snow

Playing in the snow

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Things have warmed up quite a bit today. As I write this, we are at -7C/19F, which is warmer than the predicted forecast.

While I was out doing my morning routine, I decided to take advantage of the weather and do a bit of clean up. Mostly, scraping the packed snow off the sidewalk and shoveling that clear. Then I decided to clean up the path to the compost pile that was starting to fill in and, since I was there anyhow, decided to shovel a new path to the back of the garage. I just had to follow a trail conveniently marked out for me by a deer! 😄

While going past the garden beds there, I was able to mound more snow over the winter sown kohlrabi bed.

The other bed with the winter sown cabbage has a cover stored over it, so I wasn’t going to add more to that one. The cover itself has probably created air pockets that would also serve as insulation to protect the bed.

I look forward to seeing how the winter sown beds work out in the spring! I haven’t even tried to get at the ones in the main garden area. There’s enough snow covering the entire area that I’m not going to bother.

That done, I continued towards the garage, but the closer I got, the harder it was to use the shovel to break through the crust of snow near the top. In the first picture below, you can see a line where I hit with the shovel and managed to just leave a mark. There was loose snow under the hard packed snow, but even clearing that away, plus the loose snow on top, the shovel just couldn’t break through. It already has a crack in it, so I wasn’t going to bash too hard.

Now, what I could have done was get the ice scraper and chop it up, but… I just couldn’t resist.

I got my machete out of the garage, instead.

In the second picture, you can see where I started to clear from the garage side. I didn’t have that much distance left to clear. After shoveling aside the loose snow on top, I started cutting out blocks. Some of them were angled cuts, as I had to make a turn in the path. The snow on the garage side was packed all the way to the ground, and I had to cut blocks in half horizontally so that I could free the top block, then cut again to get the bottom loose. After a while, though, I started reaching where the bottom layer of snow was loose, and it got much easier.

In the third picture, you can see the last bit before I reached the cleared path. The cats really liked the new path! At one point, I even found one tucked into the gap under the hard packed snow in the first picture.

As for the blocks, I ended up setting them along the north wall of the path to the outhouse. A little extra to block the wind and keep it from drifting in, which you can see in the fourth picture of the above slide show.

Last of all, I tidied the new path up with the shovel. Once I was done and putting things away, the cats immediately started running up and down the new path! I’m sure the deer whose trail to the compost pile I cleared will like the new path, too. 😁

I have to admit, I was really, really tempted to keep cutting more blocks and building up more walls. Which I might actually do more of, tomorrow.

Today, however, I needed to go into town, so I headed in for breakfast, instead.

Once in town, my first stop was at the hospital to visit my mother. She seems to be doing pretty good, though she complains that they aren’t “doing” anything for her. I’m not sure what they can do, other than what they are already doing. She seems to be looking for some sort of magical fix for everything. She gets out of breath very easily. There’s nothing they can do about that. She has pain, and they’re already giving her painkillers and using the Voltaren. They’re still giving her water pills more often, to keep the swelling down. She wants the doctor that’s covering for the one on holiday to see her, but for what, exactly? She never quite tells me.

After a while, I told her to just enjoy being there and being taken care of. She doesn’t have to worry about her meals, and if she has trouble at night, she just has to push a button, and help will come. Which is exactly what she has been wanting, for a very long time – to have someone around and available, especially at night. At one point, she told me she had to call for help while in the washroom. She was in too much pain in her hip and back to get up. She asked them to rub on more Voltaren, which is one of the only things that really seems to help her, and she was eventually able to get up. The nurse wanted her to get up and walk right away, but she had to tell her, she needs at least a bit of time for the stuff to start working, first!

I don’t know when the regular doctor will be back from holidays, but once he is, my brother wants to book a meeting with him to discuss my mother’s situation. The only thing we know right now is, there is nothing about her going home. Still, until we get official word that she will be going into some sort of care facility, we can’t really do anything more about her apartment, utilities, etc. I suppose we could start packing things. I’m really not looking forward to going through all my mother’s stuff, but wherever she goes, very little of it will be able to go with her. Basically, her clothes and that’s about it. She might be able to hang some of the family pictures on the wall of wherever she ends up, but if she ends up in the hospital for an extended period, while waiting to a bed to open somewhere, we’ll have to store things ourselves until we know what her set up will be.

In the end, it wasn’t a long visit. There wasn’t anything much new with either of us, and I’ll be back again soon, I’m sure. Now that she’s in the town closest to us, I’ll have more opportunity to visit her.

From there, it was off to the pharmacy, and then to run what errands I could think of, while I was in town.

When I headed out this morning, everything was covered in frost. Normally, that would have gone away during the day, but we’ve been overcast all day, so everything was still looking like something out of a post card while I was heading home.

One nice thing about living in the boonies. I could stop in the middle of the road to take pictures, and didn’t have to worry about traffic. 😄

This is one of them.

The local company the RM contracts with to do the plowing did a fantastic job! There was a brief period few years ago, when a new council decided to lease a snow plow instead, then hire a driver as needed. It was a disaster, and the winter road conditions were the worst anyone could remember. That council was so bad, the province ended up disbanding it after too many people quit in disgust, then taking over until a new council could be elected. The new members went back to contracting with the same company that had been doing such a great job for so many years, and what a difference that has made!

Anyhow, that’s it for today, really. We’re supposed to have some pretty mild weather of the next while – a week from today, they’re now saying we might reach 0C/32F! Hopefully, I’ll be able to take advantage of it. If nothing else, we need to do a dump run when it’s open tomorrow, and then I can keep going to the feed store to the north of us, and get 40 pound bags of kibble for the outside cats for the month.

Other than that, I might just end up cutting more snow blocks. I haven’t built a snow fort since I was a kid. 😄

The Re-Farmer

More than three hours, plus time to say good bye

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First, the good news… sad news… but awesome news…

Tonight will be our last night with this beauty.

I’ve been talking with the rescue about her, because she is so incredible matted. They just got a new foster, so Kohl will be their first rescue! This should work out, as Kohl is already socialized and spayed, so she should be an easy one. They’ve already posted pictures of her on social media, requesting a volunteer groomer, or someone who could sponsor a groomer. She is so badly matted, she will likely need need a total shave. I picked her up and snuggled her this morning, and it was hard to find a place on her body that did NOT have any mats!

Tomorrow, I’ll be heading into the city to do our Costco stock up shopping. Instead of going to the new one, like we did last time, we’ll be going to our usual location. There’s a mall nearby where we’ll meet up with someone from the rescue and hand over Kohl. (I’m pretty sure my younger daughter will be coming with me, though I haven’t confirmed that yet.) After Kohl it picked up, we’ll hit the mall for breakfast/lunch before hitting the Costco.

