Welll...

Well, that last post started off with good intentions of being a bit of a serial story…but as usual in my life, things got in the way. I guess I can tell you more horsey stories, but I’ll also tell you what else has been going on in my life to keep me busy and away from everything else, even horsey things!

The last post was written in mid August, there were many days of riding weather, some of which I took advantage of. Riata and I had some wonderful rides and some that weren’t so wonderful, but I felt like we had come a long way! The last few days of August and first few days of September we were able to have a nice visit with my little brother. He came on his way to Idaho on an extended road trip. He spent 5 days with us. Those five days were busy, Rob helped me make cucumber relish and ginger cookies. He went with me to town and watched Lolo during my eye appointment, helped purchase a mattress for Lolo’s “big girl bed”, kept me company and helped watch Lolo during the farmers market and even made supper for us on the night I was working! We also managed to squeeze in 3 games of scrabble! It was a good visit- hope we don’t have to wait 18 months until the next visit!

The last day that Rob was here, Lorelei started getting sick…turns out we all got sick (even Rob)…Lorelei probably had it the least seriously, but had a rash, fever, etc. I really don’t know what it was, but I’m almost certain it wasn’t Fifth Disease, even though that was going around the daycare – because I was sick right after, and my blood work shows that I have never been exposed to it(keep reading if you want to know WHY I know that).

Lorelei was off for a few days, and then I was feeling poorly as she recovered, and while I was recovering, Trevor got sick. He said he started feeling off on the Friday before the long weekend. By Monday evening he felt pretty good, and planned to go back to work the next day. Tuesday morning however, he woke up vomiting like crazy, it lasted all day, so he didn’t make it to work that day…or the next…but by Thursday morning he thought he was doing better, he was able to eat and besides a bad headache, things weren’t too bad. After lunch on Thursday I put Lolo down for a nap, and had planned to leave her with Trevor while I went to the farmers market later in the afternoon. He came down after having a nap (as I was getting ready to leave) and he was sobbing…I mean really crying and carrying on and completely out of character. It was really scary, and that’s when I knew I needed to take him to the hospital. I called my sister-in-law and made arrangements to drop off Lorelei on our way to the hospital, and away we went.

Long story short, they diagnosed him with meningitis, however, until the 48 hour cultures came back, he was put into strict isolation, in case it was bacterial. Thankfully the tests came back negative and it was diagnosed as being viral (the less serious of the two types of meningitis). They never did put a name to the virus, but it seemed to hit Trevor quite hard, and it has been a long journey of recovery. After 72 hours in the hospital, he came home and recovered for another 10 days at home before returning to work short days. After 3.5 weeks, he still gets worn out quickly and hasn’t been able to work more than a 6 hour day.

Between caring for Trevor and Lorelei, trying to keep on with working 2 days a week and trying to run the household/farm/garden myself, I was very worn out. I’ve been very blessed to have family here to support us and friends and family praying for us continually. We’ve made it through, and hopefully Trevor will be able to work normally this week finally! God has indeed shown that He works in mysterious ways. We’ve both had our faith and patience tested through this trial, and I believe we’ve come out stronger on the other side. I’m very thankful that God saw fit to spare my husband from more serious or longer lasting illness and am more aware of the blessing that each day I spend with him really is, than I had been before! I thought September was a tough month…

Horsey Life

Some of you may have already read this...but I haven't posted on here for a long time, so here's my sorry excuse for a post...no pictures yet....

-Preamble-

My poor neglected mare, Riata, finally got some attention this year. I bought her as a yearling in 2007 and watched her grow with dreams of what I'd do with her someday. In the spring of 2008 I started working with her in the round pen, handling her and teaching her to lunge. I had hoped and planned to put a few rides on her that spring and then turn her out to grow until her 3 year old year. It was about the time I wanted to try riding her when I found out I was pregnant....I decided against pursuing that any further and decided that the next year was plenty soon to ride her. The spring of 2009 found me with a sweet little baby girl in my arms, and big garden dreams, hardly any time to work with a horse and with the new found responsibilities of parenthood, I could hardly bring myself to do something that seemed as risky as riding a young horse. Compounded by my lack of confidence in my abilities to do the job well, I put off starting her again. That fall, my good friend Melinda mentioned that she would be interested in getting back into training horses again and would be interested in starting Riata for me. Fast forward to June of this year, and Riata took the trailer ride North to the White Ranch. Now, just because Riata wasn't worked with much, it doesn't mean there aren't stories to tell of those two intervening years. Things like an argument with the back end of a trailer that resulted in a vet bill and some scars and a tangle with some page wire that resulted in the same.... She had also learned some bad habits and was very stubborn about somethings. It was very much the right choice for me to send my round pen and my mare to Melinda, her confidence and experience made all the difference in the world, and to this day, Riata is a different horse around her, just because she knows how well Melinda knows her! I have to admit, I've had to overcome some fears in this process, and I have learned a lot thanks to Melinda!

