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Shaggy, shaggy friends!

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On the way to the dump today, we passed by our neighborhood bison farm.  They were close to the fence by the road, so we stopped to take pictures. :-D

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I’m going to have to look into getting a camera I can take with me in the vehicle when we drive around.  Zooming in on the phone makes for some awful pictures.  But it’s still better than no pictures at all! :-)

I love my shaggy, shaggy friends!  Extra shaggy, this time of year, as they shed their winter fur.

As we continued to the dump, driving on the highway, we saw a school bus from the opposite direction, coming to a stop.  I had to chuckle as we came to a stop ourselves, as I saw a mom in a truck at the end of the driveway – a driveway at least a quarter mile long, and we couldn’t see the end of it.  As we watched a tiny child crossing the highway and Mom coming out to meet her, I suddenly realize this person looked very familiar.  Sure enough, when she turned back to the truck and I saw her face, I realized this was a former co-worker of mine from that last time we lived in this province!  I’d been to her farm only once before and lost all memory of where it was, so this was a pleasant surprise.  As the bus left, I just had to pull ahead to the truck and say hello!  I look forward to catching up with her in the future.  :-)

Now that my mother’s car is no longer in one of the lean-to’s on the side of our garage (it was a tight fit, that’s for sure!), we were finally able to take a load of paint to the dump with us.  They had been in the basement of the house before.  I’m told there was the smell of something leaking, but no sign of which can it was coming from, so they were just taken out to the garage until there was no more smell.

We took maybe half of the 1 gallon cans that are there, and will take more on our next trip to the dump.  I think we found the one that was leaking, though.  One of the cans had liquid on its lid, so the can that was leaking would have been the one on top of it.

Then there are all the quart sized cans, not only on top of the gallon cans, but a couple of boxes full, too.  We’ll fight with those later.

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We got about 16 or 17 cans out and into the proper disposal area at the dump.  It will probably take a couple more trips to get rid of all the cans in the garage.  (I don’t want to take too many at once, partly because we need room for our own garbage and recycling, and partly because I want to avoid paint cans rolling around if I ever had to stop suddenly while driving at highway speeds.)

Then we will need to get rid of the cans of paint in our entryway closet, plus what’s still in the basement.  I wouldn’t be surprised if we fine more, elsewhere.

All of these are quite old.  Some felt almost full.  I have no idea why there was so much paint in the basement, or what it was used for.  From what I can see, the only thing that’s been painted recently is the house itself, which was done by my older brother and his wife last summer, in preparation for our coming out.  They brought their own paint, and anything they brought, they took back with them when they were done.  The only other thing I know of that was painted, was done before my mother moved away from the farm to the senior’s residence.

It’s entirely possible some of it was never used here, but got brought here instead of being disposed of.  Like all those large appliances lying around!

Well, whatever reason they all ended up here, they won’t be here for too much longer! :-)

The Re-Farmer

That was quick. Also, deer!

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Early this morning, I saw a pair of deer coming into the feeding area.  Unfortunately, because we haven’t had them coming by in the last while, I hadn’t put any feed out the night before, so there wasn’t much there for them.  Still, I got a few pictures, even through the reflections in the window. :-)

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They are both looking pretty rough around the edges!  I do think they’ve been here before.

Notice the little antler buds on the deer in the foreground? :-)

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The female has some nicks out of an ear, and it looks like some scarring on her snout, too.

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Aside from the missing patches of fur on the male that can be seen in the first photo, he’s looking pretty thin, too!

Just before I went to put more feed out tonight, I spotted a single deer through our bedroom window, making its way through the maple grove to the feeding area.  The noise of me going outside would have scared it off, though.  I hope it comes back later.  :-)

This morning, my husband’s hospital bed was supposed to be delivered between 10 and 11 pm.  So this morning, we dismantled our king size bed, which has been resting on a pair of queen box springs until we could get a proper bed frame again.  The mattress just got leaned on the wall at first, and the box springs went into the dining room at first.  Then I went out to feed the cats.

