Yeah, that’s -36C/-33F, with a wind chill of -46C/-51F
And it’s still just an orange “severe weather” warning, not a red “extreme weather” warning.
If you click through the slide show, you’ll see that the heated water bowl in the sun room, next to the inside door, was almost covered in frost and ice. The last picture is of frost built up on the peak of one of the cat caves near the 250 watt heat bulb. Both cat caves had frost at their peaks, from the humidity of cats crowded inside, keeping warm. Even in the isolation shelter, the cats bundled up in the cat bed near the other 250 watt heat bulb had frost on the tips of their whiskers, and the fur of the long haired ones.
As I write this, we are now at -33C/-27F with almost no wind chill. Our high of the day is supposed to be -24C/-11F.
Tomorrow, we’re supposed to reach a very balmy (in comparison!) -15C/5F.
Hopefully, that will be enough, but it’s supposed to get a bit colder again – nothing extreme, at least – after that.
Enough for what, you ask?
For our truck.
I should be at my mother’s apartment right now.
The truck wouldn’t start.
It did try! However, with the noises it was making before stalling, I wasn’t going to keep pushing it.
I can’t even pop the hood to check the engine. It’s pulled in far enough to close the garage door, which means the nose is almost touching the counter in front. I can’t reach the middle to open the hood.
Thank God we did the extra stocking up, when we had the chance! We will be good.
I just hope the truck will be okay once things warm up again. Yes, the block heater is plugged in, and I don’t think we got cold enough to crack the engine block (yes, we’ve had that happen in the past, long ago), but there are plenty of other things this cold could destroy.
The plow went by, increasing the snow ridge at the end of the driveway. It really wasn’t that bad and we could have driven through. The problem is, between the plow ridges and the driving, the end of the driveway was getting narrower and narrower. I needed to get that opened up, before the next polar vortex hits.
I love that ice scraper. It does a bang up job of cutting through hard packed plow ridge snow!
Technically, today was warmer, and there was less wind, but even a slight breeze brought was was -20C/-4F to a “real feel” of -31C/-24F. I was well bundled but, by the end of it, my toes and finger tips were starting to feel it!
While I was out there, my mother called from the hospital. I didn’t see my daughter’s message until I was putting things away, almost an hour later. My mother apparently sounded frustrated.
So when I called back, I made sure to talk to the nurse, first. I found out that she has been refusing her afternoon pain meds. Because she’s been in so much pain with her back, and the Voltaren wasn’t enough anymore, they now have she scheduled to take painkillers 3 times a day, instead of “as needed”. She’s apparently been having better days and saying no to the pills.
When talking to her about it later, she told me, she’s taking so many pills! Which makes it sound like it isn’t that she’s in less pain, but that she just doesn’t want to take another pill.
*sigh*
I asked the nurse about my mother getting Xrays, but she could find nothing on the file about it. She made notes to talk to the doctor about it. I also brought up that we need to have a meeting with the doctor, so she made notes for someone that can check his schedule, and to call my brother to book a time. My schedule is flexible, so I can work around his.
Then I got transferred to my mother’s room.
*sigh*
She was shouting right from her “hello”. It actually hurt my ears. When I asked her why she was shouting, it was “so you can hear me.”
Yeah, Mom. I can hear you. So can everyone outside your door and down the hall!
No, I didn’t say that out loud.
She then starting complaining. No one is calling. No one is visiting. No one cares (she includes the hospital staff on that). Why doesn’t my brother call or visit?
So I told her about his going to her place to replace the window from the AC set up, then about the woman who fell. She actually knows the woman, as she often does the Gospel readings in church. When I told her about the fall and my brother taking her to the hospital, she only wanted to know, which hospital. I told her, and she started saying, she has children, why did my brother drive her. Her (adult) children weren’t there (I think they live in the city!). Even when I told her, my brother probably saved her life, because if he hadn’t seen her, there was a good chance she would have frozen to death before anyone got to her.
She didn’t care.
She also didn’t have any appreciation for my brother going out to her apartment in the severe cold, getting the window done, helping a neighbour, and still driving her to the farm to drop off the AC, in the dark.
Instead, she kept complaining about how no one calls or visits her. I finally told her that, right then, she was making me regret calling her back, and called her out on how nasty she was being.
She – sarcastically – thanked me for being open with her.
*sigh*
After that, the call was better. She did complain that money was probably taken from her bank account for her apartment. I told her that she IS still renting it. All her things are still there. Of course she has to pay for it. That got us to talking about her things and what she wants done with them.
