left in Canada (and I hear they might be closing down) had them and, being a specialty craft store, they have most of them year round, since it can take months to do some seasonal crafts.

In the end, all I got was a couple of skeins of yarn in green and red. I might have something in my stash that I can use as a contrasting edging, and I should be able to use some other things I can add. I think I still have some things in appropriate colours left I can use for hangers, too. It was pretty disappointing, though. That dollar store is pretty much the only place to get crafting materials of any kind, locally.

Once I was done there and making my way back towards the garage, I stopped at another store where I found some things my husband requested. Then I stopped at a bank machine to take out the cash I’ve budgeted for getting our septic tank emptied for the winter. The last stop on the way back to the garage was a hardware store, where I got copies cut of our new front door key. I still need to test them out.

By the time I got back to the garage, I was starting to have issues with my left hip. The truck was in one of their bays, so I dropped my bag off in the truck before going through to the office. The door was closed, though, as the manager was on the phone, so I stayed by the truck and chatted with the mechanic that was working on another car next to it.

It turned out the truck was done! He told me they did find the source of the oil leak, but that was something they would give me an estimate for before ordering in a part, so it was something to talk about once I was in the office.

First, we went over what they did do. That included replacing the headlight.

The bulb I had, though, was blown out! They couldn’t use it. He asked me where I got it from, and I told him – including that I had gotten it for “free” by using my Canadian Tire dollars. He was happy to hear that I didn’t pay for it. I didn’t take it back. He had gone ahead and used one of their own bulbs in inventory and replaced it, figuring I’d still want it done either way. He was right. Even with that, the final bill was under budget!

I asked about the wires that Cdn Tire had recommended I replace (which would have brought that bill to over $800, and that did not include the $150 or so they charged, just to look at it).

The wires were fine. Nothing wrong with them. They did not need replacing.

He made some guesses as to why they might have recommended replacing them, to which I added, “or it might just be Canadian Tire. We’ve been burned by them before.” I told him, if I had had any choice, I wouldn’t have gone there in the first place. He didn’t say anything overtly, but did agree with me.

After that bill was paid, we talked about the oil leak.

It was a gasket.

The oil cooler line seal, to be specific.

The part itself was only about $20, and they figured only half an hour in labour, so about $100 in total.

I booked the truck for next week to get that done.

When he told me it was a gasket, I mentioned that that was exactly what my brother was expecting.

It turns out the mechanic knows my brother! At least enough to ask a few polite questions about him. He clearly thought well of my brother. That was nice!

As for talking about trading in the truck, I brought that up when I dropped it off. This is a conversation to have with the owner, though, and the mechanics don’t do the car sales part of things. The mechanic/manager I was talking to, though, did understand why I would want to do that, even though the truck is perfect for our needs. In the end, it’s a conversation for another time.

The main thing is, the truck is running well now, and got the all clear. The only issue is the leak. I was told to check the oil every week until it was fixed, but I just booked the fix for next week, instead.

The only down side was when I tried to pay for the work using my Cdn Tire MC, which is what I will be using when we do our Costco trip, too.

It was declined.

It turns out that the payment I’d made against it is still “pending”. Which means I might not be doing the Costco trip tomorrow, after all. That’s where I put our budget (gotta build those Canadian Tire dollars back up).

I was still able to do a small grocery shopping trip after we were done, though. Just a few times to last us, in case the payment takes a while longer to be released.

By that time, my hip was really starting to hurt, not just feel unstable. Before heading home, I messaged to ask if someone could meet me at the garage to help me bring my shopping in, mentioning that my hip was giving out. I didn’t have enough to warrant parking by the house, but too much for me to carry in one trip.

When I got to our driveway, my daughter was waiting by the gate.

Surrounded by cats.

With more cats, all down the driveway!

She had probably 20 cats out, following her, with the more social ones around her feet, demanding attention! I had to actually drive carefully, because there were so many of them – and of course, one of them kept running ahead of my on the driveway, instead of going off to the side, like the others.

This was one of them.

I got this picture after we’d brought everything to the house. I so want to snuggle this kitten! I’ve been able to sneak a pet, every once in a while at feeding time, but that’s it.

So that is how things went today.

