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!
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
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
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
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Reflections...
Sometimes, I wish my brain were a little more like a computer. You know, so I could just remove the programs I didn’t want to use anymore, things like anger, selfishness, and negativity and get more programs that are useful for positive things. It would be right nice if I could just remove a section of memory or erase my hard drive to get rid of memories so I couldn’t bring them back to mind later. If I could just shut it down when I got tired of dealing with it, I might just get more sleep! If I could always keep a happy and meaningful picture on the “desktop” instead of allowing frustrations and anger to cloud the everyday things, it would be sure to help my mood and improve my interaction with people around me…
Well…its never going to happen, I suppose I can always dream, but for now I’m stuck with this normal human brain that is bound to remind me of things I’d sooner (or at least be better off to) forget. I must be thankful however, since this is also the human brain that somehow tells me that something isn’t right when Lolo is too quiet for a while, reminds me of that appointment I forgot to write down and helps me recall my forgotten grocery list when I get to the store. I guess I should be thankful for the emotions that I’m capable of experiencing, even if some of them are not what I would like and seem very hard to control. I am thankful for the nudges and reminders from the Holy Spirit to keep myself in control…I can’t imagine what kind of a person I’d be without that…I’m sure I’d have pushed many a person away from me permanently by now with my impatience and short temper. Why, I often ask myself, am I more patient with a frustrating person at work than with my own family or people I care about more closely? Why do I care more about preserving client relations than family ones? Is it because I love them more that I expect them to be better people? Is it that I spend more time with them so their quirks bother me more? I’m not sure any of that is a good excuse…and I’m sure I’ll never understand my brain…so for now, I’ll just continue to go chop wood when I get really frustrated, pretty soon it doesn’t seem worth being frustrated anymore!
On a lighter note, we had quite the blizzard here this weekend! It was just snowing, without the blowing on Friday night and when we went to leave the house on Saturday, Trevor almost got the car stuck, just getting it out of the garage, so we decided to take the truck. I am SOO more then ready to get a crew cab truck…stuffing the baby and all our stuff into the regular cab truck was not so fun (we were going over to the in-laws to grind hamburger and make sausage). The day went quite well, we ground up some meat into hamburger and then made about 30-40lbs of sausage using our deer from November as well as some bacon, ground beef and ground pork, it worked quite well. Poor Lolo was not the happiest camper, with a fever and sore teeth the whole weekend, but a day out of the house was good for both of us, and having Aunty Julie and Grandma around to give her some attention didn’t hurt either! She finally slept through the night last night, for the first time since Thursday…I know its not so bad, but when you’re not used to getting up in the night, it seems pretty crappy! On Sunday we had the whole family here for lunch…I didn’t end up going out on Sunday morning, since Lolo had been quite crabby and needed to nap, so I guess I haven’t left the yard since Saturday and haven’t been to town for a week almost! Trevor didn’t go to work yesterday since it was so stormy, and we both kind of sat around and didn’t do too much all day besides the outdoor chores and entertaining Lolo… I guess he did adjust the brakes on his truck and I did some sewing and baked a loaf of bread…mmm…fresh bread! I just started using the no knead, fresh bread in 5 minutes a day method! I want to get the book about it, but for now I’m just using the free recipes about it that are on the Mother Earth News website and in their magazine, yummy! Last night we had to go rescue the chickens from the snowdrifts that had accumulated inside their pen in the barn….yes, inside…it is a 100 year old barn after all! They were all cold and snowy and starting to pile up in a corner, so we shoveled out some snow, but down more bedding and cleaned off the roosts, with the heat lamp on them all night, they looked much happier this morning and even laid 4 eggs!! This morning is cold but sunny! I was experiencing much frustration and cursing the fact that someone managed to convince me that feeding and bedding animals with large square bales by hand was a good idea…..I’m afraid I beg to differ even more now than I did last fall! Give me round bales or small squares any day…at least you can peel the frozen outside layer off a round bale and then have decent straw/hay underneath, on a square, if one end is frozen, its almost impossible to get the stupid thing apart! Not to mention how hard it is to handle the flakes once you DO get them apart…they either fall apart so they’re not pitchfork worthy or manageable by hand…agh…no fun! Oh well…next year…maybe! To burn off that pent up angst, I chopped some wood…