Beep Beep stood up to say hello! :-D

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Then, with the help of one of the girls, the box springs got moved outside, just to lean on a tree until they could be taken to the shed.

The outside cats were very curious about this!

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Well, hello, again, Beep Beep!

I had to head out at 11:30.  My mother registered her vehicle, effective this morning, so I drove her car out to meet my brother at her place, as a surprise.  I was going to accompany them for a medical appointment in the city, which was also a surprise.

It turns out my mother doesn’t like surprises.

Ah, well.

It was a long and draining day for all, but we got the information we needed, then took the time to explain it again to my mother on the way back.  My brother, sweetheart that he is, drove me home before driving the 1 1/2 hours back to his place.  It was a VERY long day for him!

While I was gone, much to my surprise, someone from the electric company came out to check the power lines!  I was told they’d have someone out within 2 weeks.  I wasn’t expecting someone the very next day! :-D  I will have to phone them again to find out what their assessment was, since not a lot of information was shared while the guy was here and my daughters were buy hauling box springs to the shed and cleaning up the yard.

As for the hospital bed, it did finally get delivered and set up, several hours later than expected. Once that was done, my daughters got the king size mattress out – I have no idea where we’re going to store that thing! – then set up the spare twin bed up for me.  I had had other plans for it – plans that can’t be done with the king size bed – but… oh, well.  Thankfully, the master bedroom is quite big, and there’s more than enough room.  I hope it works out better for my husband.  At least he won’t be losing his balance trying to get in and out of bed anymore, since he can adjust the height to exactly where he needs it.

All in all, I’m really happy about how quick things got followed through on, both for the bed, and with the electric company.

The Re-Farmer

Almost checked off the list (plus critter pictures!)

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The goal for today: get my younger daughter’s learner’s license transferred to our new province.

2018-04-18.squirrelBirth certificate: check
Health care card: check
Something with physical address on it: ______

It was the third item that was the stickler for us.  Usually, it would be something like a utility bill, but she has none in her name.

So that meant a trip to the bank.  She had updated her information online, but it only had space for her to add our box number – the mailing address.  There were other things, like her employment status, that it didn’t have the option for her to change.

The nearest branch of her bank is in the town my mother lives in, which is a 20 minute drive away.

No worries.  We could get the letter she needed, like the one I got from my branch in the nearer town, and get her driver’s license transferred there.

When we got there, I showed the lone teller the letter I got as an example of what we needed.

Turns out, she couldn’t write up a letter like that, and her manager wasn’t in.  She could, however, update my daughter’s information and print out a statement.

It took several attempts before she could get a printout that included both the mailing address (which was part of the basic information) and our physical address (which had to be input somewhere else and was not normally included in any printouts).  It was part of the paperwork needed for direct deposits, so when my daughter is finally able to go job hunting and gets a job, she’ll have that on hand.

Great!  It took a while, but it was done.2018-04-18.deer

Next: finding a place where we could transfer her license.

We couldn’t find one.

I realize this is a small town, but you’d think they’d have a public insurance broker somewhere.  Maybe they do, but just not in the business area?  There isn’t much else to the town for us to have explored.

We did go to a department store in hopes of finding some underwear for my husband, that didn’t cost $15 for one pair!  We did find some – three for $15 – but none in his size!

Who knew it would be so difficult just to buy some gitch?

So getting her license transferred meant driving another half hour to the town we usually go to.  No worries.  It’s a pleasant drive with pleasant company.

Besides, the staff over there knows us pretty well by now!

2018-04-18.catMy daughter had everything she needed and a file was started.  She’s never had a license in this province, since she was 9 when we left it, so that actually made it easier.

The hang up?

She doesn’t have a full license.

To get a learners license in this province, she will need to write the knowledge test again.

Which isn’t done in this town anymore.  We’d have to go to another town that’s about a half hour’s drive north of our place, or a small city that’s about an hour’s drive away from home.

The main difference is that the small city has places where we can combine errands and do some shopping.

We have an appointment booked for next week, when the CPP Disability comes in.  That way, my daughter has time to go online and study a bit, in case there are differences between provinces, and we’ll have money for gas and groceries.