Progress for today, self sabotage and the cuteness

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Today was going to be a warmer, less windy day. My plan had been to get out the chain saw and start breaking down some of the fallen trees. It’s an electric chain saw and in the end, I decided I didn’t want to be dragging an extension cord – two 100ft extension cords, most likely – across the yard to do the job, when getting more garden beds cleaned up would be more productive.

I didn’t head out until after lunch, though, waiting for things to warm up a bit. This morning, though, I got a call from my mother. It was about a minute or two after 9am. When I answered, the first thing she did was ask me if I’d just phoned. Someone had called her but hung up before she could get to the phone to pick it up, and they didn’t wait for the answering machine. My mother’s phone does have caller ID, but she doesn’t know how to use it.

I had not called, of course. If I did, I would have left a message. I’ve told her that a few times, but she still does this.

Which turned out to be a good thing because she then told me that home care didn’t show up (at 9am), so she took her pills herself.

Now, I know she has the correct time on her clocks because my brother had changed all her battery operated clocks for daylight savings while he was there. She also has a “dementia clock” he got for her, which shows the date, day, time, and has images to show if it’s day time or night time. That one changes itself for daylight savings.

I really like that clock and am considering picking one up for myself!

My mother had mentioned hiding a bubble pack away, just in case, a few weeks back. I had been going through her lock box to see if she was in need of refills, and it has several weeks worth of bubble packs, so I wasn’t sure how she could have a spare to set aside. I told her I was checking to see if it was time to pick up her refills soon, and she got mad at me because she had lots, so why was I wanting to pick up refills? This is a regular thing. She refuses to consider getting refills before she runs out, but leaves it until she’s on her last day or two.

Anyhow, when I said, don’t do that, give them time to get there, she immediately said, ok, I won’t do that anymore. Which, knowing her, meant she’ll do it but just not tell me anymore. Again, she has done this before.

Meanwhile, I looked up to confirm her schedule that I got emailed to me from home care. I had called and talked to her about her new schedule and times yesterday. Her first visit of the day was scheduled for 9:15, and they had 20 minutes scheduled to help her out. I had repeated the times to her several times and explained that she would be getting a lunch visit now, too.

So she had taken her secret pills before calling me which, considering what time she called me, after just missing another call, meant she had actually taken them at least 5 minutes before 9, when she claimed she was expecting them to come AT 9am. So even if they had been scheduled for 9, she had already decided they weren’t going to show up and took her meds from her secret stash.

My mom didn’t talk for long, which is out of character for her, but as soon as the call was done, I updated my siblings, sent an email to the home care coordinator about it, since the first scheduled visit on the day was still to come, then called my mother’s pharmacy.

I confirmed that they had delivered her refills to her on the 17th, which explains why there were so many bubble packs in her lock box when I checked. I was supposed to pick them up for her, specifically so I could put them in the lock box right away. Since they were delivered, that meant she had access to them until the next home care worker arrived and could put them in the lock box.

I explained what happened and they now have instructions to not deliver refills to my mother anymore. Instead, when the refills are ready, they will call me, and I will pick them up and get them into her lock box right away.

By the time that call was done and I updated my siblings about it, I had a response from the coordinator about it. She was worried that this might have been older pills that my mother had stashed away, so I was able to confirm that these were part of her most recent refills. The home care workers can’t look for her hidden stash, but the last time this happened, she showed the worker the stash herself and the worker was able to put them into the lock box. If they are in the open, or my mother brings them out herself, only then can they take them and put them in the lock box. My siblings and I can, of course, actually search for them, if necessary.

My mother’s first visit of the day was done by the time the home care coordinator got back to me – as soon as she got my email, she would have called the scheduled aide to let her know my mother had already taken the pills for the morning – and was able to update me. My mother had allowed the worker to make her breakfast, but was not willing to let her help her with washing herself. We’re trying to be delicate with this; we can understand my mother not being willing to allow someone to assist with such intimate care. The problem is, she needs the help. She sponge bathes herself, because she’s afraid of falling in the shower, even though her shower is an adapted one and has a built in seat. Sponge bathing only accomplishes so much, since it’s hard to reach in areas, and extra hard for someone of my mother’s size and with mobility issues. So we’re all going to have to encourage her to accept that help. We haven’t been saying anything to her directly but, the truth is, sometimes we can tell that my mother hasn’t been able to clean herself properly – and I have a terrible sense of smell.

