spring

A draining visit, a good visit and some spring clean up done

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Today, I was supposed to do a dump run, but I was just too tired and in pain. It’ll have to wait until they’re open again on Tuesday.

I had a rough pain night and didn’t get much sleep, so I was going to try lying down for a bit, then visit my mother in the afternoon. I wasn’t looking forward to that, after her last phone call, but it needed to be done. I wasn’t down for long when I got a message from my SIL. My brother was on his way to see our Mother, and would then come here to the farm.

So I decided to head out to my mother’s earlier and meet him there. When I got there, though, I found another message from my SIL, as well as from my husband. My brother had tried to call me, but he was calling the land line. He was going to the farm, first.

Which worked out. I got the messages just as I parked at the hospital and realized my mother would be getting her lunch tray, so I walked around for a bit to give her time to finish eating before I went in. I stopped at the nursing station to find out about the phone call I didn’t get on Tuesday, about arranging a family meeting with the doctor. The person at the desk wasn’t the one in the know, so she made a note for the nurse in charge to come see us while I was visiting her.

The first part of the visit was okay. My mother talked a lot about things she remembered from back in Poland. All stuff I’d heard before, but that’s okay. I took a chance and showed her pictures of the chicken coop. She asked me why I didn’t build a shed for them instead of something with so many “windows”. I told her, because we can’t do that right now, this is what we’ve got. She laughed at me for having a chicken coop but no chickens. I told her we were getting chicks at the end of the month. Just 10 for now. Only 10? So few?

…

I told her, the coop is only big enough for 10 chicks.

Then she started going on about how wonderful our vandal is, because he buys his eggs from the Hutterites, and he bought chickens for the freezer from them, too. Now, it’s entirely possible he did this once or twice, years ago, but in her mind this is something he always does. I told her, the Hutterites have a huge operation; we just need enough chickens for eggs for ourselves.

Oh, and my sister’s husband visited our vandal, who told him he doesn’t want me or my brother at his funeral. Which I figured. My mother told me, she wanted us to do what was the right “Christian” thing to do. *sigh*

Then the nurse came and things got… brutal, though in a relatively calm way, for my mother.

In a nutshell; the doctor will not see her or have any meetings about her, because he simply doesn’t have the time. She does not have any medical need for a doctor’s care. She went on about her hearing and her vision, but neither is something that requires him. My mother is undergoing the mineral oil treatment on her ears again – it will be for 5 days this time – before they try flushing it again, and my mother had all sorts of things to complain about with that. Meanwhile, my mother is adamant that they are not giving her her second eye vitamin pill of the day. She writes it all down, she counts all her pills, but they tell her different things about different pills – the nurse and I both realized that my mother was mixing a blue pill up with a green pill, thinking they were the same pill, so that’s why she was getting different answers. My mother is also now convinced that her hearing was “perfect” before she came there, and her hearing problems have something to do with not getting her pills. When I pointed out that she used to have her TV and radio incredibly loud when I’d come over to her apartment in the past, she switched to Polish and accused me of taking their side and of lying. She also wants a pill for her eyes. I had to go over how the eye vitamin is only helpful for her left eye and the dry macular degeneration. The only treatment for the wet macular degeneration in her right eye is the injections she would have to go to the city for. She has rejected that and demands another pill; going back to how she claims they have stopped giving her the second one of the day. Even her own notes show that she is getting two pills at 5pm, but now she says she only gets one.

Even after the nurse left, my mother kept insisting they were not giving her these eye vitamins, and all her health problems have now only started after she came to this TCU. Things she has been dealing with for a long time. I kept trying to explain things, but she just went back to the manipulation, saying I was taking their side, etc. etc. I finally said, it was time for me to go.

As I was getting ready to leave, my mother brother up her wheelchair. This is a folding wheelchair that had been my father’s.

She asked me if I recognized it. I saw it in the hallway and said I did. She asked me to bring it over, and began questioning me about recognizing it. The staff had clearly given it a really good cleaning; whatever they used on the heavy vinyl got it all nice and supple and looking brand new. They even oiled the squeaky food rest. However, it’s an old chair, and there are cracks in the wheels and spots of rust that I could say where there before.

My mother clearly didn’t believe me. She has decided it’s not the same chair anymore. The hospital switched it.

This is not a new thing. For as long as I can remember, she accused my father of “trading” cattle, vehicles, furniture, the TV, etc. and he was giving the “good” versions the second family she believed he had, and the “bad” versions for us. When she tried to convince me a particular cow had been traded because it looked different – it had matured and filled out, looking bigger, strong and healthier – I pointed out that if this cow had been “traded”, we now have a better cow, so how did her accusations make sense?

I had a very confusing childhood at times.

The visit done, I headed home, utterly drained. My brother was still here, so we sat in their mobile home and I filled him in. It was good to talk to him about it in person, and we had a great visit! He was dreading his visit with Mom, but I just heard from him. He ended up staying with Mom for a couple of hours and the visit went well. It seems my mother got her nasty out of her system before he got there. I’m very glad it worked out that way, because she has been incredibly cruel to him during most of his visits with her.

After filling in my brother, I headed inside and took a bit of a break before changing into my grubbies and going outside for some manual labour. That, more than anything else, really helps decompress after a visit with my mother.

My focus for today was getting the straw off the septic tank. I had just started when I began getting messages from the cat rescue.

