My daughter and I went in to the city for our first stock up shop today. In the end, we didn’t make it to all the placed intended, so we’ll have to go back tomorrow.
Our first stop was actually a mall next to the Canadian Tire for lunch. In the end, neither of us was hungry enough to finish, so we brought our leftovers home for supper.
We had a short list for Canadian Tire. A couple of 40 pound bags of stove pellets for the cat litters, plus I found replacement cord for our weed trimmer. I got two of those. Grand total of $48.12 With the pellet bags in the truck box and no cover for the box anymore, we weren’t worried that anyone would walk off with 40 pounds of compressed sawdust while we did our next stop!
Which was Walmart.
This is what $252.98 looks like.
There isn’t a lot in there.
There are two bags of dry kibble for both the inside and outside cats. We’ll be stocking up on that a lot more at Costco and, later on, one of the feed stores for 40 pound bags. The 32 packs of canned cat food is one for the inside cats, one for the outside kittens. The kittens have been getting sticky eyes, so I’ve been mixing up a couple of cans with water and a powdered mix of lysine and pumpkin seeds. The lysine seems to be doing the trick, as their eyes have gotten much better already. The pumpkin seeds should help with worms and poops, so we probably won’t actually see if that’s working or not. 😄
There is a case of giant freezies for my husband, for the hot days ahead. There are the XXL side puppy pads; I’ll be getting the Costco puppy pads, too, which are smaller. There’s a package of toilet paper under the cart, though we’ll be getting more of that at Costco, too. We grabbed a package of paper towels, too. We won’t need to get more of those at Costco.
I picked up a couple of Lavender scented air freshener cones. One is for the truck; I like these better than the scented dandling things. The other is for my bedroom. Lavender is supposed to be calming for cats, so I’m hoping it’ll help!
There are 4 cans of Monster energy drinks for my daughters and I; we’ll be picking up a case at Costco, so this is just for the next few days.
While making our way to the tills, we passed a display of instant oatmeal at 2 for $5, so I grabbed a couple of variety packs. Sometimes, we just want something really quick for breakfast, and I didn’t want to get boxed cereal. I also picked up a couple of cold drinks for the road. The only other item that can’t be seen is a small donation to the children’s hospital.
Normally, after this, we would have gone to the international grocery store. We even remembered to grab ice packs to add to the insulated bags so things wouldn’t thaw out on the way home. My husband, however, requested we bring home some McDonald’s for him. Since there was one in the Walmart, and I didn’t want to run around trying to get to a different one later, we got a meal for him and for my other daughter (my younger daughter and I still had our leftovers from lunch), and we headed home.
Not much of a stock up trip, at all. We didn’t even get any food, really. My daughters have their own shopping list for the international grocery store, so we’ll be making another trip tomorrow. The day after will be our Costco trip.
Part way home, I pulled over and my daughter took over driving, because I found myself feeling like I was falling asleep. So I got to close my eyes for most of the rest of the drive home.
I did get a text message from the autobody shop about the truck, just before we got home. I had to wait until my phone could connect to our Wi-Fi before I could respond. She’d included a photo of the truck box cover they thought was closest to what we had, and the total of what we would be paying for, asking me to call her about it. The “betterment” charge would be $225. Add in the deductible and extra charge for painting because rust damage is not included, we’d be looking at over $860.
I had found a cover almost identical to what we had, though, so I sent her an image of it, which included the price, then called the shop. I got her just as she was looking at the image I’d sent. It was a lot less expensive than what they were looking at, so she asked me to send her a link, which I emailed to her. She wasn’t sure if they could get the one I found – they’re not able to order things online, oddly enough – but she wanted to find out if they could. If they can get this one, or an equivalent, it’ll save us quite a bit of money. She’ll get back to me as soon as she can. We might be able to get this done next week, if all goes smoothly.
Then, I got very different phone call. It was the home care aide. She was at my mother’s place for her supper time med assist, but my mother’s walker wasn’t outside the door, and the door was locked. This is very unusual. She did check the usual places, like the common room or other areas my mother might be sitting and enjoying some fresh air. After we talked for a bit, she said she would do her next med assist, then come back, while I contacted my family to see if anyone knew where my mother might be. I thought maybe my sister might have come out on her day off and taken my mother somewhere, but I think yesterday was her day off. The other possibility that came to mind, which was more worrisome, was if our vandal had shown up and persuaded her to go with him somewhere. Neither possibility seemed likely, though.
I messaged my family but only my brother got it and responded. He had no knowledge of any appointments or anything she might have had. We were wondering if the Life Line people could find where she is, but I think to find out, I’d have to use the home base machine at her place to contact them. I was already prepared to go to my mother’s, since I have a spare key to her apartment, so that was a possibility.
Eventually, I got a call back from the home care worker. My mother’s walker was still gone, the door still locked. She was walking around the building as we spoke, looking for her. We were just about to say our goodbyes and I was going to head over, when she found my mother.
She was behind the fence in the garden area.
Hoeing.
I need to figure that out, because the garden area is on the side of the building outside my mother’s apartment. The fence is on the far side of the garden area. So if she were behind the fence, she would be off the property, where there are a number of trees and an empty lot. No wonder my mother was hard to find back there! But why would she be hoeing behind the fence? Or hoeing at all? My mother doesn’t have a garden plot anymore, though she does have some perennials against the fence, just outside her window. She wouldn’t need to go behind the fence to hoe anything there! With her mobility decreasing, it wouldn’t be safe for her to be hoeing anywhere, never mind going around to the other side of the fence. !!!
I’m just glad she was found!
I’ll be calling her to check in on her, very soon. Just in case…
I did at least get quite a bit accomplished today!
The main thing was to get our new plants into the ground. I did my rounds, as usual, then took the time to dig holes for the haskap, while waiting for the post office to open.
The old rain barrel was so empty, I barely had water to scoop with the buck to put into the new holes. Before refilling it, I decided to move it closer to the gooseberry and apple tree. That way, if it was going to leak, it could water them at the same time! I left the hose to fill the barrel while getting other things done, the water off before digging the holes. That didn’t take very long, even with the roots and rocks, since the holes didn’t need to be particularly deep. You can see by the water line in the barrel that a third of the water was gone by the time I was done!
Once the post office was open, I went and got our parcel. I’d brought the bucket with the remains of the brick of coconut coir that was reconstituted. The haskap plugs in particular were getting dried out, so after I’d added some of the soaked coir to the ground soil in the wheelbarrow, I added more water, then tucked in the transplants. That way, any soil kept with the roots wouldn’t get washed away.
We’d buried our Freya pretty deep, then added rocks on top to make sure no critters dug her up. The remaining top soil was left in the wheelbarrow, and I added the last of a bag of indoor-outdoor potting soil my brother gave us, along with the coir, and mixed it together. Then the plum tree was planted.
I used the rocks to create a ring around the “moat” I made around the plum tree. This area gets pretty dry, so I created a trench for water to flow into, then slowly get absorbed around the roots, while making sure the soil around the base of the stem didn’t get washed away. I used grass clippings to mulch on top of the trench, and returned the tomato cage to deter the deer from nibbling on it. Last of all, I returned some of my daughters flowers for Freya, and added some fresh dandelion flowers as well.
For the haskap, I returned the sod to the holes, root side up, to partially refill the holes, then added the rest of the soil mix in the wheelbarrow. The haskap plugs were pretty small, so I had to be careful not to accidentally bury them too deep! As with the plum, I made a moat around them and filled them with water before mulching with grass clippings. I also “stole” a couple of wire tomato cages from the raspberries nearby that didn’t survive. I’ll have to come back later with a rake to clean up properly around the transplants, but other than that, they are done! Yay!
Today I also had a trip to Walmart planned, so I made sure to NOT take my prescription painkillers, since they have a possible side effect of drowsiness. Not that I’ve notice anything changed on that. With or without them, there are times when I feel like I’m ready to fall asleep. If it’s at my keyboard, that’s not a big deal, but it is if I’m driving!
After I was done with the planting, I ended up asking my daughter if she could drive me today. This turned out to be a good thing. My daughters recently ordered an air conditioner for their upstairs “apartment”, which was to be picked up at a Home Depot in the city. She checked, and it was ready for pick up today. There’s a Walmart right next to the Home Depot location it was at, so it was a a trip to the bigger city, instead of the smaller, closer one, today.
When we got there, we stopped for a late lunch, first, then my daughter went to get the AC unit while I went looking at pre-hung exterior doors, since we need to replace the entire frame. That means no more storm door. Looking at the options, there is an exterior door that has a window that can be opened in it that would be idea. I didn’t have the measurements of our doorway, but we’re looking at what would be over $800, after taxes. Doors with no windows, or just some window in the top, where cheaper, of course, but we’re still looking at at least $600. They don’t do installations outside the city, so we’d have to find someone locally to install it for us, and the company my brother used that installed the new windows before we moved in seems to have gone out of business during the illegal lockdowns.
At least we have a ball-park figure for the door. Now we have to come up with the money, and get it installed before winter!
The AC unit my daughters got is the portable type, meant to fit into a window. The windows we have don’t work for that, so they’ll have to board up much of the window space. After picking up the unit, my daughter then went to the lumber section and found the supplies they needed.
The next thing we had to do was secure things in the box of the truck, since we no longer have a cover on it. Thankfully, we keep ratchet straps in the truck at all times now, and my daughter was able to climb into the box and get it secured.
That done, we headed for the Walmart. My daughter stayed with the truck, to make sure no one walked away with the AC unit (another reason we miss that box cover!). I picked up what was needed, but none of it came out of our household budget, so I didn’t bother with my usual shopping cart picture. I did get several more large bags of kibble, plus a case of canned cat food. These were heavy enough that we loaded them around the AC unit, so there was no chance of anything sliding around!
By the time we were done and heading out of the city, it was just past 4pm, when my cell phone rang. I am so unused to my cell phone being used as a phone, we were both confused by what the noise was!
It turned out to be home care.
No one was going to be available for my mother’s suppertime med assist.
Which would have been done shortly after 5pm, so that actually worked out perfectly. We would go to my mother’s down on the way home, and I’d run in to do get her meds out of the lock box and set up for her. I wouldn’t be able to stay long, though, as we had frozen stuff. They were in an insulated bag, but we didn’t bring any ice packs, so we had to get them home quickly.
I didn’t bother calling my mother to let me know we were on the way; a call with my mother while driving is not a good thing, even on hands free! She would be angry about home care not coming, and my having to cover for them, and I just couldn’t have that conversation while driving.
When I got to my mother’s place and went through the lobby to her apartment, I hear someone call to me.
It was my mother!
