spring

Snow, snow, go away!

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Things continued to warm up today, so after I finished my morning rounds, I headed to the city for our monthly shop.

Got some major sticker shock, even though I was well aware of prices going up.

I did a quick stop on the way to put a big of gas in the tank. Normally, I would have grabbed some fried chicken and wedges for breakfast, but I was too early, so I just grabbed a snack. My first stop in the city was Canadian Tire. We usually get our wood pellets for the cat litter there, but the pellets last so long, we didn’t need any. What I did find was a new garden fork to replace the one that broke last fall. I hope it is a decent quality one, because the only other fork they had was a pitch fork. Which we do need, but not as much as a garden fork. I also picked up a new cat scratcher. Butterscotch and Nosencrantz still don’t leave my office/bedroom… well… Nosencrantz does explore once in a while, then dashes back again. Which means they don’t go to where the scratching posts for the other cats are. I did get what I thought was a small scratching post last month, only do discover I should have read the label more closely. It was a replacement post, so there was no platform with it. It’s still available, and the other cats sometimes scratch at is, but not Butterscotch and Nosencrantz. Nope. They are going after one of the suitcases stored in my closet, instead! That closet doesn’t have a door, just a curtain, so they have free access to it.

I had also tried picking up one of the cardboard cat scratchers the other cats love so much. They tear them to shreds and made a huge mess of them, but I’ll take that over them going for the couch, any day. Nosencrantz and Butterscotch did use that one – but Nosencrantz was also using it to pee on, instead of in the litter box, so that went away.

This time, I found one that is made out of carpet, and has non-slip bumpers on the ends, so it can be leaned against a wall. It is also infused with cat nip oil.

So far, the other cats have checked it out and knocked it about. We’ll see how Nosencrantz and Butterscotch like it.

One of the things I checked out while at Canadian Tire were their pumps. I was pleased to see that the sump pumps were not very expensive. As soon as we can work it into the budget, I want to get a spare. I also want to get a spare septic pump, too, but I didn’t see any that I could price check. That’s something I’d have to run by my brother first, anyhow. He knows exactly what our system needs.

After Canadian Tire, I went to an international grocery store that is one of our favourites. They also have hot food available, and the seating area has been returned, now that restrictions are lifted, so I got to have breakfast for lunch. :-D There isn’t a lot that we get in this store, but there are a few things that we don’t find in regular grocery stores, plus I like to get fresh produce in non-Costco size packages. :-D

For the amount I got, which was pretty typical, I’d say I spent about 25% more than last month.

Then, it was finally time to go to Costco, where I can shop with a flat cart. :-D

I made sure to fill the tank before I went in; I’d added only $20 of gas at 174.9 cents/L (regular) when I stopped on the way to the city, and I was still under half a tank. Costco’s gas was 164.9 cents/L (regular), but it still cost me just over $80 to fill the tank. I can’t remember the last time it cost me that much to fill that tank, even during the rare times it was below 1/8th of a tank. I already had to increase or grocery budget. Time to see what can be juggled so we can increase the gas budget, too. :-( I think we’ll mostly just drive even less than we already are.

Once in the store, I did get a chance to ask about getting an eye test this time. Despite all restrictions being lifted, the eye clinic still requires masks. No medical exemptions.

So no eye exam for me. :-(

There were no such restrictions for the rest of my shopping, and I was happy to see smiling faces on a lot of the staff.

I did have a couple of splurges today. Because they were still in stock and so inexpensive, I got another of the shop lights that I picked up last time to use with the mini-greenhouse. This one will be for the sun room, so the seedlings will get light from two directions, when we transfer them over, and the trays won’t need to be turned as much.

I also unexpectedly picked up a new spade. We do have one good spade. We had two other, much older ones, that we found. One broke on a root when I was digging a hole to transplant a haskap bush. The other can still be used, but the handle is broken off at the end (it was like that when we found it), so it has a jagged edge. It’s a wooden handle, so we could cut the damaged part off, but then the handle would be too short for use without wrecking our backs, so we make sure to wear gloves to use it.

