So glad I got it checked! A double update

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Today was my day to bring the truck in to the garage to see what was going on with my oil pressure. I was sure there was a new leak somewhere.

I’m so glad I did.

While unplugging the block heater, I made sure to look under the truck, but could see no soil of oil leaking. That doesn’t mean much, though. When we had major issues before that turned out to be a leaking oil line seal, we never saw any sign of a leak under the truck. I got that fixed and our pre-winter oil change at the same time, so this was just a few months ago. It had been fine since then.

While driving back from my mother’s apartment a couple of days ago, I noted the check engine light had turned off. This morning, it turned back on again, less than a mile from home. The code for that is not something essential, and related to the cold. The more relevant thing was that, in the 20 or so minutes it takes to drive to town, I was watching that oil pressure gauge slowly dropping.

I dropped the truck off a bit early. The owner was there on his own today, and the bays were all full, so I figured it might be a while. I updated him on what I was seeing on the way here, then dropped off the keys.

I’ve been messaging with my sister regarding my mother. Yesterday, after visiting at the hospital, she was able to go to the apartment and take the things she was supposed to grab for her place. We were trying to figure out how to get my mother’s keys back, though. While we were chatting, she mentioned my mother was out of crackers. Since it was warm enough (-21C/-6F), and the grocery store was along the way, I picked a box up for her, then walked to the hospital to visit.

My mother was happy to see me, for the most part. Glad that I brought her crackers. She was in bed and, when I asked how she was doing, she said she was in a lot of pain. Then started saying, since my brother and I are so smart, maybe we could find her a good doctor that knows what to do about it.

*sigh*

I had to explain to her, she has osteoarthritis. There really isn’t anything that can be done, other than taking pain killers. Apparently, a nurse told her that her mother gets injections every three months for her hip pain. I said yes, that works for some people, but that requires a referral to a specialist (like the sports injury clinic I was referred to) in the city, because nowhere else does those injections. That would then require getting her transported for the appointment in the city. I explained about my own OA, and my husband’s back injury and his pain levels. He’s on the strongest painkillers available, and highest doses, and his pain levels are barely affected. In her case, all she can really do is take those painkillers, because there’s no fix to her condition.

Not long after, a nurse came by to check on my mother, asking if she needed help with pain. She told him no, she was okay. I asked if she was sure, since she was just telling me about how much pain she was in, and she said yes. After he was gone (she made sure to wait until her door was closed), she told me she’d just taken 12 pills that morning, and she didn’t want to take more. Her painkillers were scheduled for 2:00, so she would wait.

It was 10:20. I asked again, was she sure? It would be almost 4 hours of a wait. She insisted. She wanted to give all those other pills time to work.

She gets her meds at 9am.

Okay. If she didn’t want to take them, we can’t force her.

The rest of the visit was a mix of good and strange and, is it time for me to leave now? I was able to distract her away from her usual rants, for the most part, at least. She asked about what was being done with her apartment (and why doesn’t my brother phone her? never mind they visited, not that long ago), and I filled her in. Then she started giving instructions on what to do for things, even though she had no idea about the process, like how to get the commode returned. She also insisted that we not give public housing the extra keys she had cut for my brother and I, unless they are willing to pay her “back” her $10. I pointed out that we would have no use for keys for an apartment she doesn’t live in. Oh, we can label them and hang them somewhere. Why? Well, maybe if someone moves into her apartment. How would we even know about that? She had no answer, but she really didn’t want us to turn over those keys unless she got paid back for them.

She also went on a rant about how the hospital staff just doesn’t care. The doctor never comes to see her (she is officially no longer a patient, but a long term care resident, now that she’s been approved for a personal care home), etc. Also, people are in the hallways, talking and laughing, and they shouldn’t be doing that.

*sigh*

After visiting for quite a while, as I was getting ready to leave, about to put my coat on, she finally mentioned she got another visit from our vandal. So I went back and sat down, asking her questions about how that went. She said he was behaving, at least, but when I asked when he visited, she couldn’t remember. I asked if it was the same day as my sister’s visit (yesterday) and she looked confused and said she couldn’t remember. So I don’t know if this was actually a new visit, or if she was referring to the same visit from our vandal she told me about, the last time I visited her. At least now the hospital has a picture of him on file, so they can recognize him as someone to watch out for. They can’t stop him from visiting, but they can make sure he doesn’t have a chance to start verbally abusing her again.

By this time in the visit, my mother had moved from lying in bed to sitting at the side of her bed. She then wanted to get up and move to her favourite chair. As soon as she started trying to stand up, though, she started yelling and screaming in pain! I tried to help her and she was able to stand up to the walker the hospital provided. She said she needed to go to the washroom, but only managed to transfer herself to the chair I’d just vacated. I kept asking her if she wanted me to get a nurse to help, but she wouldn’t answer. Finally, once she was seated, but couldn’t stand up again, I told her I was getting help.

I found the nurse that had come by earlier, just finishing up with a patient in another room nearby, so I asked him for help, telling him about my mother’s pain and that she was wanting to get to the bathroom. I added that, while my mother had just refused painkillers not long ago, she will probably need some, and he agreed. He started following me, as I rushed ahead to let my mother know help was coming.

As I got to her, she started telling me, she thinks the hospital is giving her medications to cause this pain.

Which is when the nurse came in behind me. He started bringing the wheelchair over so he could help her get to the washroom, when she started taking to him that she thinks they are giving her the wrong medications, and that’s why she is in so much pain. From the resigned body language, I get the impression he’s had issues with my mother. Being both a male nurse (to my mother, nurses should be female, doctors should be male) and Asian, it’s likely she has been less than kind to him! He told her, they can’t give her the wrong medications because, if they did, they would lose their license.

I don’t know if she really heard that, though I know it would have made no difference if she did, but she went back to screaming and yelling in pain, trying to transfer to the wheelchair. They’re going to have to get the chair she was in, cleaned. 😢

He wheeled her to the washroom, so I got myself out of the way, grabbing my things and heading out- making sure to thank the nurse for helping my mother as I left! She was already making things hard for him.

*sigh*

Before I left, I took the time to update my family about how things went, then headed out. It was getting close to lunch time by then, and there’s a Chinese restaurant in the motel next to the garage, so I headed for there. I took a quick look at the garage parking lot and couldn’t see the truck anywhere, so it was at least in the garage by then.

After I had my lunch and headed back to the garage, I still couldn’t see the truck, so I was surprised when I didn’t see it in the garage, either.

The owner was on the phone in the office when I got there, so he was soon able to update me.

He found the leak, in exactly the same place as before – except worse! He was really surprised by how much oil had leaked. It even leaked onto the floor of the vehicle bay, which it didn’t do the last time it was worked on.

We talked about it for a bit, and he has no idea why this new seal is leaking. Perhaps a defective part? He ordered me a new one, this time going with a higher end brand, just in case.

It will be covered by warranty, too, so that helps!

