Where I've been...

After some months hiatus, I’m back to writing, hopefully for a while at least…

There probably hasn’t been a day in the last several months where I haven’t been engrossed in some activity only to find myself thinking of how I would write about it on my blog, but it never gets done, because I always want to add pictures and I can’t upload on slow speed and I never seem to get to town. So, now or never I’m going to throw away that excuse and begin to write picture free…thanks Beck for the nudge!

I could go way back with stories I want to tell, but then I’d forget the ones that just happened, so I’ll just start with Saturday. It was a fine day, the weather has been so nice for the last week…up until today that is! With highs in the –5 to +5 degree Celsius range, its like springtime in Manitoba! In order to make the most of the beautiful weather, I had to wait for Lorelei to have a nap before I could go outside, so after breakfast, diaper change and some playtime/check email time for mommy, she was off to sleep and I was headed out. First, I had to do my daily chores. With my freshly washed milk pail, half full of hot water, in hand (yup, it’s the same milk pail dad used to milk the cow when we were kids) I joined Sneef on the well packed trail to the barn…it was then that I noted one downfall of the extra nice weather, my trail was beginning to fall apart, and if I wasn’t careful where I stepped, I slid off into the 10-12” of loose snow along the way…all good things come with a price I suppose!

Roy met me inside the door of the barn, as usual, anxious for acess to his mother, who made her usual grunted moo of a greeting from the box stall and waited rather impatiently for me to move her to the milking stall so she could get her oats. First though, I needed to empty the afore mentioned half-full milk pail into the chicken’s waterer, and while I was there, I gathered the eggs, which, for a change, are not frozen! The cold weather really did a number on my eggs, often none made it to the house in one piece and Sneef has enjoyed many an eggsicle this winter! The chickens have outsmarted me again, I find, as they discovered the only spot that I hadn’t looked for eggs, and laid there…a dozen eggs to be exact, and all but two are frozen, and who knows how old! I decided to clean it out later,.

Gathering my buckets I head to the feed room: one slightly larger then a gallon bucket for oats for Daisy, one 3 gallon pail for chicken feed and one slightly smaller than a gallon pail to scoop up the cat food with. When I entered the feed room – which is supposedly cat-proof, I notice several things out of place, most notably, the garbage pail is across the room and the dead chicken I had placed in there the day before is now absent…how?? Didn’t take long to find out! Lickety, the slim and flighty orange barn cat nearly dive-bombed me as he jumped from the hole in the ceiling into the middle of the room – about a 9’ drop! I then see the feet of the bird carcass sticking out of an empty feedbag in the corner of the room and note the cat’s round belly…so much for trying to prevent the cats from eating chicken! I chased Lickety to see if he could get out the way he came, bad idea! It seems his escape route consisted of jumping onto the seat of my saddle and launching himself towards the ceiling in a flying leap, he then caught the beam with one brawny paw and flipped away into the attic. My poor saddle. It is now covered to prevent further injuries, but the leather will never recover from the sharp claws of the hungry cat! I guess he saved me the trouble of hauling the chicken to the burn barrel.

After feeding the cats and hanging the pail of oats within my reach but beyond the reach of Roy, I filled the chicken feeder and returned to tie Roy up while I moved his mother to the milking stall. One time I neglected to do this, and the hungry calf of course made a beeline for his mother’s udder as soon as he could get to it and being the good motherly cow that she is, she wouldn’t move until he was finished…so much for that day’s milking! I sat down at Daisy’s udder while she munched away happily on her oats. I start off milking alone, but when she gets ornery and decides not to let down any more, I let Roy in and we share the udder, which means I have to milk extra fast to try and get all the milk I want before he decides he wants the teats I’m milking! When I got my usual 2.5L I let him have the rest and I went outside to fork some hay out for the cow and calf to eat.

Since it was such a nice day, I took extra time to fork some straw out for fresh bedding. After I let Daisy and Roy out for the day, I decided I should clean some of the manure out of the box stall…that cow can really put out the crap! After a few mishaps with the cheap wheelbarrow tipping over, I finally had 6 loads delivered to the pile in the middle of the barnyard, and I proceeded to bringing in new bedding for the stall and the chicken pen. With my eggs in my pocket (carefully, since I know from experience that they make a real mess when they get broken in my pocket) and my milk pail in hand, I closed up the barn and headed for the house.

Lorelei was still sleeping, so after feeding Sneef, I headed to the shop to see what Trevor was up to. He was engrossed in fixing some leak on “Pinky”, so I wandered into the shop to take a look at our Christmas present from his parents – a combination plunge/fixed router. I read the pitiful operators manual and unwrapped everything. That was all I had planned to do, but with silence still coming over the baby monitor and the allure of trying something new, I set out to figure out the machine. I don’t think I’m ready to do any real work with it yet, but I did manage to edge some boards fairly decently… Really all it did was inspire me to want to use it more and made me covet the router tables I’d seen in magazines! While I was in the middle of trying to get it back apart to fit in the storage case, I heard Lorelei wake up.

After lunch, we decided it was too beautiful of a day to work inside, and since the pile was getting low, we headed for the in-law’s farm to get some firewood. Grandma had the weekend off, so Lorelei was happy to spend a couple hours with her while daddy and I did some work. Trevor left with “Pinky” (the bulldozer) to go the 1 ½ miles cross country to the farm, while I bundled up Lorelei and went the 6 miles around by winter passable roads with his truck. I dropped Lolo off at the house and joined Trevor down the hill at a bush pile that had been created a few years earlier to make room for another building in the barnyard. He climbed off the dozer and motioned for me to get up after telling me what I should do. So I got to run Pinky, pulling the logs out of the pile after he put the chains on them, and stirring up the pile with blade. This was only my second time running the dozer, and I’m definitely not a smooth operator, but it was fun! I also ran the chainsaw for a bit, but mostly I just loaded the wood into the truck. It was a beautiful afternoon and the exercise felt wonderful!

We did a bit of a repeat performance after lunch on Sunday, this time I cut about half the load of wood while Trevor loaded, then we switched. On Monday I even took time to split some wood after doing my chores, much to my back’s chagrin, but after the initial complaints from my unused muscles, it felt pretty good, and since the temperature dropped hard over night to –15, the wood split easily, so I was able to feel like I actually accomplished something!

I DO have pictures to prove all this, Trevor always makes sure to photo document when I’m doing “manly” things…then he uses those pictures for his computer background…so far its been riding, grinding parts off of pinky, driving the dozer, sawing wood, oh and there might have been one or two non-manly ones that included Lolo.

I’ve spent the last couple of days perusing seed catalogues when I have a moment to sit down, and I’ve got some big ideas for my summer garden! I can’t wait! I’m also headed back to work at the beginning of February most likely, but only for 2 days a week…although I’m still waiting for final word from my employer on dates and details. I guess its about time to quit writing, get this posted and get outside for my chores…Lorelei is looking like she’s almost ready for her nap…and so the cycle continues…