There has already been interest shown in adopting Kohl, though one of the people in the rescue is very tempted to adopt her, herself. However, like us, she already has too many indoor cats!

With the stock up shopping about to happen, my goal for today was the clear more of the inner yard so there would be more room for the truck to turn around and back up to the house.

This is how it looked when my daughter first cleared a turn around space towards the outhouse, as well as a path to the litter compost pile behind it.

While she used little Spewie, I would break up the edges of with the snow shovel so that it would be easier for Spewie to get through, as the snow was too deep and areas were getting packed pretty hard by high winds. It took quite a while for my daughter to clear the space, and it left her having to use a cane for the next two or three days!

When I tried to actually use the turn around space, it turned out that “point” in the middle was still a problem. One corner of the truck hit it as I turned. That normally wouldn’t have been a problem except 1) the snow was even more hard packed by then and 2) the plastic shield under the bumper was already loose on that corner and held in place with clear duct tape. That got torn loose, and now it’s hanging again. Even if I had more of the duct tape, I couldn’t use it because it’s too cold for adhesive to stick.

So my main focus was to widen the whole area but to especially clear out that “point”.

In the first picture, you can see I was also able to clear a path to the outhouse (our emergency second bathroom). I used a shovel to clear space at the door so it had room to swing open, because there’s a high density foam mat under the snow that somehow has raised edges. The last time I tried to clear in front of the door with Spewie, it caught on the mat and actually tore it up a bit!

The path to the litter compost pile was already done by my daughter before, so I just used a shovel to clear it again a bit more, then tidied it up a bit with Spewie, later.

In the next picture, you can see where I’d widened the area by the tree a bit, and turned that “point” into a diagonal. The first 50 feet or so weren’t to bad, but past that, the snow was so hard packed, I couldn’t use the shovel to break it up anymore. I had to use the ice scraper to basically chop the snow up into pieces small enough for Spewie to be able to go over them without breaking.

I honestly felt tempted to stop and get a machete to try cutting snow blocks and build an igloo! 😄 Or even just snow walls strategically placed to block the wind. That area’s snow would have been ideal for that.

In the last picture, you can see I cleared space on the other side of the sidewalk, too. There had been a small triangle of snow between paths that I got rid of completely. That gives us more room to back up, plus move around the back of the truck with the tail gate open.

Once that was done, I decided to see how much more I could do. After adding a third extension cord from the garage, I had enough length to not only clean up and widen some cat paths, but I was able to clear a path to the fire pit and BBQ, clear enough space around the fire pit for chairs, paths to the wood pile and branch pile, and finally a path around the old kitchen garden so we can access the septic tank, if needed.

I’m so glad I set up the emergency septic bypass before the snow fell. There’s so much snow on top of it right now, you can barely see where the pipes and hose are at all! I don’t expect we’ll need to use it. If the ejector was going to freeze again like last winter, it would have happened by now. Still, it’s good that it’s set up now, just in case. If we did end up needing to use it, the only thing we’d need to do is clear the snow away from the end of the hose in the maple grove, so the grey water wouldn’t end up freezing into a block at the end.

Then, I did some clearing in the outer yard. I widened some turning space to get into the garage – that required more breaking up of snow with the ice scraper, too. Last of all, I cleared some paths to a couple of my brother’s trucks. He has solar panel trickle chargers set up in their windows. He was able to use his gas powered snow blower to clear a path to one truck, but it was too big to clear paths to the other two. I’d checked on them to clear snow away from the windows in front of the solar panels, and found the snow was quite deep. For me, that’s something that could easily result in my having another fall. I could have shoveled the paths, I suppose, but Spewie is small enough to get in there.

By the time I was done and put everything away, I’d been out there for more than three hours.

I really enjoy work like this, so it didn’t feel like it was very long at all, but once I was done and putting things away, my body was starting to tell me it wasn’t too happy!

On the plus side, my new coat was more than enough to keep me warm out there. I had tried to use the collar to keep my lower face warm, but all that really did was cause my glasses to frost up. I ended up going inside and my husband took them and set them aside from me, so most of this was done without my glasses. I could see a lot better without them than with!

Once I was inside and settling in with some food, things really started to stiffen up. I sat at my bedside to take my meds before eating, and had to get my daughter to help me stand up again, even though I now keep a cane with feet near my nightstand as an aid to standing up. It wasn’t enough today!

It does mean that I’ll probably have issues tomorrow, which is why I’m pretty sure one of my daughters will be coming with me, as my mobility assistant.

I figure today is a good day to go to bed early – after taking more painkillers!

I gotta say, though, it feels so good to get all that done, I really don’t mind the pain!

The Re-Farmer

Okay, so maybe I’m a bit nuts

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After my fall this morning, I really didn’t think I’d be up to doing much of anything for the rest of the day. I still think I’m really going to be feeling it tomorrow…

… and yet…

I ended up falling asleep for something like four hours. Checking my knees, my right knee has some swelling, though not at bad as I thought. I’m sure the anti-inflammatories have made a difference! I can take these up to three times a day, and I now have a 3 months supply. I’ve been taking them only once a day, if at all, so I can take more without any concerns of running out.

Much to my surprise, while my left knee is also starting to let me know that it got hurt, too, I am not in pain, in a general sense. It only hurts when something touches my knee, even if it’s just a cat tail brushing against my knee as I walk by. I’m definitely developing quite the bruise on my right knee.

The left side of my body is also letting me know it’s not happy. This is the side that I hurt the most when I had my fall in the summer. My left shoulder in particular has never really recovered from that. After landing on my right knee, it was my left side that hit the floor – after I bounced off that bucket – so it’s no surprise that my left side is feeling it more.

Still, after my nap, I felt really good. I am not limping, but I already hobble because of the OA and bone spurs in my feet, knees and hips, so I’m just penguin walking a bit more. Walking doesn’t hurt, but WOW am I thankful for all those arm bars that were installed for my late father. I need those at the best of time, and now is not the best of times! I’ve also got the cane with feet that stands on its own at my bedside. I don’t need to use the cane for walking, but I can use it to help me get up and down from my bed.

My daughters took care of changing all the litter boxes today, but a path to the litter pellet compost pile had to be cleared. When my daughter headed out to start on that, I headed out, too. I actually felt good enough to shovel more!