Don’t throw anything away, she keeps saying.
We’ve got an entire building filled with personal belongings we packed from this house – a building we could really use as the workshop it used to be – that she insists we don’t throw away. Now, we’ll have more, and we’ve already run out of storage space.
Then she demanded I tell her what I planned to do with a particular mirror she’s had stuck in her storage closet for the past 10 years. Something she gets obsessed about, every now and then. I finally had to tell her, don’t worry about it. We’ll take care of it.
Then she started going on about how, really, my sister should be taking care of her more, she and her husband are both on pension, she doesn’t need to be working, she should be taking care of Mom.
I’m sure my sister has been nagged about that a few times, already!
I was eventually able to get a word in – right after she told me, she wants to get out of there! – and told her, I think her problem is, she’s bored. She’s there by herself, with nothing to do, and she’s bored. We talked about it a bit, and she agreed. She is bored and lonely! Which, I told her, is completely understandable!
Well, this post got interrupted by a call from my brother.
We have a meeting booked with the doctor. They got us in as quickly as they could, and it’s an evening meeting, so that works for my brother. It was noted that, since we are dealing with cognitive issues with my mother, she won’t be there, and won’t even be told about it. Our concern was that, if she knew in advance, she’d end up telling our vandal about it, and he could cause problems.
It sucks having to even consider these things.
As for me, I am done for the day. I’m glad I got the end of the driveway cleared, but I’m really going to be paying for it, tonight, even with my meds!
I have to admit, though, I did quite enjoy the shoveling!
This is what it was, this morning, shortly before I headed out to tend that yard cats. I did not do the rest of my morning rounds. -21C/-6F with a wind chill of -35C/-31? Yeah, I was feeling that.
As I write this, the temperature is the same, but the wind chill is now -42C/-44F
All night and all this morning, I was seeing posts about blizzard conditions, white outs, and the general advice of “stay home, if you can!” The bulk of the storm hit the south end of our province, though, so we’re mostly getting that wind, but very little new snow. A small blessing, but I’ll take it!
The weather warnings starting coming in fast on the weather group I’m on, yesterday. While my brother was still at my mother’s apartment. When he set up my mother’s portable AC, he got permission from the public housing department to remove a window. He set up a board with the exhaust port installed in it. In the winter, the AC’s hose was removed and 3″ Styrofoam insulation was set over the window. While we still don’t have anything official saying my mother isn’t going back to her apartment, we’re preparing it for that, anyhow, and he wanted to get the window and trim back in
In that cold.
He took extreme care to ensure nothing chipped, cracked or broke in the severe temperatures, and you’d never know it was ever taken out in the first place.
As he was packing the AC into his car to bring here (which I didn’t even know he was planning to do!), a woman came out of the church across the street.
Then slipped, fell and hit the back of her head on a concrete bench.
!!!
My brother went over to help, and was soon joined by a woman in my mother’s building who saw what happened through her window. The woman who fell was consious, but not moving. They helped her up and to her home, which was right next to the church. My brother checked under her hood, and found blood.
I’m convinced her winter gear saved her life.
As did my brother. She couldn’t get up on her own and, in this cold, even if she survived an unpadded blow to the back of her skull, the cold would have done her in within minutes.
My brother ended up driving her to the nearer city’s ER (the local hospital’s ER, just blocks away, is almost never open). Driving her was faster than waiting for an ambulance. My brother left her in good hands, then drove back to my mother’s apartment to finish loading his car, before coming here.
When he first told me he was planning to come here, he wasn’t sure if our roads were clear, so I went out to check the driveway. Our road was not plowed, but it didn’t need it. The winds swept it clear. Which probably meant the main road was drifted over. Our own driveway had some drifting, but I knew his car could make it all right. Being so much smaller than our truck, he would have plenty of room to pull up to the house and turn around without hitting the areas that were starting to drift over. So I left the gate open for him, then called him back. I did recommend he take a different route. Normally, he take a road that allows him to avoid driving past our vandal’s place, but that road doesn’t get as much traffic, and is not maintained as thoroughly. He agreed. Apparently, the last time they came out here and took their usual route, it was in very poor condition. The main road may not have been plowed, but it gets a lot more traffic, which would make it easier for him to get through.
After calling him back, I bundled up in layers and headed back out with the ice scraper and shovel. There was a fair bit of ice built up under a layer of snow on our front steps and sidewalk, and I didn’t want anyone to slip and hit their heads on a concrete step!
