weather

Finally full contact, and a bit of an update.

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First up, some morning cuteness – and a success!

This is Fluffer.

Until this morning, I’ve only managed to sneak pet her once or twice. Today, I took advantage of her being “trapped” in the corner of the shelf shelter, in what seems to be a favorite spot for her, and was able to pet her. She didn’t have anywhere to run away, really, so I was able to give her neck and shoulders some scritches, and even pat her back a bit.

She fur is so matted and full of burrs!!!

Not only was I able to pet her as I set the food out, she stayed in the shelf shelter, rather than running away as she normally would have done, and I was able to pet her again a couple more times as I passed by. So that’s pretty huge progress with her.

Note that I am saying “her” with confidence. With that long fur and her not letting us near her, we’ve never been able to see, one way or the other. I sort of assumed she was female simply because the most feral cats all seem to be female, while the males have mostly been easier to socialize. My confirmation was seeing her yesterday, quite obviously in heat, with a crowd of males around her.

She is no longer in heat.

*sigh*

Right now, we have I think 5 or 6 confirmed adult females that need to be spayed, all of them mostly feral. The only one that isn’t as feral is Old (young, actually) Blue Eyes, Frank, and she’s managed to escape her appointment with the vet twice now. Among the “kittens” (who are coming up on a year old, but are very very small still), there is another 7, I think, confirmed female. Bug and Blot are now both friendlies, but are both still way too small to be spayed. A couple others are just friendly enough that we might be able to get them, but also probably too small. There’s a tabby that is sometimes friendly, sometimes not, plus two more that we can’t get close to, that are probably big enough, though not by much.

We now have two larger traps, including one with a “back door”, that we can use to try and get the ferals. It will still have to wait until things warm up a bit, because we have no way to monitor a trap constantly, and we don’t want to risk a critter getting caught and then getting too cold before we can check the trap. I’ve considered the possibility of setting one of them up in the catio shelter. It has been warm enough in there that the unheated water bowl hasn’t been freezing during the day, and even on some nights, it’s only partially frozen. Once overnight temperatures become milder, I could remove the box nests and crushed self warming shelter that’s in there to make room for a trap. Even then, we couldn’t do that until the rescue can make arrangements with a vet for us, because once we’ve caught a feral, we wouldn’t be able to let them out, even into the isolation shelter, until after they’ve been taken to the vet.

We’ll figure it out.

Meanwhile, I was able to talk to our mechanic about the truck. His brother, who towed the truck, had passed on what I had described to him. I went over it again with him, in more detail. I mentioned that, while I couldn’t see anything, it felt like it was the front driver’s side tire. He told me that while the truck was being winched onto the tow truck, his brother had noted that the passenger side tire seemed to be “sticking”. All I can say is that, from where I was sitting at the wheel, it felt like the driver’s side tire, but I really don’t know. There was just nothing to see to tell me, either way.

So they will check it out, and will use a hoist to get it into the garage. No one is going to try driving it until it’s been checked. We didn’t even talk time lines, though, as this is something they’ll have to find time for, in between actual appointments. Chances are, once it’s been hoisted into one of the bays, they wouldn’t want to move it again until it’s been fixed, if that’s an option. I haven’t heard anything since, which is what I expected.

In other things, I got a message from my sister. My mother had asked me to pass on that she wanted a visit from my sister, which normally would have happened tomorrow, on her day off. There’s a storm coming in tomorrow, though, and my sister’s farm is further south enough that they would be affected by it more than we are. So she visited today, before heading to work.

My mother, it seems, has been craving pickle juice. !! 😄

Looking at the forecast, it’s supposed to start snowing in our area tomorrow at about 7am, and it now says we’ll be getting snow pretty constantly through to Thursday night, with a total of about 10cm/5 or 6 in, of snow in total. The temperatures are still supposed to be relatively mild and we’re not expected to get particularly high winds, so it should just be snow accumulation we’ll need to deal with.

Thankfully, we are well stocked because, even if we still had transportation, we probably wouldn’t be going anywhere for the next couple of days, anyhow.

So that’s where we are at for now. Hopefully, we will have news on the truck tomorrow, and it won’t be anything too major!

The Re-Farmer

A quiet day

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Not much to talk about for today. Yesterday seems to have caught up with me. I’m feeling exhausted. Mentally exhausted, not physically. I’m just so tired of so many things going wrong.

So I’m giving myself a rest day. Just doing the basics and not trying to go beyond.

It’s a gorgeous day out, though, and the yard cats have been absolutely loving it. The critter cam facing the isolation shelter has been going off so often, I had to adjust it so that it was at least no longer triggered by cats jumping around in front of the main doorway.

Down side: the feral ladies have all been going into heat. Today, I saw the cat I named Fluffer, because it looks like Fluffy, except for the white chest. With the long fur, we couldn’t confirm male or female. Today, with all the males chasing after her, I suppose that’s confirmed female. *sigh* At least Fluffy is spayed, but we’ve never been able to get any more adult females in to the vet.

Yesterday morning, I found something odd in one of the paths to the catio shelter.

Odd because everything is buried under snow, so where did this mess come from?

Then I identified part of it as an old bird’s nest. Which meant the cats had to have been climbing pretty high up and far out on the closest willow tree. This tree has been trimmed a few times, to keep the branches away from the power line to the house. That means any branches above are all pretty small and thin. Given the noises we’ve been hearing, I’d guess a cat got chased pretty far out and disturbed things enough to knock down the nest.

It’s been warming enough that this morning, I gave the cats a treat and started pre-soaking their kibble with a blow full of cat soup dosed with lysine. Usually, I toss the dry kibble in lysine, but only so much sticks, and the food trays have lysine power all over the bottom. It’s not something we’ll be doing every day, yet, and only in the morning, so they have a chance to eat it before it freezes. The sun room thermometer was at about 11C/52F, even though our high for today was -2C/28F. As I write this, we are at -3C/27F, but the “real feel” is 1C/34F

And yet, we are under a weather advisory right now! A low pressure system is moving in, and the south end of our province is looking at possibly 15-25cm/6-19in of snow by tomorrow evening. Our area is on the outer edge of the system, so we wouldn’t be expecting that much. We are expected to get as much as 9cm/4in of snow on Wednesday, with another possible 2.4cm/1in through Thursday morning. The temperatures are still expected to be mild, though the highs are supposed to drop below -10C/14F by the weekend.