Riata started boot camp around the second week of June I believe and by the middle of July, Melinda said it was my turn to come have a few rides on her. I didn't feel too nervous that first day, but I think I must have been, by the way she reacted and the way my muscles all hurt the next day... After Melinda lunged and rode her a bit, she had me mount and lunged her some more just so I could get a feel for her. Then came time for me to go on my own...it sure is a different feeling to have a well tuned but young and inexperienced horse underneath you compared to the rather hastily/sloppily trained horses I have oft ridden in the past. I was rather surprised at how responsive she was, and definitely learned where my riding deficiencies are! After a lesson in the hot sun, both Riata and I were ready for a soak down with cold water and a nice drink....she's the only one who got sprayed down with a hose though...I opted for a few minutes rest in the air conditioned house with a glass of ice water before I drove home. A few days later I was back for a trail ride. We took Riata and another young horse that Melinda was training and went 2 miles down the gravel road before coming back. I was much more relaxed this time and my muscles weren't nearly as sore :) About a week later, we stopped by the White Ranch again and Trevor had a lesson/ride on Riata so that he would understand the way she was being trained as well, since he'd likely need to ride her sometimes too. After I came back from vacation at the beginning of August, we brought her home.

-Part 1- The first solo ride

It was Friday evening, the 13th of August. I put Lorelei to bed and Trevor and I went out to ride the horses. I saddled up Riata using his saddle (since we decided it fit me better than my own saddle did) and he tacked up his black gelding Guthrie in my saddle. We kept it pretty simple, after lunging Riata I mounted and we rode in the small pasture adjoining the barnyard, mostly walking and trotting circles. We did some loping, but the dew had fallen on the grass and it was somewhat slippery, especially since the area we were riding isn't as wide as I'd like it to be and the corners we were turning were fairly sharp. It went fairly well, although I was somewhat nervous. I had almost relaxed when Riata decided during one of our loping circles that she ought to jump over the approaching thistle rather than run through it...that startled me a bit...and...besides, it was getting dark...we didn't ride much longer. The total ride was probably about 25 minutes.

-Part 2- The first trail ride

Sunday afternoon was cool and very windy, but since Trevor was home to keep an eye on the sleeping baby, I decided to take Riata out for a spin. After the usual warm-up procedures (lunging and flexing), we set out to the East down the little used road allowance. Sneef, my good dog, felt it her duty to accompany me on this journey. Riata was on edge, looking at everything and turning from side to side with each step, like a drunken sailor! Guthrie was calling from the corral, and although she didn't answer, I soon discovered that was where she wanted to go. It took some urging and persistence to keep her facing East. I tried to keep her mind off her surroundings by picking up speed, but she was not to be easily fooled. I wasn't sure what played the biggest role in her reluctance, her desire to return home, riding with the wind(an animals instinct is always to go into the wind whenever possible), or just the strange surroundings. It took 3/4 of a mile before she would move straight ahead and keep going at the speed I asked, and she still looked sideways at every little washout in the road and tried to side step into the canola and wheat on each side of the road. Once we got going, it was quite a nice ride. We loped the first half mile towards home and I think I finally figured out the trick to keeping my butt in the saddle during her springy lope...gotta let that pelvis rock :-D The only difficulty we had on the ride home was trying to keep my hat as we rode into the stiff West wind. We loped and trotted and finally walked the last little bit into the yard. Trevor took her out for about another mile and a half after I rode her, so she got well exercised that day!

-Part 3- Ride #3

Tonight I knew I needed to get out and ride Riata, but I got somewhat distracted by my reconnection to the internet after having been disconnected for a week. I finally got outside at 8:45 by the time I got Riata tacked up and sprayed down with fly spray...lunged her...changed the stirrups on the saddle (I finally eliminated the silly monkey toe tapederos that poked her in the ribs every time I got on or off) It was pretty dark. So, instead of going down the road as I had planned, I just locked Guthrie in the back part of the corral and rode Riata in the corral/pasture near the yard light. She was very edgy when I first mounted, and I almost got off right away because I was scared....but I couldn't get her to stand still...so the only way out was to ride out her jitters. Who can blame her, even your own pen looks kinda scary in the shadows of twilight... It turned out pretty well, but it wasn't a long ride because there's only so much you can do in a corral that size that has a manure pile in the middle.... about 20 minutes or so later I was done...a good experience for both of us I think!