I never even saw her! She’s so small, she just disappeared into the chair she was in. 😄
I told her about the call I got from home care, and that I was there to get her supper medications for her. My mother, meanwhile, thought I was there because she’d called our place and left a message! My husband must have been asleep when she called, because he didn’t message me to let me know there was a call, like he usually does.
So I had no idea about her call but, she told me, she has her list…
She was wanting to arrange a grocery shopping trip.
Normally, I would have been able to come back tomorrow, but I’ve got the appointment for the insurance inspection of the truck. Once we got her back to her apartment, I told her about this. She actually seemed happy to hear that the insurance company could cover replacing the box cover and do repairs. We’ll see how it actually works out, after the inspection, though.
I got my mother’s meds out – she wanted me to take some of the pills that were lift in other bubble packs due to things getting messed up, but I didn’t even check to see what days and times they were for; I was just checking to see if my mother needed new bubble packs for her, which she doesn’t. She still got so very angry that I wouldn’t use the other pills, and started commenting on how stupid home care is for sticking to the exact days and times for the pills…
…
I just focused on recording my taking care of her pills in a notebook for the next home care person to see. It was still a bit early for her to take them, so they were just in the tiny tagine bowl I gave her to hold her meds and count them out.
Once everything was done and the lock box put away, and I was getting ready to leave, there was a knock at the door.
It was the home care aid.
We were both rather confused.
It turns out that someone had been added to her schedule and, for some reason, the scheduler started calling to cancel her other visits. When she found out this was being done, she told the scheduler to stop because it wasn’t needed – and especially wasn’t something that could be cancelled for a person with a lock box! But they did at least call me and, since we were on our way home from the city, there was no extra trip to do it. The home care aid was very frustrated that they’d called me at all. Obviously, she was still able to do the med assist!
This same person would be coming back for the before bed med assist, too.
I had to rush off, but the home care aid, on seeing I’d already done the med assist, left at the same time.
Normally, they would stay to make sure my mother actually took her pills.
Now that I’ve written this, I find myself hoping she actually did take them once she had food to take them with! I’m sure she did, but with my mother, you never quite know!
From there, we finally headed home and got the truck unloaded. I’m really glad my daughter was able to come along. I was feeling well enough to drive home, and just having someone there to talk to seems to have been enough to keep me from getting sleepy. I’ll have to bring my daughter along for trips to the city more often!
By then it was late enough that, once everything was put away, the outside cat feeding and evening rounds needed to be done. Some kittens needed eye washing, too. There was one we couldn’t catch, though.
Once that was done, I got a few more things done outside. My daughter and I went to check on the new trees, and we ended up moving the rain barrel to the opposite side of where I’d set it this morning. Then I refilled it, while watering everything but the silver buffaloberry (there are just too many of those, and they are looking really great). I didn’t fill it all the way to the top, but got the barrel at least 3/4 full before I switched the hose so I could water the garden beds.
In the old kitchen garden, I removed the plastic on the raised bed cover, then re-covered it with mosquito netting. I’m really, really hoping to be able to keep the flea beetles out and finally get some kohl rabi! Plus, it can be watered through the netting, without having to move the cover off.
That done, I made some recordings for a garden tour video. I’ve gone through them, but I don’t know that I’ll use them, or if I’ll make new recordings tomorrow. The ones I took aren’t bad, but they just don’t seem good, either – but that could be because by the time I watched them, I was just too tired!
It’s been a longer day than planned on, and I am more than ready to hit the hay! Hopefully, I’ll even get a decent night’s sleep. Between the cats and the arthritis pain, even with painkillers, my sleep is frequently interrupted.
One of the things I picked up today is the same stuff my mother uses on her knees, and now on her lower back, and she finds it makes a huge difference. I’ve used up my tube of Tei Fu lotion and, while that stuff helps, it isn’t a topical painkiller, like this other stuff is. (Voltaran, I think it’s called) I’ve actually had prescription topical painkillers before and found they didn’t make much difference. It would be rather funny is this stuff works better than the prescription stuff!
I’m not holding out much hope that it’ll work, but it’s worth a try!
It’s just past 5:30pm as I write this, and it’s all I can do to keep my eyes open. I am SO tired! Please forgive any odd sentence structure or typos, because I’m sure I’m going to miss many when I got over things before hitting publish!
The cats had me up at about 5am this morning. I got up and fed them – the morning feeding includes kicking all the cats out of my bedroom except Butterscotch and Freya. After the dry kibble is dispensed, I pour some cat milk into a small bowl for our elederly Freya (Butterscotch gets the rest of the little carton), and then I sit beside her on my bed, holding the bowl for her while she eats until she is done. This saves her from having to jump down from the bed to eat, and she can stay all curled up in whatever cat bed she’s in.
Yeah. I’m a suck for the cats.
After a while, I let the other cats back in, then tried going to bed for a couple more hours. I swear, the cats know exactly when I fall asleep for real, and that’s when they start getting into things they shouldn’t, and start making loud noises. Or just going crazy. Tissue got the zoomies this morning. So what sleep I did manage to get was highly interrupted. I can’t even keep the door closed, because then they start scratching at it and that keeps waking me up.
The temperature had dropped to 2C/36F at 5am. By about 8am, it had warmed up to a whole 8C/46F. Which was about when I started heading out. First, the kitties got fed, and I got a daughter to help out. Not with the feeding, though. With kitten catching! Kale and Sir Robin the Brave are incredibly fast about getting into the old kitchen, and haven’t learned to stay away from moving feet, or closing doors! After luring the adult cats away with kibble, I closed the inner door into the sun room and my daughter started handing me bowls of wet cat food to set out for the littles, plus one with both wet and dry cat food for Poirot at her cat carrier nest. Another bowl with part kibble and part wet cat food went into the cat house for Caramel and her babies.
Then I continued my rounds, leaving the sun room closed up, even though all three mamas were out. The white and grey mama has been seen nursing the creche babies more often, now that her third baby is in the sun room again.
Poirot’s grublings are getting more mobile, so I set up a a bit of a shield for them.
I’ve been saving cardboard for the garden in the old kitchen, and there just happened to be a couple of pieces of cardboard that was used as spacers inside a box that were just perfect for this. In the second picture, you can see how they’re set up to cover the gap between the shelf and the wall, and cat carrier and the wall. This should be enough of they accidentally squirm out of the carrier. As they get more mobile, we might just move the carrier to the floor, so they can go in and out as they wish.
Once done with tending the colony, the first thing I do it switch out the memory cards. As I go out to the sign cam, past where the food forest is being built up. That corner gets very sun baked and dry in the summer, but these guys don’t seem to mind at all!
They are absolutely everywhere. It’s impossible to not walk on them, but they don’t seem the least bit bothered by that. I don’t know what they are, but if I had to guess, I’d say they are some type of pansy? Whatever they are, they are pretty indestructible!
The next thing was to check on the garden beds. Especially the one where I just planted peas, yesterday. I thought they were fine until I got to the northernmost end, where I saw the cats had been digging. *sigh* Hopefully, they didn’t actually dig up any seeds, but I really couldn’t tell. I was trying to figure out some way to cover things when I remembered I still have grass clippings saved to use as mulch. There isn’t a lot left, but enough to do the job!
The soil got a gentle watering, first. After the grass was laid down, that got watered down, too. Partly so it wouldn’t blow away too easily.
The plastic covered beds all got watered, too. With the sprouting seedlings, it’s hard to tell which are what I planted and which are weeks. Some that I suspected to be weeds were starting to show their true leaves, and I was correct: they are maple seedlings. So I pulled as many of those as I could, along with identifiable stuff like dandelions – so long as pulling them wouldn’t disturb any other sprouts.
The low raised bed that no longer has plastic on it got watered. I’d tried blocking off one end of the cover and hoped that would be enough protection until I could do the other end. This morning, I discovered, I was wrong.
*sigh*
After repairing the digging damage as best I could, I got creative. This is all temporary.
In the first picture, you can see I just stuck some boards across the opening. The stick holding them in place is secured at the top through the mesh, so those could only go so high, so I used what I could find to add verticals on the inside. Hopefully, the cats won’t try to jump through the gaps.
In the next picture, you can see the twine I wove through the mesh to close up the end. Again, temporary, but this should hold for a while.
After the watering and weeding was done, I headed inside for breakfast, before going back out and continuing what I hoped to get finished today.
It was almost exactly 10am and I just sat down with my food when the phone rang.
It was my mother.
No one showed up to do her med assist this morning.
I should have gotten a call, but I got nothing. My mother had tried calling the case coordinator, but it’s Saturday; her office is closed.
So I told her, I would quickly finish eating, then head out to give her her medications. She wanted me to dispense her other two meds for the day, too, in case her med assist didn’t show up for those times, either, but I refused. Got quite a mocking for following the rules. So what will you do? she asked me. Come out two more times?
I said, yes! I will!
I told her, there’s a reason your medications are in your lock box. You were messing with your medications, forgetting if you took them, etc. Oh, I wasn’t that bad, she said. Yes, you were, Mom. That’s why you have a lock box! She actually seemed to stop and think about that!
One of the things I did was write up a note and leave it in their notebook, stating that I had dispensed that morning’s medications and at what time.
I also told her that, since I was out anyhow, I would make a trip to the nearest Walmart to do a bit of shopping. I had planned to do it later in the weeks, but I could do it now. The Walmart carries 2L plastic milk jugs, which she finds easier to handle, so I told her I was thinking of getting a plastic jug for her. I did just get her a carton, but…
She does still have milk, but it turns out she had dropped the carton while trying to open it and spilled some. So more milk, in a better container, was a big yes from her!
I ended up leaving with a small shopping list and some cash. One of the things she was running low of was the topical pain killer she’s been using on her knees. She’s now using it on her back, too, so she’s going through it faster. I had already been thinking of checking that out, too, as I figured it would be a better price.
Since it was well past 11am by the time I was going to head out, I offered to make a lunch for her, but she said she had leftovers from yesterday’s Meals on Wheels, so she was fine. Once I knew she was settled, I headed out.
My first stop was actually a Dollarama that shares a parking lot with the Walmart. There were a few small things that I wanted to pick up and, of course, I went through the garden supply section. I ended up picking up four 4′ metal posts. Not T posts, but the same idea. They have hooks in the metal to hold trellis netting. They would have been perfect for what I was doing yesterday – and easier to set into the soil! We will be trellising pole beans and more peas, though, so new posts will not go amiss. I probably should have gotten more, but I should be able to get some more next month, if I need to.
After I was done at the Dollarama, it was across the parking lot to Walmart.