Hopefully, tomorrow, the garage will be able to take a look at the truck and see what on earth happened to it. Messaging with my brother, he suggested the differential, but that got a leak repaired on it just a few days go, so that’s unlikely. His other thought was the CV joint. At which point we’re looking at possibly over $300 for the part, and another $200-$300 in labour, from what I can find online.

Well, we’ll find out soon enough, I guess.

*sigh*

Yeah, definitely feeling mentally – and emotionally – exhausted at this point.

The Re-Farmer

Staying cozy

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The temperatures are warming up, and it feels so good!

It’s been a cozy day today, and I got to stay home for it.

Our high of the day was -5C/23F, but it’s almost 8:30pm as I start this, and the temperatures are supposed to keep warming up all night. It’s already -4C/25F, and we’re supposed to reach a high of 1C/34F tomorrow.

Then we’re supposed to drop to -18C/0F as our high, the day after! Which isn’t too bad, but that’s quite the drop!

One of the things staying home allowed me to do was go through and unpack a few more boxes of my mother’s stuff. Most of it will be stored in the root cellar for now. We’ll need to figure out what to do with it, though! We already store our Christmas trees and decorations in there, but they don’t take up much of the shelf space that I would be using to store garden produce. We’ll have the summer to figure that out and make space again, at least, but some items, I just don’t know what to do with. They’re not things I want to shove into a box to be disappeared into the many other boxes of stuff from my parents we’ve got all over the place, for a variety of reasons, but we just don’t have the space for them. We could literally furnish and supply another house or two at this point!

Still, there are more boxes that need to be dealt with, and some things will need to be organized and re-packed to go into storage elsewhere. It has to be done before things start to melt, and the basements start getting wet.

My mother keeps suggesting we have a garage sale, but who would bother to drive this far out for a garage sale? We had a hard enough time when we tried having garage sales while living in the city. I’ve considered selling things online (which I’ve talked to her about), but that would be totally on our household; my siblings have no interest in that sort of things at all. There actually is quite a bit of vintage and collectable stuff in there. Lots more, however, we’d probably have a hard time giving them away for free.

Ah, but don’t throw anything out, my mother insists! Especially not her papers!

🫤🫤

The papers are the worst of it. There is SO much, and I don’t think she even knows what all is in there!

When I was packing up the embroidery and crocheted items, I found an object wrapped in a plastic grocery bag, hidden in the drawer. That turned out to be a cattle ear tagger. Today, I unpacked what looked like the foot pedal for a sewing machine.

My mother didn’t have a sewing machine.

I sent a picture to my brother, in case he recognized what it was part of. Maybe they saw something while they were packing other boxes.

If I remember, I can ask her tomorrow. After I drop the truck off at the garage, I’ll walk over to the hospital to visit my mother. My sister was able to visit her today.

My mother is already starting to ask me to bring her things from her stuff – this from the person who complains when we bring her things she actually needs, because she doesn’t want too many things in her hospital room! The most recent one was to bring her fan, so she can “have air”. That would need to be cleared with the hospital, but I reminded her, we don’t know how long she will be there. The hospital needs that bed, so they would be motivated to get her into a personal care home as quickly as possible.

Which would be so much better for her. A personal care home would have activities available and she really misses that, and really needs something to occupy her mind, and can also not be stuck in one room all the time.

Until she’s settled somewhere permanent, we need to keep some of her stuff set aside and available until we know what she can have with her, besides things like clothing and pictures.

All in good time, I guess.

Meanwhile, I’m really hoping things go well with the truck. Depending on how quickly they get it done, I might make that Walmart trip we never made it to after picking it up. Or the next day, though I also need to get my husband to the lab for some blood work. He needs to fast for it, so we have to get him in pretty much as soon as the lab opens.

Then there’s all the other trips I haven’t been able to make because of either the truck acting up, or because we were dealing with getting my mother’s apartment empty.

*sigh*

I’m really hoping we can manage getting a replacement vehicle. I hate to give up the truck. It really is the ideal vehicle for us, but it’s had so many problems, mostly sensor related!

Little by little, it’ll get done.

The Re-Farmer

Not a stock up trip: this is what $181 looks like

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After all the driving I did yesterday – including some white knuckle driving in near zero visibility, the last thing I wanted to do was head out again.

Unfortunately, between having to focus on getting my mother’s apartment emptied, plus concerns about the truck, we haven’t been able to do our usual city stock up shopping. I’m glad I had been able to do the top ups earlier but, until I can finally get to the city, we had to do another smaller shop. Plus, with all the driving I’d done yesterday, I normally would have gotten more gas before heading home on that last trip, but there was no way we were stopping to get gas at that point.

I really wish I’d been able to stay home today. The roads sucked. Yesterday’s high winds came from the south-southeast. Today, we had winds coming from the north-northwest. Since the roads I was traveling ran east-west, that meant there was drifting from yesterday/last night’s winds on one side, and new drifting on the other! Not to mention the open areas, where I was being broadsided by winds and had to fight them to stay on the road. Thankfully, it wasn’t particularly slippery. Temperatures were actually pretty mild today – not as mild as yesterday, but close. The winds, however, negated that completely.

I don’t want to have to do this again, so I made a larger than usual shop.

I filled a whole three grocery bags for $181.02m plus a 12 pack of Coke Zero and a couple of bags of potatoes – and that’s with all the discounts and sales I took advantage of!

Here’s what we got, today.

There’s the Coke Zero at the top of the list, which was on sale. I remembered we were running low on ketchup, so I got a bottle. It’s mostly the girls that use it, so I tend to forget. The gingersnap cookies are a treat for my husband.