Well, now we have another good spade. This one comes to a sharper point than the one we already have – which is funny, because it’s called a “round point shovel”. It’s designed more for uprooting, and where we are going to be planting the buffalo berry and sea buckthorn, there are a lot of roots, so I hope this works out. We will have a LOT of holes to dig!

As for the rest of the shopping, even taking the extras into account, I still ended up spending more while buying less. Not everything was more expensive, but most things did go up at least a little. The Kirkland brand of kibble, which the cats quite like, was limited to one bag per cardholder. Another brand didn’t have an limits, plus are slightly larger bags. Both have gone up in price, as has the canned cat food. Paper products all went up quite a bit, though nothing compared to the increase in fresh meat and fish prices! It didn’t even matter what kind or cut. They’ve all gone up. Some fresh produce, like potatoes, didn’t seem to be any different, but the dairy and eggs all had increases. Still cheaper than non-Costco, though, so it did make the trip worthwhile, still.

Most things were in stock, though some items were missing specific types or brands.

Most of what we get there are not things we can grow or make ourselves, which is why we buy them in the first place, so there isn’t a lot we can do to avoid the increasing prices. At least, at some point, we’ll be able to start raising animals for eggs and meat, and possibly milk (I don’t think we’ll be up to getting a cow, but we might be able to get milk goats at some point), but not for a while, yet. Right now, we’re focussed more on the gardening, and building what we need to be able to raise animals, starting with chickens. That is doable in the shorter term.

But I digress.

By the time I was done at Costco, I was completely knackered, and more than happy to be heading home.

Though overcast and warm all day, once on the highway, the visibility soon started to drop. At first, there seemed to be rain, but almost immediately, it turned to snow. By the time I reached home, visibility was maybe 100 yards (which is a little over 90 meters). I’d been seeing Canada Geese all over on the way in, along with a few grouse, along the roads. On the way out, it was deer. They were grazing by fence lines, though, thankfully, not running across! One herd I saw was at least a dozen deer, probably more.

For all the visibility was down, there wasn’t actually a lot of snow accumulated, when I got home.

The kibble trays were completely empty, so after the van was unloaded, and I parked it while the girls put everything away, I refilled the trays. That’s when I realized I’d forgotten the container I usually use to scoop the kibble and the deer feed, outside. I leave the container at the feeding station as I go to switch out the sign cam’s memory card, and forgot to grab it on the way back.

Which made for convenient visualization of how much snow had accumulated.

It’s not a lot, but everyone is just so tired of snow right now. Yes, we do need more snow for the moisture, so help recover the water table, but at this point, I’d rather have rain instead of snow! :-D

As I write this, I can see snow is still falling. We are at 0C/32F right now, so the snow is quite sticky. After today, it’s supposed to keep warming up, reaching 5C/41F within the week. In the 14 day forecast, we’re supposed to get as high as 8C/46F, but overall, it should remain pretty level. No extremes. Which is exactly what we need for the ground to thaw out and be able to absorb all that precious moisture. Both rain and snow are predicted, but not much of either, so that shouldn’t mess things up too much.

As much as I know it’s good to have the snow melt away slowly, I am still going to be very happy when it’s finally all gone!

The Re-Farmer

Garlic, Ginger and the snow cats :-D

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This morning, we woke to more snow on the ground.

We were supposed to get rain, first, but if we did, it wasn’t much. Not a lot of snow, either, but we’re supposed to get more, later in the week. These are our “April showers” that will hopefully lead to May flowers. :-)

I managed to snag a photo of Ginger this morning!

He has been very active, so it’s been hard to get photos! :-D

As squirmy as he was while I tried to get that photo, it was no comparison to Beep Beep.

I hadn’t even tried to pet her. As soon as she saw me taking pictures of Ginger, she started rolling around like mad, beeping for attention!

When I came outside, I saw Ginger’s brothers and Junk Pile coming out of the cat’s house, while his mom emerged from the shelf shelter by the sun room door. I’m not sure where Rosencrantz emerged from! :-D

You can see the chickadee on the bird feeder platform, and if you look carefully, you’ll see another one in the lilac bush, just under the thicker branches.