By then, it was getting dark, but it was also warmer than it had been earlier in the day. After clearing in front of the house as best I could, I went and started clearing the drift in front of our garage door, by the light of the yard light. I was just finishing that up when my brother arrived. He stayed long enough to drop off the AC and accessories, then headed home. He had about an hour to drive, and road conditions were getting worse. Happily, he got home safe and sound.
We now have my mother’s AC unit, that my brother bought for her. The first of many things that will end up coming here, over the next while.
I’d hoped to go to my mother’s today, as it was supposed to be warmer. Apparently, we did reach the predicted high of -17C/1F, but it was at around 4-6am! Not going to happen, today. (As I watch the giant maple branches out my window sway in the wind, amazed they haven’t broken off yet.)
The next few days, we’re supposed to reach highs warmer than -20C/-4F. More importantly, the wind is supposed to die down. I’m not sure on the timing of things, since I will also be taking three cats in for spay/neuter on Wednesday.
The last time my mother was in the hospital, it was at the end of January, beginning of February (less than a year ago!). We had to deal with weather issues then, too!
The older I get, the more I am starting to really dislike winter.
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!
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.
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.
While doing the morning rounds, I could not believe just how slippery everything was! I don’t think we’ve had anything like this, since we moved out here. Today was even more dangerous than after it was actually raining.
The camera on my phone seems to compensate a bit for the brightness. I couldn’t actually look at where I was taking the pictures, the sun’s glare on the ice was so blinding. I had to be super careful walking the paths to set out food and water for the yard cats. I was really appreciating the handles I’d put on the isolation shelter, as they gave me something to grip as I went from one sliding window to the other. I’d cleared the patio blocks below, but they are now covered with a thick layer of sheer ice.
Tomorrow, we’re supposed to get above freezing, so things should soften up and, in some areas, melt clear. Hopefully, that means the highway will be dry by the afternoon, as I plan to go to my mother’s apartment to check on things, then hit the hardware store to get some Roof Melt to get rid of the ice dam that has formed on the sun room roof.
Speaking of my mother…
I called the hospital last night. I timed it badly, as they were doing shift change, and I was asked to call back later. That meant I was talking to a new shift nurse, who had just barely been debriefed.
My mother, it turns out, had a rather “bad” day… and by “bad”, it was about her behaviour.
She had called me early in the morning, before they came to do her vitals, and over an hour before they were scheduled to do her morning meds. After I called the nurses’ desk back to explain the call to my mother, they checked on her, then I got a call back with an update.
Some time after that, it turns out my mother went into the hall and started yelling and swearing at the staff, calling them stupid. The nurse I was talking to had been updated during their shift change meeting, but hadn’t completely finished reading the written report yet, but she was able to tell me that the previous nurse managed to get her back into her room. The nurse then addressed her behaviour, in private.
I was both surprised and not surprised at the same time. I think it was the swearing that actually surprised me the most, because I didn’t think she knew any swear words in English. I’m probably wrong on that. If she had been swearing in Polish, it’s unlikely they wouldn’t have known if something was a swear, other than by tone.
I apologized for my mother’s behaviour, of course, but the nurse just laughed it off. She told me, the get this quite a bit, and never take it personally.
At the end of the call, I made sure to pass on my gratitude for how well they are taking care of my mother. She does not make it easy.
Some changes in her schedule were made, though. My mother complained that they weren’t doing anything for her, regarding her pain in particular. The only things they do for that is give her her Tylenol and rub affected areas with Voltaren, both of which help her a lot. These, however, were “as needed”, and if she didn’t specifically ask for them, she wouldn’t get them. It seems she wasn’t asking for them as often as she should have been. So now, both are scheduled. She will get both, twice a day, without her having to ask for them first.
There really isn’t anything else they can do for her. Most of her maladies are not things that can be fixed. At 94 years old, her body is simply giving out in places – and she really is doing remarkably well for her age! She doesn’t think so, of course.
Hopefully, they will find a care place for her soon, whether its assisted living, or a nursing home, like she wants. These places tend to have activities to help with cognitive decline, or simply for socializing. There is nothing like that available in the hospital, so she’s basically stuck alone for much of the day, stewing in her own mind, without the distractions she had become used to.
At the end of my call with the nurse, who was about to do the evening meds, she promised to call me back, if there was anything of concern. She did not call, so no news is good news.
After checking my mother’s apartment tomorrow, depending on the road conditions, I will drive to the hospital and visit her, too.