When he mentioned that it was leaking enough to drip onto his floor, I told him, I saw no signs of leaked oil under our truck. Which means it got worse, just during the drive in, today! I asked him if it was possible that it got damaged when I tried to start it while it was frozen (thinking of those noises I heard when I did). He was very doubtful. Still, we had had no signs of a problem until after that deep freeze. Granted, with having to pull the truck all the way into the garage so we could close the door, I couldn’t access the front to open the hood and check the oil levels. So I can’t say with 100% certainty that it hadn’t started leaking earlier. The only evidence of there being a problem was that oil pressure gauge suddenly dropping, two days ago, while I was driving to my mother’s apartment.

We are both perplexed.

The part he ordered will arrive tomorrow morning. He told me to text him in the morning about coming in. He is fully booked tomorrow, but he’ll have a couple of other guys in, and he will squeeze my truck somewhere in there. I asked him if he topped up the oil level, and he told me he didn’t have to. It seems that I over filled it with my last addition when I got home from my mother’s apartment! He did instruct me to check the oil level again, before coming back tomorrow, in case I needed to add more. That’s how bad the leak was!

When it was time to go, I had to ask him where the truck was.

He checked his cameras…

… then went out to move the ambulance waiting to be worked on out of the way, so I could back out and leave. 😄 No wonder I couldn’t see it!

Once I was clear, I stopped just long enough to let my family know I was on the way home.

Then watched the oil gauge slowly dropping again during the entire drive.

I am so glad I got that checked before doing any major driving around. Especially before doing our first city stock up shop!!!

Before pulling into the garage, I stopped to double check, confirming that there was zero sign of any oil leak visible on the dirt floor.

Once I was home, I updated the family in more detail, then updated my siblings. In talking keys with my sister, and my hopes of getting to my mother’s apartment tomorrow, she told me she could meet me there in the morning, but only for a short time. Now that I know I’ll be back at the garage tomorrow, I suggested she leave them with my mother tomorrow morning. That is likely the best way to get them to my brother, who is dealing with public housing in regards to my mother’s rental agreement.

At that point, it was only just past 1pm, and the weather was so nice (-18C/0F), I wanted to take advantage of it and headed back outside to do some shoveling. I needed to clear the drifts blocking part of our turnaround space in the yard, as well as a couple of paths that were blocked in places with drifts. I was out there for a couple of hours.

Gosh, did it feel good!

I’ll have to be extra diligent with the meds tonight, though, or I’ll be barely able to walk, tomorrow!

By the time I was finished, it was time to feed the outside cats.

They were enjoying the lovely weather, too! Especially this bunch.

I am so glad we had that old catio roof panel to scavenge as a wall for the shelf shelter! It makes for a lovely greenhouse effect, and they can see out at the same time. There are at least 9 cats in that photo! Plus I think one ran out when I went by to put away the shovel in the sun room.

That done, I finally headed inside for the day – and a lovely supper featuring bacon wrapped pork tenderloin, my daughters made.

Today was quite pleasant, but we are supposed to drop to -30C/-22F tonight. If the long range forecasts are at all accurate, we won’t get that cold again for the rest of the winter. Tomorrow’s high, however, is supposed to be sunny and almost as warm as today, so I expect I will do the walk to the hospital after dropping off the truck and be able to visit my mother again.

I can’t believe we’re at the end of January already.

Hopefully, she will have accepted the offered painkillers and will be doing better. For someone who complains so much about her pain levels, she is so unwilling to actually accept the only thing that can really make a difference. Yet very willing to expect some magical doctor somewhere (a white male, of course) to magically fix something that has no fix, while at the same time convincing herself that the people taking care of her are deliberately causing her pain.

If all goes well, my truck will be worked on and finished early enough that I can still get to my mother’s apartment and bring some things back with me. I especially want to get that wheelchair, as the hospital asked me to bring it in a while ago. Then on Saturday, I plan to be back with my brother and SIL as we take the last of everything out, and try to find somewhere to store them here at the farm.

After all that, I should FINALLY be able to do our stock up shopping in the city!

What a month it has been.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: starting peppers, celery and luffa

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Normally, today would be my day to go into the city for our first stock up trip for February. With the truck having issues and an appointment to get it checked tomorrow morning, today was a home day, instead.

Which turned out to be a good thing.

I didn’t think I’d pushed myself yesterday, but the pain started hitting last night, and this morning I could barely walk. I managed to feed and water the outside cats, grab a quick breakfast, pain killered up and went back to bed for a couple of hours.

Thankfully, that seemed to help a lot.

Which meant I was up to setting things up in the basement to start more seeds.

That included testing out the heat mats. I’d bought a new one last year, because the old one stopped working, but I tested it again anyhow. For a while, I thought I’d need to buy another heat mat, but the new one did eventually warm up quite nicely. The basement is always between 13-16C/55-61F, though it does feel warmer after we removed the cat barrier in the “window” between the two basements, now that we don’t allow the cats down there anymore. I set up just one of the lights, choosing the one that actually warms up a bit when it’s on.

Then it was time to get the set of seeds to start this early. I decided against starting thyme. I’ll see if the varieties we planted last year survived the winter under their thick mulch and blanket of insulating snow. If they didn’t, I will buy transplants, instead.

I also decided against trying the Sweetie Snack Mix peppers again, and will start more of the other two varieties, instead.

This is what I started today.

There’s the luffa, of course. I probably could have started those at the same time as the onions. There are sprouts in all four onion seed rolls now.

Then there’s the Caspar eggplant, a new variety I’m trying this year. The Golden Boy celery is the first time I’ll be trying to grow celery. The Sweet Chocolate peppers are a variety the girls suggested. They grew well when we had them before. When it comes to flavour, they really don’t find much difference between any of the varieties we’ve tried. The California Wonder Bell pepper is a new variety for us that I chose specifically because they are described as being thick walled.

I decided to pre-germinate the peppers, eggplant and luffa, as the seeds are larger and will be easier to move and plant, once the radicals appear. I could also use a damp wooden chopstick to pick up the pepper and eggplant seeds.

With the peppers, I was thinking a total of 9 plants. When it came to pre-germinating the seeds, though, I ended up going for 9 seeds each – though the California Wonder got an extra when one of the seeds I grabbed looked like it was damaged. We’ll see how many actually germinate.

I also started just 9 seeds of the eggplant. I’m hoping to get 4-6 transplants out of those.

I was seriously tempted to pre-germinate more than 4 luffa. Even with pre-germinating, they do struggle to survive. We’ll see how many germinate – and how many survive until transplant time. Last year, I started with four, three pregerminated, one didn’t survive being planted, and of the remaining two, only one really grew much at all.

When it came to dampening the paper towels for this, I made sure to use warm water, too.