That month called May

I was about to title this post "Springtime ramblings" but then I decided I better go back and read what I posted about last time...and, umm...that was the name of my last post...oops - I guess it would help if I posted more often!
As an update to the previous chicken stories, the girls did NOT stay in their approved premises after "Chicken Move Spring 2010", no, after being locked in the coop for a couple days to get them used to it, I let them out during the day, only to find them about 12 feet up in the rafters of the loose housing every day from then on....oh well, so far they've been safe from predators, and since we finally used up all the hay and straw in there, they've decided to start laying in the chicken house again, so at least I can find some eggs. The great mobile chicken coop has been inevitably and indefinitely pushed to the back-burner, much to my chagrin. I say inevitably, because my husband hates both chickens and carpentry...so I wasn't surprised when he said he just wasn't going to do it for me :( I suppose I should just get things figured out and do it myself, but it would sure be a lot easier with some help - hey sisters, wanna come do a work bee at my place? I see you made Amy some pretty nice raised beds...I'm kinda jealous!! I'd even provide lots of yummy food and stuff....and umm...a cute niece to entertain you too! Oh yeah...you DO live like 1500 miles away, never mind :(
In other news, tonight I successfully managed to weed whack my flowerbed...yup, I had to weed whack it so that I might have a hope of tilling it someday this week...pretty sad when one has to weed whack the flower bed so you can see where the flowers are. I even weed whacked my asparagus bed after I harvested yesterday...so I can see the spears, the grass is TOTALLY out of hand...so that's another ongoing event for this summer "The Great Quack grass War" Between my majorly infested perennial/asparagus plot and my fresh broken ground in the middle of a quack grass "field" which makes up half my garden, I've got lots of the nasty green stuff on my hands. I've basically surrendered my perennial bed for the summer, but come fall and next spring it won't know what hit it...or at least that's the plan. Now that my garden is twice as big as it was last year (it is now approximately 50x 60 including my raspberries, Saskatoon's and a couple fruit trees) I hope to be able to transplant my asparagus into part of the garden once it goes dormant this fall, and some of my perennials too (these however will be drastically reduced in number...anyone want some beautiful lilies, iris' or peonies?) and then till the dickens out of that darn area until no quack grass dare set foot there (wishful thinking I know). So yeah...that's my battle plan. For this year, I've got a nice big garden planned/partially planted. First off, in my spare bedroom I have a lot of beautiful green plants...93 tomatoes (13 varieties), approx 20 peppers (4 varieties), eggplant, celery, broccoli and cauliflower. These will go outside soon...they need more space!! Already in the garden are 2 varieties of potatoes, black beans, 2 varieties of peas, 2 varieties of carrots, 3 varieties of lettuce, spinach, 3 varieties of onions and beets. The wet weather and storms interrupted my planting, but i have more beans, melons, squash, cucumbers and possibly some other stuff that I can't remember off the top of my head....to put in this week hopefully! I saw some little peas poking their heads through the surface tonight as I picked up clods of sod that were trying to regrow...along with some potatoes, onions and lettuce. I love the hope of a vegetable garden!

Lorelei finally decided to start walking, at 15 months and 4 days old - last weekend. Its pretty cute to see her toddle around from place to place, but she still does quite a bit of crawling and makes many crash landings on her nicely padded tush (another reason cloth diapers are lovable!). She is slowly expanding her vocabulary, adding animals to it mostly- kitty(key or itty), horsey (ocee), puppy (updy), bybye, ya, hi....etc. Its really neat to watch her learn, explore and try to express herself. She has already shown an intense love for music, she'll clap her hands and "headbang" with music all the time, and loves to "dance" with me. If she can fabricate a way to get on the piano bench, she's up there plinking away, or else she just stands in front of it and reaches up to push the keys beyond her sight. She doesn't just bang, but seems to consider what note she's going to hit next...I'm very curious to see where this takes her! She is also enthralled by the workings of the piano, I showed her the inside of the piano and how the hammers move, and she often peers through the crack to watch them move while I play if she is sitting on my lap. Around the house she loves to ride her "ocee" (now painted a handsome black), help me unload the dryer (and sometimes the washer), climb into her highchair (its a darn good thing that thing is stable!) and climb on her stool or anything else that makes it possible for her to look out the window and the world outside. She is such a joy and a blessing! I miss her when I'm at work, but I just count my blessings of being able to be with her as much as I can and look forward to the day that I can hopefully stay home with her and her future (hopefully) siblings.