I got a few things that were not on my list. 😄
One thing that was on my list was more wet cat food. Since we are giving wet cat food to the kittens, we’re going through it faster. Normally, at Walmart, I pick up cases of 32. Looking at the new prices for the individual cans, though, I realized it would actually be cheaper to buy them loose, than by case lot! I ended up using some of their cardboard flats and got 48 cans of paté for the inside cats (paté works better when making cat soup) and 24 cans of chunks in gravy for the kittens.
They had sales on canned food for humans, too, and I got a flat of 24 cans of tomato soup for the pantry, too.
I also went through the garden centre. I picked up some replacement Yukon potatoes, since I’m sure the ones I’ve been chitting are no longer viable. Their herbs and vegetables were out, so I went hunting and found a few herbs. I got English Thyme, Golden thyme, two containers of oregano, lemon balm and basil. These will go into the tiny raised bed in the old kitchen garden, which has a cat proof cover already.
As for my mother’s list, the topical painkiller she uses was there – and cost $11 less than at her local pharmacy! That’s a huge difference!
The store was very busy, so it took a while for me to get everything I was looking for (and then some), and I was really tired and hungry by the end of it. I had some frozen stuff in my cart, so I stopped to get some take out that I could eat while driving, then headed out, making sure to update my family and let them know I was on my way to my mother’s, then home.
Which is when things went sideways.
Literally.
The last part of my route to my mother’s is a provincial trunk road, from one highway to another, that leads to my mother’s town. This is an east/west route.
The wind was coming from the south.
As I was driving towards an area of wide open fields, I saw the entire horizon was covered with what looked like black smoke. Once clear of some trees, I could see it swirling over the fields – but no flames.
It was dust.
Basically, the topsoil from the south side of the road was being blown to the north side of the road.
As I was being buffeted by the wind, driving through it.
Which is when I heard and felt something behind me and looked in my mirror just in time to see the cover over the box of our truck blow off, into the ditch and keep on going!
I pulled over, but by the time I did, there was no sign of the cover. I’m sure it was still being blown across that field for some time!
I had stuff in the box of the truck, and it was already getting scattered across the box. I gathered it all together and crammed it mostly into the back of the cab, making sure nothing went to the front that could get mixed up with my mother’s stuff.
I made sure that there was no way those metal posts would be able to slide and hit a window!
Once everything was put away, I continued to my mother’s place. Wow, what a difference in how the truck felt while driving! The wind swirling into the box of the truck was very noticeable.
When I was done at my mother’s, I was able to get for damage, which you can see in the second image in the slideshow above. There was enough flex on the box when the cover was torn off that it cracked the tail light cover.
But I didn’t get a chance to see that until later.
As soon as I entered her apartment, my mother, who was lying in bed, started saying, Oh, I’m so glad you’re here! I’m so glad to see you! while getting up to sit on the side of her bed.
I’m doing poorly, she tells me. Maybe I should go to the hospital. What do you think?
I certainly did not voice what I was actually thinking. My mother has cried wolf so many times, and uses having us take her to the hospital as a way of getting attention.
I asked her questions about what was going on. She was pretty vague about it; as if she expected me to already know. She told me she took one of the new pills (the T3s), but it didn’t seem to make a difference.
I told her, these pills aren’t magic. They are just stronger painkillers. As she kept on basically about what her expectations were (take pill: pain ends utterly and completely), I told her that her prescription for these is just a couple a day, morning and evening, as needed. I’m on the same pills, same dosage per tablet, and I can take up to 9 of them in total, per day. So it really depends on the individual.
She was pretty shocked that I could take so many per day, when she had a limit of two per day.
As I was putting things away, she lay back down in bed and suggested that maybe using the topical painkiller would help (confirming, finally, exactly what it was that was causing her problems this time). So that’s what we tried. She asked me to do, not only her hips (the pain is mostly just on one side), but her entire back as well. As I was doing that for her, she said to add lots, so I did it second time. As I was putting away the tube, she started saying she could feel a difference, already!
Hopefully, that will be enough.
My brother and I are planning to be there tomorrow for Mother’s Day, so we’ll be able to check on her more thoroughly, then.
Meanwhile, whenever I had a few moments, I kept my family and my siblings updated on things. I told my mother that I had frozen things in my vehicle and had to get them home, so I was soon back on the road. A daughter was sweet enough to have the gate open for me when I got in.
After everything was unloaded, and the new transplants and bags of seed potatoes secure in the portable greenhouse, it was time to feed the outside cats. I had another daughter on kitten duty, too! Other than doing a quick check to make sure none of the raised bed covers were blown away, I was more than happy to finally settle in at home.
So much for my garden and planting plans for the day! As I write this, we have continued to get warmer. It’s past 7pm now, and the temperature has risen to 24C/75F, though with the wind, it does feel a bit cooler. Not much, though! One of the local weather groups I follow on Facebook has been posting information and the coming heat way, with significant heat warnings to come.
We’re supposedly getting rain right now, though the current systems are skirting right past us. Later this evening, we’re supposed to be getting real rain. One of the things that the weather nerds that run the group noted is what appears to be pyrocumulous clouds forming in some areas! These are thunderstorm clouds that are created by heat; you might typically see them form over volcanoes, but can also form over forest fires, if the conditions are right. Scary stuff!
Tonight, the coolest temperatures are supposed to be at around 5 and 6am, at 14C/57F, and then start heating right up. The heat wave is supposed to hit us the hardest on Monday and Tuesday, but still be very hot on Wednesday and Thursday.
On Friday, the temperature is supposed to drop right down, with overnight lows of 0C/32F, and a mix of rain and snow. Saturday is supposed to be only slightly warmer.
Spring weather is so chaotic.
Well, if we can work around the hottest parts of the day, I should still be able to get at least some of those walnut seeds planted, get more areas prepped in the garden and, if all goes well, even do more direct sowing done. Chances are, though, that very little will get done until after the heat wave passes, and we’re back into cooler temperatures. At which point, we’ll be needing to protect some things from frost! For now, we’ve been able to leave our transplants in the portable greenhouse day and night, but we’ll have to bring them inside on those coldest nights.
As for me, it’s time to pain killer up and get to bed. If the cats are going to be waking me up at 5am anyhow, I may as well take advantage of it and get work done outside, before it gets too hot! I just have to work out what time I’ll be meeting up with my brother at my mother’s place tomorrow.
I made a point of heading out later than I would have, because I wanted to make sure I ate a lunch before I started shopping. The Costco cafeteria doesn’t have anything I enjoy eating anymore (I miss those Montreal Smoked Meat sandwiches they used to have!), so I was going to go to a nearby mall’s food court. Which doesn’t open until 11. I didn’t need to stop for gas along the way, so there was no point in leaving before 10.
Unfortunately, I had a heavily disturbed, and my mornings are early no matter what time I get to bed. The cats start going bonkers by about 5:30am, and by 6, I’m kicking most of them out of my room to feed them, so that Butterscotch has a change to use the litter undisturbed, and I can give her and Freya their extras, which currently includes the cat milk I picked up not long ago. I’ve taken to putting a container with cat milk or wet cat food right at Freya’s face, wherever she happens to be curled up, so she doesn’t have to jump down from my bed to to eat.
She really likes the cat milk.
Once that’s done, I do try to get a bit more sleep, leaving my door closed to give Butterscotch a break from the other cats. She has gotten used to the routine and now tends to run around and play like a kitten while the other cats are out. Unfortunately, the other cats know there is special food in my room, so they keep trying to scratch their way through my door, making sleep impossible! When I finally do open the door, there’s a stampede of cats dashing straight for the food bowls, as if they hadn’t just been fed, finishing off whatever is left of any wet cat food or cat milk there is.
Well, that’s what we get for rescuing so many cats.
Which is a long was of saying, I was really tired when I headed out. Tired to the point that, if my younger daughter had come with me, I would have traded driving duty with her. She stayed to keep an eye on the grublings and the transplants.
I hoped I would feel better after I had lunch. I chose Chinese food this time, with turned out to be rather disappointing. This mall doesn’t have a lot of options, though. Lunch was about $18.
After I had my lunch, I went through the nearby Dollarama. In the gardening section, I found the spike strips I was looking for at other locations. These are meant to lay down in the garden to deter critters. I intend to use them in certain areas of my room that the cats have been getting into, no matter how many barricades I’ve set up, and causing damage.
If these work out, it might be worth getting a whole bunch of them to cover the floor under my husband’s hospital bed, where some of them make messes, too.
The last time I was at a Dollarama, I picked up a giant glass mug as something to keep in the freezer in between uses, to help keep our drinks cold. We weren’t sure if it could handle the freeze, like the old A&W mugs we used to have that broke after many years of use. It seems to be working very well, though, so I grabbed another one. In total, I spent $15 and change there.
When I got back to the truck, though, I realized that I was still way too tired, so I set the timer on my phone for half and hour, leaned my seat back and took a nap.
I’m very glad I did that. I could have used another half hour, but it was enough to keep me going!
From there, it was across the street to the Costco. First stop was to fill the gas tank. I was just below half, and the Costco price for regular gas was $1.179 It cost $56.09 in total to fill my tank.
The parking lot was insanely full – this on a Wednesday afternoon! – but I happened to catch someone leaving and was able to park decently close to the store.
Then I grabbed a flat cart and took my time shopping. The nap helped, but I was still really low energy – and yes, I did have an energy drink during the drive out! I try to keep at least one among the drinks and snacks I keep in the console between the seats.
I took a picture of my shopping while waiting in line, while it was still pretty organized. It never gets repacked as well, after everything’s been scanned.
This is what $782.43 looks like – including a $5 donation, which I would only do after getting the cashier to NOT doing the loud dingdingding and cheering thing they do during fundraising drives, every time a donation is made. Gosh, I hate that.
I ended up taking a picture of both sides of the flat cart, since so many things could only be seen from one side.
This is what I got today, in the order it is on the receipt. I got a two pack of lemon juice and a jar of green olives (my husband requested nacho fixings, but I never found the corn chips). There’s a 3 pack of Spam for the pantry, Kirkland brand mayonnaise and some iced tea mix. For my daughters, there’s a 3 pack of oat milk. I got 5 pounds of butter (we still have plenty of oil and ghee), a case of Monster energy drinks (which my older daughter pays me back for) and a case of Coke Zero for my husband and I. I got some laundry detergent, plus two cases of 48 cans of wet cat food and four 9.1kg bags of cat kibble. There’s toilet paper, of course, and a case of water bottles. I haven’t picked up one of those in a while; we like to have them on hand when it gets warmer, so I can keep a bottle or two in the truck without it freezing. There’s also a double flat of eggs.