They are trying to get ahold of special traps to borrow and bring here. Traps with motion sensors and operated by remote. We can set up the camera currently facing the isolation shelter to monitor the traps. When the motion sensor goes off, check the camera to see what critter is in it. This way, we can trigger the trap only if the specific cat we are after – Slick, for example – is in the trap. Skunks and raccoons can be ignored. 😄 That would be amazing!

My brother was getting ready to head out around then, and dropped off some lovely compost they’d made from their own kitchen scraps for me. He had time to check out the chicken coop and we talked about the septic area, and the emergency bypass set up I had set off to the side until the straw was gone. After he left, I continued and got it all clear. The surface straw was set aside in a pile, but the damp straw touching the ground, which was already starting to rot, got raked up and repurposed as mulch around the honeysuckle and white rose bushes in the old kitchen garden.

That clear, I set up all the parts and pieces for the emergency bypass against the old kitchen wall for their summer storage.

That done, I also set up a hose at the tap in the wall next to the pipe running out of the basement for the emergency bypass. The shut off valve in the basement can now be opened. I won’t set all the hoses up until things warm up more, but I can at least fill watering cans for the pre-sown beds, etc., for now.

My next garden priority is to start more seeds inside. That keeps getting pushed back, but most of what we have left to start indoors are for 3-4 weeks before last frost, so for those we still have a bit of breathing room. I have only a few things in the 4-6 week range that need to be started now.

So this has been… a day. I’m very happy I got to see my brother and that I got some work done outside. As for my visit with my mother, it is what it is.

It just left me feeling so incredibly drained! Getting the straw cleared off actually helped with that. Now I’m just physically tired, not both physically and mentally tired! 😄

The Re-Farmer

The snow is back

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This morning was chilly. Just chilly; the incoming weather system hadn’t reached us yet. I was actually able to do extended rounds, with so much snow finally melted away after yesterday’s warmth. All of which froze overnight.

The amount of water had actually gone done quite a bit before it froze, though! This is behind our garage, this morning.

Yesterday, I needed to dump a litter bucket into the litter compost pile behind the outhouse. I neglected to wear my rubber boots, and the path we usually use was completely flooded, as was the path all the way to the outhouse. I ended up making my way through the other side to dump the bucket, skirting branch piles and snow drifts!

I had another bucket to dump this morning – and yes, I remembered to put on my rubber boots this time – and stopped to take the above photo. The path to the litter compost was almost completely clear. There was just one lower area with ice over it, but the water below was almost completely gone, so it was just a floating sheet of ice. This area in the photo is the lowest, so it takes quite a while for it to fully drain.

I was finally able to make my way around to the sign cam, only by skirting along the edge of the spruce grove, where much of the snow was gone. I just had one drift to break through at the far end. Literally. The snow was so soft in the warmth, yesterday, but this morning that was frozen to a hard crust at the top that I had to stamp and break through in order to cross. I didn’t even try to go through the garden area, where the snow it still over a foot deep. Going around did give me a chance to check out and confirm we have had two more dead trees fall.

The big spruce landed on top of another spruce that fell years ago. The other two pictures in the slideshow above are of a dead poplar that is now hung up on other trees.

I’ve already talked to my brother about clearing the deadwood out in the spring or summer. If he can get his tractor going, we can pull them out. Then we can start taking down the other dead spruces as well. We really, really want to get the ones that are closer to the house!

At this point, I would just like to have the trees all dragged into one general space in the old garden area where it’s still all wide open. Once they are there, I can process them to use. Some – the thickest trunks – will become support posts for the outdoor kitchen we are planning to build, while others will be used to build raised beds.

While walking towards the sign cam, I passed a huge poplar, and saw this lovely sign of spring.

Soft clusters of catkins, all over the branches! This tree is the only one I see them on right now.

All of this is now covered in snow.

The system is hitting other areas harder than us, but we will be getting snow, off and on, through to tomorrow. Some areas will be getting a mix of rain and snow, while other higher elevations might get as much as 15cm/6in, where most areas are looking at 4-8cm/1.5-3in

It started here in the late morning. When I headed out to meet the pharmacy delivery guy, we had about an inch of new snow. It was light enough that I could just use a broom to clear the steps and sidewalk. It has started snowing again, so I’ll probably need to do it again when it’s time to feed the outside cats for the end of the day. The delivery driver, meanwhile, said that his place is flooding! His house is not in danger, thankfully, but he’s had to contact the highways department. That tells me there would be an ice dam in a ditch between his place and the lake that needs to be cleared. This system is pushing north, and I was chatting with one of the rescue’s contacts this morning. She lives on the reserve that might have to do some evacuations because of this storm. For her, that means working out how to help animals, should that happen.

This morning, I was able to pet a very pregnant Slick while she was eating, and was able to send the group chat I have with the rescue some video. Slick is one of the few that allows contact, but only when she’s on the cat house roof and eating. Even then, it’s touch and go. They would like us to trap her and bring her in before she pops. We can try, but it would be very difficult to trap just one specific cat! Especially one that is more feral than not. We will do the best we can.

In other things, while doing my checks in the basement this morning, I found that the cold water tap in the laundry sink is dripping even faster. I contacted the plumber and talked to him about it. Both taps need to be replaced and I already have new taps. The problem is that the current ones were affixed permanently. My brother said a torch would be needed to get them off. !!! I explained this to the plumber – then mentioned we have other leaks down there to check, too. He started to look at his calendar saying he couldn’t come today, and I told him it wasn’t urgent. Next week would be better. So he will come either Monday or Tuesday, depending on his schedule, and will call us before he comes.