As for the celery, the seeds are so tiny, I decided not to pre-germinate them. Instead, I repurposed a clamshell from strawberries. The holes on the bottom are fairly large, so I set a paper towel on the bottom to keep the medium from washing out the bottom. Normally, I pre-moisten the starting mix in a large bowl I have for that purpose, but for such a small amount, I filled the container with dry mix, then used the warm water to thoroughly soak it, first, making sure there were no dry spots. Then I pressed it down to get rid of any excess water, and ensure there were not air gaps.

I have a little seed dispenser that I used to scatter the seed lightly over the surface. With seeds that small, the hard part is keeping them from being too densely sown. Also because they are so small, I didn’t top them with more seed starting mix. Instead, I added a layer of vermiculite. That got a thorough spray with warm water.

All of these fit into a seed starting drain tray and are now set on the heat mat, under the light. The light has “legs” that fit on the ends of the aquarium we originally got it for, so it only needed a couple of the fire bricks I’ve been using as supports. The other light we have rested directly on the aquarium frame, so if we need to bring that one out, it’ll need twice as many bricks to get the same height. The handy thing is, as things grow taller, we can just add more bricks to raise the lights by an inch per brick.

For the peppers and eggplant, I’ve got some deep cell trays I can plant them into. The less potting up, the better.

In the beginning of February, I will be starting tomatoes. I will probably pre-germinate, then use the Red Solo cups for those. I’m still torn between starting three, or all four, of the new varieties I got.

Oh, who am I kidding. I’ll be starting all four.

It would also be the time to start herbs, such as tarragon and savory.

Hopefully, this will work out. Aside from the luffa, these varieties have a relatively short days to maturity on them. It’s not just frost free days we need to think about though, but soil temperature. Last year, we had such warm days in May, but the overnight temperatures were so low, we still couldn’t transplant our seedlings until well into June.

Hopefully, this year will be a much better growing year, without the drought, heat waves and smoke!

The Re-Farmer

It might not wait

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Today, I finally made it to my mother’s apartment. My brother and SIL had already done a huge amount. My focus was on stuff that I needed to bring here, that WON’T go into the storage buildings. Antique books. Kitchen supplies, some of which are part of sets still here on the farm. Lots of fragile stuff.

On the way out, my first stop was actually our post office. My husband’s disabled parking permit expires next month, so we had to mail in a form and $15 for a new one. With that taken care of, it was off to my mother’s apartment, which is typically about a 25 minute drive, with good road conditions.

Road conditions were good, but I was watching that oil pressure gauge slowly dropping, the drive in. By the time I got to my mother’s, it was right on the line between “normal” and “low” ranges.

Crud. With a day like today, I don’t think I can blame a cold sensor anymore.

Once at my mothers, I brought in a whole bunch of hard sided grocery bags, as the things I would be packing would be unpacked fairly quickly. Putting them in the grocery bags ensures we won’t procrastinate, since we’ll need them for our stock up shopping!

The next while was spent going through things, packing things into the bags I brought, going through a couple of boxes my brother and SIL packed and switching things over (I’m the only one in the family that has any interest in my mother’s antique crochet and embroidered items, most of which were made by her aunt). I also found some remotes, one of which I was to bring home, the other my brother needs to grab.

While I was there, someone started to come in the door – while I was in the washroom, of course! – calling out. It turned out to be the social worker from the Senior’s Centre. Perfect! She was able to take the flat folding walker they’d loaned my mother. It turns out, they also take care of the Lifeline equipment, which my brother had carefully packed all together. She took that and would take care of cancelling the account. I told her it was already suspended, so my mother wasn’t being charged full price.

After a while, I headed out to the truck with a couple of bags, then took the time to check the oil level.

It was low. Very low.

!!!

After the issues we had before, I now keep several bottles of oil and a funnel in the truck. There was one that was about 3/4 full, so I added that. I checked the oil after, and the level was in range.

Over the next while, I packed more things and took them to the truck, in stages, I ran the engine every now and then. Pressure seemed okay for a parked vehicle.

Along with packing, I was able to empty the fridge completely, and did as much cleaning as my wrecked knees would allow. Then I popped the stove’s to up so I could scrub underneath, where there was an old burned spill. Last of all, I gathered up the old prescription medications that were found, so I could take them to the pharmacy for proper disposal.

In the end, I was there for about 4 hours. I packed the truck with three boxes my brother and SIL had packed that I’d added to, plus another 7 hard sided grocery bags.

We’re doing to have to store this stuff in the basement until we can figure out what to do with them! A project for later this evening, since we need to unpack those grocery bags. I’ll need them, for our city stock up shops.

The first of which was supposed to be tomorrow.

Not going to happen.

I stopped at the pharmacy to drop off the old meds and let them know they would no longer be doing my mother’s bubble packs. So that file will go from being suspended to being cancelled, though of course we can still access her records, if needed.

Then I headed home.

Watching that oil gauge slowly dropping, the whole way.

I’d already texted our mechanic about the oil level being low and adding 3/4L, and asking about the possibility of bringing it in to look for a leak. Also, about that Journey he had on the lot he’d mentioned to me, yesterday…

I don’t know that we can wait until spring to do the trade in.

When I got home, he’d responded, asking me to keep an eye on the oil levels for the next while. I answered saying that I was home, telling him the pressure was dropping the whole drive back, and that I would check it again after unloading.

After unloading, I pulled half way into the garage, so I had room to access everything.

The oil level was low.

Just barely touching the “fill” line.

I added another half liter.

I messaged the garage before heading inside then phoned him once was was settled in.

I now have an appointment to bring it in on Thursday morning for them to see what’s going on. I won’t be doing any city trips until this is figured out.

As for that Journey… it actually does look right for our needs, though obviously there are things we can do with a truck that it can’t do. It’s a 2017 and high mileage, but anything that’s in our budget is going to be high mileage.

Its selling price is actually lower than what we still owe on the truck, I think.

Of course, I kept my brother and SIL in the loop, and my SIL wondered about using my mother’s car as a trade in.

I will need to confirm that possibility with my brother, since my mother owns half the car with me and, as her PoA, he will be the one to deal with. He might simply transfer full ownership to me to make it easier. My mother has been telling us to sell her car for years, so that would work for her, too.

Of course, no decisions are going to be made for a while, but we need to think about it. I don’t even know if we can get refinancing, though if we have two vehicles to trade in, with one owned outright, that would help. We simply can’t afford the truck. They did the best they could to get us an amazing price – I’m convinced it was sold to us at a loss – but once the taxes were added, that kicked it over, and the monthly payments have been higher than what our upper limit was. We had no choice, and it really has been hurting us financially. Not just the payments, but all the sometimes bizarre issues that have come up with the truck that have cost so much.

Speaking of which, that check engine like turned off on its own again.

I love the truck, but I will never own a GM vehicle again! Not even the Uplander gave us more grief, and the dealership screwed us over on that one. Still, I was able to buy the Uplander using my debit card. Beggars can’t be choosers!

Well, we shall see.