For a while, there, my mother had been doing so well. She really was happier than I’d seen her in years. Now, she seems to be reverting to her usual self again. Which makes the idea of visiting her or calling her on the phone a lot more stressful than it should be.
The hospital staff are saints. My mother is not the only difficult patient they have to deal with! At least, with her, she is an “easy” patient, in that she doesn’t need a lot of physical care, for someone that is hospitalized.
While we haven’t had anything official yet, we at least have been told she is not going to be discharged back to her apartment. They just don’t know when or where she will be discharged to, yet.
Which puts the rest of us in limbo.
I suppose we should start packing her apartment, though. I just don’t know where to start!
Today’s high was warmer than originally forecast, reaching -1C/30F
Which caused some problems!
This first was something I noticed in the sunroom again. Ice on the corner of one of the litter boxes. Too much for it to be from a cat pissing over the edge. I’d used the ice scraper to clear some up when the litters in there were last changed, but now there was even more.
There was only one other place it could be coming from.
Yes, those are icicles on the ceiling of the sun room.
This is not good. We haven’t had this since the new roof was installed. Great care was taken to make sure this didn’t happen again.
I went outside again to check the sun room roof. The problem was easy to see. While we haven’t had a large amount of snow this year, above that corner is where the roof from the original log part of the house slightly overhangs the slope of the sun room roof. So any snowmelt from the higher roof drains onto the sun room roof.
Now, what it should be doing is draining into the eavestrough on the sun room roof. That trough, however, is now filled with ice. At the opposite end of the down spout, a large ice dam has formed – and there’s nothing we can do about it. There is no way to safely get up there.
The best I could do was get the roof rake and remove as much snow as I could. Which really wasn’t much, but it should at least expose the ice dam to the sun. The eavestrough is a dark brown, which should warm up a bit faster, too. Ideally, we would have heat tape up there, but we’ve already got too many things plugged into the one outlet in the old kitchen. It’s got our freezer plugged into it, as well as extension cords to power the heated water bowl, heat lamps and the outlet in the cat house, which powers another heated water bowl and a heat bulb inside.
Tomorrow is supposed to have a high of -2C/28F, then the day after, we now have a forecast of 3C/37F. Hopefully, I’ve removed enough snow for things to melt at least partially clear.
In the spring/summer, someone is going to have to get up there to see where the moisture is coming through. No one – not even the roofers – figured out exactly where it was coming in before, but since we hadn’t had a leak inside the sun room since, we figured it got patched up while the new roof was installed. I did tell the roofers about the leak, and exactly where it was leaking, so they did look for a source, which they never found, and made sure the flashing was good. Still, here we are!
I had intended to break Spewie out again and continue clearing the driveway, but as I switched out the trail cam cards, I found it was too windy for the job. Plus, I could tell I was paying for the amount I’d done yesterday. I was feeling joints trying to dislocate all over the place!
As soon as I was able, I pain killered up and tried lying down.
Ha! Yeah, that didn’t work too well.
My daughter, meanwhile, headed outside to get the fire pit going, so we could do our wiener roast.
By then, it had started to rain!
She was able to get the fire started, though. It did take longer to get it down to cooking coals. She brought out an energy drink to have while tending the fire, and it actually started to turn into slush before long. When I came out to join her, I had mine in a can cozy, to keep it from freezing. By then, it was ice-raining quite a bit.
This wasn’t going to be a day to roast weinies on sticks! Instead, I brought out a tray meant for doing smaller vegetables and such on the BBQ. Once we had enough coals, I set that up on the round grill with a dozen wieners on it, then covered them with foil to keep the rain off and the heat in. Then my daughter used her fire poker stick to pull the grill around over the coals. That’s what you’re seeing in the second picture of the slide show above.
I had some concern that the grill was too high, but that turned out to not be an issue at all. In fact, when my daughter swung the grill off to turn the wieners, they were almost starting to burn!
So those didn’t take very long at all. It was almost a shame to not have anything else to cook!
Once they were done, we swung the grill away again and let things cool down enough that I could transfer them onto the foil, wrap them up and take them inside to keep warm in the oven.
The paths in the yard were incredibly slippery, with frozen rain!
On the way back out, I grabbed a bag of hot dog buns, so we could toast them over the coals. By then, it had stopped raining, so we didn’t need to cover them with foil. It took three batches to do a dozen buns, but they toasted very quickly, so it took no time at all.
Then I took the buns in and made up some hot dogs for my daughter and I, leaving the rest wrapped up to stay warm in the oven with the rest of the wieners for my husband and other daughter. It was too dangerous for my husband to come out, even with the walker, and my older daughter was working on commissions for most of last night, so she wasn’t going to be up again for a while yet, so they had theirs indoors.