At least this is the only delay.  Everything else is just fine, and the paperwork she printed out for us has the file number she’ll need, and we can finish processing for her temporary license in the same place as where she needs to take the written test (assuming she passes, which I have no concerns about).

Meanwhile, they had to keep her old learners license.  Because we’re past the 90 days, she’s not allowed to drive, anyhow.

At least it should be easier for my older daughter.  Hers is just a photo ID, not a driver’s license.

Little by little, it’s getting done.

The Re-Farmer

Hello, Critters

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Ah, a much more pleasant day today!  Just the winds dying down makes a huge difference.  There are blizzard warnings for later on, but not in our area.  We’re just supposed to get a mix or rain and snow some time.

I’m still waiting for that last big blow-out before real spring (as opposed to calendar spring) arrives.

Interestingly, the better weather conditions did not translate into increased critter activity outside our window.

Nasty Crime Boy came to check out the birds.

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Later, we saw Beep Beep climbing one of the trees.  Rolando Moon came out to say hi when I brought the food out, and that was it for the outside cats.

As for the deer, we only saw Hungry Girl and Barbecue.  My being in the window taking pictures seemed to make Hungry Girl very nervous, so I didn’t stay for long.  I did get a couple of cute photos, though.  Including my obligatory tongue shots! :-D  I got both Hungry Girl…

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… and Barbecue…

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… just a peak of a tongue. :-D

It was a quiet day overall, which I’m quite enjoying.  Visits with my mother tend to require a few days of recovery time.  Seeing her every day for 5 days in a row?  I’m going to need at least a week to de-stress!  I did get a call from her today, and I was happy to learn she had booked an appointment with her local doctor for tomorrow – that was fast!  She didn’t get her brace on, though tomorrow she is hoping to talk to some staff about getting the assistance.  I don’t know how the process works in this province yet, but I’m hoping she will be able to get daily visits to put the brace on her, quickly.

I did get a quick trip into town to pick up some things for Easter that will need advance prep time, plus I got my van booked to get the safety done in a couple of days.  I really don’t know what to expect with that.  I’m hoping it’ll be inexpensive, but my paranoid side is thinking they’re going to find new, expensive problems in the process.  Because it just always seems to happen that way!  If all goes well, though, I’ll have the safety done in the morning, and by afternoon, I can get our registration and insurance transferred over.  Then I’ll finally be driving with this province’s license plates!  It’ll only be a month and a half past when it was supposed to get done. :-/

I just know it’s not going to be that simple.  There’s going to be something to complicate things, right?  :-D

I am so looking forward to this hassle being over and done with!

The Re-Farmer

I can rest now… and critter pictures

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Good news; today was the last day my mother had to go to the hospital for injections!

But first, here are a couple of critter pictures from the DSLR, yesterday.  I didn’t upload them until today.  There were very few, but a couple I really enjoyed, that I hope you enjoy, too!

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Yes, I am an immature child that loves to catch the deer with goofy faces.  :-D

I tried to snag a picture of a squirrel posing so perfectly on top of the limestone cross.

I didn’t quite manage it, but I think I like this better…

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This morning’s trip with my mom to the hospital took a lot longer, for good reasons, and she was having one of her good days, so it was much more pleasant, too!  When I got to her place, she was ready and waiting for me to put the brace on her leg, which was awesome.  She did comment on how the bump on the inside (a knob with a dial that applies pressure to her knee, to straighten it) gets in the way of her other leg, so she has to walk with her legs farther apart.  My response was good!  That’s what it’s supposed to do!

Well.  At least until her knee starts to straighten out.  The dial will need to be checked and adjusted after a while – if she keeps up wearing it!

We had a pleasant drive to the next town, with beautiful views of frost covered trees glistening in the sunlight.  She did comment again about how ridiculous it is to drive so far, every day, just for an injection.  While I understand why it’s being done, and I think she kind of does, too, she had a point.  So when we got there (this time, I gave in and used my husband’s disability placard so we could park closer to the door; the distance she had to walk yesterday was really hard on her!) and I let them know she was there, I also asked if someone was available to check on her eye and see about getting the prescription to replace the injections.  After explaining the situation to the nurse, she was more than willing to see what she could do about it.