Tomorrow, I won’t be going anywhere. Hopefully, my sister will be able to make it to my mother’s apartment and take the things intended for her place. On the weekend, my brother is going to have to dig his own truck out of the snow and see if it starts! Depending on how things go with our truck on Thursday, we might be relying entirely on his truck to get my mother’s furniture out.

For now, I’m going to stop writing this and enjoy the supper my daughters made. 😊

Then we need to set up a sort of assembly line to get the boxes and bags into the basement, and away from cats!

The Re-Farmer

Back to life… I hope

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

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

Our 2026 Garden: first sprouts!

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

You can barely see them, but they are there!

This roll is of our own saved seed, so it’s a mix of red and yellow bulb onions.

I looked around and finally spotted a single seedling in the Red Wethersfield roll.

A rather cheering sight, on this cold, cold day! (We’ve warmed up to -24C/-11F, as I write this, but the wind chill is -35C/-31F)

The Re-Farmer

It’s dead, Jim

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

Today is supposed to be the last day of the extreme cold from the polar vortex. Slightly warmer than yesterday.

Eventually.

This is what it was like, earlier this morning.

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.

*sigh*

For now, it’s dead. Hopefully, it will resurrect.

I am so done with winter.

The Re-Farmer

Garden inspiration, and some updates

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

We are still getting hit with the polar vortex. We’re not getting the storms hitting parts of the US, but as I write this, we’ve warmed up to -27C/-17F with a wind chill of -29C/-20F. We’re staying indoors as much as possible, and avoiding going out anywhere.

Which is frustrating, but I’ll get to the why of that, later.

First, the inspiration! This video showed up in my YouTube feed. I’ve never seen this channel before. Looks very informative.

We are fortunate to have the luxury of space in our garden – space that will be utilized for accessibility and mobility – but this video covers a lot of what we are planning on, including chickens and our food forest (in this video, it’s an orchard). Fencing the entire garden is not really an option for us, given just how big it is, and how many trees there are. Cattle panels are not an option, either. I keep hearing about how cheap they are, but maybe that’s a US thing, because every place I’ve looked, they are ridiculously expensive. I’ve had stucco wire recommended by my cousin. Those are a lot more affordable, but obviously, not as heavy duty.

I’ve been wanting to have chickens for quite a few years now, and intended to build a portable coop large enough for at least a dozen chickens. That just hasn’t been happening, for a variety of reasons. So we’re breaking down and are going to try to buy a small chicken coop, with an enclosed run, on a payment plan. It’ll only fit up to 6 chickens, which would be enough to keep us in eggs a bit. That can tide us over until we can build something larger and house meat birds, too.

All in good time.

Now for the updates.

My brother got a call yesterday.

My mother’s panel for a personal care home has been approved!

That was waaaaayyy faster than I expected! They must really need her room. 😁

It does mean that she is no longer covered by our health care system, and is being charged by the day as a long term care client, rather than a patient. Meanwhile, they will find a bed for her in a temporary long term care facility and transfer her, once that happens. I expect that to go relatively quickly, too, if only because they need to free up the room she’s in.

My brother has already cancelled my mother’s cable, and today he’s gone over to pack up the cable box to send back to the company, before going to the hospital. He found a fairly recent photo of our vandal to include on her file, so that staff know who to look out for, and wanted to get that over as quickly as possible.

Now we need to focus on clearing out my mother’s apartment – but don’t throw anything away!!

She is so attached to her material goods, even to the point that she wants to control what happens to some of them to the next generation. She doesn’t actually have anything of value, really, other than in her own mind, or sentimental value – and by sentimental value, I mean for me and my siblings, mostly, because she doesn’t seem to actually have sentimental attachment to anything. She quite happily destroyed things that belonged to both my late father and my late aunt.

I need to get to my mother’s apartment and start packing and cleaning, bit by bit.

Hence the frustration.

I intended to start this some time ago, but with the cold, and now the check engine light turning on again with the truck, I have been leery of going anywhere. We only have one vehicle, and if that breaks down, we are in serious trouble.

*sigh*

I just checked the temperatures again, and it’s actually gotten colder instead of warmer. It’s still a few hours before we’re supposed to reach the high of our day.

Tomorrow is looking to be less severe, though, so I might try to head over then. After tomorrow, the extreme polar vortex temperatures should be over, and we’ll just be dealing with normal cold again, and I should be able to head over regularly.

I don’t expect we’ll have it empty by the end of the month, but we might. It’s the bigger furniture that’s going to be an issue. The loveseat she has, which matched the sofa that’s still here on the farm, is broken, though not badly. It will likely be thrown out. The mattress and box spring will have to be thrown out, of course. The rest…

*sigh*

She crammed so much into that little apartment.

My brother and SIL assured me, we’ll figure it out.

At least I won’t have to worry about all my mother’s papers, pictures and basically anything fabric. That’s my sister’s problem. We will be dealing with her kitchen supplies, nic nacs and furniture. My brother and SIL can’t really take anything, other than the papers my brother needs to take care of my mother’s affairs as PoA. I doubt they’ve even finished unpacking themselves. Where they are now is meant to be temporary, as they’ve gotten on a list for a privately run supportive living apartment in a complex that was still under construction when they sold their acreage. The waiting list was already years long but, once there’s an opening, they need to be able to move quickly.

Little by little, it’ll get done.

The Re-Farmer

Our 2026 Garden: which ones, when?

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Nothing like the bone chilling temperatures of a polar vortex to get one thinking of warmer days in the garden!

Yesterday, I watched a couple of inspiring videos. This first one is from MI Gardener.

A bit of irony on this one, talking about how starting seeds too early can actually sabotage the effort. With our short growing season, a lot of things actually do need to be started indoors super early – at least for a growing zone like where he is – and we’ve already sowed our onions, trying out the seed snail method.

None have germinated yet. I’m a bit concerned that our living room might be too cold for germination, and we aren’t able to set up a heat mat in there. Onions handle cooler temperatures well, but they still need a certain level of warmth for germination. Hopefully, I didn’t just waste a whole lot of seeds!

One of the things he brings up is the need to pot up frequently if starting too early. There’s a couple of things I would try to do, to get around that. One is to pre-germinate certain types of seeds (not really worth it for the tinier seeds). That way, they can be planted in the second thing I’d want to try, and that is to put the pre-germinated seeds into pots or tray cells that are quite a bit larger, so that they either won’t need to be potted up at all, or need potting up less frequently.

This next video is from Gardening in Canada.

This is more relevant to us, since she is in the same zone as we are, and I’m pretty sure her growing season is shorter than ours.

Here, she talks about planning out how many seeds to plant, if the goal is to save money on groceries for a family of four.

It’s a place to start when adjusting for individual needs. For example, my family likes to eat fresh tomatoes, but I can’t, so I’d be planting enough for three people, not for. However, I can eat processed tomatoes, so if I want to grow tomatoes for cooking, making sauces, freezing, canning or dehydrating, I would actually want to grow considerably more of, say, paste tomatoes.