There was a sale on pasta sauce, so I got a couple of jars. I got two 18’s of eggs rather than a flat, because the flats don’t fit in the hard sided grocery bags, and I didn’t want to fuss with a larger soft sided bag, just for eggs.

Next is a couple of pounds of house brand butter. The cheapest branded butter was almost $8 a pound. The spiral fries are something my husband is able to cook himself, which he likes to do whenever his pain levels are more tolerable. Then there are a couple of bags of frozen mixed vegetables, and a couple of bags of frozen pierogi.

Potatoes were on sale, so I got one of white potatoes, one of yellow. I also got a bag of onions and some bananas.

Stew meat was on sale, so I picked up the largest package I could find. It was still smaller than what I used to be able to get for under $20. Now, without the sale price, it would have cost over $30. Insane.

They had “cook tonight” discounts on whole chicken, so I got a couple. Those went straight into the freezer. I also got a couple of sausage rings, then decided to get a treat of potato salad. Something we don’t make ourselves, so it’s a fairly rare treat.

Last of all was bread that was on sale; two loaves of marble rye and two of whole wheat Texas Toast.

With the sale prices discounted at the till, not counting the sale items that were priced by weight, I saved $34.10. I could have gotten $10 off on this shop with my loyalty points, but saved it for another time.

There’s a reason we do bulk shopping in the city.

Hopefully, I will hear back from the garage early tomorrow. I ended up sending another picture. Once again, there was fresh oil under the truck. Just another drop, really. Still, it shouldn’t be there. Especially not after just getting that seal replaced. That means it’s coming from somewhere else.

*sigh*

No change in what the oil gauge is telling me. It starts off in the normal range, then drops to the exact same level in the “low” range, and stays there.

Tomorrow is supposed to be colder, but that wind is finally supposed to be done by now, so it’ll probably feel warmer than it has for the past couple of days. Today is Sunday, and the 10 day forecast is saying we’ll reach a high above freezing on Thursday, drop significantly on Friday, then warm back up again by Saturday. If the forecast is at all accurate, that will be the last of the whiplash weather – at least for the highs we’re expecting in the long range forecast.

Which means, by the time we’ve got whatever it is figured out with the truck and we finally do our stock up shopping in the city, even if it’s just one trip, it should be much more pleasant driving!

Here’s hoping.

The Re-Farmer

Brutal… but it’s done!

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It was white knuckle time at the end, but we did it.

My mother’s apartment is now completely empty.

At our end, things started after my brother got here and started working on their truck. Which he had to dig his way to. After clearing the barn door enough to open it to access their shovels, etc. He was able to plug in the block heater and left it to warm up before getting their snow blower out.

When I saw he was here, I went out and checked on the truck. It started fine and, at first, that oil pressure gauge was actually in the normal range, which was encouraging. After backing it out a bit, I found a single drop of fresh oil under the truck and that was it. Oil levels were fine. Yay!

Then I caught up with my brother and we worked things out. He would continue with the snow blowing and getting their truck ready, and I would go to my mother’s apartment, where my SIL was already at work packing.

There were a few little delays as he remembered to load up a cart to help carry things to the truck, and so on. In that time, I noticed…

The needle on the oil pressure gauge was dropping again.

*sigh*

It dropped to the same level it was at when I drove the truck home yesterday, then didn’t move. Not that I could focus on it much during the drive in. While today’s temperature was a lot warmer, the wind was insane. It wasn’t even snowing yet, but there was so much blowing snow on the highway that I was hitting white outs, even without snow kicked up by oncoming traffic. Once I was parked, I took a picture of the oil pressure gauge and texted it to our mechanic, as described how things had gone. Then I headed inside.

My SIL had been very busy. We were all shocked by how much was left. My sister didn’t take everything she was supposed to. I think she misunderstood and thought she was to take the things she wanted to keep, plus the stuff my mother specifically wanted her to take, not help empty the place.

There were boxes packed and ready, though, so I immediately started loading up the truck. It wasn’t long before I had as much as I could fit, so I headed back home, messaging my daughters before I left, so they would be prepared to assembly line things into the basement.

I also got a response from the garage. He found what was going on very strange. He said it could be two things: a problem with the engine, or the sensor – and the engine checked out fine when he was working on it yesterday. Which means, it is the sensor. Yet another common issue with our make and model of truck.

Definitely not going with GM again in the future.

I asked him if the sensor was still on warranty – it was replaced maybe a year ago – but whether it is or not, I asked how soon I could bring it in to be fixed. He will check on Monday and get back to me.

So, basically the truck is fine. Which is good, because I did a lot of driving today!

When I got home, I found my brother had gotten the snow blowing done, including clearing a path to the storage house that they could back their truck up to, when it was time to do the furniture.

The boxes, however, were going into the house. I unloaded the truck to the door, one daughter grabbed whatever I had, then passed it to her sister at the basement stairs. This was rather awkward because of how the doors are, and the need to make sure they got closed before any cats made a run for it.

Sir Robin did manage to get into the house once!

My poor brother, meanwhile, was having plenty of trouble. Aside from the huge job of snow blowing vehicle-with paths to their trailer and the warehouse they are beside, just in case we needed to put stuff in there – the truck was having issues. In spite of having a solar powered trickle charger all this time, the battery was dead. He had to boost it (thankfully, he has a booster pack) and had gotten it started by the time I unloaded, then went to talk to him before heading back. He was trying to drive it out, but there wasn’t enough turning radius cleared in the snow for a truck the length of his. He ended up having to dig it out manually.

After connecting with him, I headed back to my SIL. This time, loading the truck was more awkward. I needed to get the commode in, as the medical device department of home care will be picking it up from our place some time next week. It was too tall to fit under the box cover, but I managed to get it into the back of the cab, by setting it on one end. There were more boxes to put into the box, but most of what I had to get in was odd shaped stuff, including a large framed picture that my sister had left behind. I was able to get some smaller pieces of furniture in, at least.