For someone who is self aware enough to actually WANT to be in a nursing home and is upset that, after all this time (we started this more than a year ago), she still can’t get in, you’d think she would actually be willing to accept the sort of help she would be getting while living in a nursing home, while still in the comfort of her own home.

The home care coordinator has already submitted her panel report, after her most recent interview with my mother. Hopefully, between that and my mother actually accepting the help she is scheduled for, she will finally be accepted for a bed in a nursing home.

Now, if my mother would just stop self sabotaging herself!

Anyhow.

After a frustrating morning, I did have a productive afternoon.

The first area I decided to work on was the newly re-finished bed in the old kitchen garden.

Along with the weeding, there were plenty of “presents” from the cats to get rid of. I thought it would need more soil added but, once it was weeded and no longer compacted, the soil level was even with the top of the retaining wall blocks!

Once it was all cleaned up, I raked up leaves to mulch it for the winter, mostly to keep the cats from using it as a litter box.

I know I stopped to take a picture of the bed after it was finished, but I must have failed to do it somehow, because there was no “after” picture on my phone!

The bed itself did have tree roots in it as well – mostly from the crab apple trees, but I’m pretty sure some of them were from the pink rose bush and the double lilac bush, too. It wasn’t all that bed, though.

That done, I turned my attention to the short side of the L shaped wattle weave bed. It had already been cleaned up, but the cats had been digging in it. I got that all cleaned up, then gave it a leaf mulch, too.

Collecting the leaves was actually more difficult than cleaning up either bed. It was still pretty windy today, and every time I tried to rake leaves into piles, then get them into the wheelbarrow, the wind would blow a substantial portion away!

The beds old kitchen garden are now finished for the winter.

That done, there was still enough light in the day to get one more bed done. This time, I went to the main garden area.

I decided to work on the bed that had the garlic and summer squash in it.

The part that had garlic in it has been empty for some time, so a fair number of weeds had taken over. Mostly, it was tree roots I was expecting to have issues with, and I did, right from the end furthest from the elm trees. So I loosened the soil around the entire before before I settled into actually digging in to weed and remove rocks. That way, any roots I did find would be easier to pull out.

In the end, most of the roots I found were running across the bed instead of running the length of it, which also made them easier to remove. I did find one large root running through, but it was large enough and deep enough that I decided not to fight with it and just left it.

I hope I don’t regret that.

In the second picture, you can see the bed after it was all cleaned up. You can also see the pile of roots and weeds I pulled out at one end, plus some of the rocks I’d been pulling out, tossed onto the fabric covering the ground nearby. While it was in reach, I was tossing them into the kiddie poll, so what is visible in the picture is nowhere near all of what I pulled out.

In the last picture, you can see the bed, covered with plastic for the winter. Again, this is more to keep the cats out than anything else!

In this area, there is one more 18′ bed that needs to be cleaned up, plus the 4′ square bed, off to the side, that I transplanted the surviving Albion Everbearing strawberries out of. If I do get to that small bed before the hard frosts hit, it will be winter sown with bread seed poppies.

Outside of this area, there is one more 9’x3′ raised bed, plus the 4′ square bed, in the East yard to clear up. Those should not take long at all.

Depending on the weather, and if I have time to gather and process materials, the only bed that will be left to work on is the one along the chain link fence. Considering how long it took me to do the bed in the old kitchen garden, I might get this one started this year, but will probably be finishing it next year! Maybe. With the one in the old kitchen garden, I was experimenting more before finally figuring out things weren’t working as I wanted and coming up with an alternative. That alternative is what I plant to do in the chain link fence bed, so there is no “figuring out” time to factor in. Just a “gathering materials” time. Looking at the long range forecast, there is a possibility we’ll have decent weather for such work, after the other beds are cleared up. Those beds have priority. If the weather doesn’t hold, that’s okay. These can be done in the spring.

By the time I was done, things were getting dark and chilly, and it was definitely time to get inside!

Which is where I got to appreciate the cuteness.

Ghosty had been sleeping across Cheddar when I stopped to take the picture, and disturbed her nap in the process.

She does not look impressed by the interruption!

I just looked over to see is they were still there and yes, they are – but have traded places! Ghosty is now curled up in the cat bed, and Cheddar has been squeezed off to the side, half on top of Ghosty, busily grooming Ghosty’s face.

