So, I was expecting to go to the city for our first stock up shopping trip today.
I goofed.
I’m going tomorrow, when CPP Disability comes in, not today.
The door guy is coming tomorrow afternoon. We’re going to have to leave early, so we can be back by 2, so we have time to unload and put things away before the guy gets here.
Ah, well.
That just means I got outside stuff done today, when it’s still relatively cooler, instead of in tomorrow’s expected heat.
So I did my morning rounds, then went back to bed for a couple of hours!
Thankfully, we did not get really cold last night, like we did the night before. That drop to just above freezing did cause cold damage in the garden that eventually showed up.
The first image is of an eggplant. All the eggplant transplants have damage like this. Interestingly, none of the peppers do. They are also a heat loving vegetable, but it seems they can handle at least some cold okay.
The next image is of a winter squash. I don’t know how well these are going to do this year. First, they seemed to have really bad transplant shock. Then they got those little insects (thrips?) all over them. Now, they have cold damage. It’s amazing we still have any of these winter squash at all!
Feeding the outside cats has been getting insane. The adult cats now anticipate their share of the cat soup, so they are pretty aggressive about things! This morning, I had to actually take kittens into the old kitchen to feed them there, before finishing putting out the dry kibble, then setting out the rest of the cat soup dishes. I got all 7 kittens in. After a while, a daughter was able to start passing kittens that were done eating through the screenless window in the door, before passing out the bowls with the remaining food in them.
When I did the evening feeding, I went straight to putting kittens in the old kitchen to eat. I did not, however, see Havarti anywhere, this time. I’ll be going out again later, and will look for him. I really hope Caramel didn’t lure him across the road or to wherever her missing two were taken.
While all the kittens will play together, Poirot’s three tend to take their naps in their own cuddle pile in the sun room, rather than with the bigger kittens. We’ve been making a point of giving them extra attention. I did get word back from the rescue about what happened. They still plan to take the kittens. They’re just frantically working to get ready for their official grand opening to the general public in a few days, but they’re hoping to get the kittens before the weekend. So these three will get the care they need, as well as getting vet care, spays and neuters, when the time comes.
I’m going to miss them terribly, but I’m happy they will have their chance to get adopted, even if it’s through a large animal rescue!
My new goal for the day was to break out the push mower and finally get to all those areas around the edges that the riding mower can’t do.
When my brother was last here, he got a notification from his step counter as we were talking. He commented about how, walking around here really adds up fast! I joked that I should start using one, too. Just out of curiosity. He encouraged me to do it.
I remembered that conversation shortly before I went out to start the mowing, so I found an app and got it started.
I admit, I did go a bit further afield that typical, but I also didn’t do as much as I could have! For example, I finally got the grass growing around my brother’s bailer that is by the garage, but I didn’t go around any of his other equipment that’s closer to the barn.
I did the sides of the driveway, and also opened the gate to do the areas on each side of the driveway, there. There is an easement that I want to do as well, but not today. I need to go through it to cut away all the little trees trying to take over, first. I also didn’t do a section on one side of the driveway I normally would, as it’s getting really full of poplars that need to be cut away, first.
The only other area I did in the south side of the outer yard was to clear right up against the chain link fence. The rest can be done with the riding mower. I’d rather have used the weed trimmer for that, but it’s dead. My brother has a gas powered one, but it’s buried somewhere in the barn right now. He couldn’t find it when he was here last weekend, and didn’t have time to look for too long.
While working around the edges of the East yard, I made sure to go around those rocks in the East yard that would normally be cleared with the weed trimmer. I did get them before the trimmer died, but it needed to be done again. I also cut deeper into the spruce grove. In time, we want all that area cleaned up and cleared out, and we’ll be able to actually walk through it and enjoy the space. For now, it’s all we can do to not lose complete control of it!
After doing the South and West yards, I went back into the outer yard, this time through the gate by the fire pit. I mowed paths and cleared rings around each tree we planted out there, plus the marked areas for future trees. Those, I cut as low to the ground as I could.