While getting the shovel down from where we hang it in the sun room, I realized that I didn’t actually trip on the cat carrier after all. Even with my fogged up glasses, I knew where it way. What I couldn’t see was the open door, and that’s what my foot caught on.

The carrier has been repositioned! We keep the carriers in various places in the sun room so the cats associate them with safety and comfort, so I didn’t want to move it out entirely.

One of the areas I worked on was the cat paths. Part of this was done this morning, before my fall.

I cleaned up the path to to the catio, then made a new path around all the shelters. This gives access to the little solar panels for the motion sensor lights inside the water bowl and kibble shelters, so we can clear them of snow as needed. I also cleared a second path to the catio shelter.

In the last picture of the above slide show, you can see the path the cats have made in the snow, to where they can get under the storage house. I’ve started to clear a path that way, but not very far, yet. Over time, we will clear a path to the corner of the storage house, and also redo the path to the fire pit and wood piles, so we can use it.

My daughter, meanwhile, was going the much bigger job of clearing turn around space, after making the path to the litter compost pile.

While she struggled with little Spewie, I was able to go behind her and use the snow shovel to break up the packed snow that had formed at the top. Some areas were drifted higher than Spewie is tall, so breaking that up made it easier for the little snow blower to get at it. In between passes, I cleared out a corner at the sidewalk area. This way, once pulled up to the house, we’ll have more room to open the doors and walk around it, while carrying things.

We didn’t finish the job completely, as it was starting to get pretty dark. My daughter has issues with working in the cold, as breathing cold air triggers coughing fits and hurts her lungs. She was wearing a home sewn cloth mask, but it’s snug against her face. Which means it quickly got very wet, resulting in her breathing in her own condensation. My new coat, when zipped all the way up, has a collar that reached up to my nose. That creates a warm bubble of air that prevents coughing fits. My daughter’s coat doesn’t have that. We need to find something she can wear while outside that will created the warm air bubble, but doesn’t touch her face.

Right now, we have enough space for the truck to turn around, though I still want to round out a corner, at the very least. After that, we have some turn around areas in front of the garage I want to widen a bit. I had a chance to walk around the outer yard before heading inside. My brother cleared enough in the outer yard to drive up to the barn, as well as their trailer and camper. He even cleared a path to the electric meter for me, so I can access it to do a reading.

While working on the inner yard, I could see where deer were digging around the the flower and haskap bed between the sidewalk and the vehicle gate. While walking around where my brother had cleared the snow, I found evidence showing the deer were using the cleared paths to get around, too! Much easier than fighting through the deep snow. 😁

Once everything was put away, we came inside to hot tea my older daughter made for us – turmeric and ginger tea, for me! The Instant Pot stew that was started before we headed outside had just finished and was depressurizing, so we had hot food waiting for us as well.

So far, I’m still feeling good, though I can feel I’m stiffening up. I did take more anti-inflammatories and painkillers with my supper, so that should help.

Hard to believe it’s just a couple more days before we start our Christmas activities on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. I’m still focused on digging things out, and have left all the decorating and such to my daughters. Not that we do much of that anymore, and what we do is limited to the cat free zone, AKA, the living room. It’s going to be a quiet Christmas this year.

We’re all good with that, anyhow!

The Re-Farmer

More digging out, and a visit to the hospital

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The blowing snow we had yesterday wasn’t as much as the blizzard that preceded it, but this time the winds drifted over the driveway.

Last night was bad enough that my brother and SIL had friends staying the night, because it was too dangerous to drive home. All morning, we were keeping watch on the road conditions to see if we could actually meet up and visit my mother in the hospital today or not. When doing my morning rounds, I checked the driveway. The blown in snow was light enough that I could drive through it, right up to the gate. As frustrating as it was that all my clearing of the driveway as almost completely filled in, it would have been a lot worse if it hadn’t been done first.

The first problem I had, though, started before I even went outside in the first place. The old down filled coat I’ve been wearing and patching together is finally done and unwearable. I ended up layering, the borrowing my daughter’s coat, so I could clear the end of the driveway.

By the time that was done, my brother and SIL had also dug themselves out – the winds blasted right into the front of their townhouse, and encased their car in snow. We worked out some details, and I was going to go to my mother’s place, first, to get her some fresh clothes, etc. Then I was going to meet them at the hospital.

The first picture was taken after I cleared the end of the driveway. The road was not plowed again, but it was passable.

Before heading out, I called my mother to let her know we’d be visiting her and about when we’d arrive. I told her I was going to her place first, and she added some instructions.

She also still wanted one of her bubble packs. Which they can’t use. Turns out, she believes they are just giving her random pills. I pointed out (again) they have her med list; they just have a different source for their medications. They might look different, but they are the same medications. They know what she’s supposed to be taking.

To which she responded, “do you really think they’re that smart?”

…

*sigh*

How do you answer something like that? Other than, “yes!”

Anyhow.

As I was about to leave, I realized I had no room to back out of the garage. The wind had created such a smooth drift, I couldn’t really notice how far it extended past where I’d cleared, yesterday. I went back and got the shovel, clearing just enough that I could back out of the garage. Thankfully, it was still light and fluffy snow, and didn’t’ take long.

What you can’t tell in the second photo is that there’s at least another 6 feet of drifted snow over what had been cleared, yesterday.

While messaging with my brother, we worked that that, while my daughter and I are headed to the city tomorrow for our first January stock up shop, and the last shop before Christmas, he will be coming out here and getting one of his snow blowers going. It will be MUCH easier to clear the show with a gas powered snow blower than my little Spewie which, technically, is called an electric shovel, not a snow blower.

When heading out to my mother’s, I layered up with a couple of hooded jackets, so my daughter had her own winter coat to wear. She was planning on breaking Spewie out and getting the driveway done while I was gone. In the end, she wasn’t able to get very much cleared before she had to go back inside. Thankfully, with my brother coming out tomorrow, he should be able to get the rest cleared out.

The drive to my mother’s was touch and go. Visibility was good, for the most past (unlike other highways in the area), but there was a lot of packed snow and ice, making for some slow driving at times. I got to my mother’s place, checked on things, packed a bag for her, and was soon on my way again. I normally would have cut across from her town to a different highway to get to the hospital she’s at, but all the reports I was seeing what that route was far worse.

I still got there faster than my brother and SIL!

My mother was in bed when I got there, but sat up while we talked about what I brought. She was in need of a Voltaren rub on her back, which took some doing to accomplish. She then moved to a chair. The whole time, she was clearly in a lot of pain from her hip and back.

