More Schtuff

So a bunch has happened in the past while, but I haven't been updating regularly.

Lisa is back in Kitchener -- I'm here looking after the menagerie again while she's gone.

Work has been very busy. I've been spending a bunch of time in my off hours writing programs (which isn't usual for me). So there's been not as much awesome stuff like shirt making going on. I'm hoping to get back to that tomorrow night. I've got everything all set up to make a black shirt: I think it'll be awesome.

Everybody here is doing great: the goats learned this week how to jump and get on top of their shelter. They can do it about 1 in 6 times: they sortof hurl themselves at the wall, scrabble ineffectually with their feet, and pray they get up. Most of the time they end up falling on their backs or sides, legs akimbo, but they succeed often enough to not give up. I imagine they'll get better at it, and not be lame their entire lives.

We had some nasty weather here: freezing rain and ice pellets and big winds. The goats managed to stay dryer than me, somehow, despite living outside. :-) Things are pretty icy around here, but not as bad as it has been, thank goodness.

Ummm... watching StarGate Atlantis (an excellent show BTW) and a few movies. I watched Bambi the other night -- I hadn't seen it since I was a kid. Damn that was a surreal movie! Disney'd never get away with making some sort of art film about the changing seasons and marketing it to kids today.

Not much else. Busy busy. Need to shower now and then feed goats and then go to bed. :-)

Another day done.

The most interesting thing that happened today is that I wore my shirt to work, and nobody noticed. :-) That was by far the biggest compliment that I could have got: nobody saying "hey you're wearing a homemade shirt!" or anything.

Apparently my shirt is indistinguishable from a storebought shirt. :-)

I did point it out to some people, and everybody said how much they liked it. So a big success, all around. I think I'll make another.

Shirt's all done!

Shirt Progress

I finished my shirt. Well, to be honest, I still haven't hemmed the bottom or finished the inside seams, but you can't see that stuff anyway. :-)

The last thing was the buttons. I love making buttonholes, I hate handstitching buttons. My sewing machine manual claims that the machine (the modern one, not the old treadle), can machine sew buttons. I'm going to look into that for the next shirt.

It turned out pretty good -- lots of little things wrong with it (like my topstitching is terrible: next shirt I'm matching thread color!), but I'm really pleased with the way it turned out overall.

It seems to fit pretty good too. Tight across the shoulders if I lunge forward, but I tend not to lunge too much day to day, so that's ok. :-)

I'm really pleased with the pattern and the shirt. I'll make another for sure.

Now the only question: will I wear it to work and open myself up to public humiliation? :-) Perhaps.

I love successes like that.

On another topic, I went back to work today for the first time since Lisa left. I went in a bit late, and left a bit early, and the household survived without me for a few hours. :-) Work was fun enough (how fun can work be anyway?), and I got a bunch done.

Not bad for one day: a full day's work and a shirt!

More Big Days

It's been a bit now, so I can't remember everything -- but here goes.

Hay Delivery

On Sunday, I moved everything out of the feedroom (the grain bin is heavy!) so that Ted the Hay Guy could come and deliver our hay and straw. He came with 46 bales and I helped him unload it. So it was only like 23 bales I had to move, but man was it hard work. :-) My shoulders are still sore, 2 days later!

Shirt Progress

I worked on my shirt a whole bunch more: it now has sleeves, cuffs, and a neckband (no collar yet). I was wrong about the neck being too small: the seams get trimmed as part of construction, and so it gets bigger. I think the pattern's a pretty good size, although I still might try to make the next one longer in the body. I think tonight I'll probably try to put the collar on, and then it's just endless buttons and then I'm done (maybe some seam finishing inside).

Goat Trauma

I made the grave error of giving the goat babies a pine branch in the shelter while I was in there with them. It was kindof scary -- they were a little rammed up, and thrashing the stick around, and jumping here and there. :-)

[Alarm went off -- need to go and feed the goat babies this morning...]

All done that. :-)

I got some pictures of the goat trauma, which is kindof fun. Unfortunately, the light from the camera make them even crazier. :-) All in all, it was easily worth it. Big fun.

Today I'm going back to work -- so I've got to worry all morning, and make sure I haven't forgotten anything. :-) Luckily I gave myself lots of time, and made a list of everything I needed to do, and now I've got about an hour before I've got to leave.

Big days all around!

Now I've just got to sit with Pixie for a while while I wait to go.

Big Day(s)

Well, yesterday was a big day.

I took the Christmas tree down (unstrung the lights and disassembled the tree back into its box, then put everything away). That's a big enough job, although I was greatly helped by the fact that Lisa had already removed all of the decorations, which is a huge job.

I did my normal daytime chores: ate delicious sandwiches, fed the goats their lunch (they were being very cute: rearing up and charging each other -- I tried and failed to get video of it.)