Later, the same nurse brought the blood pressure machine to the waiting room for my mother and took her vitals.  She looked at my mom’s eye, but this was the first time she’d seen it.  Thankfully, I’d taken a picture of it a couple of days ago, which helped.  She had us go to an examination room (all of this is being done in the emergency section of the hospital) for a bit more privacy for the injection, then she had us go back to the waiting room while she got the on-call doctor.  The one that has seen my mother before was not in, so we had no idea who it would be.

I think we waited less than 15 minutes, in total.  The doctor came over and took my mom back to the examination room.  He had lots of questions, trying to figure out why my mom was on the first blood thinners at all, and why she was now getting these injections.  Had she had heart surgery?  Valves replaced?  Nope.  We explained as best we could. Then he left, and we could hear him consulting someone on the phone nearby.  A few minutes later, he was back with a few more questions, then off to consult again.

I must admit, my mother showed tremendous restraint from her usual behaviour.  Not only did we once again have a non-white doctor – Middle Eastern, no less! – with a strong accent, but one that was dressed VERY casually (I once got a long story from her that culminated in her concluding that because doctors and nurses don’t wear white uniforms anymore, it means hospitals are dirty, and that’s why we have viruses…).  However, it was a male doctor, and he asked her lots of questions, looked at her eye and listened to her heart.  The expressions on her face were very conflicted!

One thing I did notice happen a lot today; more so than other days – while talking to my mother, more and more, people would turn and start talking to me, instead.  Now, I can help by explaining things that are harder for her to explain, due to her limited English medical vocabulary, but don’t ask me what her symptoms are or how she’s feeling!  She’s sitting right there.  She may have trouble expressing herself in English sometimes, and takes a while to get to the point, but she’s not senile.  She’s not deaf, either.

I’m reminded of a time I accompanied a friend to a medical clinic.  She is a wheelchair user and drives an adapted van; she just needed someone with her for a bit of assistance.  When we got to the clinic, the person behind the counter looked right past my friend and started asking me the questions.  Hullo!  Just because she’s in a wheelchair, that doen’t mean she doesn’t understand her own care needs!  I’m just along for the ride!

Though I do have to give the people at the hospital some slack, after seeing some of the inpatients they are caring for, several of whom are younger than my mother.  It may just be what they are most used to.

The end result was, my mother got her new prescription!  No more trips for injections.

I’m looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow!

We took advantage of the situation and I helped her do some grocery shopping, and she took me out for tea at a lovely little café.  Then it was off to her home town to get her new prescription, though they could only give her a few days’ worth.  She’ll have to come back next week to get the rest.  She can do that herself, using her walker, if she has to.

I have been talking to her about getting home care to help put her brace on in the mornings.  I hope she’ll be able to get that arranged quickly.

Meanwhile, my older brother will be visiting her tomorrow morning, so he’ll be able to help her put the brace on.

We’ll still have to keep tabs on her and that eye; it’s better, but after I took another picture and showed it to her, she even commented that it still looks pretty bad!  The good thing is that there is no pain, nor is her vision affected.

Phew.

By the time it was all done, it was almost 5 hours before I got home – scaring a deer away from the house in the process!  It came back, though…

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At least I’m guessing it was Hungry Girl that had run off.  She’s been coming over by herself more often.

Excuse me while I giggle happily at her silly tongue face.  I got several of them, but that one is the best!

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This one looks like she’s having a conversation.

I also got a good shot of a male redpoll today…

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Pretty little thing!

Meanwhile, I got other good news.

First off, I got the mail before coming home and WE HAVE OUR NEW HEALTH CARE CARDS!!!!  WHOOT!!! Finally!

Or, to be more precise, my husband has two health care cards, and my name happens to be on the second half of both, along with his.

Apparently, husbands and wives still don’t rate individual cards in this province, but wives are added to the list on the second half, like dependent minors.  So he and I have identical cards, with his name and address on the first half, and both our names and individual numbers on the second half.