As for me, I am taking the truck in to the garage tomorrow morning. I got a text yesterday aftenroon, letting me know the part had arrived. So we will get the new OEM sensor, the engine flush and oil change all done as the same time. Hopefully, that will bring and end to those weird low pressure readings!

I also got a call from the tax preparers last night, just before 7pm!! They close at 5.

Our taxes are done. I will need to go in to sign my form, then bring my husband’s home for him to sign and bring back again. I will do that after getting the truck back, tomorrow. The tax preparer told me how much we’re getting back. For me, it will be zero. I thought I would get my disability tax credit the same as I had been getting the caregiver tax credit, directly to me. However, because I have 0 income and don’t “need” it, they were able to transfer it to my husband’s return – and got a larger tax return for both of us in the process, than if it had been done separately. That’s going to come in handy, that’s for sure! Especially with the extra plumber’s bills.

So tomorrow is going to be a busy day of driving around. Hopefully, the roads will not be too bad after this storm passes!

The Re-Farmer

Finally getting things done

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First thing I just have to say is…

Oh, wow, that new well pump is so QUIET!!!!

For 8 years, I’ve been hearing that old pump going off, never knowing what “normal” sounded like. Just that this one was sounding worse and worse as time went on. Now that it has finally been replaced, it actually feels weird to just barely hear it when it goes off.

The other thing I’m appreciating, in a still stressful way, though, is not having to worry about the truck’s oil pressure sensor triggering alarms. The alternative, until the OEM sensor comes in, is no sensor at all, but I’ve had to drive it with the gauge at 0 before. The check engine light is on now, of course. I’ve driven with that on for quite a while this past winter, until it warmed up enough and it shut off on its own. That was the O2 sensor and likely caused by the polar vortexes that his us freezing something in it.

Still, I’m going to be nervous driving the truck no matter what. We’ve had so many crazy things break down, that’s really to be expected.

Today, however, the dump is open from 9am to1pm, and we were seriously overdue for a dump run. The last time I managed a dump, I ended up needing a tow.

My younger daughter, sweetheart that she is, offered to come with me to keep me company. 😄

We loaded the back of the truck after the morning cat feeding was done. We had so many garbage bags, including from the sun room and the garage, to load, there was room for only one bag of recycling. The recycling can wait. The temperatures are warming up, and the garbage bags no longer freeze in the old kitchen, so they needed to be gone!

When we got to the dump and started making our way to the pit, my daughter got out to walk ahead, looking for anything that might puncture a tire. There was a pick up truck parked on the side, and we hadn’t realized someone was in it! It was one of the staff having his lunch, I think. He could tell what she was doing and I could see he was assuring her it wasn’t necessary. We got a chuckle out of that after she guided me in backing up to the pit and she told me what he’d been saying. He had even asked if we needed a hand unloading!

After we were done and driving out, I stopped at the truck to thank him. I mentioned to him about being paranoid, having gotten a flat after doing a dump run once. He told me that he’s been hearing stories like that from many, many people, so he has been making sure to keep an eye out and to clear in front of the pit if he sees anything that could cause damage. I made sure to tell him how great of a job they’re doing; the place hasn’t looked this good for a long time! I wanted him to know how much it is appreciated.

From there, it was a quick stop at the recycling bins, then then we made our way to the town north of us. I’d brought our files to drop off at the tax preparer. Our taxes are about as simple as can be; the only change this year is that I no longer am going to get the Caregiver Tax Credit, but now qualify for the Disability Tax Credit. We gave up trying to do taxes ourselves; the last time I picked up the software, it had changed so much, I could barely navigate it. I even got another company’s software, and it turned out to be just as useless. My husband has T4A slips – the slips for persons on long term disability. One brandy’s software didn’t even recognize the A, nor could I find where we could claim the Disability Tax Credit and the Caregiver Tax Credits. When it came to claiming my husband’s medical expenses – just his prescriptions, usually – it became impossible. There simply wasn’t any way to input his data accurately. I gave up, took it to a pro, and we’ve been doing that ever since.

After dropping the files off, I asked my daughter if we needed to get anything while in town, and she informed me we were out of milk, so we went to the grocery store.

Good grief.

I got a 4L of 3% milk instead of our usual 2L. A 4L of 3% is usually just over $5. In this town, one brand was over $8, and one was just under. That happened to be the brand we usually get, so we got it again.

We went through the store to see if there was anything else we needed. Most of the prices were just insane. The exception was beef prices. I saw a couple of big beef tenderlions that were just over and just under the $100 range. Those same beef tenderlions cost almost $300 at Costco! Still, it wasn’t something we were ready to get today, and ended up just getting snacks for the ride home. My daughter picked up a package of donuts to share with her sister. I don’t like cake type donuts much, but she said she’s been craving a good donut.

Then she grabbed everything and snuck ahead to pay for it for me! 😄

Later on, she came to me, very disappointed. The donuts turned out to be terrible. The same thing happened the last time we picked up some mini donuts about a month ago. They looked so good, but tasted horrible!

After we got home, I remembered to phone my mother. I usually remember too late in the day to actually make the call.

