I started to use a broom to clear the windscreen, but it broke! Eventually I got the snow off, and then used warm (NOT hot) water to clear the screens and the wipers (my favourite and most successful method) before braving the icy road surface to make it to the clearer main roads.
First port of call was the pet shop, where I bought too much to fit into the boot. A member of staff had to help me load it all, but I couldn't take him home to help me unload it. Just as well, 'cos even he was struggling to push the trolley through the slush and snow in the car park.
Among the items was a 20kg (about 44lb) bag of layers pellets
A 20kg bag of mixed corn too slippery to hold even if it were not also too heavy and lacking in anything to actually hold on to
A large box of 100 fat balls for the garden birds
Two 25 litre bags of cat litter
A large bag of compressed hay
An even larger bag of compressed woodshavings
The total? £135! A bit more than last week...
I then went into the neighbouring DIY store to buy a back-busting bag of rock salt to clear away the ice in my front and back gardens before someone (maybe me) falls on it. This I couldn't really even lift.
After all that I went to the supermarket for extra cat food (some to feed to the foxes) and me food, and spent another fortune. By now I was using the back and front passenger seats of the car. The car park here was in an even worst state than the pet store one.
Back at home it took a dozen or more trips through the snow and across the ice from the car to the house to get everything inside, by which time I had almost no grip left in my fingers. Why don't they make things easier to carry? Why do they force you to buy large sizes for economy? Don't they think older be-arthritised women buy their stuff?
Well, at least I got a watermelon for the girls (a bit like carrying a bowling ball, that one) which they love.
My knuckles are now almost touching the ground, but hey, it was worth it.
Same again next week?
7 comments:
Holy cow, that's quite the work out. Saves ya a trip to the gym.
Man alive that was quite the workout, Val!! I agree with you about large, heavy and unwieldy packages.
What are 'garden balls' though? Is it bird food?
It took me a few reads to translate your post! I'm glad to hear you and your babies got the needed supplies to weather the weather.
Lucky you, xmas is only 3 weeks away and we have not even had flurries yet.
Reminds me of my fave quote from Jennifer Grey in Dirty Dancing "I carried the watermelon". LOL!
Poor Val! You're tired and ruined! The price of food always shocks me. It's a shame.
JoJo, the fat balls for garden birds are pretty much what they sound like. They are balls of fat with seeds and dried insects rolled up in them, which you hang in the garden, usually in special feeders. The birds hang from them and peck away at the nourishing nosh.
They all used to be sold in little single nets, but most are not any more because birds' feet could catch in them.
I put out fat cakes too, and seed and peanuts. Keeping the water liquid in cold water is the big challenge in the battle to keep the birds alive for the winter.
Oh OK, I get it now. You are a vegetarian so you wouldn't have your own suet, like my parents used to do after making bacon or something greasy. they'd save the fat, let it harden, freeze it, then take it out in winter for their birds.
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