There’s a bag of basmati rice for my husband and a box of Pizza Pops as our supper heat and eat, because no one has the energy to cook on shopping day, and a box of frozen pierogi. I spotted a Peter Rabbit tin with English Breakfast tea in it; I remembered my younger daughter still likes Peter Rabbit stuff, and she will enjoy keeping the tin, after the tea is done – and we all like English Breakfast tea. There is a litre of whipping cream, a package of Old Cheddar and another of mozzarella cheese, and a 9 pack of variety pasta. I picked up a couple of panini packs and another variety pack of sliced meats for sandwiches, a 3 pack of all beef wieners, some pork chops, pork ribs, a pork loin and a 3 pack of whole chickens. I was planning to pick up some beef, but the prices are insane.
I picked up two 2 packs of rye bread, but did not get any wraps. They were out! At least of the type we normally get. There were other varieties, but we don’t like any of them.
While I was in line and passing the clothing section, I spotted a display of women’s pajama sets that were on sale. My older daughter is in need of new pajamas, so I grabbed a set for her. The last ones I tried to get for her didn’t work out, and they went to her sister. I’m hoping these ones will work out. If not… well, I’m sure either her sister or I could use them!
I had intended to get popcorn in this trip, but by the time the flat cart was full, I had no desire to wheel my way through the crowds in the section, trying to find it. I just got in line!
So that’s it. That’s our Costco trip for the month. Even with the things that got missed, it took more of our budget than I had hoped to spend on this trip. I’ll still need to pick up more kibble – 40 pound bags at the feed store, next time – before long. We might need to get more wet cat food, too, since we are currently giving Brussel and her brood wet cat food twice a day.
And now it’s time to snag a daughter and dodge kittens while we bring the transplants into the old kitchen for the night.
My daughter and I left rather early to take in a homesteading event near the city. We stopped for gas on the way out and picked up some sandwiches (made by the one restaurant in our little hamlet) and drinks for breakfast, and some pastries (from a very popular bakery in the town to the north of us) for later on. I picked up some lotto tickets, too, so that totaled about $76 and change.
I’m glad we gave ourselves extra time, because the entrance to the location was really hard to see! We drove right past it – then had to find someplace we could turn around!
It was held in a building that was on grounds that included a church and cemetery, and was surrounded by trees. The few parking spots were full, plus there were the vendor vehicles parked closer to the building, rushing to finish unloading. We found a spot to park, though I’m not entirely sure it was actually part of the parking area! We were early enough that we stayed in the truck for a while before going in. Things hadn’t started yet, but it was already full. The room was not particularly large, but it wasn’t small, either.
One vendor caught my attention very quickly; someone local had saplings for sale. He was talking to a customer while frantically trying to put labels and signs up before he had to dash away, so I heard him talking about a few things he had. His was the first talk of the day, though, and he soon had to disappear. I had to ask one of the other vendors where the talks were happening, as I thought it was in another room, but I couldn’t see any other rooms. It turned out to be behind a curtained off area at the far end of the room. When we got there, all the seating was full, and more people were crowded against the far wall, blocking off the canteen! Unfortunately, with all the people talking in the market area, I could hardly hear anything he was saying, though I could make out some of it. My daughter tried going to the opposite corner of the curtained off area to see if she could hear better. She couldn’t, but she did end up talking to the vendor that was there. She had a display of skin care products next to a display of honey products her husband was covering. It turned out they were the organizers for the event! With my daughter discovering she’s allergic to ingredients in a lot of shampoos, deodorants, etc., she was very interested in the skin care display. After I finally gave up trying to hear, I joined them. The vendor not only made all of the products, but grew all of the plants, berries and herbs used in them, plus honey from their own bees. We ended up getting a sample pack of their products, plus a tube of hand lotion made with sea buckthorn, among other things, for the scraggly skin on my hands. Both together cost about $45. I didn’t bother getting a receipt for it.
The vendor with the skin care products was also doing the next talk, which was on regenerative farming. My daughter and I snagged a couple of seats right in the front. It was a very enjoyable talk. It was a lot of stuff I was already familiar with (what is now called regenerative farming was what used to be called subsistence farming, when I was growing up here), but with her, it was all from the perspective of planting for their bees, so heavy on successive flowering plants to provide pollen and nectar from when the bees first emerge in the spring to when they settle in for the winter.
After each talk, there was 10 minutes scheduled for Q&A. I left my daughter to that while I went to hunt down the tree guy. He was busy with customers, so my daughter caught up to me before it was my turn. We ended up looking at another vendor nearby that had soaps, bath bombs and other related products. We ended up getting a bar of herbal soap there that cost about $12. I would normally never spend that much on a bar of soap, but I’m willing to do it once in a rare while!
Then it was my turn with the tree guy. Quite a few of the things he had, we already have, but what really caught my attention was the walnut. I’ve been looking at getting walnut for years, but while they will grow in our zone 3, our growing season isn’t long enough for the nuts to fully ripe.
Well, he not only had year old saplings, but walnut seeds, already cold stratified. He grows them himself, in a smaller city a few hours drive to the west of us. If he can grow walnut to the seed stage there, that means we can, too!
Bundled together is a gooseberry and a zone 3 variety of eating apple; he showed me so many different ones, I forget the name of the variety I chose. I’ll be able to see the tag when it’s unwrapped. In the pot in a year old walnut, and the bag has 8 walnut seeds in it. He said the trees grow pretty fast, too, and can get up to 40 feet high. He recommended planting them about 20 feet apart. I already know where I intend to plant those. The gooseberry, which already have leaf buds, and the apple tree will go into our food forest area, where we already have highbush cranberry, silver buffaloberry, sea buckthorn and mulberry.
All of these together cost $73.50 after taxes – the total before taxes was actually higher, but he gave me a discount, simply because the mental math was easier! 😄
While there were many other talks my daughter and I were interested in, it was too busy and too noisy, and we were already reaching our limit. They definitely need a larger venue, and a separate room for the speakers. Which is a good problem to have! As we were trying to leave, I ended up having to exit through the entrance simply because parked cars were blocking my way to the exit. When we got to the highway, we found more cars parked on the shoulders!
From there, we headed to another area of the city to do our non-Costco stock up shopping. By then, it was almost noon, so we went to the international grocery store, first, where we could have some dim sum and sushi for lunch. I honestly can’t remember how much that cost, but it was under $30.
There wasn’t a lot that we needed at this store, this time. This is what $175.36 looks like.
We got the short grain rice my daughters prefer (and it does very well, cooked in the Instant Pot), plus some salmon, frozen cooked and frozen raw shrimp for them. I got a bunch of teas that were on sale, including something called Breakfast in Paris. There is also a bag of instant milk tea. We picked up a goat gouda with honey to try, regular milk plus oat milk for my lactose intolerant daughters. There’s the oyster sauce they prefer, plus the soy sauce my husband prefers. We two pieces of slab bacon, one applewood smokes, one regular smoked, a flat of eggs to tide us over until we get our usual double flat at Costco, plus I got myself a Cherry Coke Zero, since I neglected to get myself something to drink with our lunch. Our loyalty card savings came out to $23.54, which was nice.
After we were finished here, our next stop was the Walmart. That turned out to be a much larger trip. This is what $417.73 looks like.
The main things we needed to get was cat food to last us until Costco and feed store trips. There are three 7kg bags of kibble, plus two 32 packs of canned cat food buried in there. My husband requested some sours, but they didn’t have the kind he prefers in stock, so we got two packs of mixed sours that hopefully will still work. There’s a case of Coke Zero and a package of facial tissues under the basket, plus a small package of paper towel buried in the cart.
We went a bit nuts on the frozen heat and eats. These are all things that my husband can cook himself in the multifunction air frier/toaster oven we got to replace the broken microwave. With his medications, his hunger cues and appetite are pretty messed up, so having something he can cook for himself when he does feel able to eat comes in handy. So there are a whole bunch of $10 bags of different types of stuffed chicken, popcorn chicken, meatballs and even corn dogs. Plus, some Pizza Pops to be our heat and eat supper when we got home.
There is a bag of carrots in there, two clamshells of strawberries, four different types of cheese, frozen Basa fillets, three different flavour packs of bouillon cubes, a couple of loaves of bread that my daughter chose and, completely hidden in the cart, a dozen cans of Monster energy drinks, to be split three ways. Last of all is a cold Gatorade my daughter got for the drive home.
So, including the items not pictured, we spent around $830 in gas, groceries, etc., though the food forest items did come out of a completely separate budget.
By the time we got home, it was late enough to feed the outside cats for the evening, but our day wasn’t over yet! My brother and his wife had come here to the farm while we were gone. They had a few things to do around their trailers and stored items, but they also did a huge job that I was able to help out with – which I will cover in my next post!
As far as a shopping trip goes, this one went quite well. There weren’t that many people expecting me, with my loaded flat cart, to stop on a dime or give way to them, and the lines went fairly quickly.
I just hate shopping.
I’m so glad my daughter was able to come along this time. She helps keep me sane.
There were a few things outside of the Costco trip, though, so I’ll start with that.
As we headed out, we stopped at my mother’s to do her med assist for the morning. We remembered to bring the LED Jesus candle I got for her. My daughter took it out of the packaging before we went in. Which is when we discovered it didn’t come with batteries. I’m used to these coming with their own flat disc type battery (I never remember what they are called). Instead, it took two AAs. Ah, well. She still seemed to like it. Then got distracted by my daughter’s gauged earrings and told her she should have “pretty” earrings. She should wear gold earrings, because some people in her building were saying that wearing gold earrings helps to prevent headaches.
…
Okay…
Well, it could have been worse. It usually is.
She also wasn’t sure with of my daughters had come along, because it has been sooooo long since she’s seen them. She also didn’t have her glasses, but it couldn’t be that. 😁😉
We didn’t stay for long, though. I made sure to make my notes for the med assist to put into the lock box for the next home care aid, and we were soon off.
While I intended to fill the tank at Costco, we were below half, so we stopped at the gas station. I only put $30 of gas in, but we also got some pastries (locally made) to tide us over, and a couple of energy drinks. That came to a total of $49.78
The next planned stop was for in the city for food – breakfast for me, lunch for my daughter. We stopped at a mall next to the Costco and went to the food court. My daughter chose Subway, and we both got foot longs and drinks. That totaled $34.01
There is a Dollarama next to the food court, and there were a couple of things I wanted to pick up there. For sure, I wanted to get batteries in smaller packages for my mother, plus there were a few other things I want to look for. I didn’t find them, but we did end up getting some non-disposable cleaning gloves for my daughter – her hands crack and split like crazy after doing dishes – and several rolls of clear self-adhesive shelf liners. We put those on the floor under the litter boxes, and they are in need of replacing. We also picked up several bowls. I’ve been eyeballing these bowls with a particular pattern for months now. We’ve lost a few bowls to breakage in the past while, there were only 4 of this pattern left, and they were only $2.50 each, so we went ahead and go them. Total spent at Dollarama was $31.25
Then it was pretty much across the street to go to the Costco, and I filled the gas tank, first. When I got gas in my mother’s town, it was at $1.579/L At Costco, it was $1.429 Even with the $30 I put in earlier, it cost me $64.07 to fill the tank.