The truck was packed about as much as I could when my brother arrived. Neither of them had eaten since breakfast, and it was well past lunch time, so we took a break for food. My brother, out of habit, shut his engine off when he meant to leave it running, and it wouldn’t start again! Thankfully, he brought his booster pack along, just in case, so he was able to get it going again. He did leave it running the entire time we were at the restaurant, and we even sat at a table where he could keep an eye on it, through the window!

We had an excellent lunch.

Since my truck was already loaded, once we were done, I headed home to unload while they went back to the apartment to start loading some furniture. This time, I was going to stay at home until they got there. The winds were still insane, though at least this time, it was at my back, so the drive was at least a bit smoother! It was still pretty hard to see the road at times – yet I still had vehicles passing me!

It wasn’t too much longer before they arrived with the first load of furniture. By this time, it was getting quite dark, and they were unloading into the storage house, which has no power. I brought out a camping lantern we now have – thanks, M! It sure came in handy! – and my brother found a place to hang it in one room, while a second large flashlight we have was used to light up the room we had to go through at the door.

My brother pretty much picked up and carried all the different pieces of furniture in, himself! He’s amazing!

Once that was done, we headed back to the apartment one last time. I was following them, but was soon left behind. The weather had gotten worse, and it was white knuckle driving quite a few times! It was bad enough that, when I got there, I brought up the idea of renting a motel room and spending the night, once everything was packed. They were going to do that drive, though. If I’d been on my own, I would have stayed in town overnight, but I was willing to do the drive, at the same time as them.

With the cap on their truck, they could fit everything left except for the mattress and box spring, both of which will be taken to the dump. That went into my truck. Unfortunately, I have a shorter box on my truck. A whole 2 inches shorter than the mattress and box spring! I do keep rachet straps in the truck now, though, so I was able to strap them down and leave the tailgate open.

After that was loaded, we went back in for one last check in everything, while my SIL took pictures and video of the empty apartment. Then, we locked it up one last time and headed out!

The road conditions were even worse. The only saving grace was that we had the wind at our backs, so the snow kicked up by oncoming traffic wasn’t quite as bad. They followed me this time, and managed to stay in view the whole way, even when we had people passing both of us at the same time! I just don’t get it. The road was barely visible, and a few times I found I had wandered into the other lane, because the road had disappeared under the swirling snow, and people were passing in this? Good grief.

Once back here, I parked the truck in the garage, since it wasn’t going to be unload this time. We got my brother’s truck unloaded – this time, he carried an entire loveseat, up the stairs and into the storage house! I was able to help with that one a tiny bit, at least.

That storage house is so jammed with stuff. We haven’t gone in there all year, and have made no effort to trying and clear it out. So much in there just needs to go to the dump! Now, we have almost all my mother’s furniture squeezed into there.

*sigh*

The boxes the girls and I got into the basement are going to have to be gone though soon. We’ll unpack what will stay in the house, but the rest will need to be repacked and taken into the storage house, somewhere, before spring, when the basements start getting wet.

After the furniture was unloaded, my brother and SIL had to transfer a few things out of it to their car or their trailer, before the truck could finally be parked back in its spot by the barn and they could finally head home. I’m still waiting in anticipation for a message telling me they arrived home safe and sound! I’m really hoping the winds have started to die down. It had started to snow lightly before it got dark, and will continue to snow, off and on, throughout the night.

Meanwhile, I’m just glad we finally got it done. It was brutal – especially with the weather! – but it’s done.

With our not being able to get our city stock up shopping, though, I’m going to have to go into town tomorrow (Sunday) and do a smaller shop. Which means we’ll have to take that mattress and box spring out of the truck, so I can close the tailgate. The dump won’t be open again until Tuesday, so that’s the earliest we can get rid of them. Unless the garage is able to get us in to get that sensor fixed/replaced. I’ll find that out on Monday.

I am so tired of winter.

According to the long range forecast, we’ve got another week of relatively milder temperatures, but then we’re supposedt to start to get highs above freezing more often than not, for the rest of February!

I can’t believe it’s already the last day of January. Where has the month gone???

I am so tired.

The Re-Farmer

Back to life… I hope

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Well, today’s focus has been on making sure the truck was okay. We depend on it so much!

Things warmed up slowly all night, and it was heading towards -20C/-4F when I headed out to do my morning routine, then went to see if the truck would start.

It did, thankfully. It didn’t even make those noises it made, yesterday. The battery gauge was right up there, though it dropped to normal fairly shortly, as the engine compartment warmed up.

I let it run for a bit, then headed back in. By about noon, we reached our expected high of -15C/5F, and I headed out again. This time, I drove the truck around the driveway and yard a bit. When I pulled into the garage, I made sure to leave enough space so I could open the hood. First, I did another scan. This time, only one code came up, and not the one that had me concerned. This is the one we’re pretty sure is a sensor affected by the cold.

That done, I popped the hood and listened to the engine, getting a short video to send to my brother. Aside from the idle getting very slow, everything seemed normal.

My next test was to wait until the post office reopened in the afternoon, and pick up the mail.

While waiting, I got a call from the hospital. They had called last night, too. My mother has been getting her Pepto regularly – during our meeting with the doctor, we all recognized it seems to have a placebo affect on her, and she was running out. We still have the extra bottles my brother had bought for her that made her so angry. If the truck was running well, I could bring one for her today.

The trip to the post office went perfectly normal. I had a surprise parcel waiting for me. Thanks, M, for the live animal trap! Hopefully, we’ll be able to make good use of it! Also, CZ, we finally got your Christmas card! 😄

From there, I headed home, dropped off the mail and parcels, grabbed a bottle of Pepto and headed to town.

I didn’t get far when I noticed something of concern.

The oil pressure gauge dropped significantly. Not enough trigger any alarms from the onboard computer, but enough to concern me. Especially after we had so much trouble before. Since that seal was replaced, we haven’t had any issues.

I seriously considered turning around and going home but decided against it. Town, after all, is where our garage is. I could stop there and talk them them about it.

The other reason I considered turning around was the weather. We had high winds from the north, blowing snow off the fields. I could see the road starting to drift over and, in places, it was whiteout conditions.