Then I lifted the mower as high as it could go, and cleared a lane wide enough to drive through, to the gate. Parts of this area have never been cut yet. My brother and SIL had started to, but they don’t know where the rough spots are, and I wasn’t handy to tell them. So the lane to the back up driveway that I used to be able to keep clear is now clear again.
I didn’t do the north yard or around the main garden area. Once finished in the outer yard, I was done like dinner!
Which I then took a break to feed the outside cats, then eat. I’ve got the app paused now, but this is the final count before sitting down to eat.
So, in almost three and a quarter hours, I walked more than six and a half miles at 16,780 steps of the 6,000 step goal.
And I still have my evening rounds to do. At least I don’t need to water the garden this evening, but it will need to be done tomorrow evening. I’d do it in the morning, but we’ll need to leave early for our first stock up shopping day, so I’ll do it in the evening, after the door guy leaves.
I hadn’t caught on to the “pause” feature on the app, so the time is actually a bit off. I’d stopped to refill the gas tank and noticed a text from my sister. My mother had been trying to phone, but didn’t get through. My sister had tried to call, and just got a noise.
???
So I went inside and tried the phone.
There was just dead air – but it did tell me there was a missed call from my mother. After checking a few things, I went to the main base and simply unplugged, then plugged back in the phone cable.
It’s working fine now.
So I called my mother back. It turns out she was wanting to do that blood work she was supposed to for this month (that didn’t happen because I had to walk out due to her unfortunate behaviour). I told her, this late in June, there’s no point. so we booked a day next week, for her July lab work. I’ll go over early, we’ll wait until her med assist comes and goes, then I’ll take her to the lab. I should get her home in time for her Meals on Wheels to arrive, and then I’ll do her grocery shopping.
While chatting, I asked about grocery shopping for this week, telling her I had only Friday available to do it. She wouldn’t commit, then started talking about having someone else help her, because I’m so busy and she feels sorry for me. *sigh*
I mentioned the door guy coming tomorrow, and this time she asked questions about the door and what was going on. I asked if she remembered how frost would show up under the door and along the hinge side every winter. She did. That made it easier to explain how, over the 50 or so years that’s been happening, the door and frame eventually was just too damaged. She then asked me to let her know how much it’s going to cost, once we get the estimate. I suspect she’s thinking to pay for it, but I’m not going to hold my breath on that. She’s made such promises, then tried to back out, before. Like she did with the movers after asking us to come out here, or again with the new roof. We’ll see.
That done, I made it back out to continue mowing.
While the mowing today isn’t typical, and I did push to do quite a bit more, to sort of lay out a groundwork that will make things easier through the summer, when I do have a day where I can work outside for so many hours like this, the amount of walking probably isn’t all that much more than an average day. It’s those days when I can’t get outside that would be different but, even then, we will often have things like what’s planned for tomorrow, which will involve quite a lot of walking as we do our stock up shopping.
The thing that makes me laugh, in a “laugh or cry” kind of way is… well… I’m fat. Short and fat. With the… attitudes, shall we say, that are out there, that means I just lie around on the couch all day, watching TV while shoving bon bons down my gullet. That’s the assumption. If I just ate right and moved more, I wouldn’t be fat. One of the biggest problems with going to various doctors over the years, and many moves, is finding one that doesn’t look at me askance when I describe what my days are like or how I eat. I must be lying, because if I did what I claimed, I would be skinny. Right?
The step counter app basically shows that this fat chick really does get exercise. Lots of it. Of course, it just counts steps and calculates calories burned based on that. It doesn’t have any way of counting things like lifting or twisting – anything that can be done without actively walking. I mean, if I’m breaking down a log with a chain saw, I’m not stepping until I’m dragging the log away, at which point it measures the steps, but can’t measure how heavy the big piece of tree I’m carrying is and factor that in. Nor if I’m walking to and from the house, carrying large bags of kibble, and so on.
It should be interesting to see how my new doctor responds when I see her next, if have a chance to show her the stats.
Anyhow.
Time for me to take the step counter off pause, then do my evening rounds, before calling it a day! Tomorrow will be a day of much driving…
… and walking. 😂😂😂
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 