*sigh*

I asked how she was doing, and she started to complain about being in pain, but when I asked what kind of pain, she just started going on about how she’s been there for three months, and the doctor has never seen her. She told me that when she tells the staff that she wants to see the doctor, they just tell her “he’ll be here tomorrow” or “he’s on holidays”. She’s conflating responses. He was on holidays over Easter, but he’s been back for awhile now. She still claims they’re saying he’s on holidays. I tried to explain again that yes, he has (briefly, to be sure) seen her, but that he’s only there 1 day a week, and it’s to go over the staff reports, not necessarily to see individual people. She cut me off and told me she didn’t care

She did ask me if I’d heard from my sister and my brother. I told her, it’s been a few days since I’ve heard from my sister and got a lecture about how we need to stay in communication. I told her, if we have nothing to say, there’s nothing to say! Then I told her I’d heard from my brother yesterday, and how they’re now in Spain, after walking 190km, with another 90km to go. She told me, she didn’t care about kilometers, and how all she knows is that my brother has basically run away from his responsibilities and is hiding overseas. I told her, they are on a pilgrimage. Following the paths of saints. She brushed that off.

She’s asked what was new with us, so I told her about the well pump. I knew she wouldn’t care, but I figured it would stave off any lectures on why I hadn’t visited her. I told her the pump had stopped working on Sunday, so we had no water, which seemed to confuse her. Then I said we called plumbers, and she started demanding I call a guy she remembers my father hiring in the past that lives not far from us. I said no. I’m going to call a real plumber! Plus, he’s tight with our vandal. The guy actually is a plumber by training, but hasn’t worked as a plumber in years. He’s been on disability for years. I had to cut my mother off from demanding I call him to say, it’s already fixed. We got a plumber in and, thanks to my brother, we already had a pump, so it’s done. We have water again.

Oh, that’s your problem.

…

At that point I told her, don’t ask me what’s new with us, if you don’t care to hear about what’s new. I had to repeat it a few times before she got what I was saying, then tried to blame it on how bad she’s feeling.

She never did tell me exactly how she’s feeling bad, other than generic stuff. She started off talking about pain, but finished by saying she thinks it’s her digestion that’s causing problems.

The real problem is, my mother is someone that is 94 years old, has lived a life of great physical hardship, including surviving starvation and a war, but somehow thinks she would be feeling perfectly healthy – and any doctor that can’t just fix her (without pills, though, because she’s already taking so many and she’s still in pain…) is not a good doctor. I have tried to get her to explain her expectations to me, and she never quite answers.

It was a frustrating call.

She had been about to go for a nap, though, so I didn’t keep her on the phone for too long.

Meanwhile…

It’s been a lovely day, but one where I’ve been fighting sleep all day. I’m just drained. Still, I made sure to do the evening cat feeding, just to get outside and enjoy the sunshine and warmth. We hit 10C/50F today, and it’s been so lovely!

This morning, my daughter had helped me return all the carriers for storage in the sun room, with the doors open so cats can go in and out. After doing the feeding, I got some puppy pads to set inside the carriers in such a way that they would also keep the doors from closing all the way.

This promptly happened.

That’s little Flopsy on the left. The one on the right is an unsocialized cat we haven’t named. Can’t get close to it, but it is quite content to go into a carrier and use it as a nest!

It was so nice out, I took the time to grab the snow shovel and do some clearing. I shoveled in front of the old kitchen garden retaining wall, clearing more than enough space for the assembled chicken coop. Now that there’s no longer over a foot of snow on the area, the layer of ice left on the grass can melt away and the area will have a chance to dry out faster. We won’t get chicks until the end of May, and they won’t be big enough to go into a coop for weeks later, but the earlier we set up the coop, the better. It will give us time to determine if that area will actually work, or if we need to try somewhere else. We don’t have a lot of level areas, anywhere.

I’m really, really enjoying the warmer weather! At this rate, it won’t be long before I can remove the mulch on the sown garden beds, so the soil can thaw out faster. Not in the main garden area, yet. That’s still completely covered in snow and will take longer, but the slightly higher raised beds in the old kitchen garden and in the east yard are already mostly free of snow.

Looking ahead, we are going to have a few days where the highs will dip below freezing again, but after that we’re supposed to start getting highs above 10C/50F, and overnight lows staying above freezing, regularly.

I can hardly believe April is almost half gone already.

Time is just flying by!

The Re-Farmer

A gorgeous day

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It’s coming up on evening as I write this, and we still haven’t reached our high of the day – anywhere from 5-7C/41-45F depending on which app I look at.

When I headed out to do the morning cat feeding, I didn’t even bother wearing a coat.

One of things we find in the winter is tunnels dug into the piled up snow. Today, I found two new ones – and evidence to show what has been making them!

The first photo is of the biggest tunnel. It’s hard to see, but to the left of the opening there is the distinctive paw print of a raccoon. Both raccoons and skunks are out now, and I’m seeing them in the sun room, stealing kibble!

The next three photos are of one tunnel with two openings.

I wonder if they nap in them or something?

After doing my morning routine, I was basically knackered. I am feeling both better and worse today. Better in some ways, but worse in a new pain way. I can’t stand for very long. It’s better while I’m moving, for a little while, at least.

So the girls have been taking over for me for the most part. I did go out again to do the evening cat feeding, and even tried to clear more snow away from around the well cap, were the bigger of those snow tunnels was.

The cats are really enjoying the warmer weather!

This gorgeous tuxedo is a very feral male. He’ll go into the sun room sometimes to eat, or to assert dominance over other males, but will not allow a human to come anywhere near him. Which is the only reason he didn’t run away as soon as I walked back into the sun room. He and Hypotenose where having words.

It was so nice out, I found excuses to stay outside longer. Did a bit more clearing of snow from around the well cap, though I probably shouldn’t have. I hate not being able to do work while the conditions are good.

The cats are just loving the warm.

