This afternoon, my daughter and I headed into town, first to pick up the riding mower, then to pick up fixings for a wiener roast.
Since the mower was too far gone to fix everything, it cost less than $45 for the work that was done to put the drive chain back on and tighten things as much as he could.
As I paid for it, I asked for help to load it into the van, then went out to set up the ramps. The woman who processed the payment came out, while a guy from the shop started up the mower and drove it over.
The woman that was helping me expressed surprise that it would fit in the van at all. After the guy drove the mower over and lined it up with the ramps, he came over as I showed them the drop on the inside. The guy asked if I was sure it would fit, and when I said yes, he thanked me for warning about the drop…
Then got back on the mower and started driving up the ramp!
Thankfully, the back wheels got a bit hung up on the bottom edges of the ramp, because he was basically ignoring my hand waving and couldn’t hear me saying not to drive it up until he was right next to me. Once I told him he couldn’t drive it up (how did he expect to fit under the roof???), he complained a bit. Then he and the woman started pushing from the back, while I steered and pushed from the side.
They had a hard time of it. The girls and I have loaded it into the van a few times, and that was before we had the nice new ramps by brother bought for me, and I don’t remember having that much of an issue.
Of course, once it got to the top, the front wheels dropped and the mower could no longer go forward. I told them that this was where I had to go inside, and climbed in through the side door.
In the end, I ended up picking up the front and and hauling it the rest of the way in, because they didn’t seem to have issues with the back end.
The guy did compliment me on the ramps as I was putting them in with the mower, though, so I told him where my brother got them from. :-)
The mower and the ramps fit just fine in there!
As I write this, it’s still sitting in the van. I’m about to go help get set up for the wiener roast, and I’ll snag the girls to help unload it while we’re out.
I am so looking forward to it! We’re just going hot dogs, but it’s been more than a year since we’ve used the fire pit. It’s going to be awesome!
Well, today’s trip into the city turned out to be decidedly unpleasant.
We usually plan the order of stores we go to around whether or not we’re getting fresh or frozen food. Which means Walmart is usually the first stop (after having breakfast or lunch somewhere) and Costco the last. Today, our first stop was actually a pet store to get some long overdue filters for the fish tank. It’s near the Walmart we usually go to, but when we got there and saw the line outside the door, we turned around and left. Walmart lines just don’t seem to move and, after the long drive and having lunch in the van, I needed a bathroom!
The search for one that was open to the public was not a good start to the day. We ended up going to a chain grocery store location we’d never been to before. It had a line, too, but it was a small one and it was moving fairly quickly.
You know those arrows they have on the floors now? At first, I thought that was a great idea.
I was wrong.
Very wrong.
My daughter and I split up, each with our own cart because they use the carts to keep track of how many people are in the store, so she could pick up some needed items and I found and used the public washrooms. As we tried to reconnect, I found that the arrows forced people to all go from one side of the store to the other. We wanted to go back to the produce section, but there were only arrows pointing out. After a while, with no customers around anyhow, I just went in. My daughter saw an employee and, indicating the arrows, asked “how do we get back to the produce section?”
“You don’t,” she was told.
!!!
She did eventually say that, if there was no one around, to go ahead in, so my daughter soon caught up to me.
I was really glad to get out of there.
We ended up going to the Costco next – it had a very long line outside, but it moved very quickly – and it now has those arrows on the floor, too. Not in all the aisles, though, and some had arrows only at one end of an aisle. We ended up using two carts, with all the big, heavy stuff that would not be unloaded at the cash desk in one cart, and the smaller stuff in the other. Both ended up very full and heavy.
Then it was time to get into the one line from which staff directed people to different cash desks. I spotted the end of the line, and we had to wrestle our carts back and forth through several aisles to reach it. We got there just ahead of an old guy who was coming straight up the main aisle. The next thing I know, an employee is telling me we have to go behind the old guy. Apparently, he complained that we’d cut him off or something. Whatever. My daughter and I had to wrestle the carts around to get behind him, only to have the guy in front of us make some snarky comments about keeping our distance. We hadn’t actually gone nearer to him, so I thought maybe he meant between myself and my daughter. A little while later, though, he snapped an an employee for getting too close. An employee that had to make her way through the line. An employee wearing mask and gloves, and carrying a spray bottle of sanitizer. The old guy was probably more of a danger to her, than the other way around!
What is it about some people that think they are entitled to be nasty to people and get away with it, just because they’re old? I came very close to just abandoning our carts and going home! It was a decidedly unpleasant experience, overall.