Then there was this crowd.

That’s Tin Whistle on the bottom, mid yawn. Nuzzled into her is Toni. I think that’s Shadow using Toni as a pillow. Or it might be Clarence. Clarence is there as I write this, but without seeing distinctive face features, I can’t tell Shadow, Clarence and Mitsy apart.

Toni is not a cat that seeks out attention from humans, in general, so I’m glad to see that she gets along with the other cats as well as she does.

Anyhow, that’s been my day for today.

Tomorrow, I take the truck in for an oil change and for them to check out the work done in the city to make sure everything it all right. I have to remember to ask them to take care of a burnt out headlight for me, too. I already got the bulb, but it’s a pain in the butt to access the light to switch the bulb.

I got an email from the company we did our insurance and registration with, letting me know that it’s time to renew. The vehicle registration and insurance doesn’t need me to do anything, since they’ll just continue taking monthly payments, as usual, but it’s also time to renew my driver’s license. Normally, I would get something in the mail with all the information, including any changes in how much things will cost, and I could take care of it online. However, with the Canada Post strike disruptions, I haven’t gotten the letter. So after I drop off the truck, I’ll walk over and take care of it in person. I also need to take cash out so we can get the septic tank emptied for the winter. After that tank is emptied, we will winterize it as usual, but I also want to set up the emergency diverter, just in case. This way, if the ejector freezes again, all we would need to do is open the shut off valve to the emergency diverter, and not have to be digging around in the snow to set up the pipe and hose outside.

So I will be out for most of tomorrow and, if all goes well, I’ll be finally doing our Costco stop up trip the day after. These are pretty much our last two “warm” days before temperatures drop a fair bit. If the long range forecast is at all accurate, we’ll then get about a week of relatively warmer weather to potentially get more done outside. We shall see what actually happens! This time of year, it’s always touch and go.

I’m just glad I got more beds done. It means less that needs to be done next year, and there is no hurry on getting those fallen trees broken down and cleaned up.

Little by little, it’s getting done!

The Re-Farmer

Not a stock up trip: this is what $183 looks like. Also, what cuteness looks like.

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Well, I made it into town today to do a small grocery shopping trip.

I forgot about daylight savings. Most of our clocks automatically shift, but not the truck. I got there, thinking they were already open for a while, but I was 15 minutes early.

The truck now has the correct time! 😄

I was not the only one waiting.

As for the truck, it did run fine in general, though I was still feeling some shuddering that I couldn’t attribute to the wind. On the way home, I was headlong into the wind and actually had a hard time getting up to speed! I think it’ll run smoother after the oil change, though. Once I get the all clear from our mechanic, I’ll do the Costco stock up trip in the city.

For now, I did what is a more typical local shop. Getting a few things we needed, plus taking advantage of sales.

This is what $183.20 looks like.

I did end up getting a fair bit more than planned, but still… that’s not a lot for almost $200!

This is what I got.

I got a 4 pack of Monsters, mostly for my daughters. I did get one more from one of the store fridges for the drive home. We’ll pick up a case at Costco (which I get reimbursed for by my daughter). I also picked up some Coke Zero and Fresca. Those are for all 4 of us. I can’t stand Fresca, and my daughters don’t like Coke Zero. My husband likes both.

The Mafalda Corta is a pasta. I was actually looking for broad egg noodles, but the only ones I found were skinny ones from a specialty brand and cost over $13 for a bag! Nope. I got the pasta that was on sale. I want to make haluski, so I’ll try it with the Mafalda Corta pasta, instead. The radiatori pasta is something fun I like to get when it’s on sale.

The rice crackers were for my husband. I also got four packages of pudding mix because they were on an excellent sale.

I got two 18s of eggs instead of a flat of 30, because the cartons of 18 fit in my hard sided insulated bags.

There’s a couple of pounds of butter, because we ran out completely. I also got a 2L each of milk and oat milk.

Then there was the box of mandarins that were on sale, and a cabbage and onion for the haluski.

I wasn’t planning on getting meat, but took advantage of sales to get a pork roast, a couple of packages of breakfast sausages and hot dog wieners. I also picked up a garlic sausage, made by a local company, and dried salami sausage for my husband to snack on. The sushi was my breakf… er… lunch for the drive home.