They still needed me to send them a copy of my marriage certificate to use my married name, though.

Arglebargle.

Whatever.   At least we have them now!

Then I got a phone call from our insurance company, letting me know that the problem with my coverage has finally been fixed!  It took them a while to track it down, since everywhere else in their system, it showed me as being covered.  It was now done, she told me, and I should have no problem!

Conveniently, my husband had phoned in some prescription refills of his own, so I headed into town to pick those up, and had the pharmacy get my insurance checked out, too.  Sure enough, it was all fixed!  So I got my own prescription refilled, too.  Just one, though.  After seeing my new doctor and going over the results of my blood work, it was decided to go with just one right now, and see how it goes.  My goal is to be off that one, too, though the doctor seems dead set on me being on it for the rest of my life, along with statins.

Not if I can help it!

*sigh*

I feel a wonderful sense of relief today.

I look forward to being home tomorrow. :-D

The Re-Farmer

 

 

Critters, and ID Update. Yay!

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Okay, so let’s end the day with things that don’t involve messy mystery clean up jobs!

Nothing like our critters to make me smile again. :-)

All of them seemed unusually active today.  Maybe spring is in the air?

While walking away from the door to feed the cats, several of the usual friendlier ones already in the area, I caught sight of the Mothman out by the other house, running away hard, in great leaps and bounds though the snow!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Mothman move at anything faster than a barely quick walk before!

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At best, a few of these guys let me pet their backs while they ate, and they didn’t seem to like it that much.  Squishum wouldn’t even allow that.  Even Rolando Moon, who came in later and will usually come right up to me, stayed away.  Only Butterscotch let me touch her, though she was moving around too much to properly pet her.  As I walked out of the yard to go read the electricity meter, she kept running ahead of me a few steps, stopping, running ahead a few more steps, then stopping again.  There was something odd about how she was moving, as if she didn’t like her paws touching the ground.  Then she would stop and chew on the bottom of a paw.  I think she might have had ice and/or snow stuck to her paws or something.  The only other time I’ve seen a cat walk like that was when it accidentally stepped on a piece of tape, and it got stuck. :-D

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Even the blue jays were so active, I could hardly get a photo of them.

Then the deer showed up.

All 5 of them.

Barbecue came first, then Mama and one of the twins, which was very unusual.  The other twin made its way through the spruce grove, instead.  Then they chased Barbecue away from where he was eating.  Hungry Girl made her way in through the trees, too.  Then, for the next while, they kept chasing each other off.  Mama and the twins took over the feeding station for a while, as Hungry Girl and Barbecue hung out in the spruce grove.  Eventually, they would make their way over, and more chasing would happen.  Not the usual short little chases, either, but big leaping chases, out into the garden.

It’s always something else to see a deer at full speed.  They can really move!!

With all that, I did get quite a few pictures.  This one has got to be my favourite!

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What a sassy Mama!

Who know deer could wink? :-D

I also love this one of Hungry Girl.

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Meanwhile, the squirrel is just sitting there, watching all the crazy stuff going on.

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In between all this, I made my trip to the post office and got my marriage certificate (yay!) so after lunch, my younger daughter and I went into town to FINALLY get my driver’s license transferred over, as well as mail off the forms to finally get our health care cards for this province.

I think it still ended up taking an hour to process the driver’s license transfer!  Thankfully, between all the paperwork I had, she was able to get it done.  Because I was able to get my old file number from the last time I had a driver’s license in this province, she was able to look it up – and my old photo came up for her!  She commented on how different I looked.  Especially the glasses. :-D

She did a whole bunch of form filling, taking extra care to make sure all the names and dates were right, I got my photo taken, then she got on the phone to get an override of my old license done.

They put her on hold.

Twice.

That done, she started to input the new information, but had to start over part of it, which meant I had to get my picture taken again.

I commented on how much more difficult all this was from how it used to be. She got a slightly wild look in her eyes as she nodded in agreement.  I added that seemed to get more difficult only recently.  The wild look came back to her eyes as she nodded and said that yes, yes it has!