Since we started gardening after moving here, a lot of what we chose to grow was to determine what we actually like to eat, and which varieties, as well as what will actually grow well here. We are still doing that, to a point, but have started to narrow things down.

With that in mind, I went through my seed bin for things to start indoors, to see which ones need to be started the earliest – as in, by the end of January, or early February. This is what we’ve got.

There is one thing that should be started before the end of this month.

Luffa. Yes, I still want to try and grow luffa! So that’s something I will set up to pre-germinate probably after this coming weekend.

Other things that I would start, probably in the beginning of February are:

Peppers – we have Sweet Chocolate, which the girls said was universally liked. I also got a new variety, California Wonder Bell, specifically because it was described as having thick walls, that I want to try. We also still have Sweetie Snack Mix that I’d like to try again. This past year, we had such healthy looking plants, but they barely managed to produce anything. I think they might work better in the sunnier location I’m planning to grow peppers in, this year. I’m thinking a total of 9 plants would be enough for our needs.

Caspar Eggplant – a new variety that I plan to grow in a 4′ square bed, where I should be able to protect them from the elements. I think 4 – 6 plants would do, which would also leave space for interplanting with something like onions, or maybe some herbs.

Golden Boy Celery – I’ve never grown celery before, so this one is a total experiment. I think I would shoot for enough to fill one of my large celled trays, which means 21 plants.

Thyme – I may or may not try starting these indoors. We have two varieties of them that are heavily mulched that I hope will survive the winter. Just a couple of plants is enough, though, so I might start more and interplant them with some of the vegetables.

The next batch are things to start in March or early April.

Herbs – tarragon, summer savory, oregano and spearmint are possibilities. I think I would rather buy oregano transplants, though. We do have some in our little herb bed, along with the thyme, that might survive the winter. Spearmint is something I would be growing in a pot to prevent spreading, if we grow them this year. Tarragon and summer savory, though, are definitely things I’d want to start. Once again, only a few plants would be needed, to I’d probably be shooting for two of each.

Flowers – according to the packets, this would be the time to start Cosmos and the black hollyhock we have. Last year, I direct sowed Cosmos and they did eventually bloom, though very late. I might try starting a few indoors, then direct sowing in spring, to see how well they do.

Tomatoes – we will be growing three varieties, for sure, possibly four, all of them new. One is the Orange Currant tomato, which will be my alternative to the Spoon tomatoes we grew last year. Spoon tomatoes have been the only tomatoes I can eat fresh without gagging, and I’m curious if the tiny Orange Currant tomatoes can be added to the list. We will also be trying the Blue Berry and Chocolate Stripes varieties. These three all look to be rather prolific varieties, so we’d probably only grow three or four of each variety. I’m still debating whether I want to also do the Manitoba tomato, which is the variety my mother used to grow here, when I was a kid. If I do, I’d probably grow more than the others, for both fresh eating and making sauces.

The next batch would be started in late April, early May.

Bi-colour pear gourd – a new one, and the only other gourd of the many varieties of seeds I have, that I plan to grow this year. They should be prolific, and I’m thinking three or four plants of these should be enough. They would be among my “for fun” things to grow.

Herbs – in this time frame, we could start the chicory, Florence Fennel and chamomile. I would actually want to grow quite a few of each, based on their uses. I could get away with starting a lot of them and not have to worry about potting up too often, since they would be started so much closer to our last frost date.

Then there are the last ones we would start indoors, in early to mid May, based on a last frost date of June 2, though the adjusted averages now say our last frost date is in the last week of May.

Melons – Sweet Siberian Watermelon, Tigger melon, Hale’s Best Jump cantaloupe, and both orange and green flesh Honeydew melons among the varieties I want to try (all but the green honeydew are new to us). We had really poor results with melons last year, with only three varieties. I’m hoping this coming year will be better. I need to decide: do I want to have two or three each of five varieties, or pick just a couple of varieties, but more plants each? Either way, I think I would be shooting for about 15 plants in total as my goal.

Herbs – caraway. I honestly don’t know how many plants I’d need to grow for our needs. We’d be growing them for their seed, and I have no idea how many they tend to produce. Will have to research that.

Cucumbers – we have three varieties to choose from; Eureka, which is dual purpose pickling or slicing variety, Lemon and Bushy. The Bushy variety is good for pickling and has such a short season, they could easily be direct sown. Where I intend to grow them doesn’t have room for a lot of plants, though they will be trellised, which will allow for slightly denser spacing. I’m thinking of doing the Lemon cucumber for sure, then maybe the Eureka. We’ve grown those in the past and they did surprisingly well under that year’s growing conditions and their location.

This last category is of things that, in theory, I can direct sow, but I would rather start indoors, given our past garden history. These would be started in mid May.

Pumpkin – maybe. I’m still on the fence about trying the “Cinderella” pumpkin seeds I got. If so, I’d be shooting for 2-4 plants.

Herbs – borage. I might just direct sow these. Or I could try both starting indoors and direct sowing. I’ve been warned that they can self seed and spread easily, so I would want to treat them like a perennial and find a place where I can allow them to self seed.

Winter squash – along with wanting to try the rare Arikara variety again, because I want to save seeds, we have the new varieties I want to try. Golden Hubbard, Black Futsu, Butterneck and Gill’s Golden Pippin. If I start 3 or 4 of each, that makes for 15-20 plants in total. Will I even have enough space for so many, and still leave room for the direct sown crops I’m planning on? The goal with these is to have plenty for winter storage, so I would want to have quite a lot. With starting these so much closer to our last frost date, and pre-germinating them, I shouldn’t have to do any potting up at all, if I use my deep cell trays or Red Solo cups right from the start.

Summer squash – I’ll be selecting from all new varieties this year, which includes Yellow Scallop, Green Scallop Bennings, Early Prolific Straightneck and Lemon. Last year, we tried direct sowing our summer squash and got next to nothing, so I want to go back to starting them indoors. We love our summer squash, so I’d probably shoot for 8 -12 plants in total. If I want to try all four varieties, that’s only 2 or 3 plants each. Which would be enough – unless something kills them, or they just don’t thrive. The last few years, summer squash has not done well for us, so I’d rather have more, in hopes to get at least something! By the time we would be starting these, I should have a better idea of what space will have and can decide then.

So, there we have it. A plan of action, more or less, for what we’ll be starting indoors, and when.

Now, I just have to set up our basement to fit this all, with enough warmth and light. I’d hope to get the aquarium greenhouses down there, and might still bring down the small one, but we just can’t figure out how to get the big one, with its stand, around the bottom of the stairs safely. We might be able to get the stand through, but the tank itself is a completely different story.

Ah, well. We’ll figure it out!

The Re-Farmer

Unexpected stock up: this is what $293 looks like

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Since we had to bring cats in for neuters yesterday, and would be hanging around until they were done, we took advantage of being in a city. We wanted to pick up a few things before the polar vortex hit, so there would be no need to go anywhere during the coldest days.