Once in town, I made a quick stop at the hospital. I dropped the Pepto off at the nursing station and asked them to extend my apologies to my mother for not visiting and why. I’m not sure she got the message, but they understood why I couldn’t just quickly say hi and left. It would have agitated her quite a bit.

Then I headed for the garage – and the oil gauge was pretty much where it was supposed to be, during the short trip!

When I got to the garage, I was happy to see the owner was in the office today. He’s been working at their new location quite a bit, so I’ve been missing him.

We had a good talk about things. He hadn’t even had a chance to look at the scan results I’d texted him yet. I told him I did another scan this morning and showed him the results. He agreed that it was likely because of the cold, and not a concern.

Then I told him about what happened on the way into town, with the oil pressure dropping. Would that also be because of the cold?

Yeah, pretty much. Particularly for our make and model. The sensor in most vehicles is located near the air filter. In our truck, it’s located off to the side, and in a corner. With the temperatures we’ve been having, the oil gets sluggish and, so far off to the side where it is, the sensor reads differently than if it were closer. As long as our oil level is fine, there is no concern.

He laughed when I explained why I haven’t been able to check the oil recently. If the truck is pulled into the garage enough to close the door, we can’t open the hood. There’s no room to access the front.

That lead me to start talking about the possibility of a trade in. I’d messaged about it, and even talked to one of his employees that worked on our truck while he was at their other location, and he was aware of it. I told him, we just can’t keep up with all these sensor issues. The inside handle of the driver’s side door broke off and we haven’t been able to fix it, because the budget kept having to be used for so many other things. As much as we like the truck, we can’t afford it.

What we’d talked about before, when we were first thinking to get another minivan, was the possibility of an SUV. It seems that trucks and minivans tend to cost a lot more – even older, high mileage ones like ours – but SUVs are easier to find and cost less, second hand. He knows our need for something accessibility and fitting a walker.

I’m not going to do anything until spring, though, which he totally understood. He will, however, keep us in mind as he acquires new second hand vehicles. There was a Dodge Journey right there that he suggested might fit our needs. I’ve looked it up since then and I tend to agree.

Then I talked about my mother’s car. He remembers it – he certainly did a lot of work on it! I explained that I stopped driving it when it made a loud banging noise in the back, but just this past summer, my brother checked it out and could find nothing wrong. It’s purring like a kitten, and no sign of anything to cause that noise. We’re looking to sell it. After talking about it for a bit, he said we could bring it in. He can go over it, check things out, and safety it, and let us know what we could expect to get for it.

It’s not going to be much.

Again, this will happen in the spring.

I left the garage, much relieved.

The grocery store is across the street, so that was my next stop. I had a short list but, with the weather – and funds my daughter sent me – I was able to make a larger shop. Then it was a quick stop at the gas station to fill the tank before heading home.

I’m really glad I didn’t stay longer with a visit to my mother. Heading home meant driving on the side that was starting to drift over. It wasn’t too bad, yet, but that clearly wasn’t going to last much longer.

I was quite glad to get home!

I have to admit, I’m increasingly paranoid when it comes to our transportation. A few years ago, when we still had the minivan, we got slammed with a series of polar vortexes all through January and February. Our van froze, as did my mother’s car. We couldn’t go anywhere for almost 2 months. The van came through fine, once it warmed up again. The first winter we had with this truck, we couldn’t even plug in the block heater, as the plug turned out to be missing, and it handled the cold just fine. So I really shouldn’t be this anxious about the truck. Yet, we’ve had so many problems with so many different vehicles, I can’t help myself.

Well, I’m going to have to get over it. I need to get to my mother’s apartment and start bringing things here. After my sister grabs what she’s supposed to take to her place, next weekend is when we’re going to have to empty the apartment and bring the rest of the stuff, including furniture, here. Before that, my brother has to break their snow blower out, so he can access his own truck, plus clear access to the storage house and the warehouse – both of which are already so full with my parent’s belongings. The more I can bring back here in advance, the easier it will be to finish the job.

Meanwhile, it a couple of days, I expect to be heading into the city for our first stock up shopping trip for next month.

I need to do a lot of driving.

I pray the truck will be up to it. Intellectually, I’m sure it will be, but there’s that part of my that’s constantly concerned something else is going to go wrong!

The Re-Farmer

Not going anywhere today

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Thankfully, I have that choice.

I was messaging with my brother this morning. In the wee hours of the morning, someone got stuck on the road in front of their place, and it took two tow trucks to get them out. Then the tow trucks came back into the parking lot, for someone else!

The plows were out, though, so the roads should be clear again. The highways, at least.

I was questioning whether my brother was going to come out to my mother’s place today. They were already recommending I stay home, but my brother is going to make the trip! This must be the only day he has available for it.

I headed out to do that cats stuff and, at first, things looked pretty good. The bright sunny morning, and being sheltered from the wind, was deceptive. The sun room’s thermometer was reading 0C/32F, which was encouraging.

A few minutes outside, though, and I was starting to really feel the cold, even as bundled up as I was!

In the end, the choice was made for me. There isn’t a lot of drifting, but enough that I’d want to dig through them, before trying to drive anywhere – and there was no way I would be outside shoveling today!

After today, things will warm up a little bit, and then we’re supposed to drop down to highs of -30C/-22F, as another Polar Vortex sweeps through. Wednesday coming up looks to be the warmest day over the next little while, which is good, because that’s when we’re supposed to bring 3 yard cats in to the vet for spay/neuter.

Today, however, is a day to stay indoors as much as possible!

The Re-Farmer

New toy, and it’s a bit blustery out there!

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I had a strangely rough night last night. I wasn’t able to sleep, so when I heard my older daughter taking a break from work at about 3am, and we grabbed something to eat. Just as I settled down, I started to sneeze.

And sneeze.

And sneeze.

For the next hour, at least, I was either sneezing or fighting off sneezes. I have no idea what I was reacting to! Yes, I took antihistamines, but they made no difference.

I did finally get an hour of two of sleep, waking up as it started to get light out. I messaged with my brother and SIL a bit about tomorrow – though that may change – and meeting up at my mother’s apartment, then headed outside to do the morning routine.