I feel for the staff that needs to do all this.

Finally, everything was filled out.  My old driver’s license was photocopied, then she blacked out the bar codes.  I got the photocopies along with my original paperwork, after those got copied, too.  I paid for it, which turned out to be $50 ($20 for the license, $30 for a fee!). After that I had to sign something like 5 different forms.  Then, miracle of miracles, I got to sign my new temporary driver’s license!  My permanent one should arrive in the mail within a few weeks.

It’s done!  Finally done!

Then next time I’m back there, it will be after our van is saftied, and I can transfer the insurance and registration.  Which hopefully will be ready to do before the end of this month, so I don’t have to pay cancellation fees.

I’m just to glad it’s all finished now!  The rest of the family still needs to do their IDs, but I’m the primary driver, so it was more of a priority.

What an ordeal!  So glad it’s over!

The Re-Farmer

Okay… this is the worst find yet

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I thought, after the horror tunnel, desiccated mouse carcasses, and other strange things we’ve found while packing up and cleaning away 4 decades of my parents’ stuff in our new home, I would have been beyond getting surprised by things we find.

I was wrong.

I must admit, it’s not so much the contents, but the circumstances of it.

Though we really don’t have the room for it in the growing pile in the dining room intended for the shed, I am just really not happy with having the litter box in the dining room, even if it is in an out of the way corner.  Having cleared everything else away, I decided to move the dresser and the stuff on the wall out of the little nook they’re in, so the litter box can be moved away from where we eat.

After removing the drawers, the first thing I discovered was a scale under the dresser.

Why is there a scale under the dresser?  It’s not like it was accidentally pushed under it.  It was way in the back corner.

Okay.  Fine.

I start moving the now drawerless dresser.

*clatterclatter*

A broken broom handle, with masking tape on the broken end, falls to the floor.

It had been between the dresser and the bit of wall on the bathroom side.  I had noticed that something was there, but forgot about it before moving the dresser.

Okay.  Fine.

I carefully pull the dresser out, hearing all sorts of crunching, grinding noises from the floor.  Oh, dear.  I called for a daughter to help carry it, since it sounded like pulling it along the floor would cause damage.  However, as I maneuvered it out a bit more so a daughter could grab it from the other end, I found it was really, really light, and not making the noise anymore.  So I just moved it myself, down the hall, up the two stairs to the new part of the house, and into the space I’d prepared for it in the dining room.  Then I put the drawers back and went to continue cleaning.

This is what I found.

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What on earth?

This is a flash picture; there is no light in this corner, so I really couldn’t see very well, but that plastic container on the floor?  My first guess was that the dregs on the bottom was mouse poison.  And what was all that on the floor?

I moved the scale and that plaque beside it to the pile of stuff for storage.  The plaque?

It was a prayer.

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Okay.  Fine.  I can see something like that falling between the dresser and the wall and being forgotten about.  That black piece of plastic?  Probably put there to get it out of the way and forgotten about as well.

I very carefully moved the mirror next.  It was just leaning on the wall, on top of that piece of wood.  The far side of it is a broken edge.

Then I come back to clean up the rest.

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That plastic bowl?  Is a glass bowl.  The crud on the floor is ancient cat litter, complete with several desiccated turds.

And a piece of bread.

So, it looks like this area was used for both a cat litter box, and for… cat food? before.  I threw the bowl out, but I’m guessing it’s the remains of some sort of cat food on the bottom.

All of this means that someone took out the litter box, but left the mess behind.  Left the bowl and the bread and added a bathroom scale.

Then put the dresser on top of it all.

Then used the dresser to store extra towels on the bottom drawers.  Above the cat poop and drying food.

Oh, and as I was going back and forth to move things, I found a pile of something that had fallen out from under the dresser as I’d moved it up the two steps.  As I swept it up, I took a closer look.

I’m pretty sure it was a very old mouse nest.

Once clear, I mopped the area with disinfectant cleaner, including the walls, then used a scrub brush in the area (including on the other side, where I got the girls to take the stuff leaning there upstairs), then mopped it again.  The only thing in that corner that still needs to be moved is one last large mirror, which will require a screwdriver to remove.