The fluffy tabby glaring at me on the right is Furriosa. She has been making strange a lot more often of late. Which is unfortunate, as we want her to get used to being handled as much as possible before we take her in to the city for vetting and fostering and eventual adoption. When the time comes, I think we’ll have to close up the isolation shelter with the littles inside for the night, to make it easier to get them into carriers the next day. Sir Robin and Grommet will be easy to get, as will Domino and Blot. Bug has even been more ansty lately, and when I try to pet Furriosa in the isolation shelter, she runs out now. I think the warmer weather has something to do with it. They have more energy to run around!

Tomorrow is Easter, and it’s going to be a quiet one at home. I’m not up to driving to my mother’s to visit her and deliver a basket, as I’d planned, but I will be phoning her instead. All the remaining Easter preparations will be on the girls. Monday is our 38th anniversary, but we won’t be doing anything special this year. Tuesday, I bring the truck in to get checked out to find out why I’m losing oil again. Hopefully, the truck will not have anything major going on, and I will be feeling well enough to make the trip to my mothers – and the city trip to deliver cats! – later in the week.

Right now, I’m torn between wanting to go back outside and enjoying the day, or crawling into bed and curling up into a ball until tomorrow.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Teeth

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I’m happy to say, things went really well today.

The plow went by last night, so I made sure to head out and clear the plow ridge before heading into town for my dental appointment.

I’m so antsy and paranoid about the truck, I ended up leaving half an hour earlier than intended – and I was already planning to leave half an hour earlier than I needed to, to get to my appointment!

It did give me time to stop for the mail and then get a bit of gas beforehand.

Of course, every time I stopped and started again, I was on edge, waiting for something to break down again.

The road to town was surprisingly bad. A lot of areas covered by blowing snow yesterday had become hard packed, icy – and melting! It may have been only about -8C/18F and windy at the time, but any dark surface was warming up in the sun quite a bit!

Once at the clinic, I started looking in my emails for our new insurance information. My husband’s employer had an excellent insurance package that still applies as long as he’s on long term disability (which ends at age 65) that included me and the girls, until they reached the age of 19. For most prescriptions and dental, we got 90% coverage.

The company has since changed their insurance package. After much back and forth-ing, we found that if he wanted to maintain the same level of coverage for both of us, we’d have to basically pay $300 a month – on top of the 10% that isn’t covered – billed quarterly. (His employer would still pay 100% of the premium for basic coverage.) Which is wildly out of budget for us. Even if it just covered him, we would have had to pay more than our budget has room for to get the same coverage he’s getting right now.

We ended up taking the only other option that would include me on the insurance. We’ll now be covered 75% instead of 90%, and to include me works out to just under $30 a month.

They will also no longer be issuing membership cards. It’s all going to be through an app.

That kicks in on April 1st.

I had hoped to be able to give the dental clinic the new insurance information, but there was nothing in any of the emails. Not even where to download the app. We’ll be needing to give this information to our pharmacy, too.

I got nothing.

I did let them know that the insurance would be changing soon, but it would not affect today’s visit.

Then I settled in for what I expected to be a long wait.

They took me in early!

While the tech was setting me up, I explained about the broken tooth, and how I’ve had no pain in my lower jaw that they’d been trying to find the source of the last two times I was there, since the piece fell out. She told me she’d heard of how pain can sometimes be in a completely different area before, but never to the extent it did with me! She got an Xray, which was awkward because of how far back the tooth is, but she got enough of an image that the dentist could use it.

When he came in, he joked about how my broken tooth “cured” the pain I was having before! He had tried so many things to find the source of the pain, where I was feeling it! I told him, my mouth was feeling better than it had in ages – except for the sharp bits cutting my cheek and tongue.

He took a look and said that, ultimately, I would need a crown. Which is what I expected. They couldn’t do that today, though. I explained about the insurance change and he considered it, but there was no way they’d be able to get a crown booked in before the end of March. For now, though, he could put in a “temporary” filling.

The entire procedure went very well! The freezing has worn off, so I just have that “healing itch” right now, but that’s it. It is so great to not have those sharp edges!

When it was done, I asked how long I could expect this “temporary” filling to last, and he basically said, years. It’s more an issue of having new pieces of tooth breaking off than the filling itself. Unless something like that happens, or I start to feel pain, I can hold off getting the crown for quite some time.

Well, that was good news!

I felt good enough, and the truck ran well enough, that I decided I was up to visiting my mother. I just wanted to stop at the nearby pharmacy to pick up some Voltaren that she asked me for.

Which is when I started feeling some thumping and thudding at the wheels, as I turned into the parking lot.

Nothing at all like what was happening before, though. Particularly not that big kathump. I pulled into a spot as quickly as I could…

… and found a big chunk of ice had fallen off from under the truck!

The roads may have been melting, but it’s cold enough that any water froze pretty much immediately. My mud flaps were not only full of ice built up to the point of rubbing on the tire, but there were horizontal icicles formed at the bottom edges!

I knocked off as much as I could, though one flap’s build up was so large and solid, I could barely chip away parts of it with the scraper end of my snow brush.

Once I got it clear enough, I finished parking properly!

After I was done at the pharmacy, I headed to my mother’s town, cutting across to a different highway to head south until I reached the road that led straight to my mother’s town on yet a third highway.

I forgot just how bad the highway I took is. It’s not broken up or anything, but it’s a very rough ride. Today, it was also pretty badly covered with ice and packed snow, with melting edges. Which did not help with my paranoia of something breaking down on the truck again!

The cross road to my mother’s town was even worse, when it came to the ice and snow.