The snow almost made even the ugly fence look pretty!

I so look forward to when we can take that fence out!

The little garlics peeking through the mulch are visibly bigger than when we first spotted them! Thankfully, they should be able to handle this weather just fine. Likewise, the onion starts in the sun room are doing quite well. The temperatures in there don’t go below freezing (and the trays also have heat from below), but it gets chilly enough that if we had the tomatoes or squash in there, we’d have to bring them into the house for the night. The sun room still manages to stay warmer overnight than the old kitchen!

I spotted the shy calico disappearing under the fence on the far end of my mother’s “living fence” of hawthorn, carigana and oaks.

One of these months, I’ll get to cleaning up around the collapsing log cabin, and that corner of the fence. The chain link just sort of got dropped to the ground after the last fence post, so the junk there, and on the other side of the cabin, act as a sort of fence on their own. Once it’s cleaned out, if the renter’s cows get into the outer yard again, there will be nothing that can stop them from getting into the inner yard. Another reason to fill in any gaps, should the electric fence fail again.

I do love seeing the cows, and the few times they have gotten through, they did a great job of eating the overgrown areas in the outer yard, which in turn reduces the fire hazard in those areas. :-)

By the time I was done my rounds, the cats were making their way back into their shelter. I think it’s even dark enough for the light sensor on the timer to turn on the ceramic heater bulb.

Those things have been so handy, I think we will pick up more!

As I write this, we are at -3C/27F with a wind chill of -11C/12F. It’s the wind that’s more of an issue than the snow or the temperatures. Meanwhile, short range forecasts have us at 1C/34F over the next couple of days, with a sudden leap to 15C/59F on Thursday – only to drop to -3C over night, with more snow into Friday. Which is supposed to reach a high of 2C/35F, so it’s all going to melt away very quickly. Long range forecasts show rain and snow in the first days of May.

Somewhere in there, we have to get our septic tank emptied, and get those loads of garden soil delivered. There are things we need to be able to direct sow two weeks before last frost, and everything we are planting this year depends on having that soil available.

It feels like we’re starting to cut it close. Even with the snow, though, we’ve had enough warm temperatures that they should be able to load the soil into their trucks by now. I need to remember to make some calls tomorrow and find out.

It seems the more we get these little snowfalls, the more antsy I am to get gardening! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Yup. Still snowing

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The weather system has stalled over Ontario which, for us, means that the winds have actually reversed; Instead of coming in from the west and slowly cycling to the north, it’s swooping in from the east and swinging to the south. The entire system is covering the south end of three provinces (well, four, really, but it’s just barely touching one) and at least three states with snow, switching to rain to the east.

We’re just on the norther edge of the system, and seem to be getting more gaps between snowfalls, but there is still heavier snow expected.

The winds have increased, but we’re still at a very mild -4C/25F with a wind chill of -14C/7F.

I saw Junk Pile watching me through the window when I came out, but had to take a photo when I saw through the other window, that Nutmeg and Creamsicle Jr. were snuggled up under the heater bulb, I just had to take a picture! By the time I got my phone out, though, Nutmeg was at the window, checking me out. :-D

Smart kitties know where the warmth is!

I saw Butterscotch, too. I don’t know where her hiding spot it, but it’s not usually in the inner yard.

While switching out the trail cam memory cards, I remembered to get this picture.

We had started out with rain, but these icicles formed on the bumpers only on one side of the gate. There’s even icicles inside the gate post, at the ends of the hinge bolts!

The temperatures are expected to stay pretty constant, dipping only a degree or two overnight. By the end of today, they’re saying we may have a total of 20-35cm of snow. (8-14 inches) We have about 8 inches now.

The sun room, meanwhile, is staying steady at around 10C/14F. The onion seedlings, with their heater bulb below, are doing just fine in there. Of the various seeds that needed to be started this early, they’re easily the hardiest.

As I write this, the snow has stopped, but from the looks of the weather radar, we’ve got a patches of heavy snow about to hit us. Mind you, according to the radar, we should be snowing right now, so… we’ll see what happened.