*sigh*
Finally, we got to do the shopping we’d gone to the city for! We took our time about it, and I was quite happy to have an assistant today. My daughter ran around to get a few things on the list for me, so I didn’t have to maneuver the cart more than I had to. By the end of it, I was most definitely using the cart as a walker! When we got to the counter, my daughter insisted on unloading, and would not allow me to touch anything. This when she is mostly one handed because of her write ganglion hurting so much! What a sweetie!
This is what $841.29 looks like.
Sort of.
What’s on the cart isn’t quite how the totals on the receipt worked out. My membership was up for renewal, so that got added on. I have the executive membership (every time the cashiers see my flat cart, they ask to confirm I have an executive membership!), and the renewal fee was $130. I also got my rebate, which took $171.52 off my bill, so I came out ahead on that. The actual total, with the membership renewal but before the rebate, plus taxes, was $1012.81
I rather choked when I saw that.
Then she processed the rebate, and the total was pretty much exactly what I was expecting.
*phew*
The receipt was so long, partly because it got pulled out so she could check items, so there were big blank spots. I ended up taking 2 pictures of it rather than trying to fold them all short.
Here is the top half.
For our pasta this trip, we just got one of the big flats of Ramen noodles, as I was able to pick up pasta in our last stock up trip. There’s a 3 pack of oat milk for my daughters.
The baby wipes are something we realized we needed, when we couldn’t use our plumbing for so long, recently. We need to wash our hands quite frequently, and having to wash into bowls or buckets, then dump them out, was a pain. We used to regularly buy cleaning wipes before. The ones we got before were sold as “flushable” toilet wipes, which we found laughable. With my husband’s mobility issues, he would sometimes use them in general. After a while, we just stopped buying them. Now, I think we will try to keep some in the pantry for the next time we have plumbing or septic issues!
The next item is the membership renewal fee. Then there’s some Basmati rice, two big jars of mayo, and some ice tea mix.
The cowhide gloves were something my daughter spotted. We are in need of better work gloves than just the gardening gloves we’ve been using. It comes in a two pack, so she and I now both have good, leather work gloves.
Next on the list is a 3 flavour mix of granola bars. Yes, we did just get one at our last shopping trip, but that turned out to be a 2 flavour mix, so we have another.
Then we get to the stuff that stayed on the flat cart instead of going on the belt. There’s a flat of Coke Zero for my husband and I, and another of energy drinks for my daughters and I. It was nice to see the energy drinks were on sale! We also got paper towels, toilet paper and facial tissues. For the cats, we got a case of wet cat food, puppy pads and kibble. The 11.6kg size kibble was only a dollar more than the Kirkland 9kg kibble, so I got three. I almost never see those on sale, so I got more than planned. We also got another case of puppy pads.
The big expenditure was not a planned one, but a needed one. For quite some time now, I’ve been looking up steam cleaners. With so many cats, it has become a necessity. The Shark brand one we found was on sale, too. After some debate, we decided to go for it. This will probably save us a couple of armchairs, at the very least!
Now we’re into some actual groceries!
There’s a package of crimini mushrooms (mini bellas, on the list), and two 2 packs of salad mixes in two different flavours. I told my daughter to pick a seafood for her and her sister, and she picked up a salmon filet. We also got a family size pack of pork chips. There’s a 4 pk of cream cheese and a wheel of double cream brie, 5 pounds of butter, two packages of panini sandwich meats and a 3 pack of chickens.
Next are two 2 packs of rye bread, a double flat of eggs, and two packs of tortilla warps. The California rolls and the lasagna were for our supper. In fact, mine is cooling down next to me, right now, served in one of the new bowls we got at the dollar store!
In total, we had 44 items on that cart and, aside from the rebate, we has $66 in discounts taken off.
The sad thing is, we got almost no meats in there. I was looking at the beef and was shocked by the prices. The stewing beef – one of the cheapest options – was $22.29/kg. I saw a package that weighted 2.260kg and cost $50.28
1kg = 2.2 pounds.
I used to regularly buy packages this size, when they were typically under $20.
Thankfully, we still have some of our beef pack in the freezer, but we’re basically down to steaks. 😄
So that was our stock up shop!
Once we were packed up, we headed for home, stopping at my mother’s to drop off the batteries I got her, and put some in the LED candle we’d dropped off earlier. We also remembered to stop at the post office, then finally home.
The sad thing is, there were still things we need to get, but not at Costco. We’re going to need to make another trip to a Walmart.
Which my daughter and I have decided we will do tomorrow, and get it over with!
*sigh*
I will be so glad when we are done our stock up shopping!
Our first stock up shopping trip for the month is one where we go to three different stores that are all along one street. All three together came to $794.44 in total. This month was different, though, as we got quite a few things we normally would not have, on top of taking advantage of sales.
I did not try to take photos of the receipts this time. With all the extra printing of discounted amounts, they were pretty long. That and I haven’t been able to clear quite as much storage space in my WP account as I want to, yet. I will still take photos for my own personal records. Just not to post here, this time.
Our first stop was actually at my mother’s town. We didn’t need to get gas, as I filled the tank yesterday, but we did stop at the gas station to pick up a couple of much needed energy drinks. I also made sure to phone my mother before we left, to confirm she got her med assist visit from home care this morning. She did, so we were soon on our way.
Once in the city, our first stop was Walmart. Here, we wanted to make sure to not get anything that needed to be refrigerated or would be affected by the cold.
The only really usual thing I got was a couple of bags of kibble, to tide us over until I cat get to the feed store in the town north of us, tomorrow, and Costco, which will be the day after tomorrow. I got the 9.1kg size bags that now cost $29.97. These have actually gone down in price. The other usual thing was a 4 pack of energy drinks. There were also some personal hygiene items for my daughters.
I’m actually having a hard time reading what’s on the receipt, and figuring out what the item it, for some things. The shorthand names are sometimes just a bunch of consonants and numbers. I’ll try to remember what they were!
We got a new laundry basket for my daughters. We need to get two more, but have just one for now. I remembered to get an LED Jesus candle for my mother, so she can stop lighting a real candle when she says her prayers. Safter that way! My daughter remembered that we needed more bandages and found us a box.
We got two different types of mop head replacements, for our two different types of mops, including one that is used only in the basement. We also got a total of 6 boxes of chocolates, in three different flavour combinations, as they were at more than 50% off. We can store the extras in the freezer. I also found the Filipino soy sauce my husband likes; we usually get that at the international grocery store, but I actually found some in Walmart’s international aisle. Then we got a couple of cans of coconut milk for my daughters (I am not a fan of the stuff, myself).
We were running low on cleaners and were out of toilet bowl cleaner, so we got two spray bottles of cleaner and are trying a new “eco” brand of toilet bowl cleaner. We also stocked up on air fresheners. I got two that were specifically designed for pet odours, as some of our cats are particularly foul smelling when they use the litter boxes! We got a couple of others for more general use.
I think that was everything.
The total number of items sold was 26, and all but the kibble fit into the laundry basket. The total was $214.29
It would have been more, but two items we got – a new toilet brush, as our current one just lost is under the rim cleaner piece, and a new toilet roll holder – ended up not having their prices on them. We chose to leave them rather than try and find the prices. My daughter prefers to use self check out and offered to look it up, but I didn’t want to take the time. We figured we would look for them in Canadian Tire.
Which was our next stop.
There was only one thing I had on my list for Canadian Tire, but planned to look at other stuff.
Which I never got around to. We got distracted.
The two bags of litter pellets were what I wanted to get. We aren’t out, I wanted to get enough to last us the rest of the month. Plus, these had bonus Canadian Tire Dollars on them, right now.
My distraction was a portable mini greenhouse. I’d resisted getting it last month, but the sale was just too good; $89.93 instead of $189.99. We spent some time going over the display, debating its merits, then decided to go ahead and get it. It is basically a walk in version of the mini greenhouse we already have – which we can’t really use anymore, as it has become a very handy place for the outside cats, in the sunroom. We actually won’t really be able to use the sun room for transplants. I mean, we could, but having the portable greenhouse would just be better for our transplants and for hardening them off – and protect them from getting walked on and knocked about by the cats. It’s 4′ x 6′ and more then enough for our current needs.
When we decided to get it, I loaded it onto the bottom of the cart while my daughter kept the cart from rolling away. As we were doing it, there was an older gentleman with is cart, watching us. It looked like he wanted to look at the displays our cart was blocking, so as soon as we were done, we moved aside. Which is when he started to ask if we worked there, then realized that no, we obviously didn’t.
It turned out he wanted to get one of these greenhouses, too, and was looking for someone to help him load one into his cart. So we did it for him. He was quite happy, and we had ourselves a lovely chat – and we now have a recommendation for a type of geranium to grow. I am not a flower person, so I can’t remember the name, but my daughter is, and does.
Then, while walking around trying to find where the toilet brushes were, my daughter spotted a display of scoops. They’re meant for pet food, but we got it for our litter pellets, as the handle on the dollar store one we’ve been using broke off, so we’ve been using the remaining cracked scoop. I’ve been trying to find a good sized replacement for a while, so I’m really glad she spotted it.
We did find the toilet brushes, but I didn’t like any of the designs, so we didn’t get one. We never found the toilet roll holders.
We did find some amazing clearance prices for cat towers, but none were in stock. While trying to find them, we found ourselves looking at various scratching posts and scratch pads. I used to get the scratch pads made of corrugated cardboard. The cats love them but, unfortunately, we have a cat, or cats, that pees on them, and then they’re useless! What we did spot was an S shaped scratcher and lounger, that also has a dangling toy under part of it. The price was right, so we got that.
The cats love it!
While looking for the toilet brushes and holders, my daughter found something else that she’s been wanting for a while. One of those dust pans with a tall handle on it, so you don’t have to bend over to hold it in place while sweeping into it. It wasn’t very expensive, either.
Last of all, we remembered to pick up a cover for the truck’s steering wheel. It may be late in the season for it, but that steering wheel gets painfully cold. After looking at our options, we settled for the blingy-est cover we could find! The outer edge of it is all rhinestones. It was either that or fluffy fake fur.
All of this, in total, was $188.91 Less than what that greenhouse would have cost, if it were not on sale. So that wasn’t too bad.