The noises didn’t start again until I was turning into the parking lot at the hospital. Just a rubbing noise, mostly.

After parking, I went to look, and just had to take a couple of pictures.

All the wheel wells had big teeth! So many teeth!!!

I spent the next while knocking off ice as much as I could, but there was still that one flap that was too solid and wouldn’t come off. I did park the truck with that side facing the sun, though, so I left it and just hoped the dark surface of the mud flap would warm up enough to start it melting a bit.

Then I headed in to visit with my mother.

It was a pretty good visit. She was happy to see me, though she did immediately start complaining. That included calling her radio – the high end one my brother got her years ago that worked just fine in her apartment, but can’t pick up the stations she wants from inside the hospital – garbage. Another radio had been brought in that was labeled as available for all to use, and she says it works fine, but her radio doesn’t.

Except it does. It just can’t pick up the Polish language station she’d been listening to, back at her old apartment with a special antenna set up.

Then there was the phone. It’s garbage. It’s not working. She can’t use it.

I told her, it’s not garbage. It works fine. It seems she’s been trying to make calls and hasn’t been able to figure it out, but forgets that part of the reason we got it for her is so that we could phone her directly, rather than through the nursing station.

I ended up spending some time with her phone. We’ve given up trying to show her how to use the contacts list, and have told her to just dial a number and press the green button, like she did with her previous phone.

I caught two potential problems.

One is, the phone goes to sleep after a while. Any button can be pushed to wake it up, but if you start to dial without waking it up first, it doesn’t register that first number at all. So we walked through that a bit, and I got her to call my cell phone a few times.

Which is when I discovered she hasn’t been putting the phone to her ear. She has just been staring at the screen with the “connecting…” display.

So I walked her through it a few times, including telling her to actually put the phone to her ear after hitting the green button.

Then she wanted to phone my sister, because it’s Friday, which is a day off for her.

I helped her make the call, though her contacts list, and had to tell her to put the phone to her ear again.

When my sister answered, my mother promptly started basically arguing with her about not visiting. It turns out she expects my sister to come out on both Wednesdays and Fridays. Not Saturday, because they celebrate their church’s version of the Sabbath. I could hear my sister explaining that she’s not going to be able to come out every Friday because that’s her day to get ready for the Sabbath. When my mother brought up that she hadn’t come out on Wednesday, I heard her saying that she had tried to call my mother, several times, but got no answer.

…

My mother seemed a bit confused by that. Then starting saying things about not knowing how to use the phone, and maybe she didn’t have it with her…

She got another reminder to keep the phone with her whenever she leaves her room.

Her call with my sister went on long enough that her supper pills were delivered, and it was getting to the point where I needed to head home. After a while, I had to remind my mother that she needed to take her pills, so they finished the call. I helped her take her pills (the nurse brought the pills, but my mother didn’t have any water to take them with) and we talked for a bit longer before her supper tray was brought to her. So that’s when I said my good byes and headed out.

Checking on the truck, first!

Yes, it was long enough and sunny enough that I was finally able to get that huge chunk of ice off the last mud flap!

I messaged home before I left, letting the family know I was going straight home and requesting some food be ready for me, since I hadn’t had lunch. My mouth was thawed out enough that I could safely eat and not worry about accidentally chewing a hole in a numb cheek (I’ve actually done that in the past!).

The last stretch of highway wasn’t much better, but at least it wasn’t as wet. When I got home, I didn’t have as many new teeth hanging down from my fenders!

After checking and clearing around the wheel wells, though, I spotted a surprise under the front end.

A perfect looking – but very dead – butterfly had fallen out from somewhere under the front end! It looked ready to fly away at any moment!

So very odd.

With how well the truck handled, I think it would be safe to try for our first stock up shop for April, tomorrow. Not a Costco run though. The one essential stop I need to make is a Canadian Tire, as we just ran out of litter pellets, so Costco will wait until next week. This time, we’ll be picking up stuff for our Easter basket, and I want to make a small one for my mother, too.

I’m only slightly more confident about driving the truck to the city.

If it hadn’t been so weird about sometimes working fine – usually when the mechanics were taking it for a test drive – to suddenly needing to be towed again, with so many different things seeming to go wrong all at once, I wouldn’t be this paranoid about it.

It is what it is, though. We play the hand we’re dealt with, and do the best we can!

For now, though, I can honestly say it was a really good day.

The Re-Farmer

Not quite the day I planned

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The plan for the day was to give the truck a test by heading into town this morning, then if all went well, to visit my mother in the afternoon.

Well, one out of three got done.

This morning, after taking care of the outside cats, I did a bit of shoveling around the house and the truck, which is parked in the yard until my brother can move his truck out of the garage into a spot I’m not even going to try and get it into, with all the snow. The snow in the yard wasn’t too bad, though.

Then I decided to check the end of the driveway.

It was drifted over.

The road didn’t need to be plowed, but there was enough snow drifted across between the gate and the road that it had to be cleared before I could go anywhere.

So did the rest of the driveway.

I could have gotten through, I’m sure, but 1) I didn’t want to push the truck when I’m not even convinced the replaced differential was the cause of all the problems I was having, 2) I would have been slip sliding the whole way and 3) our forecasts are no longer showing temperatures above freezing coming up in the 10 day forecast, but they are showing more snow before then.

I did the end of the driveway, first. The snow was still light and fluffy, so it was an easy job. It still took almost an hour. I stopped after that to head in, have breakfast, hydrate and take some painkillers.