Well…its never going to happen, I suppose I can always dream, but for now I’m stuck with this normal human brain that is bound to remind me of things I’d sooner (or at least be better off to) forget. I must be thankful however, since this is also the human brain that somehow tells me that something isn’t right when Lolo is too quiet for a while, reminds me of that appointment I forgot to write down and helps me recall my forgotten grocery list when I get to the store. I guess I should be thankful for the emotions that I’m capable of experiencing, even if some of them are not what I would like and seem very hard to control. I am thankful for the nudges and reminders from the Holy Spirit to keep myself in control…I can’t imagine what kind of a person I’d be without that…I’m sure I’d have pushed many a person away from me permanently by now with my impatience and short temper. Why, I often ask myself, am I more patient with a frustrating person at work than with my own family or people I care about more closely? Why do I care more about preserving client relations than family ones? Is it because I love them more that I expect them to be better people? Is it that I spend more time with them so their quirks bother me more? I’m not sure any of that is a good excuse…and I’m sure I’ll never understand my brain…so for now, I’ll just continue to go chop wood when I get really frustrated, pretty soon it doesn’t seem worth being frustrated anymore!
On a lighter note, we had quite the blizzard here this weekend! It was just snowing, without the blowing on Friday night and when we went to leave the house on Saturday, Trevor almost got the car stuck, just getting it out of the garage, so we decided to take the truck. I am SOO more then ready to get a crew cab truck…stuffing the baby and all our stuff into the regular cab truck was not so fun (we were going over to the in-laws to grind hamburger and make sausage). The day went quite well, we ground up some meat into hamburger and then made about 30-40lbs of sausage using our deer from November as well as some bacon, ground beef and ground pork, it worked quite well. Poor Lolo was not the happiest camper, with a fever and sore teeth the whole weekend, but a day out of the house was good for both of us, and having Aunty Julie and Grandma around to give her some attention didn’t hurt either! She finally slept through the night last night, for the first time since Thursday…I know its not so bad, but when you’re not used to getting up in the night, it seems pretty crappy! On Sunday we had the whole family here for lunch…I didn’t end up going out on Sunday morning, since Lolo had been quite crabby and needed to nap, so I guess I haven’t left the yard since Saturday and haven’t been to town for a week almost! Trevor didn’t go to work yesterday since it was so stormy, and we both kind of sat around and didn’t do too much all day besides the outdoor chores and entertaining Lolo… I guess he did adjust the brakes on his truck and I did some sewing and baked a loaf of bread…mmm…fresh bread! I just started using the no knead, fresh bread in 5 minutes a day method! I want to get the book about it, but for now I’m just using the free recipes about it that are on the Mother Earth News website and in their magazine, yummy! Last night we had to go rescue the chickens from the snowdrifts that had accumulated inside their pen in the barn….yes, inside…it is a 100 year old barn after all! They were all cold and snowy and starting to pile up in a corner, so we shoveled out some snow, but down more bedding and cleaned off the roosts, with the heat lamp on them all night, they looked much happier this morning and even laid 4 eggs!! This morning is cold but sunny! I was experiencing much frustration and cursing the fact that someone managed to convince me that feeding and bedding animals with large square bales by hand was a good idea…..I’m afraid I beg to differ even more now than I did last fall! Give me round bales or small squares any day…at least you can peel the frozen outside layer off a round bale and then have decent straw/hay underneath, on a square, if one end is frozen, its almost impossible to get the stupid thing apart! Not to mention how hard it is to handle the flakes once you DO get them apart…they either fall apart so they’re not pitchfork worthy or manageable by hand…agh…no fun! Oh well…next year…maybe! To burn off that pent up angst, I chopped some wood…
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
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…
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…
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