The wind was brutal. We’d had a bit of snow during the night, which was actually appreciated, as the paths I wasn’t able to spread ashes over, plus the driveway were not as slippery. On the down side, the paths were also starting to fill in and drifts starting to form. Nothing to complain about, really. As the storm moved across the prairies, highways were being closed all over the place. The local highways group had people posting about poor visibility and road conditions, but they were still passable.

Once I was done, though, I had enough energy to grab some instant oatmeal for breakfast and then crashed for several hours, completely embedded by cats. I think they were cold!

We had a couple of packages we ordered that had reached the city, and my husband got a notification that one of them had arrived at our local post office. I decided to wait until the post office closed then reopened at 2pm, though, and sure enough the second package arrived from the city, too. So I headed out after the post office reopened.

Straight into a brutal wind. Conditions had definitely worsened. A drift was starting to form in front of the garage door that I had to shovel out before I could leave. The wonderful plow job on our gravel roads was being drifted over, and visibility was poor.

Thankfully, I only had to go a few miles.

One of the packages was a new office chair for my husband, to replace his broken one. He’s been using a small armchair for the past while, and it’s brutal on his back injury. Picking up the chair was not something that was going to wait!

As I write this, we are still at -15C/5F. When I got home, the wind chill was -35C/31F, but it has since dropped to -37C/-35F.

Tomorrow is supposed to be colder, and almost as windy.

Hopefully, my brother’s schedule will allow him to postpone going to my mother’s for a day!

As soon as we got the box inside, my daughter immediately started to assemble the chair for her father. While she worked on that, my husband got to check out the new “toy” he picked up, as something to keep in the truck.

Or for me to keep handy while working outside after the snow is gone.

My husband does like his unique multi-tools!

Yeah. It’s a hammer, axe, multi-tool, with holster.

The second picture shows it opened up.

We were pleasantly surprised by the quality, to be honest. That axe is sharp! The knife is really good, too, and the screwdriver/file/bottle opener is also solid. The pliers don’t seem to be as strong, but it’s not going to be seeing heavy duty work. The hammer has surprising heft to it, and is actually useable.

I didn’t spot where they opened as I quickly looked at it, but there are several screwdriver tips in the handle that fit into the top of the axe/hammer head. There’s also a magnesium rod tucked in there somewhere, with a built in whistle.

I’m going to have to grab it from my husband and look it over again!

The “snowflake” that came with it is also surprisingly strong. Each tip is a different screwdriver tip or hex key and each space is a different size wrench, plus a bottle opener. One of the tips doubles as a box cutter. There’s a hole for the key ring, but the ring is flimsy. My husband will probably add a cord to it, instead. That’s something he will probably keep handy and find more useful.

The whole thing is absolutely hilarious, adorable – and may actually be useful! A lot of these multi-tool gadgets look great, but once you try to use them, their designs are not practical at all. I look forward to trying this thing out.

Meanwhile, it looks like the worst of the weather system has passed by. Wind will still be an issue, and any new snow expected isn’t supposed to show up until night time.

We’ll see how things are for my brother. His schedule is far less flexible, so I will adjust to what works for him.

The Re-Farmer

An awesome gift!

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But first, the cuteness…

Ghosty, using her adopted brother, Shadow, as a bed. 😁

Today was a wonderfully mild day. Our high this afternoon was supposed to be -8C/18F, but it sure felt warmer! We had more fog last night, which meant more frost on the trees, on top of the frost from yesterday morning, so it was looking pretty gorgeous, too.

I had two places I needed to get to today; a dump run, and then on to the feed store in the town north of us, to pick up 40 pound bags of kibble for the outside cats. This feed store has a section for work wear, too, ranging from socks and boots to all sorts of outerwear. This is where my younger daughter found the high quality gloves and Tough Duck bib overalls she loves so much, so I asked her if she wanted to come along. Which she did.

I did not realize she had a secret purpose to come along!

The dump run was a bit different, in that we had a bin of stuff we weren’t sure were recyclable, or if they needed to go into the pit. I’d mentioned in an earlier post about a new RM council that was so bad it was disbanded and the province had to take over until another election could be held. Along with messing up when it came to getting the roads plowed and not going with the company that had been doing such a great job for years, they also messed up with the landfill caretaker. They fired the guy that had been going the job for years. For a while, I think it was contracted out to a company, because instead of one caretaker, with occasional help brought in, we were seeing a team of four people or more doing all sorts of stuff. Then, they were gone, and the caretaker was an older woman with mobility issues. She did the best she could, but she physically could not do a lot of things, like operate the front end loader, and the state of things got really bad. Someone would be brought in to clear the area in front of the pit, but whoever it was didn’t do a particularly good job. That was when I found myself with a flat tire after a dump run, and we got into the habit of my daughter walking in front of the truck into the pit area, to clear away any broken glass, nails, or other sharp objects scattered about.

Well, things have changed again. Lately, I’ve been seeing a young guy there, and I do hope he is a permanent employee, because he is really awesome! Aside from being diligent in doing the checks when we come in, he clearly knows how to use that front end loader.

Today, as we came in, we had the usual checks. We have a card with a number on it to prove we live in the RM. Other RMs charge a fee, while ours doesn’t, so people were going to the dump in our RM to avoid having to pay at their own, and these cards were the solution to that. We also get asked what we’re bringing which, in our case, is almost always just household garbage, which goes into the pit, and recycling, which goes into various bins around the caretaker’s shed.

This time around, we had some things we weren’t sure about. Mostly electronics. The woman that had been the caretaker before had told us to toss things like power cords into the pit, but this time we had some odds and ends. So when we stopped at the caretaker, I told him we had stuff we weren’t sure of. Then I pulled up to the nearby recycling bins and I started dumping the recycling while he and my daughter went through the bin we’d brought.

Some things, I knew they had special places for, like batteries and aerosol cans, but those have been moved.

The cordless glass kettles that started leaking or got chipped, we found out, cannot be recycled and had to go into the pit. Their bases, however, went into the electronics area – and he even took some of the stuff over for us, while do took items to other areas, so save us some walking! He was so sweet about it, too.