A couple weeks ago I was able to become the new owner of a nice border collie dog. Speed is 9 months old and a very interesting pup. He is a completely different personality than Sneef (yes their names are VERY similar...no I didn't name him....and I'm not sure I can rename him now-due to his age - any suggestions for names that are audibly similar to Speed, but different enough to distinguish him from Sneef??). He is definitely a challenge for me, because he is a somewhat submissive dog, whereas Sneef has been very assertive and stubborn. I find myself quick to jump on his mistakes harshly, which was very beneficial in the training of Sneef, but detrimental to his sensitive nature. This will be an interesting summer, as I try to get some good obedience on him and see how things go from there, he definitely has drive for herding, but we'll see how we can control and encourage things to get him to be useful. He IS very good with kids, although a little bit overwhelming with his love sometimes, but that is one blessing, as he and Lorelei are sure to spend many hours outside together, and I don't want to have to hover because of him.

This spring, we decided to quit renting out the few acres of crop land on the edge of our acreage. We put up fence around the perimeter and planted an alfalfa mix on the 5-7 acres that had previously been cropped. We also planted 600 hybrid poplar trees for windbreaks along parts of all 4 sides of the property in an attempt to protect the yard a bit more from the constant wind of this area. I know it will take 10 years or so before their effective, but the trees were free and its a great start at least!
The previously mentioned trees had to be picked up at a nursery near the city on a specific day, and since my SIL had wanted to make a shopping trip to the city, we combined forces. I played Nanny most of the day, tending to my 4 month old(at the time) nephew, so that his mommy could shop. I had made a Mei Tai using my spin off of this pattern, and that day was my first real test. It worked well, Dimple is around the 17lb mark (ish??) and I carried him for several hours without feeling any strain. He even fell asleep in it, which was a first - he never falls asleep while being carried! I made it in ever so stylish Real Tree Camo and lime green twill....haha...I'm sure some people wouldn't be caught dead wearing it, but hey, at least my hubby can't say its too girly (though I'm not sure he'll ever be convinced to "wear" a baby"). I hope to do another one someday with some slight changes to my pattern, but overall, I am quite happy with it. I've used it for carrying Lorelei on my back while fencing and such, and see it as being a useful tool for years to come! So for anyone that's looking for a cheap and easy way to carry the baby on your back - check it out!

I've been spending quite a bit of quality time in my sewing room lately, since I plan to get a table at the local farmers market to see my extra garden produce. I am hoping to market some sewed stuff as well, and put my shingle out for doing mending/repairs/minor alterations. I'm kind of excited, even though part of me is so worried it won't work out...I keep squashing that thought and telling myself its only $15 for the whole year, what can go wrong? At the worst, I'll have a bunch of stuff to take home with me and give away as gifts... So - I've been working on Aprons, receiving blankets (specifically ones big enough to swaddle a baby properly) and kids aprons. I've got lots more ideas of ways to use up my fabric stash and even some knitting/crocheting so I can work on it during my lunch hour at work and such. So - if anyone who is reading this has received a gift from me that I made, please let me know how you liked it (good AND bad), how it fit, whether it was useful, etc etc. I NEED feedback in order to try and market my stuff effectively and make stuff that is useful and saleable. Wish me luck! I'll keep you up to date with my progress, and maybe I'll get some updated pictures up on my portfolio blog, as my portfolio is DEFINITELY a lot bigger than it was last time I updated that!

Springtime ramble

Day 1

Another couple of months have come and gone and life keeps rolling by, including many blog-worthy events for which I have imagined great descriptions and even taken pictures, but like much of energy, my inspiration to actually write seemed to be somewhat dampened by the late winter grey. With the sun no so shy these days, offering us extended evenings and helping us arise in the morning, I feel my energy and inspiration of returned, at least to some level, and thanks to a great sister in law who made supper for us tonight after taking care of my daughter all day, I have time to compose my thoughts for others to read.

It’s sad to admit that I have to go back and read my own blog in order to remember what I last wrote about, and even sadder when its not even in my browser’s memory anymore! In the last ten weeks or so we’ve adjusted to a fairly major change in lifestyle, as I’ve returned to work at the local Credit Union two days a week. Up to this point, Lorelei has spent one day a week with Grandma or a friend or (like today) with my sister in law, and one day a week with a friend who lives right next to where I work. It has worked quite well so far, but I have decided to put Lorelei into daycare for 1 day a week with the option of a second day – so I’ll probably have her there 1 day one week and 2 days the next week. This will help lower the load on the family and since my friend is expecting a baby on the first of June, I don’t want to put any more stress on her than necessary! Work has been a good thing for me in some ways; it helps me appreciate the time I have at home. Financially it has met our needs well and it gives me a little change of pace. Sometimes I hate having to go somewhere all the time….I’d rather stay home more often, but its probably good for me!