Either way, I’m glad we don’t have to go anywhere, we’re warm inside, well stocked, and hunkered down. This is a good time for me to catch up on some crochet! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Spring snow

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Well, the forecasts were actually right for a change!

Somewhat.

When I checked the forecasts last night, they were suggesting the southern areas of our province might not get any snow at all, or if they did, it would be just a bit. The system was expected to hit more of the Northern areas of the province. The city, in particular, was predicted to get maybe a couple of centimeters of snow (about an inch).

We’re more central, so either of those forecasts could have included us, but we should have gotten at least a little snow.

When I checked the weather radar this morning, the system was over three provinces, and their bordering US states.

What caught my eye in all the blues of snow was the circle of pink and purple directly over the city. Pink and purple denoting severe weather. So while the rest of us were getting an ordinary snowfall, the city – and only the city, at that time – was getting a storm!

It has since moved on, but the area of snow is still over us, and it will continue through tomorrow.

We started out with rain, yesterday evening, and it was still warm enough that the cat’s unheated water bowls did not freeze overnight.

They just got slushy with snow!

The outside cats were more than happy to be out in the weather once their kibble bowls were filled again! Even Junk Pile cat almost came close to me!

Their bowls are completely empty every morning, after nightly visits from skunks. I’ve only seen one, once, when I popped outside at night to investigate something, and found it inside the kibble house. They can get in easily enough, but they have a harder time getting out, over that board that keeps them from knocking the bowls out, with their short little legs. We catch a whiff of their presence in the night, fairly regularly. I don’t mind them too much. Sure, in the summer, they dig up holes in the lawn, but they’re eating up the grubs, and the divots can be put back. Still, cat kibble is not good for them, so we don’t refill the food bowls in the evenings anymore. It means that cats are pretty hungry by morning, though. :-(

We may be getting snow, but we are still just barely below freezing. Our expected high for today and tomorrow is -3C/27F. Today, we’re supposed to get between 6 and 12 cm of snow (about 2 1/2 to almost 5 inches), and another 2-4cm (roughly 1 – 1 1/2 inches) tomorrow.

In the sun room, however, it was nice and warm. The thermometer was at 10C/50F, though with the heat under the seedling trays, they would have been a bit warmer than that. No danger of them getting too cold in there!

The snowfall was pretty light, this morning. Changing up the memory cards on the trail cams was a bit funny. I could really tell which way the wind had been blowing! One of the trail cams had its front face covered with snow, and under that was a layer of ice that I had to scrap off the lens cover and the motion sensor. It still managed to record some videos, though! The other camera’s front was clear, but one side was coated with ice and snow. The side with the latches to open it, of course. ;-)

I’m really happy with what we’re getting right now. The temperatures are still mild. There’s no deep freeze expected, and no high winds. While there are a few patches of severe weather in the system, they’re not anywhere near us. We’re just getting the snow. Looking at the long range forecasts, the temperatures will rise just above freezing for the next while, and we’re even expected to get more snow as we go into May, which means a slow melt, and all that precious moisture is going to be absorbed slowly into the soil, rather than being washed away. This is exactly what we need!

The girls and I have been paying particular attention to where we planted all those bulbs and corms last fall. With it being so dry, we were concerned. We planted 200 grape hyacinth and another hundred crocuses. The crocuses in particular should be starting to poke through, and even blooming, while snow is still on the ground. We’ve had so little snow this past winter, though. Add in the tulips and irises the girls planted – with the tulips coming with instructions saying NOT to water them! – and it’s hard to guess how many have survived the winter, and the very dry spring we’ve had so far. Getting that polar vortex with so little insulating snow on the ground certainly wouldn’t have helped.

Well, we won’t know how they are for some time yet. If they survived the winter, this snowfall will be a huge boost for them.

I am really happy to see this snow. If things keep up like this, the fire bans might even be lifted. Some local farmers had managed to do controlled burns earlier, but the more of those that are done, the less wildfires we need to be concerned about later.

This snow is such a blessing right now!!!

The Re-Farmer