Before coming in, though, I checked on little Spewie.

The auger still won’t turn. Which means it wasn’t just something frozen in the works somewhere. It’s actually broken. Nothing is visibly broken, though. I’d have to dismantle it to find the problem.

Not going to happen any time soon.

It did mean the driveway had to be done the old fashioned way.

That took about two more hours.

I didn’t even do all of it. I did part of the turning radius to get into the garage when coming in from the road, but not where I would be turning in from the inner yard. I did clear around my brother’s truck, though.

Then I had to head in and take a rest brake. I really, really didn’t want to go anywhere, but I wanted to test the truck again before my dental appointment, tomorrow, and refill a couple of our water bottles in the process. I am also not counting on being able to get into the city on Saturday, and had some stuff I wanted to get, just in case, while at the grocery store. Things just keep happening and changing my plans!

I had just finished with the shoveling, gotten inside and was starting to take my coat off when the phone rang. I didn’t even try go get to it before the answering machine picked up.

It was the pharmacy delivery driver, letting us know he was almost at our place.

So I put my coat back on and headed out to meet him at the gate.

Oh, gosh. I just realized, as I write this. It’s still open.

*sigh*

After taking a break – and more painkillers – I grabbed the water jugs and headed out.

Happily, I did not get stuck getting out of the yard.

As for the drive in, the truck seemed to be working fine, but the road is in such bad shape, plus it now has the remains of drifts and ice along the way, that it was really hard to judge what I was feeling. Was that the truck shuddering, or was it the road making it shudder?

Along the way, I saw three back hoes, busily clearing the ditches of snow – two of them in our own municipality, including one right in our little hamlet. They’ve gotten a lot of progress in the past couple of days. It’s going to make a big difference, once the snow finally starts to melt.

I got a few things “extra” to take advantage of some sales, along with refilling the water jugs. Blocks of cheese were on sale, so I ended up getting four different kinds. I was able to get a decent amount of meat this time, including stewing beef. Rye bread, as always, plus some Naan that was on sale. Stuff like that.

I saw some 7.5kg kibble on sale and got a bag for the outside cats, just in case. In the end, even with the sale prices, it came out to $200, but I used some of my points and got $30 off.

By the time I was done, I knew there was no way I was going to visit my mother. I was in just too much pain. Instead, I headed straight home, without even stopping for more gas ($1.729/L still) or the post office. I can do that tomorrow, when I go in for my dental appointment.

I’ll call my mother later on, instead.

Once I got home, I drove up to the house and my daughter helped me unload everything but the kibble. I took that through the sun room and added it to the bin right away, then did the evening cat feeding, so no one would have to go out again, later.

I was supposed to close the gate again before going back in. I’m thinking it should be safe to leave open for the night. Our vandal doesn’t seem to do as much stupid stuff in the winter.

*sigh*

I think today is a good day to go to bed early – after I call my mother.

And take more pain killers.

*sigh*

It’s a good thing I actually enjoy shoveling so much.

The Re-Farmer

Seriously?

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It had been light snow, off and on, all day.

Now we have this.

Seriously???

It’s supposed to continue from how to about 2am. The forecast of just a couple of inches in total over the span of three days is now 7.75cm/3in just for tonight.

I am so tired of winter.

Watch, we’ll get our April blizzard this year, too…

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

We’ll figure it out

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Better start with the cuteness.

Misty using Ghosty as a pillow, who is using Cheddar as a pillow.

There were actually 6 cats mashed together in this particular cuddle puddle.

So… update on the truck.

I got a call back from the garage. He had called the parts supplier and was assured the replacement differential will arrive at their city location today (Friday).

Which means it will get to the local location and the truck will be repaired on Monday.

There’s nothing they can do until they have the part. It is what it is. However, it means no vehicle for another weekend.

I asked about the possibility of a courtesy vehicle and he was very apologetic. They simply don’t have anything available.

Fair enough.

We do have my brother’s truck, but I really don’t dare drive it any further than I already have. Particularly right now. We’re under a fog advisory at the moment – visibility down to zero in places. Temperatures are supposed to stay above freezing all through to tomorrow and, with it, we’ll be getting a mix of rain and snow. Road conditions are going to be very dangerous. I simply don’t trust myself to drive a much larger, strange vehicle in the conditions we are expecting. I don’t want to risk wrecking my brother’s truck, just because I’m not used to driving a beast. If it were summer, it would be a different story. I still wouldn’t want to do it, but at least the chances of my ending up in the ditch or something would be far lower!

The only problem is, I wasn’t able to get a lot of kibble at the general store, yesterday. We’ll have to make what we have, stretch through the weekend. We might be able to do our outside cat version of cat soup, which would help and they love. It might be warm enough that it won’t freeze before they eat it.

These issues with the truck are getting ridiculous. It’s getting closer to two months now, where the truck has been in the garage with only a few days here and there when we were able to bring it home before something else went wrong!

We’ll figure it out.

Oh, and…

Happy first day of Spring.

Imaged created by WordPress AI – but that’s pretty much what it feels like outside right now.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2025 garden: Arikara squash, and a little harvest

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Today is feeling downright cold!

When I checked the temps in the wee hours, we were at 7C/46F, but it felt like 4C/39F. As I write this, we are now at 10C/50F, but it feels like 3C/37F! The expected high of the day is only 16C/61F.

I don’t know if we got one last rainfall during the night. Wind is the real issue this morning. For the first time in a long time, though, I have not been seeing smoke, so I’m hoping all that rain has made a big difference for the wildfires.