While my daughter did do some bread baking, I picked up more bread products. A couple of packages of mini garlic Naan, a loaf of sourdough, a couple of loaves of marble rye, and some hot dog buns.

Between the sales and my points card, I saved $44.71, or 20%. I could have used my points to get $10 off, too, but I decided to save that for another time.

So, there we have it. A total of 36 items, almost all on sale.

It was enough to pull up to the house to unload. After everything was in the house and I headed out to park the truck in the garage, I spotted the adorableness.

This kitten, unfortunately, is completely feral. We can’t get close to it. However, it is quite comfortable using the isolation shelter!

It had company.

Midnight has practically moved into that cat bed!

The little tuxedo staring out the other side window is also feral. There is another tuxedo, even smaller, that is less feral and I’ve even been able to pick it up and snuggle it a bit. I have suspicions about that, though. I think it might be at least partially deaf, and possibly have vision issues. Maybe I’m just paranoid, after what happened with Button over time, but it seems the tiny tuxedo’s eyes are dilated more than they should be, all the time. If it’s at all like Button, that would mean it can see shadows and movement, but not much else.

Or, it could just be that it was very scared when I picked it up.

We still have an ongoing Canada Post strike right now, but they have moved from a full strike to rotating strikes, so mail is starting to get through. With that in mind, I placed an order with Amazon last night. One of the things I picked up was an outdoor cat shelter (not an affiliate link).

This is something I’ve looked at in the past and rejected, as there is no way they’d handle our winters. However, we now have the catio and it’s winterized. I am thinking of setting it up inside there, along with the box nests that are already in there. I will just have to find something to put under it, so it’s not directly on the ground, just in case water pools inside again in the spring. It is waterproof, insulated and self heating. Between that and being inside the winterized catio, it should provide better shelter – and a private hiding place – for the most feral cats. Who knows. Adam, Sprout and Sprout’s clone baby might actually start using it, instead of disappearing into the outer yard until feeding time.

Oh!! I just thought of a name for Sprout’s clone baby.

Sprig.

Both are still completely feral. Sprout’s fluffy orange and white is also feral, but is at least willing to come closer and I’ve even managed to sneak a pet or two as he runs by.

Speaking of the more feral cats, as I was driving into the yard, I spotted a cat running across by the driveway by the pump shack, disappearing into the tall grass. I didn’t recognize it.

If this works out, we might get a second one for the garage. Pinky does use the isolation shelter, but at night, I think she is once again retreating to the rafters in the garage, above the truck. If we had some sort of self heating shelter in there that would be better or her.

Best of all, of course, would be for her to get spayed and adopted out, but that might take a while longer. The rescue is still working with the six they took from us not long ago.

Meanwhile, we need to work on socializing the littles! At least they have the shelters. Right now, we’re supposedly 7C/45F, but with the wind chill, it feels like -5C/23F. We are under an ongoing wind warning, with some areas expecting gusts up to 90kph/56mph.

I’m glad I was able to make the small shop today, at least, even if it did mean fighting the wind the whole way home! We’re good for a while, even if the truck ends up needing work and the Costco trip gets delayed.

The Re-Farmer

Recovery mode, and unexpected help

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Today was a day when I could appreciate that the high winds and colder temperatures meant I couldn’t work outside. I certainly wasn’t up to it.

It’s strange how a day basically spent waiting for the truck to be worked on could wipe me out like it did. I think part of it had to do with all the walking I did being on concrete or tile floors, instead of grass and gravel. It really did my left hip in, that’s for sure. Plus, I grabbed the wrong cane from the truck. I should have gone around and got one of the adjustable sized ones. Instead, I grabbed a wooden one that was a bit too tall for me. Which didn’t seem to be an issue while I was walking around, but once I was in bed, my left shoulder started feeling like my hip – ready to pop out of a socket!

The girls took care of the morning routine for me. I had a rough night, but did try getting up a bit later than usual. My younger daughter basically banished me back to bed. I can’t say it actually helped any and I finally gave up. It was hours before I started feeling human again. A day of recovery was certainly needed.

Oh, to have the life of our cats.