That done, we went into the pit area. Along the way, we could hear the front end loader was running, warming up to be used to clean things up. It wasn’t even that bad, yet, but he was getting ready to do it again!

I have to remember to find somewhere to pass on how great a job he’s doing.

…

Done.

I didn’t want to take a chance of forgetting by waiting until I finished this post!

Anyhow.

That done, we continued on to the feed store. I paid for 4 bags of kibble, then moved the truck around to have it loaded, while my daughter was inside looking around. I later joined her in the outerwear section and started chatting, asking what she was looking for this time. She was looking at some coats, then brought me over to where she’d found her overalls. I joked that I want a pair, too, but I would make sure that they were a different colour, so we wouldn’t get them mixed up. Not that that would be possible, as I would want a larger size. I did try hers on when she bought them and they fit me, but I like more room for layers.

The next thing I knew, when someone came around to ask if we needed help, she asked if they had the size I wanted, in black.

!!!

The lady had to go check their inventory, as they don’t have enough space to have all the sizes on display, and it turned out they did.

My daughter bought me these (not an affiliate link), though the price at the store was better than the price on the website. What an awesome surprise! Hers are tan, and she had to take 7″ off the legs for them to fit, and she’s thrilled with them.

Once we got home, I tried them on and she adjusted the shoulder straps to where I need them. Then she turned them inside out and got me to put them on again, so she could fold the bottoms and measure how much to remove. As I write this, she’s in the process of removing 6 1/2″ from the legs and hemming them, by hand. After that is done, I’ll try them on again and we’ll see if we need to add elastic anywhere, but I suspect it won’t be necessary. They’re oversize, but not in any inconvenient places.

These are going to be so very handy!

She also got herself a vest. No modifications needed!

My daughter tells me that she has decided to use her very modest disability income to get us all high quality, weather appropriate clothing, starting with me, since I’m the one that’s doing most of the outside work.

She is so sweet!

Aside from that, it’s been pretty uneventful. When it was time to do the outside cat feeding, I decided to clear the clumps of snow I’d knocked off the truck’s mud flaps. Then, since I had the shovel out anyway, I decided to clear the light snow out of the cats paths. It was so warm out, I had my jacket wide open, so I wouldn’t overheat while shoveling.

Before I knew it, an hour had gone by, and I’d cleared fresh snow from the entire turnaround area for the truck, plus the paths to the compost pile and litter compost, then started a new path towards the main garden area. Then I had to stop after only about 15 feet, because it was getting too dark. I haven’t been able to get to the sign cam in over a month. We’ve got some very mild weather expected over the next week, so I figured this would be a good time to dig out a path!

Oh, my goodness. I just checked the weather app on my desktop again. The last I looked, we were expecting things to warm up to a high of 0C/32F on Monday, but now it’s saying to expect a high of 2C/36F TOMORROW!!! Monday is now expected to hit 1C/34F, with highs just below freezing, in between.

This would be a good time to find an excuse to get the fire pit going!

[edit: I just had to add this. I looked at the weather forecast for tomorrow again, a few hours after writing this. It now says tomorrow is expected to reach a high of -6C/21F instead of 2C/36F. Good grief. How are we supposed to trust any of these forecasts when they constantly change, and by so much!]

Not tomorrow, though. Tomorrow, I need to go into town to pick up another prescription refill for my husband. It’s his “controlled substance” painkillers, so we weren’t allowed to get it refilled when I was there yesterday. While I’m in town, I’ll swing by the hospital to visit my mother, too.

After that, I think I’ll get the fire pit uncovered and prepped. We might just enjoy a fire, but I’m thinking we may as well break out the Dutch oven and cook supper, too.

We shall see what we come up with!

The Re-Farmer

We can get out now… for now

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Knowing we had a pharmacy delivery coming – and more snow – as soon as I finished giving the outside cats their food and water, I headed to the garage to break out little Spewie.

I then spent the next 2 hours clearing enough space in front of the garage to be able to back the truck out and turn. Then I had to go in to warm up and have breakfast. My down filled coat was completely wet, so I ended up borrowing my daughter’s leather coat. It has no lining, but it cuts the wind completely, so the layers I had underneath were more than enough to keep me warm.

The first picture in the slide show above is what I got done in the morning. For a lot of it, I had to first break up the crust of snow at the top with a shovel before I could get through with little Spewie. With the wind, I was working only in one direction, so the wind could blow the snow away from me. I still got covered in snow, but at least it wasn’t as bad.

When I came about out to work on the driveway to the gate, I broke out a second 100′ extension cord. That was just enough to reach the gate. Thankfully, beyond the gate was blown clear. There was just the plow ridge at the end that needed dealing with.

Which I never got to. As I write this, my younger daughter is actually out there, working on it.

It took another 2-2 1/2 hours to get the driveway cleared to the gate. Dragging that much cord around sure didn’t make things easier! By the time I was done, the snow was starting to come down pretty hard. The wind was worse than the snow, though. I’d gone back to the gate with the shovel to work on the plow ridge but once at the gate, there are no longer any trees to block the wind, and it was just too brutal to keep going.

I discovered something while working on this. I have a step counter app on my phone. When I got in after the first 2 hours of walking back and worth, the app had me at a ridiculously low step count. I had my phone in my chest pocket, so there was no chance of snow getting in and getting it wet. It was so snug in there, it wasn’t counting most of my steps. When I headed out later, I had them in a pants pocket, but I had so many layers, it was still missing most of my steps. We’re talking off by thousands, not just a few steps here and there!

Once inside, I found someone had hung up on our answering machine. Caller ID told me it was the pharmacy, so I gave them a call. It was about the timing of our delivery. Even with the weather getting worse, the driver was already out! So I basically just stayed in my boots and my layers until I got the call from the driver that he was just a few minutes a day (something we have requested the driver does, since we keep the gate closed). I made sure to tell him I hadn’t been able to clear the plow ridge, so he might not be able to pull into our driveway. Then I bundled back up again to meet him at the gate. The plow ridge wasn’t too bad, but a bit much for a sedan, so he just pulled over on the road. As I asked him about road conditions, I noticed something extra on my husband’s bag of prescriptions.