My hot dogs had cheese on them, so I wrapped ours up in two packages of foil, which we set back over the coals to warm up again and melt the cheese, flipping them part way through. Once they were warm again, we could set the grill just a bit to one side, so we could each grab a hot dog to eat, while the rest could stay warm in the foil near the fire.
We had Sir Robin hanging out with us, very interested in the smells. Even Fancy Pants kept coming around. For a cat that won’t let us touch him, he does enjoy being near us!
Once we were done eating, we just stayed out to enjoy the fire. My daughter tended it while, little by little, I put things away. At one point, I decided to check on the outer yard.
The area I cleared yesterday was downright deadly. I did not get far! In the above pictures, you can see the layer of ice, gleaming in the sun. I was going to check on my brother’s trucks with the solar powered trickle chargers, to make sure the panels were clear, but it was just too slippery. Even going back to the inner yard through the areas I’d cleared, I had to walk on sections with slightly deeper snow, so I could stomp through the ice layer and gain traction under it.
By the time the fire pit was burned down enough, my daughter had been out there for about 3 or 4 hours, and I’d been out for maybe half a hour less.
It was absolutely lovely and, in the end, a really nice way to rest and recharge for the day.
With the crust of ice on everything, I definitely won’t be breaking little Spewie out to do the rest of the driveway. We can get through it, at least, if necessary, but I’m glad I got any driving I needed to do over with, yesterday. I really feel for anyone who had to drive in that freezing rain! I think my brother and SIL are driving their grandson back home this weekend, but I don’t think that province got hit with the freezing rain, so they should be okay.
I just double checked and I was correct. We are still under “moderate” freezing rain warnings, but it’s affecting only our province.
So… that was really fun.
Now I’m going over our stock in my mind, thinking what we could do over the fire, next! I wouldn’t mind trying something like a stew in the Dutch oven, next.
Things have warmed up quite a bit today. As I write this, we are at -7C/19F, which is warmer than the predicted forecast.
While I was out doing my morning routine, I decided to take advantage of the weather and do a bit of clean up. Mostly, scraping the packed snow off the sidewalk and shoveling that clear. Then I decided to clean up the path to the compost pile that was starting to fill in and, since I was there anyhow, decided to shovel a new path to the back of the garage. I just had to follow a trail conveniently marked out for me by a deer! 😄
While going past the garden beds there, I was able to mound more snow over the winter sown kohlrabi bed.
The other bed with the winter sown cabbage has a cover stored over it, so I wasn’t going to add more to that one. The cover itself has probably created air pockets that would also serve as insulation to protect the bed.
I look forward to seeing how the winter sown beds work out in the spring! I haven’t even tried to get at the ones in the main garden area. There’s enough snow covering the entire area that I’m not going to bother.
That done, I continued towards the garage, but the closer I got, the harder it was to use the shovel to break through the crust of snow near the top. In the first picture below, you can see a line where I hit with the shovel and managed to just leave a mark. There was loose snow under the hard packed snow, but even clearing that away, plus the loose snow on top, the shovel just couldn’t break through. It already has a crack in it, so I wasn’t going to bash too hard.
Now, what I could have done was get the ice scraper and chop it up, but… I just couldn’t resist.
I got my machete out of the garage, instead.
In the second picture, you can see where I started to clear from the garage side. I didn’t have that much distance left to clear. After shoveling aside the loose snow on top, I started cutting out blocks. Some of them were angled cuts, as I had to make a turn in the path. The snow on the garage side was packed all the way to the ground, and I had to cut blocks in half horizontally so that I could free the top block, then cut again to get the bottom loose. After a while, though, I started reaching where the bottom layer of snow was loose, and it got much easier.
In the third picture, you can see the last bit before I reached the cleared path. The cats really liked the new path! At one point, I even found one tucked into the gap under the hard packed snow in the first picture.
As for the blocks, I ended up setting them along the north wall of the path to the outhouse. A little extra to block the wind and keep it from drifting in, which you can see in the fourth picture of the above slide show.
Last of all, I tidied the new path up with the shovel. Once I was done and putting things away, the cats immediately started running up and down the new path! I’m sure the deer whose trail to the compost pile I cleared will like the new path, too. 😁
I have to admit, I was really, really tempted to keep cutting more blocks and building up more walls. Which I might actually do more of, tomorrow.
Today, however, I needed to go into town, so I headed in for breakfast, instead.