After we were done there, we made one last attempt to go to a Walmart. On seeing the line, we just kept right on going and headed home. Most of what we wanted to get there, we should be able to get locally. Not all, though.
Unfortunately, the entire trip left me feeling ticked off for hours, so I decided to head outside while there was still enough light out and do a walkabout. I headed through the barn, into the old hay yard, to check out the pond that is there. The last couple of springs, there was only a small amount of water in there, but this year, it is nice and full. I decided to keep going through the area behind the barn and check out the bigger pond. Along the way, I noticed some new fallen trees and branches. The area is littered with dead trees. :-(
For the last couple of years, this pond has had almost no water in it at all. This is how it looks now!
It is completely full! Even the lower area at one end that meanders through the pasture has water in it! After the drought of the last couple of years, and especially the horrible spring, this is very encouraging.
Potato Beetle, Butterscotch and Creamsicle followed me the entire time, and I got some pictures of Creamsicle playing on the remains of an old boat.
Also… that’s the remains of an old boat. When did that get there? How long has it been there? How have I missed seeing it there? Okay, that last part, I know the answer to. We’d gone through here at a time of year when the grass was very tall, just before the renter rotated his cows into the quarter section we’re on. So this would have been completely hidden by tall grass.
Since I was out here, I decided to head towards the field where the renter planted corn last year. Since moving here, we just never went beyond this pond, so I figured tonight was a nice night for it.
As I got closer, though, all I could feel was dismay.
I found another junk pile.
Why? Why is this here? Who dumped stuff here, instead of taking it to the landfill?
Also… is that what I think it is?
No way!!
Another toilet.
That makes six toilets we’ve found since moving here. Only one of which could be attributed to the bathroom in the house, where the original toilet got switched out for a higher, more accessible one, as part of the changes made to the house as my father’s mobility decreased. Which means people went out of their way to bring toilets out here and dumping them.
Along with so much junk.
This, however, gave me an answer as to who brought this stuff here.
I remember this concrete filled oil drums. Years ago, my parents had bought what they hoped would be an investment property in the “downtown” of our little hamlet. The place used to be a general store. In the back, there had been a shed sitting on top of these barrels, making it high enough that delivery trucks could back up to it and unload easily. When my parents gave up trying to rent the place out, after years of horrid renters that cost them thousands in damages, we ended up living there for a while. The shed was long since gone, but these barrels were still there, tipped over on the concrete pad that had been under them. My daughters still remember playing among these barrels.
After we moved out of province, my late brother cleaned up at area, taking away the barrels and breaking up the concrete pad. That pile of broken concrete would be the remains of that.
What I don’t understand is, why did he drag it all here, instead of to the landfill?
And this is junk the renter’s cows now graze around, too. :-(
As disappointing as it was to find this, I did find something else that delighted me.
We have a creek with actual flowing water!
Now, as I grew up here, I somehow never seemed to have gone into this area before. I have no memory of it. I knew there was a low area here – it is even visible on satellite maps of the farm. It’s part of the municipal drainage system which, in this case, took advantage of a natural marsh system. I knew it got wet and muddy along this way, too. I remember going with my mother into the trees to a hazelnut bush she new of, to gather nuts, and losing my shoe in the mud.
And yet, I never, ever, saw it as an actual creek with fast flowing water! It was always more like a bit of a ditch, or a marsh, of either standing water or much.
I’m still blown away! I ended up following it all the way to the road. Then I continued to the old gravel pit area. I was eager to see how much water was there, too.
I found this along the way.
Actually, I found three of them, not far from each other. These are cow sized vertebra! They weren’t here last year, either.
Then I reached the old gravel pit area.
I don’t remember ever seeing it this full of water before – and my late brother and I used to play in it.
Which, now that I think about it, is rather gross. The pond that formed where my father dug out the gravel pit became a watering hole for the cattle.
I must have anti-bodies to all sorts of things because of the things I used to play in as a child! :-D
The marshy area at one end of the pond extends to the pond in the very first picture of this post. It is also near the car graveyard, which I decided to go through.
The cows eating down so much grass last year meant I could see quite a few things more easily. Including this.
It’s really hard to tell, as rotted away and covered with grass as it is, but I believe this is the remains of an old sledge or wooden trailer. Possibly a stone boat.
I also think it might actually be upside down.
One my way back to the barn, I also paused to check out a shed near the barn that’s still standing – next to another building that collapsed many years ago. I’ve gone into it before but, after living here for a couple of years, I am looking at things with new eyes. And today, those new eyes spotted something else to be excited about.