By the time my brother and SIL arrived, though, she had perked up quite a bit and was clearly happy for the company. After a while, I went to the nursing station to see what we could find out about how things were going, and the nurse caring for my mother that shift came to her room to update us.

They are restarting her on the IV Lasik to get the swelling down. That will be continued for another week. She talked about draining the fluids away from my mother’s heart. When I asked, she said the edema was due to congestive heart failure.

There’s a problem with that.

My mother doesn’t have congestive heart failure. It turns out they just assumed she did. Confirming it would require transporting her to the same hospital she recently had her MRI done, for a CT scan. We told the nurse, my mother’s heart has been checked out quite a few times (because she kept thinking she was having hear attacks that turned out to be acid reflux and heartburn), and her heart is incredibly healthy. Healthier than most people a quarter her age.

Meanwhile, all her vitals are right where they should be.

I had mentioned to the nurse yesterday that my mother can be her own worst enemy. She complains about the minor stuff, while making like of the major stuff. Even the minor stuff, she makes things worse for herself. She – once again – brought up the dry mouth issue. When the spray was suggested, she immediately said, oh, I just drink some water and it’s fine. So… why is she complaining? When the dry mouth spray was suggested, she tried turning it down. She’s on so many medications, you know. Once we figure what she was thinking, we told her, it’s not a medication. It’s just for her mouth to fee less dry. Once the nurse realized what the mix up was, she did offer to bring her a bottle of the dry mouth spray. Which is what she has at home, brought back from the last time she was in the hospital but refuses to use. She keeps bringing up the dry mouth, wants the doctor to somehow stop it from happening, but won’t actually do the things that will make it better.

Meanwhile, she tried to make light of the reason she was in the hospital. Like it was not an actual problem, compared to her dry mouth.

With days as short as they are, and the road conditions an issue, we didn’t stay too long. After saying our goodbyes to my mother, I was able to go to the pharmacy and drop off that signed paper they needed from my husband, then meet my brother and SIL at a nearby restaurant to catch up. We’re all quite concerned that when they reassess my mother a week from now, they’ll try discharging her to her home. That is simply not acceptable. She cannot live independently anymore. She could barely get out of bed and walk 4 steps today! According to my mother, she hasn’t even been seen by a doctor yet. Just an assistant.

It’s all so frustrating.

Still, we had a good time together and soon parted ways. I did make a point of stopping to pick up some take out for the whole family, then filling the gas tank, before heading home. By then, it was past sunset and the light was failing fast. I’d messaged ahead that I was on the way home, and my daughter met me to close the gate and help me bring things in – including a care package from my brother and SIL. They are so sweet!

So that’s where we stand now. Still up in the air about my mother.

With the road conditions as they are, I’ve been keeping an eye on the forecasts. I thought that maybe we could delay the city trip until Monday.

We’re getting more snow on Monday.

*sigh*

So, tomorrow it is.

I’m dreading going, but my daughter is coming along, and she is quite the sanity saver for me! I hate shopping at the best of times. Shopping this close to Christmas, in the city, is something I really try to avoid. We’ll be stocking up as much as we can, so that we can delay our second January stock up shop until after New Year’s, if possible!

If all goes well, I’ll find a new winter coat, too.

Oh, and we’ll be looking at bariatric office chairs. My husband’s chair suddenly – and loudly – reclined backwards and couldn’t straighten up again. After moving it around, we spotted the snapped bolt on the floor. It’s an old chair and was getting in pretty bad shape. We’d even replaced all the wheels on it – which will be salvaged, as they are really good wheels! Hopefully, there are some sales we can take advantage of. We shall see.

It’s going to be a busy day tomorrow.

The Re-Farmer

Wow

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Today was going to be a lot warmer, though not going above freezing as was being forecast off and on for the past few days.

We were planning to do a much needed dump run, then go into town for errands. With that, and the warmer temperatures, in mind, I scraped the packed snow off the sidewalks and cleared them, so they could warm up faster and melt clear. We had both rain and snow in the forecast, though, so I wasn’t sure just how much good it would do, but at least it got done.

I waited until before noon, when things were still warming up, to bring the truck into the yard and load it for the dump. I left it running, partly to defrost all the windows, but also to keep the cats from going under it.

It almost worked.

It didn’t stop a couple from going under the back!

Thankfully, they cleared themselves out before my daughter and I were ready to leave.

Right away, before even getting through the gate, we knew we were going to have issues. Everything was so slippery!

As we drove towards the highway, we started getting hit by the wind. Just turning onto the highway, I knew I wasn’t going to reach full speed! Thankfully, the dump isn’t that far, but we were getting hit with a cross wind and sudden gusts. I’ve got good all weather tires, but they are just all weathers, not winter tires, and I could feel that wind trying to blow us off the road.

The dump run done, we headed back towards our little hamlet and, by then, conditions were getting worse. We drove through our hamlet towards town, which was more shelters, so instead of blowing snow, we were getting accumulated snow. On top of ice.

Once we cleared town, the wind was even worse than on the highway to the dump. The closer we got to town – and the lake beyond it – the worse things got. The snow was heavier and the visibility kept dropping. I was doing well below the speed limit and wasn’t even being passed, which says a lot for our area!

Once in town, our first stop was the pharmacy. Since it was past lunch by this time, I originally planned for us to grab a bite after the pharmacy, but the weather changed that plan! Instead, we went straight to the grocery store. We had four of our 18.9L/5 gallon water jugs to refill on this trip, so we needed two carts. I only needed to pick up some bread and eggs, but my daughter picked up a few things as well.

As we got out of the store, I thought things looked like they were clearing up a bit.

I was wrong.

My daughter got this shot out her window. She tried to get a shot of the road ahead of us but the camera frustratingly clears up the shots so much, you could actually read the signs – something we couldn’t do while driving!

At least we were driving out of the worst of it, but I was still driving even slower than we did on the drive in.

Once at home, we pulled in front of the house to unload. Thankfully, we’re pretty well shelters from the north, though not so much from the west, and the winds were coming from the northwest. After unloading, my daughter was going to park the truck in the garage while I went to go the outside cat feeding early, and my other daughter put everything away.

As I came out, I found my daughter still in the driveway, stuck!

I went over to try and give her a hand when I realized something.

The truck was set to rear wheel drive. One back tire was spinning like it was elevated and floating on air! I got her attention and she switched it to 4 wheel drive – and got out easily after that!

Gotta remember. When we take the truck to the garage, they switch it from auto, to 2 wheel drive.

So that was all taken care of.

My mother had called while I was in town, though, so as soon as I could, I called her back, thinking she was calling because she wasn’t feeling well.