Of course, we got more than was on the list.

This is what $293.80 at Walmart looks like.

carview.php?tsp=

Except for the three boxes of tea. My daughter bought those separately.

Gosh, that added up fast.

Part of it was because I needed to pick up some supplements.

carview.php?tsp=

The “white cheddar” at the top is actually a popcorn seasoning. We still have plenty of lactose-free cheese.

The “mineral” is my potassium, which I got along with some magnesium and zinc.

My older daughter had sent some funds, and part of her list included more energy drinks. The cases of 4 were on sale, so we got two cases.

My husband let us know we were almost out of peanut butter and molasses, one of his favourite snacks since childhood.

Next is a 5 lb bag of carrots – a good price, there. The vinegar is 7% cleaning vinegar.

It took some searching, but I found a small bag of seed starting mix, since I finished what I had left from last year, when starting the onion seeds.

The “sticks” is pretzel sticks; my husband requested something crunchy.

Not on the list is something we spotted on clearance. 3×10 heat vent covers. We need to replace several.

Pizza pops at under $20 is a good price, these days. At least compared to other places.

Next on the list is a new sponge mop head. My daughter tells me our current one has started to disintegrate!

Then there’s a bag of brown sugar, followed by a case of XXL puppy pads, feminine hygiene product, and a liquid soap refill.

Normally, I’d get a flat of 30 eggs, but they don’t fit in the hard sided insulated bags, so we got an 18 of eggs, instead. Then there are four loves of rye bread, followed by a couple of chocolate bars, one of which became part of my “lunch” on the way home, several hours later!

I got a 4 pack of distilled water for my husband’s CPAP humidifier. He wasn’t out, but the prices are much better at Walmart, so he’s well stocked now for some times.

Next on the “multi discount” list: We got a couple of energy drinks for right away, rather than for home. There is also a couple of coffee creamers for the girls, and 4 boxes of water flavours for my husband.

And that’s it.

Even with larger stuff, we didn’t fill a shopping cart, and it cost almost $300.

We did end up getting more.

After a had a bit of a nap in the truck, waiting for a call back from the vet clinic, I ended up going to the Dollarama. I didn’t get a picture of what I got, though. I found some 10% acid cleaning vinegar, so I got that. I really ought to remember to go there first. Walmart only has up to 7% acid cleaning vinegar, and it costs almost twice as much. I also got a roll of clear, self adhesive plastic that will be used to protect things from cat. I finally found a particular small size of hair elastics I’ve been looking for, for ages. I also got a small cat bed/mat for the inside cats. Last of all, I grabbed a small bag of roasted, salted cashews, which became part of my lunch/supper during the drive home, after picking up the cats. In the end, the total was about $16 and change.

That done, I rejoined my daughter in the truck. We didn’t stay there for too long before we headed back into the Walmart so my daughter could use the facilities, and then we just looked around at other things.

To get to the bathrooms, we had to go through the shoe section, which is where I spotted something hilarious.

Yes, I did end up getting them.

I found slippers that perfectly matched the pattern on my new coat.

Different brands of product, but same brand in pattern!

I didn’t even try them on, because I didn’t want to fuss with my boots. When I had the chance at home, I spread out my coat and found the matching pattern sections for pictures.

I also found some underroos in one of the few brands that are actually comfortable, in stock for a change, so I got a package while I could. I “splurged” on some cheap yarn in graduated, rather than variegated, colours. My daughter picked up a sketch pad and drawing tools for herself, which is where I found a small spiral bound sketch pad for my mother. None of the drawing tools in that section were things my mother could manage, so we went to the stationary section, where I found some coloured pencils that don’t need to be sharpened.

Altogether, with the slippers and undies being the most expensive items, it came out to just pennies over $60.

It ended up being a long time before we got home but, thankfully, nothing we got was damaged by the cold while sitting in the truck box. The insulated bags made the difference, so we didn’t have to worry about frozen eggs.

The last thing I got, just before heading home, was $30 in gas. Gas is currently $1.249/L

As for my splurge on slippers, when I tried them on, they did fit – sort of. Something about the toe design doesn’t fit my feet right, which would have caused blistering.

My daughter now has new slippers. They don’t bother her feet the way they do, mine.

And that’s it. Our mini stock up trip of almost $300 at Walmart, plus a few unplanned extras that brought the total to just over $400.

*sigh*

The Re-Farmer

Yesterday

/ Re-Farmer / Leave a comment

Wow. What a day it turned out to be!

The original plan.

Get three cats to the vet for spay/neuter. That’s an hour’s drive one way, so we were going to drop them off, then stay in the (smaller, nearer) city to do any shopping we needed until we got the call to pick up the cats. Typically, that’s been around 1 or 2, though I’ve have them call me before noon at times.

Once the cats were picked up, we’d take them home, I’d drop them and our shopping off with my daughter, then I would go to my mother’s apartment in the town south of us, check on things, clean her fridge, pick up the wheelchair the hospital requested, then go to the town north of us, to my mother’s in the hospital. They want to measure her in it and see if it’s appropriate to go with her to a personal care home, whenever that happens.

After dropping off the wheelchair, I planned to visit with my mother for a while. Due to her cognitive issues, she was not told that there was an appointment at 6pm with my brother, as PoA, the doctor and myself, as her advocate for the past 7+ years. From there, I expected to go home.

Of course, that didn’t happen.

Well. Part of it happened.

The first thing to do was get three fasting cats from the isolation shelter, into carriers. We really, really wanted to get Frank. She was perched on the shelf above the cat bed, in the middle, where it was hard for either of us to reach her from the sliding windows. She did get close enough that my daughter could get her, but I couldn’t get around to get the carrier closer before Frank escaped.

Frank does NOT want to get got!

Thankfully, my daughter did not end up bleeding. (Side note: I finally found the scratch proof gauntlets today! They were hiding in plain sight, of course….)

So we grabbed who we could. That turned out to be Sir Robin, who is extremely easy to get got, Grommet, also and easy one, and a grey tabby with no name, because it was the biggest of the remaining cats in the shelter.

Oh, and we had 7 cats and kittens in there to fast overnight, not 8. I was sure there was a second tabby kitten in there, but I was wrong.

The tabby was not happy. This is a kitten we’ve been able to pet and pick up, but nowhere near as socialized as the other two. We were 99% sure this one was male. We’ve got several similar looking, short haired, grey tabbies that move around so much, I’m never quite sure if I’m looking at the same one twice.

Our goal was to be on the road by 7:30, to get to the clinic for 8:30, though our drop off time was 8:50.

We did manage to be on the road by 7:30, but with road conditions in places, we per parking at the clinic closer to 8:45. Which is why I always like to leave early!

During the drive in, I brought up that we needed a name for the tabby. Neither of us could think of one right away, but while checking them in, my daughter came up with Flopsy, because when we pick him up, that’s how he gets. Flopsy.