Once in town, my first stop was at the hospital to visit my mother. She seems to be doing pretty good, though she complains that they aren’t “doing” anything for her. I’m not sure what they can do, other than what they are already doing. She seems to be looking for some sort of magical fix for everything. She gets out of breath very easily. There’s nothing they can do about that. She has pain, and they’re already giving her painkillers and using the Voltaren. They’re still giving her water pills more often, to keep the swelling down. She wants the doctor that’s covering for the one on holiday to see her, but for what, exactly? She never quite tells me.
After a while, I told her to just enjoy being there and being taken care of. She doesn’t have to worry about her meals, and if she has trouble at night, she just has to push a button, and help will come. Which is exactly what she has been wanting, for a very long time – to have someone around and available, especially at night. At one point, she told me she had to call for help while in the washroom. She was in too much pain in her hip and back to get up. She asked them to rub on more Voltaren, which is one of the only things that really seems to help her, and she was eventually able to get up. The nurse wanted her to get up and walk right away, but she had to tell her, she needs at least a bit of time for the stuff to start working, first!
I don’t know when the regular doctor will be back from holidays, but once he is, my brother wants to book a meeting with him to discuss my mother’s situation. The only thing we know right now is, there is nothing about her going home. Still, until we get official word that she will be going into some sort of care facility, we can’t really do anything more about her apartment, utilities, etc. I suppose we could start packing things. I’m really not looking forward to going through all my mother’s stuff, but wherever she goes, very little of it will be able to go with her. Basically, her clothes and that’s about it. She might be able to hang some of the family pictures on the wall of wherever she ends up, but if she ends up in the hospital for an extended period, while waiting to a bed to open somewhere, we’ll have to store things ourselves until we know what her set up will be.
In the end, it wasn’t a long visit. There wasn’t anything much new with either of us, and I’ll be back again soon, I’m sure. Now that she’s in the town closest to us, I’ll have more opportunity to visit her.
From there, it was off to the pharmacy, and then to run what errands I could think of, while I was in town.
When I headed out this morning, everything was covered in frost. Normally, that would have gone away during the day, but we’ve been overcast all day, so everything was still looking like something out of a post card while I was heading home.
One nice thing about living in the boonies. I could stop in the middle of the road to take pictures, and didn’t have to worry about traffic. 😄
The local company the RM contracts with to do the plowing did a fantastic job! There was a brief period few years ago, when a new council decided to lease a snow plow instead, then hire a driver as needed. It was a disaster, and the winter road conditions were the worst anyone could remember. That council was so bad, the province ended up disbanding it after too many people quit in disgust, then taking over until a new council could be elected. The new members went back to contracting with the same company that had been doing such a great job for so many years, and what a difference that has made!
Anyhow, that’s it for today, really. We’re supposed to have some pretty mild weather of the next while – a week from today, they’re now saying we might reach 0C/32F! Hopefully, I’ll be able to take advantage of it. If nothing else, we need to do a dump run when it’s open tomorrow, and then I can keep going to the feed store to the north of us, and get 40 pound bags of kibble for the outside cats for the month.
Other than that, I might just end up cutting more snow blocks. I haven’t built a snow fort since I was a kid. 😄
I’ve been talking with the rescue about her, because she is so incredible matted. They just got a new foster, so Kohl will be their first rescue! This should work out, as Kohl is already socialized and spayed, so she should be an easy one. They’ve already posted pictures of her on social media, requesting a volunteer groomer, or someone who could sponsor a groomer. She is so badly matted, she will likely need need a total shave. I picked her up and snuggled her this morning, and it was hard to find a place on her body that did NOT have any mats!
Tomorrow, I’ll be heading into the city to do our Costco stock up shopping. Instead of going to the new one, like we did last time, we’ll be going to our usual location. There’s a mall nearby where we’ll meet up with someone from the rescue and hand over Kohl. (I’m pretty sure my younger daughter will be coming with me, though I haven’t confirmed that yet.) After Kohl it picked up, we’ll hit the mall for breakfast/lunch before hitting the Costco.
There has already been interest shown in adopting Kohl, though one of the people in the rescue is very tempted to adopt her, herself. However, like us, she already has too many indoor cats!
With the stock up shopping about to happen, my goal for today was the clear more of the inner yard so there would be more room for the truck to turn around and back up to the house.
This is how it looked when my daughter first cleared a turn around space towards the outhouse, as well as a path to the litter compost pile behind it.