She was calling to check on the cards she asked me to mail. Especially the card for our vandal.

*sigh*

So I reassured her about the mail, then asked how she was feeling.

Terrible.

She then spent some time talking about how bed she felt, like she felt before going to the hospital, it’s worse in the mornings, much of which I was able to get out of her while there yesterday.

I encouraged her to use the Lifeline and have them get her to a hospital. If she has water in her lungs, she needs to go to a hospital. Only she can make that decision.

She then went on about various other things and even went so far as to say, she doesn’t want to bother anybody.

…

I told her, you do it all the time. And that’s okay. Sometimes, you need to do that. This is one of those times.

After several more minutes of encouraging her to use the Lifeline and get herself to a hospital, and reassuring her that we would take care of all her stuff that she’s worries about, I told her I would let her get off the phone, so she could use her Lifeline (which is through the phone line).

I don’t think she’s going to do it.

*sigh*

If she’s going to do it, I really hope she does it today. Tomorrow, we’re supposed to get 7.5cm/3″ of snow, with another 10cm/4″ of snow overnight into Thursday morning, then on Friday, another 4cm/1.5″ of snow.

Right now, my brother and SIL and I are tentatively planning to visit my mother on the weekend, as they will be spending Christmas with their grandsons in another province. Obviously, if she goes to the hospital, those plans will change.

Well, we’ll see how it goes.

The Re-Farmer

Warming up a bit, and a cancellation

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Today was a good day to not go anywhere.

Yes, it was warmer than yesterday. As I write this, we’re still at -9C/16F. Wind chill is -22C/-8, though.

It was a good day to break out the crochet. I haven’t been doing that a lot, as yard tends to catch on the rough spots on my skin and get yanked right off the hook. My daughter, however, got me a skein of blanket yarn, yesterday.

Turned out, blanket yarn doesn’t catch on my fingers!

So I whipped up a hat, here modelled by Ferdinand, my beat up display head.

The ear flaps can be folded up for extra thickness. Which is something I need, because wind in my ears causes ear aches very quickly.

I even got to test it out while doing my evening rounds.

It was snowing again, by then – it’s been snowing lightly, off and on, all day, even though the weather apps were saying we had no snow, but to expect some tonight. Uh huh.

Adam came out for food today, on her favorite perch to eat, on the cat house roof. It took several attempts, but she did allow me to finally skritch her neck and ears. She’s more friendly when she has kittens around. Once they were weaned, she got standoffish again. *sigh*

On of the things I had on my to-do list today was to call Visa. My first credit card that I got to re-establish my credit rating, so we could finance the truck, is expiring at the end of this month. Weeks ago, when using my phone’s bank app, I started seeing a notice saying that, if I have my new card, I could activate it right there.

Except, I didn’t have my new card.

What we did have was a postal strike.

I still don’t have my new card, so I called up Visa. He looked it up and the new card had been sent out in the middle of September. Three months ago.

The post office isn’t on strike anymore, but I have no reason to believe my replacement card will come in before the current one expires.

I had two options. One was to simply wait until the end of the month and, if it hadn’t come in by then, call them back. The other was to list my card as lost, and he could send me a new card, with a new number, immediately, and expedite it. It would arrive within 3 or 4 business days.

In the end, that was the option I chose. He got me a new card set up and it’ll be sent out tomorrow. He even waived the fee for expediting it. It was all done so quickly, I probably spent more time going through the automated options and waiting before I got to talk to a human.

It does mean my current card is cancelled and no longer useable, since it’s now considered “lost”, but that’s okay. The new one should arrive before I need to use it for anything. Oh, I just remembered… that’s what the pharmacy charges our prescriptions to, when we have refills delivered. I don’t know if my husband has anything coming in that isn’t fully covered by insurance right now. I have to call them anyhow. I’m hoping to be able to get more than 30 days of our prescriptions before Christmas, so that we won’t need to get refills, pick ups or deliveries through the harshest winter months. They may need to contact our doctors to get updated prescriptions to fill 3 months worth. There might be some issues with one of my husband’s meds, and one of my daughter’s, as these are “controlled substances” and we’re not allowed to refill them until within 3 days of running out completely.

If all goes well, I won’t have to drive anywhere until Friday, when I’m potentially heading to my mother’s to do her laundry and Christmas housekeeping.

On a completely different now, looking ahead to the spring, I’ve already asked my brother if we could work out a day that I could borrow him, one of his tractors and some chain. We have so many fallen dead spruce trees in the spruce grove, with many of them stuck on other trees. They are a fire hazard, of course, but I would also like to clear them out so that we can eventually transplant more spruces into the spruce grove. We’re also talking about cutting down the big spruce closer to the house that finally died a couple of years after we moved out here. The risk with that one is that it’ll fall on the house. I did make sure to debark it at the base, so no ants will get at it. A lot of the fallen spruces fell because their bases were weakened by carpenter ants. Then there’s the tree in front of the kitchen, with that one branch stretching over the roof that we can’t get down on our own that we talked about.

So that’s something that will hopefully get done next year. My brother needs to work on one of his tractors to get it going first, though; they are all rather vintage and need some TLC to be useable.

Life is going to be so different with my brother and SIL being able to come out here more often, and with all his equipment here. They’re looking to set up an office in the trailer home they moved out here, so he could work “from home”, then work on stuff around the property in the evenings during the week, rather than trying to rush to get things done on a weekend. I look forward to helping him out and learning from him! No living person knows and understands this place more than he does.

That will all come in time.

For now, it’s hibernation and planning time.

The Re-Farmer

Yeah, we got snow today

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The forecast was possible rain and snow during the night.

It was snowing when I head out to do my morning rounds, and kept snowing, of and on, throughout the day!

Not enough to bother the yard cats too much, though.

The first two images above are from a poplar branch. I don’t think I ever noticed before that they get catkins like pussy willows do! So we have signs of spring, even as winter is trying to hang on as long as possible!

The last photo is the covered bed in the old kitchen garden. As I was out there, it was about -1C/30F. In both the covered bed and the portable greenhouse, the thermometers were reading about 0C/32F Not much difference – even in the portable greenhouse, after adding the water filled garbage can as a heat sink. I don’t think the water has in there long enough to get completely warmed up, yet.

On the schedule for today was to head to my mother’s to take her to her doctor’s appointment in the early afternoon. I still had plenty of time, as I was sitting down with my breakfast after doing my morning rounds.

Then the phone rang.

It was home care.