I don’t have the energy for that anymore.

I also found a shoe tray that I scrubbed; it will go under our litter box when it gets moved.  For now, the entire area is being left to dry.  We will move our litter box in tomorrow.

This just blows me away.  It’s one thing to be in the practice of keeping things that might be useful, and just shoving them somewhere for storage, as is likely the case for most of the things we’ve found.  It’s quite another to deliberately put a dresser on top of cat litter, cat turds and cat food.

And a scale.

I just don’t understand.  Who did this?  I don’t know how long that dresser has been there, but I don’t think either of my parents were strong enough to move it.  Well; maybe my mother, depending no how long ago it was done, but she usually got other people to do that sort of manual labour for her.   So I have no idea.  And why?  Why was it done like this?  I can’t imagine any of my siblings doing this.

I’m at a complete loss.

I think I’m going to take a shower now.

The Re-Farmer

I’m Finally Married – and can prove it!

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Yes, I finally have it!

20180313proof

It had better finally be enough for me to switch my ID around!  Because the “certificate” part itself doesn’t have my married name on it.

That’s on my address at the top of the letter.

Which has only my box number, not my physical address, so that had better be okay, too!

The certificate itself is just a larger version of the wallet size I had seen an image of on their website.  Otherwise, it’s exactly the same. It even says “certificate of marriage” not “certificate of registration”, which is what was part of the concern when the woman at Vital Statistics called me back to make sure I was getting the right version.  I’m guessing that because this size is part of an 8.5×11 letter with my married name and address on the top third, it will satisfy the powers that be when it comes to changing my driver’s license.

I’ve also made a copy to include with the paperwork we need to return, along with a clean image of my husband’s half-destroyed birth certificate.

Just waiting on my daughter to have lunch, then we’re on our way!

I really, really hope this will be the last of this ID mess!

The Re-Farmer

 

Snowfall Fallout

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Ah, the joys of dealing with a fresh dump of snow.

I am very grateful that we didn’t get the major storms others got – and that are still being predicted!  We don’t have to deal with floods or power outages, and massive amounts of snow.  We just have minor stuff to deal with, on what turned out to be a very lovely day.

On taking feed out to the deer, I paused to visit Eunice, who has started to loose part of her eyes. :-D

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This photo, however, was taken from our living room window, and there are 5 deer in it.

You can almost see one of them in the bushes, between the cross and the dead tree, and part of one through some trees, out in the garden area.

Eunice made them all very nervous, and for some time we saw them creep closer around the spruce tree on the left, where they usually come in, or go into the spruces, back out along the edge of the spruces or among the apple trees, chasing each other around, leaving, coming back…

Not a one made it to the feed.

I had wondered if the presence of Eunice would have that affect.

I hope they come back tonight, but either way, tomorrow I think I will make a small trail of feed, starting under that spruce bough, and around Eunice.  We’ll see how that helps.

Early this afternoon, one of my daughters and I went into town to pick up some prescription refills for my husband.  While there, I had them try adding the insurance to my file again, explaining that the problem was at the insurance end, not theirs.  If they fixed it, it would work.  If not, I’d just pick up my husband’s prescriptions and my own would wait a bit longer.

I picked up my husband’s prescriptions.

After we got home, the girls went out their window to shovel off some of the snow.  It’s already melting, but it they can make it so that the melt will go into the eavestrough instead of into their wall, that would be awesome.

As they were finishing that, I took the stuff for the burn barrel out.  They won’t do a burn until dark, so they can see any sparks that need to be put out.  I got a giggle out of this…

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It’s a cat path, from wherever it is they’ve been saying the night lately. :-D

(The sticks in the foreground are the remains of Sydney, an earlier snowman my younger daughter had made. :-D )

Since it was so nice out, I decided to take advantage of it and do some shoveling for a path of my own.

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See that electricity meter on the post?  We need to be able to reach that to read it.

The snow piled in front is the edge of where my brother used his tractor and snowblower, near the burn barrel.