Once the cats were checked in and taken to the back, my daughter and I headed over to the Walmart and had breakfast at the McRaunchies there. It was shortly after 9am by then.

After breakfast, we did our shopping. With the polar vortex expected to hit soon, we had a few things we wanted to restock on, plus we found extras. That will get its own post later, since it did turn out to be a larger shop.

I got a message from my husband that one of my packages is in, so I added picking that up on my list of things to do after dropping off the cats at home.

When packing things into the box of the truck, we were selectively packing things into insulated bags to prevent them from freezing, rather than the other way around.

Of course, since I needed to get up and get on the road early in the day, I had an almost sleepless night. I was pretty tired, so we warmed up the truck and just stayed in it, while I tried to nap a bit. We had to turn the truck on to warm up again only once in that time.

After a while, though, I needed to use the washroom, so I headed back into the Walmart, while my daughter stayed in the truck. I hadn’t realized, while I was napping, that the weather had already started to turn. A huge wind had picked up, and there was blowing snow, everywhere. Not new snow. The wind was picking up any loose snow out there, and the parking lot was in whiteout conditions!

I headed in for a few minutes then decided to go to a Dollarama that shares the same parking lot. I found a few things there before rejoining my daughter in the truck.

By this time, it was well past noon and I was expecting to get a call from the clinic soon. My daughter needed her turn to use the facilities, so we both went in and ended up finding a few more things to purchase. Once we were done there, we decided we may as well go to the clinic. We could be in their waiting room instead of the truck, and it wouldn’t be too long, right?

Right?

We got there before 2, only to find out they hadn’t even started on any of the kittens yet.

Keep in mind, these poor things had been fasting for about 17 hours by then. It turned out the clinic had a couple of large dogs needing surgery that took more time, so doing the kittens got delayed.

Now, I hadn’t bothered to tell them that I had a 6pm appointment, because… well… it was at 6pm, and we dropped off at 8:45-8:50am. They know we hang out in town because of the long drive, and they’ve always made a point to do our cats quickly because of that.

Not this time!

When I found out the cats hadn’t been started yet, I told them that I had a scheduled appointment. I was assured the cats would be read by 4. I explained, it’s not just the appointment, but that I was needing to drop the cats of at home in our little hamlet, then drive to one town to pick up a wheelchair (forget cleaning out the fridge, at this point!) and take it to the hospital in yet another town.

I was told they would try to get them done as soon as possible.

So we sat to wait.

Next to a couple of adorable kittens in a cat cage that were available for adoption. While there, a tech came to get them and return them several times, and we learned that they were about to be adopted out together! So glad they are staying together.

It was about quarter past three when a tech came out. They were about to start on Sir Robin the Brave, but he had messed himself in the carrier (they’ve been in carriers all this time?? They usually get transferred to larger cages!), and his back end was a dried up mess. She confirmed that these were outdoor cats and that they would be going outside again, so they would try to wash him off as best they could, rather than just shave the area. Easier and faster to shave, but no one wants to risk him getting frostbite on his nethers!

Which means they didn’t actually start the surgery until probably half past three.

We could hear the techs talking at one point, probably while still trying to wash off Sir Robin, and heard them giggle with delight over his full name.

Then we waited.

When 4:00 came and went, I was messaging my brother to warn him I might be late.

Finally, at about 4:20, someone came out to let us know the cats were done. Still groggy, but awake enough that we could take them. We got the instructions (we’ll keep them in the isolation shelter for at least 3 days) and the carriers were brought out. I’d already left the donation funds with the front desk when we checked them in, so we could leave immediately. My daughter and I loaded the carriers and were on our way.

Thankfully, by this time, the winds had died down a little bit, and there wasn’t as much blowing snow. I was able to do the speed limit for most, not all, of the drive.

Once we got home, my daughter got out to open the gate, but left it open for me as I drove into the yard and up to the house. I started unloading our shopping just to the front steps until my daughter caught up and helped me. Once the truck box was empty, we unloaded the carriers. Then my daughter took over while I headed back out again.

I just barely made it in time.

I had just parked at the hospital when I got a message from my brother. They had just arrived themselves, were set up in a family room for the meeting, and told me where it was.

The doctor was a few minutes later, so we had time to catch up and focus on what we were trying to find out, etc.

At one point, my SIL asked, how do we respond if they try to send my mother home again?

My answer was simple.

No.

That’s it. Just, no. They can’t send her home. Homecare is not reliable, and I can’t be driving that distance – especially in winter! – to cover for them so often.

Thankfully, that never became an issue.

The doctor came in and actually recognized us, from when my mother was in the hospital almost a year ago. There was a nurse as well, who was also the note taker for the hospital (my brother took his own notes, of course. He’s very organized that way).

We had a very good and, I would even say productive, meeting.

One thing is clear. The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

They knew nothing about the panels done by home care – I was there for both of them, including the one that was done before my mother went to the hospital – even though the report would have gone up to the same department the hospital has to go through when it comes to long term care assessment. He was able to let us know what was found in my mother’s X-rays that were finally done, though it wasn’t “official” since the radiology department still had to review them. As expected, she has severe osteoarthritis. That’s the source of her pain. He did not have access to my mother’s MRI brain scan results, but he could work on getting them.

We were very confused when he started talking about my mother’s congenital heart disease as the cause of her edema, when she’s been seen by a cardiologist, and her heart checked out better than most people a quarter her age.

Oh, wow. I just went out to meet the prescription delivery driver. That wind out there is BRUTAL!!!

Where was I?

Oh, yes.

So the doctor explained that they use the term “congenital heart disease” to cover a lot of things. In my mother’s case, it’s her A-fib, which she’s had forever (I have it, too). It has never been a problem. Now, however, he basically described it as the upper chambers of her heart being in a constant quiver, while the lower chambers are pumping normally, when it used to be just a little hiccup now and then. To put it simply, her heart is getting tired and misfiring more. This is what my father got a pace maker for, but she’s not at that stage. It didn’t come up as an option, though; we all know that at her age, surgery would be a greater risk than the A-fib is right now. That her heart is otherwise strong and healthy and all her arteries are clear helps, but it won’t stop the edema.

In the end, my mother has two issues going that mean she can no longer go back to her apartment to live independently, even with home care. There’s the edema, and the OA, and right now, the OA is causing her so much pain and reducing her mobility, it’s actually the more severe issue.

Then he had to get our consent (which they already got from my mother) to do a panel for my mother to go to a personal care home.

…

YES!!!!

Good grief. We’ve begging for this from the start.

So the official hospital testing and paperwork will be done and go to the department that makes the decisions. Because 1) my mother’s level of care doesn’t need hospital status, 2) she’s bored out of her tree and 3) they need the bed for more urgent patients, my mother will probably be transferred to a temporary long term care facility – she may even be back in the same town her apartment is in! – before being transferred to the nursing home she’s been trying to get into for the past 2 years or so. Even then, she might get transferred to a different one before she get get into the one she wants. Once she’s in a long term care facility, even a temporary one, there will be more programs and activities available to her, so she won’t be stuck sitting in her room, day after day.