No one was available to do my mother’s morning meds. She’s scheduled to get them done, along with extra time to help her get dressed, if she needs it, empty her commode or even heat something up for her breakfast, at 8:55

It was almost 8:30 when I got the call.

*sigh*

So I quickly called my mom to let her know that I would be heading over as soon as I finished breakfast. My mother kept trying to keep me on the phone as she complained about my having to come out for this and I kept having to cut her off and repeat that I needed to eat and run, and we could talk when I got there. After the third or fourth time, she finally let me go! 😄

When the home care aids do her med assist, they have a folder that’s kept in her lock box where they sign off for the day’s visit and make extra notes, if needed. So when I do the med assist instead, I write up the time and date, saying that I did her meds, and include any other notes that might be necessary. So I knew what time I got there to give her her meds. It was exactly 9:15 by her clock, so only about 20 minutes late.

What I noticed as I was getting her meds out was a bubble in her pack that should have been empty, but wasn’t. Her previous Friday morning pills were still there. So I asked her about it.

She told me that she had taken her meds herself, from one of the extra bubble packs on her fridge, that morning.

!!!!

I was sure I’d pushed them far enough back that she couldn’t reach them! I don’t know how she got them down!

I told her, that was NOT a good thing to do. Apparently, the home care aid agreed, because my mom told me she put the rest of the packs into the lock box. Between the bubble packs, their folder, the blood work requisition forms, and other items in there, having an entire month’s worth of packs in there is tight, even with a lock box as large as this one. That’s why I hadn’t put them all in there myself, when I brought her refills home.

*sigh*

After giving her her meds, I did a few other little things for her, like emptying the commode and taking care of her garbage. My brother had recently visited her and brought a few grocery items she’s always running out of, but when we spoke on the phone last night, I told her to see if she needed anything else and to make a list. She did need a few things, and we still had plenty of time, so we went over the list and then I did her grocery shopping for her.

After that was done, we still had time to visit.

If you could call it that.

She spent a whole lot of time criticizing me for not being dressed “presentable” enough (while I was there, I accidentally tore my jeans), and for having messy hair (my hair was braided and I had hat head), and I should have short hair like she does. In the past, these are criticisms that would have caused me to have all sorts of issues, but I am well past that point in my life now. I call her out on this stuff, now. She doesn’t really get it. She feels completely entitled to say stuff like to about and to, anyone and everyone. Even complete strangers! Then starts going on about how people who aren’t “presentable” are uncivilized, etc.

She totally doesn’t get the double standard and hypocrisy she’s displaying!

Then she brought up the Easter baskets; I’d picked up a paska at the grocery store for her own basket. She remembered that we do Easter baskets, too, and bless them ourselves. She suggested that I bring our basket to her place on the Saturday before Easter, then she and I could go across the street to her church to have them blessed together.

I told her, the last time I brought our Easter basket to be blessed with her, she gave me a hard time about having a bad basket.

Oh, she said. That’s because it was so huge. Would you like me to give you an Easter basket?

I told her, we have all kinds of baskets of all sizes.

She told me I should just bring a small one. Just a little one…

I told her, our basket is the right size for our family.

Now, part of the reason for the size of basket we use is that we spread everything out so nothing is completely buried, rather than jamming everything on top of everything else. We also do things like have our ham on a small plate, have oil (we’ll be having truffle infused olive oil this year) and vinegar in little jars, salt in one of the many pinch pots I collect, a bowl with olives, another with butter, etc. The containers take up a fair bit of space. Plus, of course, we like to lay it out to make a pretty display. So there is actually not a particularly huge amount in the basket. But, it’s the size of the basket that bothers my mother, and people will think bad things if they see such a big basket getting blessed in church…

Never mind that I’ve seen people bring in even bigger baskets than any of ours to be blessed!

Anyhow, when she kept going on about how we should have a small basket like hers, I told her, THAT is why we don’t bring the basket in for blessing with her. She then started saying that maybe I could have a less hard heart, just for her…

…

I pointed out, she is the one that has the hard heart with this! She totally does not understand that she is the biggest reason we don’t go to church right now. We’ve tried going to some of the local churches, including the RC Church I grew up going to, and I was saddened to see how … wordly… they had become. My mother’s church is the only one that seems to remain true, so even though I’m Orthodox Lutheran now, the RC church by her place is the one church I would be going to.

Just not with my mother. I did try to, and she made it quite clear that she did not think I was good enough. I don’t put up with that.

I so miss the church we went to before moving out here!

But I digress!

My mother ended up wanting us to leave even earlier than I’d planned. That did give me time to stop at a gas station, and at a post office in the town my mother’s appointment was in (she believes the staff at her local post office steals her mail. Especially her mail to Poland). We still got there an hour early.

I did have some issues with my mother trying to drive from the passenger seat! Like telling me which way I could go to leave a parking spot and not understanding why I wasn’t driving, when I hadn’t even finished putting on my seatbelt yet. The direction she was telling me I should drive would have had me popping a curb and driving over concrete. Or insisting I undo her seatbelt for her, while I was backing up into the loading zone at her place, so I could have the space to help her out of the truck. It’s been a long time since she’s done stuff like this.

As for the appointment, it did go well, overall. She did dive into something completely new – though she says it’s been an issue for at least a year (???) – before we finally got to talking about her hospital stay and the results of her last two blood tests to monitor her kidney function.

Her kidneys are fine.

My mother was written up for some X-rays, which we could do right after the appointment, and some blood work, which required fasting, so that will have to wait. Since we’ll be doing her next kidney monitoring bloodwork in the first week of May, it can actually wait until then and she can do both in one trip.

While all this was going on, I got a message from my husband. The tax preparer had called and our files were ready to pick up. So, once I got my mother home and her new lab requisition form tucked into the lock box with the monthly ones, I had to dash off. From my mother’s place, it was about a 450 minute drive to get to the tax preparer’s office in the town North of us. After signing what I had to sign and paying for the job, I had to grab the form my husband needed to sign, drive home, get him to sign it, and drive back again! We could actually have brought it back another day, but I wanted to just get it done.

On the plus side, by the time I got home, the snow had stopped (when we were driving to my mother’s appointment, we drove into much heavier snow) and was even all melted away. Which is fine. A little more moisture is not a bad thing. We’re not getting anything close to the spring flooding we’ve had in the past. The old basement floor is completely dry, and the sump pump hasn’t gone off even once. Which means we could actually do with more moisture! It’s getting into fire season.

As I was driving home with the form for my husband to sign, I could see smoke to the west of our place. I figured someone was doing a controlled burn, though it was a windy day for it.