A lovely stack of boards, leaning against a wall. They’re pretty old, to be sure, but they are clean and dry, and may be exactly what I need for some projects I have in mind. There was also what looks like a full package of asphalt shingles.
We can use this stuff!
At some point, I think I will move the wood into the new part basement, along with anything else of value or use in there. This old shed has some huge holes in the roof, and I could see through the back wall. I’d rather not loose useful stuff to a collapsed roof.
I’m glad I took this walkabout. It was just what I needed after such an unpleasant trip to the city!
And now, I am going to give myself a thorough check before bed. I’ve found two wood ticks crawling on me since I started writing this, and now my entire body is feeling creepy crawly!
There were so many things I found while clearing the corner of the basement that, though I didn’t even get pictures of all of them, I had to give them their own post!
I really, really wonder about some of the stuff I uncovered!
Today, I spent some quality time with our breaker panel.
If all goes well, our electrician friend will stop by on his way home from his job in the city to look at our dead bathroom fan, and the one my husband bought to replace it.
I am not sure we’ll be able to use it, because it is supposed to have heater lamps in it (the bulbs need to be purchased separately) and there might not be enough power load for that. Plus, we would likely want to have a third switch installed so the fan can be operated without the heater lamps. If it’s not appropriate for use, we’ll get another and save this one for when we get a second bathroom installed.
Now, the electricity in this place is quite inadequate to modern needs. Not enough outlets, and it doesn’t take much to trip a breaker. For example, we can’t have the coffee pot or tea kettle and the toaster going at the same time.
The breaker panel had not been labelled, so my older brother figured out which were which, as best he could, and printed out a list. Some were pretty obvious. When he had the new electric furnace installed, it got its own breaker. Same with the drier when the entry was made into a laundry room. Beyond that, he just turned things on and off and figured it out the best he could, printed out the list and put it up on the panel. He even put it in a plastic sleeve, rather than affixing it directly to the panel, so we could add to it as we needed, since he wasn’t able to find everything.
Since we’re looking at getting electrical work done in the bathroom, I figured it would be good to know which breaker the light and fan switch plate is hooked up to. I turned on the bathroom light, which I can see from the breaker panel, and checked the list.
Nothing was labelled for bathroom.
There’s one labelled “unknown”, so I tried that first.
It’s still unknown.
I then tried the one labelled Old Kitchen.
I then got an alarmed question from upstairs, asking why we lost power.
There is a breaker labelled “Upstairs”, but it turns out that’s just for the two newer outlets, which the girls’ computers are plugged into. The old outlets, which their fan is plugged into, is on the same breaker as the Old Kitchen light. Which means that, while my daughter was working on her computer, the fan turned off, and she thought we’d lost power until she realized her computer wasn’t affected. *phew*
Okay.
I then tried the one labelled Old Kitchen Plug. That turned out to be the one our freezer is now plugged into.
Nope. Not the bathroom.
Then I hear my printer restarting itself and my daughter is asking, why did we lose the internet?
Okay. So the breaker labelled Old Kitchen Plug is also for my office.
We then shut down our computers (thankfully, my power bar protected my computer from being affected by the breaker being switched off).
I then started working my way through the other labels, trying to figure out which one would be the bathroom, testing different ones that seemed they might include the bathroom. That included one labelled NW Freezer, which is the outlet in the old kitchen that our freezer used to be plugged into. (At the time it was labelled, there were two freezers in there.)
Nothing.
Finally, I started trying the less logical ones, like one labelled for the basement, or the fridge, etc. I even tried the one labelled Septic Pump.
Nothing.
Going through the list again, I found one I hadn’t tried yet.
Living Room TV.
The bathroom light turned off.
My daughter and I were just shaking our heads. These rooms are about as opposite in the house as you can get.
In the process, I realized we don’t know which breaker the master bedroom is part of. My husband was asleep, so we couldn’t check at the same time.
Also, while we do know about one outlet and light switch in the old part basement, we don’t know about any of the other switches and outlets in the rest of that basement, or the new part basement. Plus, since we’ve got extension cords coming up from holes to the basement, there would be breakers hooked up to places in the basement that would affect power cords on the ground floor.
It is so strange.
The Old Kitchen has a light and two outlets, each on different breakers. I now know one of those outlets is also on the same breaker as the office. Or at least the two outlets. The light wasn’t on at the time, so that might be on a different breaker. Also, it’s one of the rooms with an extension cord coming up the floor, along with a TV cable (this became my dad’s bedroom as his mobility decreased, and a TV was set up for him to be able to watch from bed), which is likely on another breaker. What is sharing the breakers the other old kitchen outlet and the light are on? I didn’t have the light on in the sun room to be able to tell which one it’s on, either.