While she used little Spewie, I would break up the edges of with the snow shovel so that it would be easier for Spewie to get through, as the snow was too deep and areas were getting packed pretty hard by high winds. It took quite a while for my daughter to clear the space, and it left her having to use a cane for the next two or three days!
When I tried to actually use the turn around space, it turned out that “point” in the middle was still a problem. One corner of the truck hit it as I turned. That normally wouldn’t have been a problem except 1) the snow was even more hard packed by then and 2) the plastic shield under the bumper was already loose on that corner and held in place with clear duct tape. That got torn loose, and now it’s hanging again. Even if I had more of the duct tape, I couldn’t use it because it’s too cold for adhesive to stick.
So my main focus was to widen the whole area but to especially clear out that “point”.
In the first picture, you can see I was also able to clear a path to the outhouse (our emergency second bathroom). I used a shovel to clear space at the door so it had room to swing open, because there’s a high density foam mat under the snow that somehow has raised edges. The last time I tried to clear in front of the door with Spewie, it caught on the mat and actually tore it up a bit!
The path to the litter compost pile was already done by my daughter before, so I just used a shovel to clear it again a bit more, then tidied it up a bit with Spewie, later.
In the next picture, you can see where I’d widened the area by the tree a bit, and turned that “point” into a diagonal. The first 50 feet or so weren’t to bad, but past that, the snow was so hard packed, I couldn’t use the shovel to break it up anymore. I had to use the ice scraper to basically chop the snow up into pieces small enough for Spewie to be able to go over them without breaking.
I honestly felt tempted to stop and get a machete to try cutting snow blocks and build an igloo! 😄 Or even just snow walls strategically placed to block the wind. That area’s snow would have been ideal for that.
In the last picture, you can see I cleared space on the other side of the sidewalk, too. There had been a small triangle of snow between paths that I got rid of completely. That gives us more room to back up, plus move around the back of the truck with the tail gate open.
Once that was done, I decided to see how much more I could do. After adding a third extension cord from the garage, I had enough length to not only clean up and widen some cat paths, but I was able to clear a path to the fire pit and BBQ, clear enough space around the fire pit for chairs, paths to the wood pile and branch pile, and finally a path around the old kitchen garden so we can access the septic tank, if needed.
I’m so glad I set up the emergency septic bypass before the snow fell. There’s so much snow on top of it right now, you can barely see where the pipes and hose are at all! I don’t expect we’ll need to use it. If the ejector was going to freeze again like last winter, it would have happened by now. Still, it’s good that it’s set up now, just in case. If we did end up needing to use it, the only thing we’d need to do is clear the snow away from the end of the hose in the maple grove, so the grey water wouldn’t end up freezing into a block at the end.
Then, I did some clearing in the outer yard. I widened some turning space to get into the garage – that required more breaking up of snow with the ice scraper, too. Last of all, I cleared some paths to a couple of my brother’s trucks. He has solar panel trickle chargers set up in their windows. He was able to use his gas powered snow blower to clear a path to one truck, but it was too big to clear paths to the other two. I’d checked on them to clear snow away from the windows in front of the solar panels, and found the snow was quite deep. For me, that’s something that could easily result in my having another fall. I could have shoveled the paths, I suppose, but Spewie is small enough to get in there.
By the time I was done and put everything away, I’d been out there for more than three hours.
I really enjoy work like this, so it didn’t feel like it was very long at all, but once I was done and putting things away, my body was starting to tell me it wasn’t too happy!
On the plus side, my new coat was more than enough to keep me warm out there. I had tried to use the collar to keep my lower face warm, but all that really did was cause my glasses to frost up. I ended up going inside and my husband took them and set them aside from me, so most of this was done without my glasses. I could see a lot better without them than with!
Once I was inside and settling in with some food, things really started to stiffen up. I sat at my bedside to take my meds before eating, and had to get my daughter to help me stand up again, even though I now keep a cane with feet near my nightstand as an aid to standing up. It wasn’t enough today!
It does mean that I’ll probably have issues tomorrow, which is why I’m pretty sure one of my daughters will be coming with me, as my mobility assistant.
I figure today is a good day to go to bed early – after taking more painkillers!
I gotta say, though, it feels so good to get all that done, I really don’t mind the pain!
After my fall this morning, I really didn’t think I’d be up to doing much of anything for the rest of the day. I still think I’m really going to be feeling it tomorrow…
… and yet…
I ended up falling asleep for something like four hours. Checking my knees, my right knee has some swelling, though not at bad as I thought. I’m sure the anti-inflammatories have made a difference! I can take these up to three times a day, and I now have a 3 months supply. I’ve been taking them only once a day, if at all, so I can take more without any concerns of running out.