When I was driving home later on, on the last few miles of gravel road, I found myself behind a fire truck with its lights flashing. Maybe half a mile from our turn off, I saw more flashing lights behind me, and pulled over for the second fire truck to go by. Both continued on past our turn off. I could no longer see smoke, but somewhere near by is a fire big enough to require at least two trucks! (There could have been more that went by before I was there to see them.) There’s nothing on the live fire maps, though, so it isn’t a forest or wild fire.

Something to be aware of, with everything drying up so quickly.

Anyhow.

Today ended up having a lot more going on than expected. For now, I’ve got some cat carriers to prep and in the morning, we need to try and snag 3 pregnant females for the vet.

Wish us luck!

The Re-Farmer

That’s more than 10-20cm…

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So… we got a bit of snow, overnight! 😄

It’s still snowing a bit as I write this. According to the weather radar, we are pretty much in the middle of the system that’s passing over us, but I’m just barely seeing snowflakes fluttering around at the moment. We are still under a snowfall warming, and they are now saying to expect a total of 15-25cm/6-10 inches of snowfall.

I think we already hit that.

Unfortunately, the wind direction was blowing snow right into the kibble house, and the space between the kibble house, the cat house and the water bowl shelter was deep with snow.

On the plus side, there is no longer a big puddle of water on the bottom of the catio! I haven’t returned the food bowl into there, though, and have been leaving kibble on the replacement hammock we put in to replace the damaged one. I can reach that with my scoop of kibble without having to untie the door.

As you can see in the second photo of the above slide show, the cats are quite enjoying the catio!

In the last photo, taken after I shoveled around the shelters and cleared some paths, you can see how much snow accumulated on the shelter roofs. I didn’t go all out on the shoveling, though. We’re going to be warming up again and, even when the temperature is just a degree or two below freezing, things will start to melt.

The yard cats were certainly appreciating the cleared paths around their shelters – and the shelters themselves.

They also seem to really appreciate that I left those box nests under the shrine for them to use. Since one of the kibble bowls under there has disappeared, I started to put kibble inside the box nests as well as the one kibble bowl that’s left. If nothing else, it keeps the snow off the kibble! The cats seem to like eating out of them – and sitting on top of the boxes, too. These cat been built to be used inside the isolation shelter, they seem to be quite useful in other places, too!

Speaking of the isolation shelter…

There was no way to get them all in a photo, but I counted 13 cats inside the isolation shelter! Including Syndol, lounging on the hammock which, I’m happy to say, is no longer being constantly knocked loose from its hooks. Simply adding a cord joining the two hooks closest to the ramp to the second level seems to be enough to keep it from happening.

I didn’t even notice what The Grink was doing in the second picture above, until now. She’s got her face right up at that heat bulb!! (Yes, it is confirmed: The Grink is a lady.) I’m glad the new clamp lamp has a guard around the bulb, but she’s so tiny, she could easily push her face past it. I don’t think she will, but it’s a possibility.

Brussel seems to have picked up on my new routine for her. At first, when I came out to do the kibble and water, she would jump out of her nest and eat outside. I would wait until she was back with her babies, then use the long handled back scratcher to deliver wet cat food into the cat cave. Since she would be nursing her babies, I tried to drop it close to her face, so she could eat and nurse at the same time.

Lately, she hasn’t bother leaving the cat cave when I come out with the kibble. She growls at me when I take her food and water bowl out of the cage in the evening, then put it back, refilled, in the morning, but she doesn’t leave. She also grows when I deliver the wet cat food next to her, but she now immediately starts eating, without waiting for me to leave. This is encouraging, since one of my concerns is that she will take her kittens out completely, and who knows when – or if – we’d see them again. The mamas don’t bring their babies to the house until they’re ready for weaning and, by then, it’s a lot harder to socialize them.

I’m going to be on the lookout for another small cat cave like the one we brought over for Brussel. If we can fit another one in the cube where she originally went into labour, perhaps one of the other more feral mamas that went into heat really early will have her litter in it, instead of somewhere in the outer yard. We do have another cat cave in the house, but it’s far too big to fit into the cube. Plus, that one is in pretty constant use by the inside cats!

Looking ahead in the long term forecast, it seems this will be the last big snowfall for our area, and April is looking to have daytime highs above freezing consistently. In fact, we are supposed to start getting daytimes highs of 13C/55F and up by the middle of the month.

Of course, forecasts that far ahead are never a sure thing. What we’ll really be starting to look at as the season progresses is the overnight lows. Once the overnight lows are consistently 6C/43F or higher, the soil should be warm enough for cool weather crops. With my winter sowing, that means taking the mulch off the beds so the soil can warm up, and give the seeds we planted in the fall a chance to germinate. Those overnight temperatures, though, are unlikely to hit until the second half of May and into June.

With the current 10 day forecast, the snow we got should melt fairly slowly, which will be good for the garden beds. So far, it looks like we won’t be getting any serious spring flooding. Of course, that could change very quickly, if we find ourselves with an April blizzard. We shall see!

For now, I’m happy with the snow we got. We didn’t have a lot of snow over the winter, so this extra moisture will be good for the farmers’ fields, as well as our gardens.

All is good!

The Re-Farmer

Getting chilly again

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As much as I appreciate that we are slowly warming up and getting some really nice days, the weather whiplash of spring seems almost like an insult. 😄

With things warm enough to be melting all over, today’s high of -7C/19F (which we are already at) with a wind chill of -21C/-6F feels so much colder. A few weeks ago, these temperatures felt like spring!

While doing my morning rounds today, little Magda decided to follow me around. She kept getting under my feet, so I picked her up. She doesn’t like to be carried and ended up on my shoulders – which she didn’t like, either! – but she was cold and shivering, and actually allowed me to tuck her into my jacket.

For a little while, at least.

There’s a weather system blowing from West to East, almost straight across the country, bringing snow and high winds. The snow is supposed to start hitting us withing the next half hour or so, and continue for several hours. Tonight’s low is supposed to drop to -22C/-8F, which means the winds will probably make it feel colder than -30C/-22F

This see-sawing of temperatures means our usual explosion of pot holes on the roads over the next few weeks! While we’re just getting a bit of snow today, it’s not unusual to have at least one big blizzard in March or April.

Tomorrow, we’re supposed to have a high of -7C/19F again, with a warmer overnight low. I’ll be helping my mother with grocery shopping tomorrow, then do some of our own errands as well. After that, we’ll be getting a few days above freezing, then dropping down again, for more weather whiplash!

Winter and spring will be battling out for a few more weeks, yet!