We did also have a chance to discuss some other issues related to our vandal and that he might try to convince my sister to help him manipulate my mother. He’d managed to do this with my late father. Right now, the one thing protecting my mother from her own self sabotage is that my brother has binding PoA, so even if she is declared mentally unfit, he can take care of her. They already understand that, at this point, cognitively she cannot make things like legal decisions on her own, but they will get her officially tested and assessed, so that there is documentation. This way, even if they do convince her to sign something, it won’t be legally binding. My mother, with my sister’s help (“I was just following her wishes”, was her explanation) has already messed herself up so badly in other areas, she has no clue what she’s done and, legally, my brother can’t fix it. They also want photos of our vandal and my sister to have with my mother’s file, so they can recognize them as people with limited access to my mother.

I’m so disappointed that my sister got manipulated into it, and is completely oblivious to the harm she has helped cause. Honestly, I have concerns about my sister’s cognitive health, too. But she’s skinny, and we all know skinny people are perfectly healthy and never have such problems, even if she is almost 70.

Yeah, I’m being sarcastic, but that is essentially what I’ve been told flat out, in different ways.

So then we got to talking about my mother’s apartment. She’s not going back, we know that, but until the panel process officially declares that, it’s recommended we don’t end that contract yet. However, it’s basically 99.99% sure the panel application will accept that she needs to be in a personal care home, so go ahead and start packing. We can basically cancel her services while we pack and empty the apartment, little by little, so that once that official word comes through (and we don’t know how long that will be), all we would need to do is cancel her rental agreement with public housing.

That all done, we parted ways, then went to visit my mother. She was very surprised to see us (we learned my sister did visit earlier, as today is her non-sabbath related day off), and happy, too. Which was a nice change.

The visit was… about as good as can be. She was in a good mood and I think her pain levels are under control, as she had only a few “moments”. We updated her on the status of things, as best we could. We explained the importance of her accepting any transfer they offer her, because it’s part of the whole process of getting her where she wants to be.

Which was when she started talking about “going home”. Meaning, her apartment.

*sigh*

We had to go over that with her again. I expect we’ll have to do it many more times. The doctor, thankfully, is quite aware of her self sabotage. Sadly, this is something they encounter quite a bit.

While talking about temporary long term care and getting her to where she wants to be, she told us about someone that was across the hall from her. He was doing very poorly, they had to wrap his legs, there was always someone having to tend to him…

He just got transferred to the nursing home my mother wants to be in.

She was upset that he got in before she did.

…

We had to explain (again) that people who get taken to nursing homes more suddenly, it’s because they’re not expected to live long. People who are in far worse shape than she is in.

Her complete lack of empathy threw us, even though she does it all the time.

Things got off track a few times, but that did give me a chance to bring out a gift I got for my mother.

My mother has always loved to draw and is really quite good. She doodles all over. So I got her this.

An actual sketch pad, rather than the envelopes and scrap paper she’s been using, with tear off pages, and colouring pencils that don’t need to be sharpened. She already has pen and pencil.

I know it’s harder for her, with her vision getting worse, but she might have some good days and feel up to it. Or just be bored enough to try!

I honestly expected her to be angry, as she usually is when I try to give her things, but she was actually almost nice about it. She just commented on how she can’t really draw anymore, but we encouraged her.

We talked about her apartment, and she started telling us what to do with things. We had to reassure her, she didn’t have to worry about the “stuff”, we would take care of them, and we know she doesn’t want things thrown out (unless they are damaged or broken or course).

By the time we headed out, it was coming up on 8pm. I’d left home around 7:30, had breakfast somewhere before 9:30, and the only thing I’d eaten since then was a handful of cashews and a chocolate bar we’d picked up as road munchies, on the way home from picking up the neutered cats. I had hoped to stop somewhere to eat before going home, but it was so late and I was so tired, I just got some gas and headed home.

Just as I pulled up to the last stop sign, a couple of miles from home, the check engine light on the truck turned on.

*sigh*

I wasn’t about to check on it when I got home. My daughters, sweethearts that they are, had hot food almost ready for me by the time I got in.

What a long, long day, and I didn’t get anywhere near as much done as I had hoped.

I got to bed early (for me, anyhow), and woke up to this.

Yeah, that’s -31C/-24F with a wind chill of -46C/-51F

It could be worse. Some areas of our province were warned of wind chills of -50C/-58F.

That’s what I saw before heading outside to do the cat stuff, skipping most of my morning routine. By the time I got back inside, the temperature had dropped to -32C/-26F. When I headed out to meet the pharmacy delivery guy, it was back to -31C/-24F with the wind chill at -45C/-49F

The outside cats got their kibble and warm water. Even the heated water bowl in the sun room had some ice on top, and the one in the isolation shelter had frost on the edge closest to the window!

The isolation cats were all snuggled together in the cat bed. Last night, my daughter let out the “extras” that wanted to be let out, so there are now four teenagers in there right now. While I was doing the kibble and water, my older daughter gave the isolation cats a couple of cans of wet cat food. The benefits of being locked up in there is special food treats, which won’t freeze before they finish eating it.

It was still at -32C/-26F when I headed out again in the late morning. I got the truck going – it started fine and nothing sounds out of the ordinary – to get the OBDII scanner hooked up. I got the same code as last time; air-fuel ratio imbalance. Top recommendation is to replace the oxygen sensor. The other code concerns me more, though; power mode master input circuits mismatch. The top reported fix for that is replacing the ignition switch, while the next frequently reported fix is, replaced ignition switch wiring harness.

I’ve sent screen caps of the scans to our garage. I’m not as concerned about the O2 sensor. That seems to be temperature related, as it went away on its own, last time. Both code frequencies are listed as “common” for our truck’s make and model. I’ve looked up the parts and they don’t seem to be expensive, though these wouldn’t be local prices.

*sigh*

We really don’t need this. It’s the price of having an older, high mileage vehicle, but it was what we could afford and get financing for. Still, I’m so tired of these sensor issues – which apparently GM is notorious for.

Thankfully, we won’t need to go anywhere for several days. Today is supposed to be the worst for both cold and wind. Things are supposed to be a bit warmer, but still brutal, over the next three days. After that, we’ll have more average temperatures, with highs hovering above and below -20C/-4F.

Interestingly, the long range forecast is showing a whole lot of days above freezing, in February! February is usually colder than January. At least in the first couple of weeks. If the forecasts are in any way accurate, today and the next few days will be the last deep freeze of this winter.

I sure hope they are right. I so feel for the people that have to drive and work outside in these temperatures! Not to mention the critters out there. I’m glad we can at least provide some worth and reliable food and water for the yard cats – and whatever creature cleaned out every crumb of kibble in the catio shelter!

I am so done with winter.

The Re-Farmer