While doing my morning rounds, I finally gave in and took the netting off from above the Arikara squash. The elm seeds are mostly dropped, and it was doing nothing to keep the cats off. In fact, as I was starting to pull the ground staples to remove it, one of the yard cats (a tabby with no name) jumped onto the mesh and immediately fell through over a squash and started to roll around in a panic!

Thankfully, the collars around the squash did their jobs, and nothing was crushed.

What we do have, however, is buds and even a blooming flower!

What is strange is that these are all female flowers. No male flowers! I’m used to the male flowers blooming first. I’m not sure if I should be pruning these off so the plants themselves can grow bigger before starting to bloom again. I’ve never grown these before. I’ll have to look that up. I’d hate to have to prune them but, without any male flowers to pollinate them, the baby squash are just going to wither away, anyhow.

At the high raised bed, I decided to pick these, as the plants were getting big enough to crowd other things out.

I’m leaving one Purple Prince (I think) plant that has bolted to go to seed. Tiny flower buds have started to appear. I picked the other larger ones; perhaps I waited too long and should have picked them at a smaller stage. As for the red thing in the middle, I thought it was a beat, but as I was cleaning and trimming it later, I could see that it’s white on the insides to… a big radish?

That’s one thing about using a seed mix for the winter sowing. This one was a mix of whatever root vegetable seeds I had left. There was only one type of turnip, which makes it easy, but there were several times of radishes and beets, and two types of carrots. One type of radish – the French Breakfast – has a distinct shape that makes it easy to identify. Everything else is “root vegetable surprise”. 😄

I just hope today isn’t so cold that the seeds recently planted will die off and rot instead of germinating. Things are supposed to get sunny and warm up over the next while, without extreme heat, which will be nice. Those overnight temperatures, when they start dropping below 10C/50F, could be a problem, though. The transplants should handle things fine, but the direct sowing… well, we’ll see how those go. At the very least, it will slow germination down.

Well, hopefully, we will have a long, moderate fall and a late first frost, to extend our growing season.

Meanwhile, in the time it took me to write this, our temperature has actually dropped, instead of getting warmer! We’re not supposed to reach our high of the day until 7 or 8 this evening. I’m( seriously considered plugging the cat house in again. It’s overcast enough that the light sensor for the heat bulb will turn on for the kittens.

Definitely “brrrrr” out there!

The Re-Farmer

Rough night

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I tried to go to bed early last night.

The cats had other ideas.

So did my hips.

Ah, well.

This morning, I stayed in my pjs, popped on some rubber boots and did my short rounds. Which is just as well. It was snaining – snow-raining – at the time. You could even hear a continuous almost crackling noise as frozen rain hit. In fact, you can hear it in the video I took this morning.

It was -1C/30F, with a wind chill of -4C/25F at the time. The thermometer in the portable greenhouse was reading 1C/34F. Not a lot of difference.

The holes in the roof probably didn’t help.

Yup, I found a couple of tears in the plastic this morning. Best guess is, a cat tried to jump onto it from the kibble house roof.

Thankfully, there was no other damage. For now, I used clear duct tape to close them up from the inside. Once everything is warm and dry again, I’ll at more to the outside.

I had a lot of hungry cats this morning, including Brussel, but she was nursing her babies and wouldn’t leave the cat cave. She waited for me to deliver her wet cat food breakfast, instead. I’m glad of that, as it is more assurance that she and her kittens won’t simply disappear one morning, to some hidden location.

Last of all, I gave her a squeeze treat. It was harder than usual, as there were other cats around, and they can smell it. They want some, too, but we don’t have enough for all the cats. They’re just for the mama.

Once again, as I moved the tube away so I could squeeze the rest out, she got angry at me. She did wait, though, as I squeezed the last of it onto my finger and put my hand in. There was no hesitation as she licked the last of it off – but when I pulled my hand away, she attacked it, trying to pull it back!

Sorry, Mama. You ate it all up!

Once I was back inside, I headed to bed pretty much right away. This time, the cats let me sleep – as did the pain killers. Somewhat. I got at least a couple of hours of sleep out of it.

Meanwhile, my daughters got the drain from the washing machine set up out the storm door and started laundry day. Later on, I will be opening up the drain pipe in the basement and working to clear it out some more. We’ve done the hot water/detergent flush from the kitchen sink a few times, but I can still hear from the laundry drain, what sounds like water backing up the pipe a bit. Not a problem at all for the kitchen sink, but a potential problem for wash cycle draining, as it drains so much faster than the kitchen sink, and is at least 6 feet closer to that first bottleneck. As good as that drain auger tip is for clearing the pipe, what we really need is a heavy duty bottle brush type pipe cleaner that can really scrape off the inside of the pipe. I’ve been looking and the closest I can find is up to 30 feet long (you can add sections to it) and can be attached to a drill, but it’s designed to clean dryer vents, so the brush is a LOT larger than the inner diameter of the pipe I am trying to clean out. The bristles may be flexible enough to bend and fit, though. I’ve found another version that includes a narrower bottle brush end for the lint trap that looks like it would fit much better, but the rod is only a maximum of 2′ long, and costs almost a much as the 30′ version.

*sigh*

I hate having to shop for this stuff online. I’ve never even seen anything like these at the hardware stores. Perhaps, however, I was just not in the right sections. Something to keep an eye out for.

Meanwhile, we’ll try to clear the pipe out as best we can, with the tools we’ve got.

It’ll be so nice to not have to run a house out the storm door window to do laundry again.

The Re-Farmer