Needless to say, I was extra appreciative that my brother volunteered to do my mother’s grocery shopping today. He also brought her the new pillows my SIL found for her. One of the things that came up while I was talking to my siblings is that my mother is using an old, home made feather pillow that used to belong to her aunt, that actually looks in better shape than the store bought ones. My mother is always complaining that her breathing is worse at night. Is it possible she is reacting to the feather pillow?

She did end up giving my brother a hard time about the pillows, because he couldn’t find fresh pillow cases, and he refused to reuse the ones on her bed, just in case she really was reacting to something in her pillows. He never found any. I know the ones I changed out for her were still in her laundry, so it may be that I had used up her last pillow cases when I changed her bedding. My mother uses four pillows, with two for under her legs, so she may simply not have more than 8 pillow cases.

After my brother stopped at her place, long enough to make a lunch to share with her, he came here to the farm. He had a number of things planned, so I quickly went over to say hello before he got busy. He already had an envelope in his hand as he was getting out of his vehicle, and quickly got something out for me when I got there.

It was a check from my mother.

Somehow, he convinced her to cover the cost of replacing the door. She had been teasing that she would “help” with the door. I didn’t rise to the bait and figured she would soon forget about it. At best, I expected she might pass on a bit of cash, or cover what she thought it should have cost, rather than what it really was. Nope. She actually paid for the entire amount!

I am extremely grateful, but also extremely suspicious. Either way, it’s going to pay down some of the credit we had to use to pay for the door. It also means we’ll have the cash needed to get the septic tank emptied for the winter.

I made sure to phone her to say thank you. I got her answering machine twice and, when I finally got through to her, she was more interested in getting off the phone and back to her supper…after complaining that my brother, who used her debit card (something she can’t use herself; it’s beyond her) to buy her own groceries, rather than have her pay him back in cash afterwards. She thinks he’ll steal from her if he uses her card.

I suspect this is confession through projection. Back in the day, she used to do stuff like that to my dad.

My brother, as always, went above and beyond while here. He replaced the motion sensor light over our door. The old one was still working since he fiddled with it last time, but he said it wouldn’t have lasted much longer. He was actually surprised it was still working at all.

Then he got busy with the other stuff he needed to do, among their belongings stored here now, for a while longer. I made a point to message him after he left to say thank you for replacing the light, taking care of my mother for the shopping, and somehow convincing her to write that check.

On his way home, he gave me a call (hand free, of course) to let me know that apparently, my mother wants to buy us a car, because we are having so much trouble with the truck. She asked him advice on what kind of car he would recommend. What we think she wants is for him to actually find a car, and then she would pay for it.

While I would be quite grateful for such a generous gift, we are both suspicious. Her generosity, when it happens, often comes with a price. In this case, it may simply be that she recognizes she can’t get into our truck anymore, so if I need to drive her for a doctor’s appointment or something, we would need a small car she can get into. Her car is still here. My brother checked it out and it’s running. The flat tire is still holding air. It did start showing a check engine light, the last time he got it going, so there’s something else going on . My mother has long had troubles with it – my brother had been the one to get it fixed until we moved out here, then we were the ones getting it done – and we know that it would be needing continuous repairs. It’s older than our truck with about as much mileage, so that’s to be expected. I brought up the possibility of using it as a down payment, but he doesn’t think we’d get much of anything for it.

Well, we shall see.

As for me, I am feeling very thankful for the unexpected help, even though I’m sure my mother will try and use it to control me somehow.

I wasn’t planning to use the truck until my appointment next week, but without the Costco trip, we’ll have to make a small trip to town tomorrow for a few groceries we’re running out of. After our mechanic gives the truck the all clear, I’ll do the Costco shopping and get us stocked up.

I’m certainly glad I got as much as I did for our first stock up trip! Especially getting those 40 pound bags of kibble at the feed store.

Tomorrow is supposed to be even more windy than today – we’re expecting gusts of up to 67km/h (42mph) – so I will likely not be getting anything done outside, anyhow. At this point, it looks like the weather will allow for some progress outside on Monday. By the end of next week, our expected highs will all be below freezing for a while. The long range forecast, though, says to expect some warmer days in the middle of November, with daytime highs above freezing for the rest of the month.

At least I was able to get the winter sowing done before it got too cold. That was the main thing. Anything else that gets done out there will be gravy!

The Re-Farmer