The Re-Farmer

Digging, and updates

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I’m looking to have a quiet-ish day today.

Relatively speaking!

By the time I headed outside this morning, we had already passed our predicted high of the day, and it will keep getting colder.

The first thing to do, of course, is feed the fur babies. Especially in the isolation shelter.

Fluffy, as you can see, is staying well away from me. No chance of checking her surgical site. Even when I came back later with wet cat food, she would not go anywhere near the food bowl (there’s just one again, as the other was knocked down to the lower level) while I was around. The Grink is more comfortable being nearby, but wouldn’t let me touch him, either.

At least one of them has yet to figure out the litter box in the lower level. 😬

With the ramp door closed, there is no need for the wind shelter box around it, but I did find another use for it. There are some cats that are too shy to come to the food bowls in the kibble house, shelf shelter or sun room, but will eat kibble left on the concrete well cap. Others just prefer to eat kibble there. I used to keep a scrap piece of rigid insulation on the cap, to keep little toe beans protected from the cold concrete, but no large enough pieces seem to have survived to this winter. So I generally just try to keep it clear of snow.

The wind shelter box makes that easier. It keeps the snow off the kibble, the scaredy cats get to have some shelter while they eat, and if they get startled, they have a “back door” to run through.

After the critters got their food and warm water, I went to switch out the memory cards in the trail cams. I found the gate cam like this.

It was completely encased in ice!

On checking the files, later, I found the motion sensor still worked, as there were several files where all I could see was the ice on the camera lens cover! It was surprisingly thick, too, and took some doing to clear. Mostly, it was using my hands to melt the ice off, because it could not be scraped off without a tool, and I didn’t want to do that and risk scratching anything.

The plan for today was to break out little Spewie later on, to clear the driveway. The snow system should be past us completely by now, but we’re also expecting high winds, later on. The main thing would be to clear the plow ridge at the end of the driveway, and we’ll need to use a shovel for that. Little Spewie was not made for jobs like that, and there’s bound to be gravel and rocks mixed in, anyhow.

This morning, though, I took the time to shovel out all the paths before heading back inside, including enough in front of the garage that the side doors can be opened to access Spewie and the extension cord collection. While clearing the paths from the shelters by the house, to the shrine and the catio, I made sure to put more snow around three sides of the catio for extra insulation. I don’t plan to go any higher than where the floating shelves and hammocks are. This way, the cats can sit and look through the plastic wrapped walls, and the sunlight can get in.

I am not taking the snow off the roof. The clear roof would let more light in and add to the passive solar heat, but the snow acts as an insulator that will help keep the heat in when it gets dark. I’m thinking the passive solar heat from the plastic wrapped walls should be enough. It will never get particularly warm in there, but at least it will be better than outside! I’d put snow around the front, too, but the propped open door needs to be kept clear, in case we need to get inside. Like when the cats (or other critters?) push the food bowl too far away from the door. Normally, I can just reach in with the scoop of kibble, and not disturb any cats too much (the more feral ones usually run off before I even reach the catio). Sometimes, though, it’s way too far, or even knocked over. I’ve had to go all the way into the catio at times, to get the food bowl and put it back in reach.

I may be short, but I’m not that short!

I was reminded today, just how much I enjoy shoveling snow! I kept telling myself to not push it, but it was just too much fun. At least the snow was still light and fluffy, and not packed down by the wind. Still, when I finally went back inside, I made sure to take some pain killers, right away! Not my prescription ones, as I want to save those for before bed. I need to talk to my new doctor about that. Painkillers that can be taken only once a day is great for helping me get some sleep, which is when I need them most, but not of much use during the day.

Aside from working on the driveway, we’re going to have to set up the laundry hose out the front door again today. From the gurgles I hear when we’re using the kitchen sink, I don’t think that section of pipe is clear enough to handle the the amount of water that would drain from the washing machine yet. It drains very quickly, and I don’t want to take the chance of it back flooding. I’m more than content to keep running the hose through the storm door until spring or so.

We’re still using the bacteria and enzyme pipe maintenance products every week, plus flushing with straight hot water and detergent every few days, as the plumber recommended, but there still seems to be a bottleneck in there. When the ice in the roof vent was cleared, we might have gotten things like leaves and other debris. Leaves would have a tendency to stick to the inside of the pipes and be harder to flush away with the water.

There’s only so much that the drain auger can clear stuff like that away. Ideally, we’d use something equivalent to a bottle brush that could be pushed through the length of the pipe that could scour the insides. We do actually have something like that, which is great for clearing smaller pipes, but isn’t quite large enough, or long enough, for this one.

It’s not a big deal. We just have to make sure to keep the wash loads going, with no breaks to wait for the dryer in between, and regularly pop outside to make sure the hose is drained, so it doesn’t freeze closed. We’ve even stopped doing cold water washes only, so that there is at least warm water running through to keep it ice free.

So that will get set up next. I don’t know if I’ll be up to doing the driveway with little Spewie as well. We’ll see. Normally, my daughter would do it, but she’s been quite sick for the past few days, and in even more pain than I am.

In other things, I’ll be sure to talk to my mother again today – assuming the hospital staff have left the phone in her room from yesterday. My sister has been contacting more distant family members about my mother, as she’s got their contact information (to be honest, I hadn’t even thought of it; I only thought of my siblings!). While we were chatting last night, she let me know that our vandal is back in a different hospital with an infection related to his recent surgery. I’d like to wish him well; it would be good to reconcile with him, but he’s so far gone, my sister can’t even mention my name around him, because he just loses it. I honestly can’t be angry with him about it; he’s clearly dealing with psychiatric issues. I do have a problem with the people around him that are enabling him and not getting him the help he needs. That, however, is not my problem. I have my mother to be concerned about.

I do wonder if I should be calling the eye clinic in the city. Her appointment is for near the end of February, and they don’t plan to do the injections this time. The will just check to make sure nothing has gotten worse. We won’t know for several more days, whether my mother will be released from hospital and sent home, or if they will be able to get her into assisted living or long term care – which is what she would prefer – instead. She is quite enjoying her time in the hospital, and things like having her meals and meds brought to her, and having all these doctors and nurses tending to her. She says the food is very good, too. She’s not on any dietary restrictions; just fluid restrictions, so she’d be getting “normal” meals. It would be so much better for her to NOT go home from the hospital! We shall see what happens over the next few days. I think, once we have a better idea of where she will be, then I’ll call the clinic and update them.

Well, I’m procrastinating now. Time to get that hose set up and start some laundry!

The Re-Farmer