Also, there is no way we’re getting anything from the house to the shed any time soon.  That red building is the old pump shack, and the shed is behind that.  The driveway itself goes as far as the pump shack, then peters off.  The rest of the way to the shed is tall grass.

Ah, well.  We can maneuver around the stuff a bit longer.

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Yay!  I can reach the meter now!

There was about a foot of fresh snow on top of the old snow, with a thin layer of ice melt in between.  Digging this out required breaking through the the layers with the shovel, first, about half a foot at a time.

Thanks to the time stamps on my phone’s file names, I could even tell how long it took me to do it.  Only about 15 minutes!  Not bad at all.

Before heading back inside, I walked around to the back of the house to look at the trees that are growing at angles.  I really, really am not comfortable with the two that are growing over our roof – especially the one that’s actually touching the roof, but there is another tree that overhangs the opening to the garden.  It’s very beautiful, framing the space and all draped in winter’s glory.  Unfortunately, it’s also tilted right from its roots, with three major branches all leaning the same way.

It’s only a matter of time before a large snowfall will cause it to fall.  This is not a young tree.  If we want to save it from breaking at the main trunk, we’ll at least have to cut back the biggest section leaning over the yard, and likely one other section.  That should take enough weight stress off the main trunk that the weight of the third section won’t be a problem, even if it’s still growing off at an angle.

Oh, how I’d love to have an arborist come in and go over the trees in the yard.

Which reminds me; I did a bit of research for lifts.  Turns out we can rent a scissor lift for a week for $480.  They are drivable.  Potentially, we could rent one, somehow get it out here, then spend a week using it to get all the pruning done at once.

It’s going to be a while before we can afford that, and there are many things higher on the priority list.  But it’s a potential option for the future.

After checking on the trees and walking back to the main entry, I noticed something.

I now know why there is a rock in the old bird feeder.

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The weight of snow on its roof had caused it to tip.  There is only one nail?  Screw? holding it to its base.

I straightened it out and all the snow fell off the roof.

20180306birdfeeder.rock

Rather than fixing the base, someone put a rock on it to act as a counterbalance.  The recent snowfall put enough weight on the roof that the rock was no longer enough, and over it went.  With the snow knocked off, it is now heavy enough to keep the whole thing from tipping over again.

I wonder who came up with the idea of using the rock like that?  It’s rather creative, but not a good substitute for actually… you know… Fixing the thing.  My guess is, once the rock was put on, the fact that it is broken got forgotten about.  I have no idea how long it’s been since anyone has tried to put birdseed in it – oddly, it still has old popcorn kernels in it.  Nothing else.  Just popcorn kernels.

So I guess we’ll have to see if it’s still in good enough shape to warrant fixing it, or if we should just replace it.  I’m thinking fix, but we’ll figure out for sure later on.

Another curious find for this place!  I’m sure we will find many more.

The Re-Farmer

Marriage Certificate Progress

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I almost forgot!

My telephone tag with Vital Statistics is over.

We finally connected again, today.  It was the same woman I spoke to earlier, and she was so apologetic, because she’d told me my application would be processed after our last talk, where she thought she had asked all the questions she needed.

It then got sent to someone else for the final processing, and that person asked her…

Did I want a marriage certificate, or marriage registration card.

Now, the form gave two choice.  The large size suitable for framing, or the small card, like our birth certificates.  I’d checked off the small card.

It turns out, that’s just a registration card which, as I noticed in the image on the website, has only the pre-marriage names, not post marriage names.

The certificate (which would be the larger, framing size) would have our names before and after the marriage on them.

Which is what I need.

It’s a good thing I’d told her why I was needing the certificate, and the problem with my birth certificate name not matching any of my current ID.

For all the hassle this is, the folks at Vital Statistics are awesome.

This being Monday, I might get my marriage certificate by the end of the week.  Then, finally, I’ll be able to change my driver’s license and get my health care card!

Next thing on the list; get the van safetied, so I can transfer the registration and insurance.

I might actually get all this done before the end of the month!  Only a month longer than it’s supposed to be done by, but late is better than never!

The Re-Farmer