We’re going to have to do more mapping in the future.
The old part of the house may not have had running water when I was a kid, but it did have electricity. When the new part was added on, aside from the stove being on its own breaker, everything else would have just been extended from existing lines.
I would so love to get this place rewired, top to bottom, with each room on its own breaker.
But if we were going to start tearing out walls to do that, we’d be renovating the house from top to bottom at the same time.
It certainly needs it, but we’d have to win the lottery or something, first!
Until then, we’ll just have to keep trying to map things out and add to the list as we discover them!
This afternoon, while my daughters broke down the pile of branches I’d trimmed at the back of the house, I got the ladder out to caulk the holes in the wall left from the original internet satellite dishes. Hearing the noise, my younger daughter came around to help. Sweetheart that she is, she braved the incredibly bouncy ladder to fill the holes while I held the ladder for her.
My older daughter came around to see what was going on. In the process of looking at her sister caulking the higher set of holes, she noticed something very strange, under the eaves of the second floor roof.
While cleaning up around the yard, one of the girls reached the far post of the clothes line and called me over to look at something.
Hmm…
So… we have a National Geographic remote sensor, attached to the clothes line post, with electric tape. (The rope is there because the post as started to lean over.)
There isn’t really anything to say what it’s there to sense. A search has turned up nothing; this thing is so old, nothing even close to it is showing up. Most of what does show up is weather related, but they look so completely different, I can’t even guess that this is also some sort of weather sensor.
The wire from the sensor is also attached to the pole with electric tape.
This has been there long enough for that bit of lichen above it to actually overlap it!
I’m guessing it was sending a signal to a receiver inside the house at some point, though I can’t recall finding anything that could be a receiver while we were packing up my parents’ stuff.
Though this device isn’t going to be sending signals anywhere, anymore!
I’m going to have to ask a sibling about it and find out what the story is!
In other areas…
Along with the clean up, we’re gathering a fair bit of stuff that normally would go into the burn barrel. We haven’t done a burn in ages, with good reason. There is a total burn ban in the area, and while approved fire pits and BBQs are still allowed, we aren’t going to take any chances. Sure, we could hook up a hose, now that the outside taps have been turned on again, and spray the area around the burn barrel, but why take chances? This stuff is just going to have to go to the dump.
I also did the meter reading today and sent that in. I then went back over the last 5 readings and worked out the differences from month to month on our power usage. This gives me some idea of what we can expect on our next electric bill. It was quite interesting. Our highest bill was just under $600, then the next one was about $550 or so. Those two months can predictably be our highest consumption periods, though this also included the weeks we spent heating water every day, until we could get the new hot water tank. The next month saw a consumption drop of about 1/3, and the month after that showed another slight drop. That’s when we saw bills of just over and just under the $400. This month? The consumption dropped by almost half – more than 2/3s less than our highest month of consumption. So our next bill, I am thinking we will see just a bit more than $200. It should be interesting to see how much it’ll drop when we are at our lowest consumption period over the summer.
Interestingly, I found that we have been living here long enough to qualify for the electric company’s “equal payment” plan – with monthly payments of only $44. !! Based on the last 6 months of meter readings, including the one I sent in today, I just don’t see how they came to that number. Unless I’m just not understanding something about the plan. I think we’ll give it a few more months and see if that changes, before we apply for it.
Our electric bill is much, much higher than it was when we were living in the city, which we expected. I’m just glad we’re not living in Ontario. I know someone there who got an electric bill of over $2000 – about double what they paid in the same month the previous year, with less consumption! So I’m definitely not complaining about our power bills, that’s for sure! Still, we will be examining our options to see what we can do to bring the bills down. Especially for the winter months. Options that do NOT include heating with wood, since that will increase the insurance costs. Add in the cost of buying wood, and there would be no savings at all. Theoretically, we could cut our own wood, but even if we were all able bodied enough to do the work ourselves, it’s not worth it. There are too many other things that our time, efforts and energy need to go to. Like so many other things, it’s a balance of priorities, not just about dollars and cents.
Which is how we will be looking at all sorts of things as we clean the place up and learn what work it needs. There is going to be quite a few things where we are simply going to hire people to come in and do it, rather than try and do it ourselves. Sometimes, it’s just more efficient that way, even if it costs money. I think some of the biggest problems we are finding now come down to the fact that no one wanted to spend the money to hire people to do it, but didn’t necessarily have the time, knowledge, resources, or skills to do it themselves. Sometimes, the best way to save money in the long run, is to spend money in the short run.