Much to my surprise, while my left knee is also starting to let me know that it got hurt, too, I am not in pain, in a general sense. It only hurts when something touches my knee, even if it’s just a cat tail brushing against my knee as I walk by. I’m definitely developing quite the bruise on my right knee.
The left side of my body is also letting me know it’s not happy. This is the side that I hurt the most when I had my fall in the summer. My left shoulder in particular has never really recovered from that. After landing on my right knee, it was my left side that hit the floor – after I bounced off that bucket – so it’s no surprise that my left side is feeling it more.
Still, after my nap, I felt really good. I am not limping, but I already hobble because of the OA and bone spurs in my feet, knees and hips, so I’m just penguin walking a bit more. Walking doesn’t hurt, but WOW am I thankful for all those arm bars that were installed for my late father. I need those at the best of time, and now is not the best of times! I’ve also got the cane with feet that stands on its own at my bedside. I don’t need to use the cane for walking, but I can use it to help me get up and down from my bed.
My daughters took care of changing all the litter boxes today, but a path to the litter pellet compost pile had to be cleared. When my daughter headed out to start on that, I headed out, too. I actually felt good enough to shovel more!
While getting the shovel down from where we hang it in the sun room, I realized that I didn’t actually trip on the cat carrier after all. Even with my fogged up glasses, I knew where it way. What I couldn’t see was the open door, and that’s what my foot caught on.
The carrier has been repositioned! We keep the carriers in various places in the sun room so the cats associate them with safety and comfort, so I didn’t want to move it out entirely.
One of the areas I worked on was the cat paths. Part of this was done this morning, before my fall.
I cleaned up the path to to the catio, then made a new path around all the shelters. This gives access to the little solar panels for the motion sensor lights inside the water bowl and kibble shelters, so we can clear them of snow as needed. I also cleared a second path to the catio shelter.
In the last picture of the above slide show, you can see the path the cats have made in the snow, to where they can get under the storage house. I’ve started to clear a path that way, but not very far, yet. Over time, we will clear a path to the corner of the storage house, and also redo the path to the fire pit and wood piles, so we can use it.
My daughter, meanwhile, was going the much bigger job of clearing turn around space, after making the path to the litter compost pile.
While she struggled with little Spewie, I was able to go behind her and use the snow shovel to break up the packed snow that had formed at the top. Some areas were drifted higher than Spewie is tall, so breaking that up made it easier for the little snow blower to get at it. In between passes, I cleared out a corner at the sidewalk area. This way, once pulled up to the house, we’ll have more room to open the doors and walk around it, while carrying things.
We didn’t finish the job completely, as it was starting to get pretty dark. My daughter has issues with working in the cold, as breathing cold air triggers coughing fits and hurts her lungs. She was wearing a home sewn cloth mask, but it’s snug against her face. Which means it quickly got very wet, resulting in her breathing in her own condensation. My new coat, when zipped all the way up, has a collar that reached up to my nose. That creates a warm bubble of air that prevents coughing fits. My daughter’s coat doesn’t have that. We need to find something she can wear while outside that will created the warm air bubble, but doesn’t touch her face.
Right now, we have enough space for the truck to turn around, though I still want to round out a corner, at the very least. After that, we have some turn around areas in front of the garage I want to widen a bit. I had a chance to walk around the outer yard before heading inside. My brother cleared enough in the outer yard to drive up to the barn, as well as their trailer and camper. He even cleared a path to the electric meter for me, so I can access it to do a reading.
While working on the inner yard, I could see where deer were digging around the the flower and haskap bed between the sidewalk and the vehicle gate. While walking around where my brother had cleared the snow, I found evidence showing the deer were using the cleared paths to get around, too! Much easier than fighting through the deep snow. 😁
Once everything was put away, we came inside to hot tea my older daughter made for us – turmeric and ginger tea, for me! The Instant Pot stew that was started before we headed outside had just finished and was depressurizing, so we had hot food waiting for us as well.
So far, I’m still feeling good, though I can feel I’m stiffening up. I did take more anti-inflammatories and painkillers with my supper, so that should help.
Hard to believe it’s just a couple more days before we start our Christmas activities on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. I’m still focused on digging things out, and have left all the decorating and such to my daughters. Not that we do much of that anymore, and what we do is limited to the cat free zone, AKA, the living room. It’s going to be a quiet Christmas this year.
The Re-Farmer 