Something that needed to be signed. With his meds including controlled substances, he has a form he (or I, on his behalf) needs to sign for them, once a year.

Neither of us had a pen.

So I brought it in and my husband signed it, then called the pharmacy about it. We hoped he could just take a picture and email that in, but they need the physical paper. He’s getting his bubble packs delivered next week, so we can give it then, or I can bring it over the next time I’m in town.

Which might be tomorrow.

My sister had called the hospital this morning and sent an update. My mother was finally no longer in ER, but in a room, where she has a TV and a phone. She was much happier! She’s going to be on IV for another day, and then… ???

Once I had the chance in the afternoon, I called the hospital again. The nurse I talked to had just checked on my mother, and she was napping.

I had a chance to talk to her about our concerns that she might be discharged to home, and that we felt she could not live independently anymore. We were hoping that, with her in the hospital, perhaps the doctor could make the decision, since home care wasn’t.

Now, when I say “home care” for this stuff, it’s not the local office that takes care of her visits, but a higher up office. Anything we do with the local office when it comes to paneling my mother for long term care gets sent to this higher department. That department is where everything has been stalled. My mother got paneled a second time, less than 2 months ago, and the local home care coordinator had heard nothing since she gave them the updated paperwork.

That department has a liaison in the hospital.

If the doctor thinks my mother needs to go into long term care, but the liaison disagrees, guess who has the final say?

Not the doctor.

The nurse completely understood when I expressed my frustration.

I did have a chance to tell her that my mother can be her own worst enemy. She will complain loudly about minor things, like her “dry mouth”, but it took us (including the home care workers) about a week or more to get her to finally use the Lifeline and get to a hospital.

Guess what my mother has been complaining about to the nurses?

Yup. Her dry mouth.

She can’t accept that she’s simply sleeping with her mouth open. She won’t use the spray. She won’t keep herself hydrated.

The problem with her complaining about the dry mouth is, she’s not talking about why she’s sleeping with her mouth open in the first place. She’s having trouble breathing when she lies down. This isn’t even a sleep apnea thing, because she struggled to breathe when the paramedics had her lying on her back for a few seconds before raising her up to a more seated position.

The nurse assured me that the doctor was aware of the situation. I knew I was forgetting something, and now that I’ve written this, I remember. I never mentioned her macular degeneration is getting worse, and we can’t even transport her to the specialty eye clinic in the city for treatment. She’s losing her vision. More reason for her to not be going home, but to go into long term care from the hospital.

Even the nurse was commenting that, when someone is approaching 100 years of age, like my mother is, they really should be able to just go into long term care if they want!

So I got that update from the nurse and passed info along to my family. My brother and I had already made plans to visit my mother tomorrow but, now that she’s in the hospital, we’re looking at going to her place to pick up some more clothes and whatnot for her, then going to visit her in the hospital.

Assuming the roads are open and cleared.

Then I got a surprise.

A phone call from my mother!

We had a chance to talk for quite a while. She actually sounded better than she has in quite a while. I told her that – then told her to try sounding sick! 😄

My mother being my mother, she had all her usual complaints. She used to work in a hospital 70-75 years ago, so she knows how they are supposed to be run, and always brings up the same thing. There’s always noise, day and night (I told her, she was in the ER. There’s no difference between day and night in the ER! But it should be better, now that she’s in a room). She can here the staff – and instead of using the word “laughing”, she starts to “laugh” in a very mocking and nasty way. She makes this complaint so often, it seems that hearing other people laugh is the thing about being in the hospital she hates the most. She doesn’t like the sound of other people being happy. As for being in a room now, she complained that she could hear another patient, calling for help.

She didn’t care that a patient needed help. She only cared that it was noise she didn’t want to hear.

Then she complained that she can’t tell the difference between a nurse and a janitor, because they all dress the same (she thinks they should be in those old style starched white uniforms, still).

Of course, she was also complaining about how they are giving her her medications. They look different (different pharmacy, different supplier), so she doesn’t think they are the right medications. There was one that she takes at bed time that they didn’t give her until the morning, so that’s another thing that made her believe they are giving her the wrong medications, different medications, they don’t know what they are doing…

If there’s any sign that my mother is feeling better, it’s that she’s hating on everyone around her again.

When I mentioned to her that we were planning to go to her place to get her some clothes, she wanted me to bring her medications. She doesn’t trust them. I told her, I could bring them, but they would have to lock them away (they had to do that with her T3’s that she brought with her) and would not be allowed to use them. They have to use their own supply, not hers. What was obvious was that, if she had access to her own bubble packs, she would be taking her own medications on top of what they were giving her.

She really is her own worse enemy at times!

She also told me the doctor said that she would be there for another week, and that a nurse told her that she had water around her heart. I knew she didn’t have any in her lungs, but the only thing mentioned to us is that they were trying to get the swelling down on her legs. No one has said anything about her heart, and no one has said anything about how long she will be there. When she was in the hospital before, she had told me the doctor said she would be there for another three weeks, but when we brought it up with the doctor, he had no clue what we were talking about.

So that whole situation is just a mess. It will be good when we can go to the hospital in person and talk to the doctor directly!

Whether or not we can get out tomorrow, we shall see. The snow is supposed to continue, off and on, for another 5 hours or so. It’s not a lot of snow, but the blowing snow advisory is on until 7 or 8am. Checking my weather and highway conditions groups, highways are being closed again all over the place.

I expect our roads to be plowed. It’s our own driveway that will be the issue. All the clearing I did will help, but my daughter told me that drift I’d cleared from under our gate was already back, and there was no sign that I’d cleared it earlier.

Also, she is so happy with her Tough Duck overalls. They cut wind like nobody’s business! They aren’t lined, but she didn’t feel the cold at all.

I need to get me a pair, too!

So that’s where we are at. It’s all one day at a time right now.

The Re-Farmer