Of course, that requires having the money to spend in the short run, which is always its own problem, too!
To complicate things further, we have my mother, who owns the place, and siblings, telling us about things that will need to be taken care of, like covering holes in shed roofs. Which we do appreciate, since we haven’t spent a lot of time looking at the outbuildings, with our focus being the house and yard. Then we go to look at what they are talking about, and all I can think is, this shed is not worth patching. It’s not worth fixing. It should be torn down and gotten rid of. The stuff inside that’s worth keeping needs to be moved elsewhere, to protect it, and the rest needs to be turfed. Heck, some of the sheds I’ve gone into, I’m reluctant to even walk across the floors. I’m no light weight, and there’s a good chance the rotting wood won’t hold my weight! Meanwhile, things that could have been salvaged, like the log cabin out by the fire pit, has a roof that was allowed to cave into all the stuff that had been store inside it.
Ah, well. Little by little, we’re figuring it out.
A few more steps forward, today – and the girls are still outside, working on cleaning up around the yard, so the progress continues even now.
The most exciting thing for me is, the septic guy came! Yay!
Oh, the things that excite me in my old age… LOL
Seriously, though… it’s one less worry, and I already talked to him about coming back in the fall, as part of his regular route in the area, as we go back to doing the regular routine cleaning in the fall.
I can’t help but admire someone who can back up a vehicle like this, through our gate into the yard, between the spruce grove and the flower garden along the East side of the house, and turn into the North side of the house – without hitting the downspout (which was screwed in place, unlike the others) or hitting the low hanging branches.
Dude’s got mad reversing skills.
While chatting with him, I learned he is not a fan of this type of septic tank.
Typically, a septic tank is a large reservoir with only one chamber. The solids naturally sink to the bottom and, once it reaches a certain level, the grey water drains out to the septic field. It’s all gravity based.
This system is much smaller and has two reservoirs. The one for the solids is smaller and has a smaller opening into it. The grey water eventually fills the second, larger, reservoir until an ejector pump sends it out to the septic field.
He needed to get that hose into the solids reservoir, which not only has a smaller opening, but the hoses from the pump (which is inside the basement) run over it.
He knew the place had been empty for the last couple of years, since he’s been servicing our tank for quite a long time, and had assured me it wouldn’t be a concern. Still, he was surprised by how much was in it. I did explain that, though empty, there were still people using the house. Add in 4 people and 6 months… I’m really glad we got it done.
All done!
The straw on the left is what covered the lid for the winter. I was going to pile it elsewhere, but I couldn’t find a pitch fork anywhere.
I checked the garage, the pump shack, the barn, the garden shed – even the basements. No pitch fork to be found.
What farm doesn’t have a pitch fork?
Like most of the lawn on the North side of the house, the grass here is pretty much all gone. Not even just dead, like in other parts of the lawn. It’s basically just dirt and weeds.
After the tank was done, I went back to working on the wood pile in the garden, but not before getting a picture of something that was a mystery to the girls. A mystery I actually knew the answer to, for a change!
It’s one thing to find extension cords all over the house, what with the lack of outlets, but an extension cord up a tree? The tree itself is probably 60 ft high, or close to it, and the cord runs almost all the way up.
I remember when it was run up there. My late brother, who was an agile climber, put it there. He also carried up a star shaped frame with Christmas lights in it, and installed it near the very top of the tree. The cord is to plug in the star.
I can’t see if the star is still up there, but I can’t imagine anyone climbing up there to take it down. Nor can I imagine it ever being replaced since it was first put up there, which means that is a very old extension cord.
We have no plans of ever using it again!
Meanwhile, back to the wood pile in the garden!
This is a pile of deadwood and prunings that had been put there before we moved out, and my family had wanted to burn in the winter. I didn’t want it burned, so we now have the job of cleaning it out of the garden area. Most of it will be used as fuel for the fire pit, but some I’m keeping for future crafting purposes. My mother is still adamant that she wants the garden plowed, as soon as the pile is cleared.
I’m glad we put our collective foot down about not burning this. Earlier, I’d already pulled out a bunch of fibre glass insulation that was buried in it. There are more bits and pieces we are still finding.
I also found this.
Apparently, no one had a problem with burning this, then plowing the remaining metal and glass bits, into the garden.
Nor with this…
I’d already pulled out a margarine container. Today, I found the two lids and some mystery plastic, along with the bits of insulation.
Lovely.
As I was writing this, my daughters called me out to see a discovery they made while cleaning around the yard.
That one is getting its own post. After I make supper.
The Re-Farmer 