By the time we were done there, it was past lunch time, so before we went to our next store, we stopped for food. After discussing our options, my daughter chose a DQ that was right next to the international grocery store. Our burger meals, upgraded to include a poutine for her, and onion rings for me, cost $36.92 in total.
Sharing the same parking lot is a Dollarama, and I wanted to go there to see if they got their garden stakes in stock, yet. I want to get more of the large ones, as they are really, really handy, a better quality than the ones I’ve found at Canadian Tire or Walmart, and a fraction of the price.
Alas, they did not have them in yet, though their garden supply section does have quite a lot already in. After going through the store to see about other things we were considering getting, I ended up getting myself a new, memory foam neck pillow. I prefer to use these instead of a regular pillow. I find my ears start to feel smashed on a regular pillow, and with the horseshoe shape of a neck pillow, that doesn’t happen. It only cost $5 before taxes.
Then, we finally went to the international grocery store; our last stop. I’d already been looking at the sales and special offers in their app and this was going to be a bigger shop than usual for here.
Again, I’m going to have to decipher some things on the receipt, which is in alphabetical order by brand name, so this list is going to be all over the place!
There is Oyster sauce (for the girls), a couple of Arizona Iced teas, on sale (for my daughter, one for the drive home), a large block of Old Cheddar cheese (excellent sale price!), an assorted Danish pack (for my daughters), some Black Garlic gouda cheese, Bubly sparkling water (for my daughters; I find the stuff disgusting!), a 3lb bag of carrots (on sale), a chicken Yakisoba bento box (my supper), two boxes of Coke Zero for my husband and I (all the canned drinks were on sale), and a small bottle of Coke Zero Orange cream (for the drive home, and a new thing to try – also on sale).
My daughter spotted something we haven’t seen in a very long time; packages of Polish cow fudge; a cream fudge with a cow logo. They were on sale, so I asked her to grab two. She also picked out a couple of packages of frozen dumplings, plus we got a couple of 2L cartons of oat milk for my lactose intolerant daughters.
The sales were good enough that I was able to stock up on frozen seafood for my daughters, too; Basa fillets and a couple of different cuts of salmon. I got a chub of ground beef that was on sale.
Baking chips were also on an excellent sale, so I got one bag each of mint, butterscotch and milk chocolate.
My daughter picked a bottle of coffee creamer. Also for the girls was a box of roasted seaweed and two shakers of Katsuo Furikake, which has Bonito flakes in it.
I got four loaves of rye bread, which were on sale, and a “lumber jack” sandwich (my husband’s supper – it’s big enough for two or three meals!). I found boxes of granola bars at a really good sale price, so I got two of them; one for my daughters to share and one for my husband and I to share.
We got a wedge of Porter Beer cheddar, and two bags of red potatoes. The red potatoes were more than half off. There was a sale on rice cakes, too, so we got four packages. We very rarely get rice cakes.
My daughter picked up some sesame oil and Shirakiku rice (I don’t cook with either), plus a couple of salmon roll sushi for her and her sister to have for supper.
I picked up some of the locally produced slab bacon; one regular smoked and one applewood smoked. All of that company’s products were 20% off. I got a couple of packages of thick cut bacon that were on sale. We also picked up a couple of boxes of frozen tempura pickle chips that were insanely discounted. Perhaps, after we try them, we’ll find out why! 😄
I forgot to get distilled water for my husband at the Walmart, so we got a couple of gallon jugs here.
Last on the receipt is some Bonito soy sauce my daughter chose.
These made for a grant total of $378.82 Our total savings is listed as $87.56 As our total was over $300, I also got 40x the loyalty points, plus they also had a double the points offer that did not have any purchase limit requirements. I am saving my points for around Christmas, when we can usually get free turkeys with points.
While this is a stock up shopping trip, this one was larger than usual, and had a lot of things we get rarely, or will probably never need to get again.
By the time we were done, both of us were in a lot of pain, and we were more than happy to be heading home!
We did have one last stop to make, though. We took our time with the shopping partly so that I wouldn’t be too early to stop at my mother’s for her evening med assist, since there was no one with home care available for her two evening visits. It was still earlier than she would usually have a home care worker arrive, but still within the time frame on the bubble pack for those meds. Still, I was early enough that I took the time to test her blood pressure and get a pulse oximeter reading first. Once that was done, I got her medications that she took right away, then got her later ones ready in the tiny bowl with a tagine cover on it that she likes so much. I made sure to record my visit details on the note that I left for the home care worker to read, tomorrow, and tuck that into the lock box with everything else.
While I was inside with my mother, my daughter got that new steering wheel cover on. While the bling is hilariously tacky and fun, it actually feels really good on the hands while driving!
I didn’t bring in the LED candle I got for her, though. It was too far back in the truck box to reach!
Once done at my mother’s, it was finally time to go home and unload. After unloading, my daughter waited until I started feeding the outside cats, and they were all lured away from the truck, before she parked it in the garage. My older daughter had already started to put things away, but she wasn’t feeling well and had to be careful not to move too fast. She was very happy to see those personal hygiene products! We were all happy to not have to cook supper!
The good thing is that, even if something happened and we couldn’t do our Costco shopping on Friday, we are stocked up enough to last us for quite a while. An Alberta Clipper is blowing through; we got a bit of snow today, and will be getting more over the next two days. Most of the system will be passing to the North of us, though, so it should not be an issue for travel.
In other things, I did not get a call from the home care coordinator. I’ll have to remember to call her tomorrow morning, before my daughter and I head out for her PCOS ultrasound.
I also got a message from our mechanic. That new oil sensor will cost $103.99, and he will not be charging us labour, since they cleaned, rather than replaced it, yesterday. To get the other things done that was noticed while they were working on the truck, will be another $648.65 for parts and labour. After much debating with myself, I have decided to go ahead and get it all done. It means using the credit card beyond our budget, but it’s either that or we drag it out over the next several months. Better to bite the bullet now and pay it off through the budget as if we had done it piecemeal, then to allow things to slowly worsen over time and potentially cost more, later. None of this includes replacing those wheel sensors with dead batteries, but all that means is we make sure to keep the tires properly inflated, which we do anyhow.
*sigh*
Having my husband’s disability payments come in once a month makes it easier to budget things. Going to the city to do our stock up shopping in bulk saves us hundreds of dollars per month, and leaves enough budget to buy things that need to be purchased more often, like eggs, milk, bread, fresh fruits, etc., locally. Especially when we happen to also be able to take advantage of sales that we would normally miss out on, because we live too far from the city to catch them. Still, it is awfully painful to see how much is being spent in just a couple of trips!
So, today didn’t quite work out as planned, but close!
With the time for my daughter’s doctor’s appointment being when it was, we decided we would leave very early so that we could run some errands first, then she would have her appointment, and we would be heading back early enough to pick up parcels at the post office before it closed. We planned to leave by noon, or after the prescription delivery came in. The new delivery driver is a bus driver, too, and he does the deliveries in the morning after he parks his bus for the school day. Usually, that means he gets to our place in the late morning.
Usually.
When it was past noon and we hadn’t heard from him yet (he calls in advance, so we can open the gate, or meet him at the gate), I called the pharmacy to make sure the delivery was still happening. It was. He just had a lot of deliveries today.
My husband was having another really bad pain day, so there was no way he could meet the driver outside, and my older daughter was in bed for the day, having finished her work night at about 5:30am. By 1:00, though, we couldn’t wait any longer. My younger daughter and I had to head out, leaving the gate open for the delivery driver.
I later got a message that the driver arrived almost half an hour after my daughter and I started heading out.
Our first stop was at the feed store for a 40 pound bag of kibble. We weren’t out of feed store kibble, but we did run out of regular kibble, so the inside cats got feed store kibble this morning.
They don’t like it!
Spoiled buggers!
Since the feed store is so close to the gas station we usually pick up from fried chicken for lunch at, we could have gone there. The medical clinic, however, happens to be near a Subway, so I asked if my daughter wanted to go there, instead. I knew she hadn’t eaten yet today and would be really hungry, but she was willing to wait longer. It’s been ages since she’s been to a Subway.
So that was our next stop. We had enough time for a comfortable sit down lunch before her appointment. We were going to do the grocery shopping part together, before her appointment, but that changed. The grocery store and the clinic are in the same shopping complex, though, so that was convenient. I just went on my own after my daughter checked in at the clinic for her appointment. I didn’t have much on my list, so I took my time to see if there was anything else I thought we might need.
I was really shocked by how more expensive things were. This is a much larger town – almost a city – and closer to the big city than we are, but the prices were higher than even in my mother’s town! I’m hoping this isn’t a reflection on how much everything has gone up everywhere. Our gas prices increased to $1.569/L since the last time I was in town. I had filled the tank and it was $1.499/L then, already an increase from $1.469/L.
Anyhow. This is what $128.24, after taxes, looks like.
That is a very empty cart.
The thing that was actually the best deal were the energy drinks, which were on sale. My daughters requested them, so these are for three people.
Here is what everything cost.
So the Monsters were only $2.50 each, instead of almost $4. I couple of them were for my daughter and I to have for the ride home. Normally, I would have bought them by the case (4pk), which normally costs about $11 when not on sale, even at Walmart. Elsewhere, they’re even higher, but with this sale, buying them in pairs was a better price than buying a 4pk.
The milk and oat milk were the same price as everywhere, since milk prices are controlled. The 30 pack of eggs were more expensive then locally. The celery stalks were a sale price. The block of cheese at $10.49 used to always be about $6.49 before the prices all went crazy during the illegal lockdowns. The cheese and celery were the only things I got that were not on my list.
The rye bread was the lowest price I could find. It wasn’t on sale, but the on sale ones were sold out. I choked at the price for kibble, but we won’t be going to a Walmart or anything like that until we are doing our big stock up shopping, so I got the cheaper 7.26kg bag. They did have 9kg bags, but it was just too expensive.
We don’t normally buy salad dressing, but I’d bought a whole lot of bagged salads last time, but one bunch of them were a salad mix, not a salad kit, so it they didn’t come with their own toppings and dressing packages.
Last of all where the canned drinks. My husband requested Fresca. Every now and then, he has a craving for it. The Coke Zero is for me. Those were both on sale, but their regular price is pretty much the same as everywhere else.
That’s it. Thirty two individual items, but it’s just cat kibble, bread, milk, cheese, eggs, drinks, celery and salad dressing. There were other things I could have picked up, but just couldn’t justify the expense. Like bananas. They were almost $1.50/lb! Usually, the more expensive ones are 99¢/lb, while most places are 79¢/lb There were all sorts of meats on sale, some of which also had stickers with at-the-till price reductions, but even the sale prices were higher than regular prices I have been seeing elsewhere.