The next day…

Lorelei has adjusted very well and doesn’t mind a bit when I leave her, even in unfamiliar places. Today we’re going to have a tour at the daycare, hopefully she’ll like that just as much! One of her favorite things to do lately is emptying anything she can find, a box, a basket of laundry, her diaper bag, my purse or even my cupboards… What a mess! She is learning to put things “in” too, and I’ve found her toys in my bowls when I take them out of the cupboard, and many mysterious things in the bottom of laundry baskets. She’s never boring to be around anyways! Another one of her loves is shoes, but not on her feet so much as on her hand, she will put her hands inside of a pair of my shoes or Trevor’s and crawl across the room – “clunk, clunk, clunk” giggling all the way!

The weather has warmed up beautifully in the last few weeks and though it’s raining today and we had snow on Friday, the only white stuff left is in the utter shade on the north side of the windbreaks.

On Sunday afternoon it was finally calm for the first time in days, so we racked up all the old plants in the flower/asparagus bed and set them on fire – it made quick work of the mess that took me many hours of raking to clean up last year!

In other outdoor news, operation “Chick Move Spring 2010” was completed last night…. Involving hat mounted flashlights, extension ladders and rubber boots. Almost one year ago, I proudly brought home 22 hens and put them to bed in their shed converted to a chicken house. I soon let them free range around the yard, and started noticing there seemed to be a few less chickens around! By the time I got them all captured and started trying to keep them secure, I had lost 5. I started by just closing the coop door at night after they’d all gone to roost, but the wicked little predator dug under the pen and gained access and still wrecked havoc, so the next night I closed the door to the pen too! In the morning, I discovered another dead and half eaten hen, and realized that only having the door latch at the top wasn’t fool proof enough for this determined little bugger! Turns out it was a hungry raccoon or a few of them….we caught one in a trap and disposed of it, and were able to get rid of another one too, but I continued to lock my chickens up at night to keep them safe. When fall came, it was apparent that their drafty stud and plywood shed wouldn’t be an appropriate winter home, so we converted part of the barn into a “chicken palace” It looked quite nice, and had lots of space, ample roosting, etc etc. It looked great, how could there be any problems? So just a day or two later we left on a trip and the in-laws looked after the chores. There were a couple slight problems – the chickens didn’t want to be locked up after free ranging for the summer, and they found the weak spots in our design very quickly – like the inch of space under the wire mesh. Seriously – approximately ONE inch, and the stuck their little beaks under there and stretched and squished until they got out. A row of straw bales along the outside of the mesh did the trick and they were safe for the winter…or so I thought. The next problem was how come we couldn’t keep the water from freezing – I had purchased a heated water bowl and it had worked great for Sneef the winter before – why did the water keep freezing in the barn? After some frustration, an attempt at replacing each component (a different dish, a different plug, a different extension cord) I discovered upon returning from our trip, that the problem was very simple…the entire barn was wired through one circuit and that circuit was controlled by the light switch at the door – so when the lights went out, so did the power…a few screw-in pull-string inserts later, we had the problem solved! One day in December, there was a terrible blizzard with winds howling from the north at 90km/hour. That kind of wind nearly blew through our house, not to mention the partially collapsed north wall of our 100 year old barn…the poor chickens were pelted with snow for over 24 hours and were quite wet and unhappy. We mounted a heat lamp over the roost and when the blizzard was done, we attempted to get rid of some of the three-foot drifts of snow in their pen and put down another thick layer of bedding. The rest of the winter was pretty peaceful for the hens, although a couple succumbed to unknown illnesses (pretty normal for chickens).

This spring, the girls had the best day of their lives….ok ok so maybe that’s an imaginative exaggeration…



I was able to acquire two beautiful roosters. I’m not 100% sure what breed they are, but they are beautiful and I’m hoping for some nice little chicks later this year!

One of our spring projects is a chicken palace on wheels that I’m hoping to complete this spring – it will be a small self-contained chicken house on wheels (6’x8’x4’tall) complete with roosts and nest boxes. I plan to purchase some electrified netting to make a movable pen for the chickens to scratch/graze in around it – I’m pretty excited, and I hope it will solve some of our predator and missing egg problems!

Ok…this is day three of writing on this post and I’m very uninspired, so I think I’ll leave it at that…..Sorry its mostly about chickens :D