Shirt Progress

I set up my sewing table where the tree used to be, and got a fair ways through the construction of my first collared shirt (out of cheap broadcloth). Pictures available. I didn't get the sleeves or collar done, just the body. Currently it's got some sort of Hercules outfit thing going on, so I think it needs sleeves and buttons. I'm sure everybody will agree with that. :-)

The fit is not bad, although it could be: longer, and have a larger neck. Next time I make the pattern I'll make some adjustments. I think I may end up needing a second mock shirt before I make one out of real fabric.

Sometime in the middle of shirt making, it was goat, dog and man feeding time. I ate chinese food -- it was delicious. :-)

At around 7 or so, I got bored of that, so I started watching Deep Impact, the movie -- I could have sworn I'd watched it before, but I don't really remember it at all. Go figure. I made popcorn for it.

Part way through the movie, my mother phoned, and I talked to her for an hour or so, then I put the goats to bed, and then Lisa phoned, and we chatted for a while, and then it was time for bed. :-)

Today looks big enough: the Hay Guy is coming at 11:am, and I need to clean the feed room/shed out first. Yesterday I cleaned up tarps that were leftover from our tarp removal frenzy a couple days ago, which should make this cleanup quite a bit quicker.

The weather says 'snow' today, so I hope that it doesn't happen while all the stuff is out. :-) There's not too much stuff that could get wrecked, but there is some. We'll have to see how it goes.

Fun stuff. ;-)

Spy photos

Spy Photos

So kindof neat: I learned that you can take pictures with a digital camera through a pair of binoculars. It's like getting a free optical zoom on your camera.

These are some pictures I took out of the upstairs bedroom window yesterday of our goats. :-)

It's neat to watch them when they don't know you can see them. They just kindof wander around, exploring their environment.

News

Lisa has gone back to Kitchener for a few days: her mother is in the hospital.

I'm here looking after the household while she's gone.

Shades of Exalt again -- working from home is just like I remembered it. Better food, more animals, fuzzy boundary between work and home life. There are definite advantages to this lifestyle. The food is the big one. :-) I also get more heads-down programming done.

I telecommute: I can connect to my computer at work -- it's just like I'm there except a bit slower. I phone in for meetings (which is great when lots of people get talking :-). It's working out ok.

This evening just before it got dark, I went out and did some repair work on the goat fence: the tarps we had tied to it to keep the wind off of the goats acted as a sail. Once the ice holding the bottom of the fence melted, the insane wind we had last night blew part of the fence down. Luckily, the goats were not hurt, nor did they escape. We removed the tarps and righted the fence. It was mostly unscathed. However, I went out with some wire and repaired a few places where the edge of the fence was starting to wear and might provide an escape route one day.

Goat Snugglin'

Then I went into the shelter with the goats and sat with them a while. They were bad and bitey for a few minutes, but then they settled down and laid down to snuggle. I was out there for 45 minutes: it was kindof nice: Bert fell asleep, or at least snored while awake. I got a couple of pictures...

I've eaten pretty good today: leftover Shake'n'Bake chicken (first you take the Shake'n'Bake, then you put it in the oven), endless snacks, and now I'm heating up a precooked turkey breast. It smells delicious. :-) I may not be much of a cook, but I sure love to eat!

Tonight I don't think I'll do much. It's been a long couple of days, I think veg'ing on the couch is the Best Thing

Ah -- the dog's food is ready and they're going nuts. :-) I'll cut this short.

Solitude, new logo and pictures

So this weekend I've been here at FHH alone looking after the goat babies and dog "babies" and myself (also a baby). Jessica's going back to school (sniff) and so Lisa drove her and Kyle back to Toronto and Kitchener. While she's there, Lisa's going to see her family and her sister's awesome new goat herd. Should be fun.

It's been pretty fun here. I never realized *quite* how much work it was to look after those goats. They get pretty wild and pushy :-) Very cute. After being out with them for an hour or so, I'm ready for a nap.

There was a light snow shortly after Lisa left, and none since, so you can see all of my tracks I've made outside, to and from the house, to the furnace exhaust pipes (to check them, so we don't have another incident), to and from the feed room and goat shelter. :-) It's actually kindof funny to see.

Lisa's coming home soon-ish (I expect half past 3 or so, depending on traffic).

Because I had a bunch of free time, Four Horse Haven has a new logo (the old one was too... sedate somehow). The new one's more dynamic. Once we finalize a logo, I hope to do some things like get a farm sign and mailbox with the logo painted on it. This one's not bad.

I uploaded a bunch of new pictures: of our Parliament Tour, the giant goose migration we saw, some aftermath of the big snow (and obligatory goat photos), and some additions to the Christmas album.

And now my camera is empty again, and I can start taking photos again. :-)

[Lisa comes home early :-) - by nearly a whole hour]

A new year

Well, it's 2008 and we're still alive in Ottawa. :-)

Let's hope this year is less... intense than last year.