I’m rather concerned that when we do our stock up shopping, I’m going to find major price increases all over.
Anyhow.
After I got the shopping done, I loaded up the truck. My daughter had said she would meet me there, but I my list was so short, I knew I would be finished before her. So I went to the pharmacy adjoining the clinic and cashed in a couple of lotto tickets, and ended up getting myself a pair of slipper shoes. I still haven’t found indoor shoes to replace my usual ones, but they’re really starting to fall apart, so I hoped these would be okay. The price was right and, if they didn’t work out, one of my daughters would have a new pair of slippers!
I’m wearing them now. I’m still not sure if they will work out.
After putting stuff away in the truck, I went into the clinic. I couldn’t see my daughter around, so I asked how long since she had been called in.
It turned out she had just been called into the examination room a couple of minutes before, and the doctor hadn’t seen her yet!
So I waited.
Interestingly, talking to my daughter later, she said she could tell I was in the waiting room because she recognized my cough! I have gotten to the point that I barely even notice my chronic cough anymore. It’s just something I do. Like breathing. Which makes sense, since breathing is what seems to trigger the cough. 🫤
After my daughter was done, she had some stuff for the receptionist to scan for her files, and a follow up appointment was made for the end of next month. She also got another PCOS referral, this time for an ultrasound.
From there, we stopped to fill the gas tank (about an eighth of a tank cost $31 and change), then headed home. By the time, we weren’t sure if we would make it to the post office before it closed. Especially when we found ourselves behind a snow plow! Thankfully, there was just enough of a gap in traffic that we could pass, and we got to the post office, just 2 minutes before closing!
One of the packages we got in the mail was a supplement for the cats that’s supposed to help calm them down. Butterscotch, for example, is still a bundle of stress that not only refuses to leave my office/bedroom, but is so anxious about the other cats, she has limited herself to basically 1/4 of the room (which is still a lot of space, really) and won’t use the litter box unless I chase the other cats out and close the door! I’ve learned to recognize when she needs to go by her behavior. Even once the other cats are out, I still have to pick her up and put her down near the litter box. She will then dash in, use is as fast as possible, before running away and back into her corner.
Once we got everything unloaded and put away, I made sure to make cat soup with the supplement. It’s only a small container, though. The does is by weight which, for cats, is the smallest dose recommended. For the amount of cat soup I made, it was probably less than that per cat, but it really comes down to how much they eat. Which means the bigger cats will be eating more of it than the little cats, so I guess it works out. It’ll take a few days, I’m sure, before we can see any difference. If we do, I’ll give more details about the product.
As I write this, I’ve got about a dozen cats sleeping on my bed. I can’t say they’re sleeping because of the calming supplement, though, since that’s pretty much what I usually have on my bed, every day. The main thing will be if we have less fighting between certain cats, or if Finnegan, aka: Dah Boy, stops spraying all over the place. That is definitely a stress response, since he didn’t start doing that until a few years ago, after our indoor population grew to the point it’s at now. We’re all pretty tired of cleaning up after him! If that’s the only benefit we get, it’ll be worth the cost of the stuff!
Meanwhile, we completely forgot to grab water jugs to refill, so I’ll need to head out tomorrow for that. Which reminds me. I need to call my mother and see if she wants me to do her grocery shopping tomorrow. We’re still expected to reach a high of -3C/27F tomorrow, so that would be a good time for it.
For now, however, it’s supper time. My older daughter made us a big batch of cream of potato and bacon soup while we were gone. I can’t wait to have some – it smells amazing!
Well, my daughter and I did manage to get out and run multiple errands today.
Way too expensive ones.
Last night, however, I got a message from my brother, letting me know he was planning to come out. He had some stuff he needed to do with the vehicles he’s got parked out here now, including the tractors. Unfortunately, he was expecting to be here at a time when we would probably still be out and about. I let him know that, and that we would likely miss him entirely. He doesn’t need me to be there, but I do enjoy his company, and would help him, if I could be of any use to him. Ah, well.
Before we headed out, of course, the morning rounds were done. The wind was from the south and bitterly cold, so I didn’t quite get the full rounds done. According the the weather app, we were at -7C/19F at the time, with a windchill of -14C/7F. I don’t know which weather station had that reading, but it felt WAY colder than that in the wind. It was blowing in from the south, too, we were getting the full brunt of it.
With the cold temperatures, the outside cats’ kibble in the sunroom has been disappearing fast, as well as in the shelf shelter bowls, but the kibble house and under the water bowl shelter trays have been building up. It’s just been too cold for the cats to eat it, even as sheltered as they are. They’ll get to it when things warm up, but for now, they’re avoiding those trays as much as they can. The catio food bowl gets emptied, though!
The outside heated water bowl was completely dry, and the sun room water bowl had just layers of ice shards left. The cats were really appreciating having warm water to drink!
I actually am using hot water from the tap these days – with the new powered anode rod in our hot water tank, there is no longer a smell, so we aren’t shocking the tank with hydrogen peroxide anymore. That means we no longer need to get the kettle going every time.
I was concerned about the isolation kitties. Especially Eye Baby. His eyes and nose are leaking so much, and he’s still such a small kitty. It’s cold enough in there, even with the heat lamp set to face the back of the shelter and the overall temperatures increasing, that the wet cat food we’re giving them is mostly frozen. It’s right next to a sliding window, so that corner is colder. The kittens, however, have been hanging out on their lounging shelf directly in front of where the heat lamp is now facing, so they are obviously noticing a difference and taking advantage of it. They simply need more heat than what the 150 watt ceramic bulbs are capable of.
With that in mind, our first stop on the way out was the feed store. I got a couple of 40 pound bags of kibble for the outside cats – they had a different brand that I tried this time – and I found their heat bulbs. They didn’t have the ceramic ones, but that didn’t surprise me. Those are usually sold for terrariums. They had 250 watt incandescent bulbs in red or white. The white was slightly cheaper, so I got those. They came in a two pack, too.
They did not have any heated water bowls. When I asked, the guy said there had been one this morning, but it was no longer on the shelf. Someone beat us to it!
I did order another 4 pounds of lysine.
Once done there, we stopped at a gas station to top up the tank and get some energy drinks for the road – neither of us got much sleep last night! As I was about to go inside after filling the tank, though, I spotted a bird, on the pavement near the sidewalk along the building. Just sitting there. Frozen! I ended up getting a paper towel and put it in the garbage can. Poor thing. It may have been frozen solid, but I still didn’t want a car driving over it.
After the gas station, it was off to the nearer city.
Our first stop was the Walmart area. My daughter had her own shopping list, so she went in ahead while I hit a Staples in the same parking lot, first. My daughter has been updating her resume and wants to print it out, but my printer is out of ink in two colours – almost all from the automatic head cleaning. I’d last bought the XL size of cartridges, because that was what I could afford at the time, and those have very little ink in them. When a colour runs out, the printer won’t even print in black only, which is so frustrating.
Oh, I just remembered… the printer has been printing as if a portrait oriented file is being printed in landscape form. It didn’t do that when we first installed the printer on my new computer, but suddenly switched, and we have not been able to figure out how to fix it. All the settings are telling it to print as normal. If that’s still happening, we still won’t be able to print her resume! It would be practically unreadable.
Well, I’ll be doing test prints and cleaning the heads after the ink is installed, so we’ll see.
As for the ink, I was able to get the XXL size, with double the ink in the cartridges, as a 3 pack. I couldn’t have gotten the XL size even if I wanted to, as they only had those as individual packages – but no individual package of the XXL size!
One package of ink cost over $124, after taxes and enviro fees.
*choke*
The individual XL size cartridges, with half the ink, were almost $30 each. Add in the enviro fees and taxes, they wouldn’t have been much cheaper.
Ouch.
After leaving the ink in the truck, I met up with my daughter and we started out with breakfast (even though it was almost noon by then) at McRaunchies. Then we went our separate ways with our shopping lists. I had just a few things on my list, but I did get a few extras. One of the things I almost forgot to get was a new 12′ extension cord – an outdoor one – to replace the old one that the sun room heated water bowl was plugged into. That cord has been there since long before we moved here, and is just a household cord. After finding the melted spot on the bottom of the heated water bowl, I figure it was time for an upgrade, with something that can handle how cold it can sometimes get in there.
My daughter wasn’t able to find most of what was on her and her sister’s shopping list. My list had more kibble for the inside cats, bread and eggs, but I got more canned soup that was on sale, some items my husband requested, and a few odds and ends. I even found some affordable breakaway collars to replace the lost ones on the outside neutered cats, and a couple of inexpensive cat toys for the isolation kitties. I actually got quite a bit for the $160+ I spent there.
No heated water bowl, though.
So after paying for our stuff, we tried the Canadian Tire across the street.
They didn’t have any, either.
Well, I still plan to hit the feed store in the town north of us, as it has more retail stuff. I know they have heated bowls. I just don’t know if they have the smaller size I’m looking for, since the big ones seem to die a lot more quickly. I will be rescheduling to pick up our beef share in that town, next week, so I can check them out, then.
Since my daughter didn’t find everything on her list, we then went to a regular grocery store. Enough time had passed by this time that I was starting to get hungry again, so while my daughter went hunting for stuff on her list, I got some food we could eat in the truck – and a fruit cake as a treat for my husband. Just a little one. The size I used to get for him, which isn’t very big, either, has increased in price by almost 50%. Even the smaller one I got was more expensive than what the larger one used to cost. It’s a good thing my husband is the only one that likes fruit cake!
When my daughter was done her shopping, we had one more stop to make: a nearby liquor store. The girls want to make boozy eggnog, and we’ve got everything but the booze to make it!
With all the errands done, we started heading home. My daughter updated her sister was we got closer. We were maybe 20 minutes away when I asked if my brother was still there, and we were told he was snow blowing! I thought he might do that. There was a lot of stuff in the way of his snow blowers, though, so I wasn’t sure. I know my brother well enough that he would take advantage of the trip to do as many things as he could, before he had to leave.
When we got to the gate, he was still at it, though I could see he was having issues with the snow blower.
My daughter opened the gate for me and I drove the truck up to the house for unloading. With both sun room doors tied closed, I had to go through the house to open them, so we could unload the outside cat kibble straight to the sun room. I also made sure to turn off both heat lamps, to let the ceramic bulbs cool down so I could switch them with the new bulbs.
It took them a while to cool down!
Everything was unloaded, the outside cats were fed and I parked the truck, and they were still too hot to remove. I didn’t want the isolation kitties without heat, though, so I found some thick work gloves and used those to remove the ceramic bulbs.
Here is the before and after, for the isolation shelter.
Poor Eye Baby. He is not looking well at all. Kohl has been trying to get through the window while I pet her, not so much to escape as to get warm cuddles! Which I couldn’t do, since that would be taking her out of the shelter and into the wind.
The fluffy boy wouldn’t let me touch him. Eye baby just sat on the shelf, ignoring me.
Once that was done, I went out to see my brother. He had already put the snow blower away and was about to leave! He said he made a bit of a mess, though I didn’t see it as such. He told me the snow blower has transmission issues and it keeps stopping. There’s a trick to getting it moving again. Not something I’m going to touch! Perhaps we’ll eventually be using his snow blowers, too, but not until after he’s had a chance to show me how to run them, before or after he’s done the fixes they need. So far, little Spewie is enough to do the job we need.
My brother cleared a vehicle wide path to the barn, plus did a few passes in the inner yard, before I blocked the way with the truck to unload it. He also widened the driveway a bit, and even fiddled with the gate, as the two sides were no longer straight. When the ground shifts in the winter, the posts on either side move. When he redid how the gate was hinged to the posts after our vandal damaged the original hinges, he did it in such a way that they can be micro adjusted. He even used a level to make sure the two sides were exactly straight!
That was so sweet of him!
It’ll probably shift back again in the summer, though. 😁 No matter! If it does, they can be adjusted again.
I basically had time for him to update me on the stuff he did, and give him a hug, before he was gone. He needed to hurry if he was going to get home before we lost our light.
After closing up the gate behind him, I came back to the house and could see the isolation kitties by the light of the new heat lamps. I definitely got the impression they are feeling the difference!
I then remembered to give them their new toys. I imagine it would get pretty boring in there for such young kittens. At least when they’re warm enough to play, instead of huddling together for warmth!
I went through the sun room to tie off the doors again, and found several cats under the new heat bulb in there, too! I tried to make sure there were some smaller kibble bowls under the heat lamp. There were three cats around one small bowl under the lamp, instead of at the big tray of food, nearby! 😁
In retrospect, I do regret not getting 250 watt bulbs, right from the start.
Ah, well. Live and learn.
All in all, it turned out to be a productive, if more expensive than planned, day.
It was stuff we needed, though, so it is what it is. 🫤
As I close this off, I checked the weather again. We’re at -7C/19F again, but this time, the wind chill is listed as -22C/-8F. THAT is more like how it felt, this morning!
We’ve got a couple of days with expected highs of -2C/28F coming up before things start getting chilly again. The day after tomorrow, we’re supposed to get more snow. We shall see how that works out in our area. Long range forecast now says the above freezing temperatures will start after Christmas, instead of before Christmas, though Christmas day itself is supposed to be just below freezing. We’ll see how it turns out.
This year, we’ll be having a very quite Christmas and New Year. None of us have the spoons for much activity, this year.
It’s been an oddly difficult year.
Ah, well. It is what it is. We work with what we are given!
As my late father would days, “what else can you do?”
It was a good trip. The actual shopping wasn’t too bad, considering the time of year. I’m just getting drained, and it’s starting to have an effect on me.
With Christmas and New Year’s coming up, which changes when my husband’s disability payments come in, I decided to go into next month’s budget and get as much as I could on this trip. So this shopping trip included larger packages or extra items to stock us up into January. Plus, I’ve started to get things that we will be having for New Year’s in particular. We have decided to make our Christmas and New Year’s celebratory meals to be as stress free as possible. So there will be a lot of frozen appetizers as finger foods, heat and eats, etc. We will likely do some charcuterie as well, so some items, plus any fresh foods, will be picked up locally, closer to Christmas.
We already have a turkey in the freezer, plus we are getting our 1/8 beef next week. We’d been making monthly payments against that until the ranch told us they thought there was enough. The beef has been butchered and is being cut and frozen now, so they got the final weight, and it turned out we overpaid for our share. We will be getting a credit on that. I would have preferred extra beef, but they don’t butcher for general sales anymore; just pre-ordered beef shares, so there was no extra available. So we didn’t need to get a lot of meat this trip, not did we need to get as much cat food.
On the way out, the truck’s tank was below half, so I did stop at a gas station in my mother’s town along the way. I got $30 of gas, at $1.309.
As had been my plan when I tried to do this trip last week, I stopped at a shopping mall, first. It was past 11 by then, and I hadn’t had breakfast yet. This time, the food court was all open, though, and I ended up getting some Chinese food. That cost about $18 and change.
Once at the Costco, my first stop was to fill the tank. The Costco price for regular gas was $1.119 and it cost me $47 and change to fill the tank. So before I even started shopping, I already spent $77 in gas and $18 on food.
This is what $899.82 at Costco looks like.
I got a shot from each side, because so much was hidden from view.
So what did I get for almost $900
For the cats, I got two 9kg bags of kibble and a box of puppy pads. There is a case of Coke Zero for my husband and I, plus a case of energy drinks, which my daughter paid for. Also among the drinks list was a large box of Earl Grey tea and some iced tea mix. I also got some Eggnog, which was on sale, mostly for the girls, and a case of oat milk, completely for the girls.
Paper produces included toilet paper and paper towels. I probably should have got more facial tissues, but I didn’t want to take up too much space on the flat cart. I needed room for the big bag of sugar and the case of vinegar.
Also among the non-food items is some dish detergent, toothbrushes and a package of pens. I was out of normal coloured pens.
In the pharmacy section, I got both acetaminophen and ibuprofen, plus adult gummie multivitamins for my daughters.
For bread products, I got a couple of 2 pks of rye bread, four packages of tortilla warps and a 3 pack of sunflower and pumpkin seed, multigrain sliced bread.
For protein, I got a package of chicken breasts that was on sale, plus some tilapia fillets for the girls. I also got a panini pack for sandwiches, with canned chicken and pack of Spam for the pantry. There’s also a double flat of eggs (5 dozen).
In dairy, I got 5 pounds of butter, whipping cream, a 3 pack of cream cheese, mozza, Old cheddar, marble cheddar, goat cheese and a wheel of brie.
There’s also a bag of spinach and mini portabellas (aka: cremini mushrooms).
Among the jarred items, there are two big jars of mayo, olives and pickled asparagus, which was on sale. The pickled asparagus will be used, along with tortilla warps and cream cheese, to make appetizer pinwheels for our celebratory dinners.
There is a bag of Basmati rice and some hazelnuts. Oh, and a 3 pack of 4 cheese, rainbow tortellini, which was on sale.
For snacks, I got my husband a big back of Munchies Mix, and two boxes of Sweet and Salty granola bars for the four of us.
Then there are the frozen items. Along with a box of perogies and a box of Pizza Pops for quick heat and heats, we have the appetizers for our celebratory dinners. There are Mac n Cheese bites – something we’ve never tried before – mozza sticks, bacon wrapped scallops and mini quiche.
And that’s everything.
Hopefully, I won’t need to go another Costco trip until February! Or at least not until mid-January.
So it was a very productive trip, though part way through the shopping, I realized I was not doing well. I was over heating, but also getting very dehydrated. I did use their public water fountain about half way through my shopping, which helped a lot, but by the time I was standing in line to pay for the stuff, I was starting to feel dizzy and getting the shakes. I was at least getting a breeze from the giant fan above, while half taking off my coat and removing my hat, which helped.
While my items were being rung through and they were doing the stuff still on the flat cart, I dashed over to a water bottle vending machine and got one to start hydrating once back at the till. It wasn’t a large bottle, so by the time I loaded everything into the truck, I’d finished it off. I also keep water in the truck, and still had half my drink from my lunch, so I was able to continue hydrating for the ride home, and was feeling much better.
My back was also starting to give out, well before I reached the till, but that was also much better by the time I got home. An hour or so of sitting instead of walking around, wrestling the flat cart, helped a lot.
I was able to back the truck up quite close to the house, making it easier to unload. My daughter’s knee was still hurting her from her fall yesterday, but she was no longer using a cane. Once the truck was empty, I had to feed the outside cats to get them away from the truck – by then, it was starting to get dark and time to feed them, anyhow – so I could park it. Once I got back to the house, I also got some warm water to top up their bowls. The big water bowl in the sun room just had sheets of ice left in it, and the working heated water bowl in the shelter was almost dry!
The babies in the isolation shelter still had plenty of water. They got canned cat food with their morning feeding, along with the kibble. There was still kibble left in their bowl, but the wet food was long gone!
Unfortunately, as I was unloading bags to the door, I spotted Kohl digging around on the cat bed on the lower level. The little bugger had just pooped on the cat bed, instead of the littler box, right next to her!
Both of them seem much calmer now, but Kohl would not let me touch her, never mind pet her, or check her incision. I’m not too concerned about her, though. I’m more relieved the male it no longer panicking and trying to bash his way out through the wire mesh walls. They were both watching us closely, as we unloaded the truck, right near them.
When I topped up their kibble, neither tried to escape or anything like that. When I reached in to try to pet Kohl, I could feel it is nice and warm in there. I’ve been keeping the Cat Lady up to date on how they are doing, and she was very relieved to hear they are doing well. For all the effort we’re making to provide them with a safe, warm shelter during their recovery, the isolation shelter is still basically just a small box outside in the winter. She would really like to find homes for them. I told her to go ahead and share the photos I’d been sending her, and to tell people these two will be released to the yard again, after their recovery period. Hopefully, that will encourage someone to want to adopt and rescue them from the outdoors and give them an indoor forever home. It doesn’t hurt that they are both so incredibly adorable!
So, that’s my running around for today. Tomorrow, the dump is oven longer hours, and we are overdue for a trip, so I am hoping to get our garbage and recycling finally out. From there, I should be able to continue on to the feed store with the brand of kibble in 40 pound bags that the cats like better. As of right now, the high for tomorrow is expected to be 3C/37F, which makes it the ideal time to repair the wind torn vinyl around the catio. Plus, there are some tears in the vinyl around the bottom of the isolation shelter, where other cats were trying to get in. We should be able to patch those up with the extra vinyl table protectors I picked up while I was waiting for the vet to finish with the spay and neuter, yesterday.
Which means tomorrow will be another day of running around. Thankfully, I will be able to stay home on Sunday. I’ll be going to my mother’s on Monday. She has a telephone doctor’s appointment, and she wants me with her, since I help her remember things, and can understand what the doctor tells her and can spend the time to explain it to her later.
Meanwhile, I really, really glad to get this stock up shop done, even if it did get pretty expensive. This is meant to last us longer than usual, and will hopefully result in a quieter time over the holidays.
I’ve reached that stage in life where quite and boring is all I want! 😄😄
The Re-Farmer 