Overdue Update!

As usual, I've been busy lately and not posted. Just not quite enough time or energy in the day!

Jess is home from university and has started her hunt for a summer job so that she can afford to go back to university in the fall. It's so nice to have her home again!!

My mom made the big trip out here again and visited with us for a week. We had a good time, but took it easy. The weather was lovely while she was here... sunny and warm... we all soaked that up after a long long winter!! My dad picked her up on the weekend, he was only here for one night, but we enjoyed our visit with him as well, even if it was too short! :)

Things are really starting to look like spring around here... green grass... the trees are starting to green up... OTHER people have flowers... daffodils, tulips, etc... I have dandelions! Oh well, at least they add some colour.

We've been putting our goats out on grass, as the weather permits... we have two enclosures now. One is set up with the black rubber mats and the goat ghetto shelter, the other just has half of their winter shelter in it to provide shade and we move it around the property to give them new grass.

We just set up the grazing paddock at the end of last week and they spent a couple days in it... then yesterday I noticed there wasn't much grass left and they were starting to churn up the dirt by the gate. So last night we move the grazing paddock over a bit in the field to provide new grass. I'll put them out there later today and let them work away at the grass there.

The goats are loving the weather and the grass it brings! They go crazy when we take them out on leashes to move from paddock to paddock and eat the whole way! They really like it if we go past the trees and they can reach some of the lower new growth... they clip it off quickly with their sharp back teeth and gobble it up!

The dogs are enjoying the weather also, though they still spend most of their time inside.... they are not really outside dogs. Perhaps if there were comfy couches outside that would help :)

We did have quite a scare with my Buddy dog (shep x) about 2 weeks ago. He and Pixie were outside and started ramming about and wrestling... they had just started and weren't even really wound up yet when we heard Buddy yelp. Shawn and I were both standing right there, but neither of us saw what happened, except that he was no longer weight bearing on his right hind.

I stood with him for a few minutes and then checked his paw and his joints. Nothing obvious. No heat, no swelling. He was unable to climb back up the steps to get inside, so I had to carry him in. He laid down for a while and rested. It took him about 4 or 5 days to really start to recover from the incident.

The first night, I carried him up the stairs to go to bed... what a workout THAT is!! Of course, this happened the night before I was heading back to Southern Ontario, so the next couple nights Shawn had to carry him up to bed. I was pretty sure when I left that I would be coming home to put him down.

But he's mostly recovered... he's still slow to get up and occasionally a bit "off" behind, but he's still doing all his normal doggie stuff and he's now able to get up the stairs on his own, which is good. His big problem is his body is aging WAY faster than his mind... he still thinks he's 2, when in fact, he's almost 11.

I imagine this won't be the last incident we have with him, but I do feel lucky that this wasn't IT. I'm sure this dog will cause much more heart ache before the ends comes, damn him!! :)

I still haven't got my manure piles moved... maybe I'll get some time today to work on that, we'll see what today brings. I imagine they will still be there next week, for instance ... and if not, well then won't I be glad I waited? :)

Anyhow, I should go get some things done!
-- L

Some springtime exploring

Free with Four Horse Haven

So springtime is fun around here.

We've got 6 acres, and we don't use hardly any of it. In fact, for most of the year we've been here, most of the property is covered in waist deep weeds and vegetation. This year, we hope to graze some of it.

In spring, however, all the vegetation is pushed down by the snow. Once the mud clears up (like now), you can wander pretty much anywhere on the property, and get some good looks at things.

In the corner of our property, by the standing water, we thought we saw a dock of sorts. Wood, with T-bars around it, jutting out into the water.

Well, turns out that's not a dock.

I went down to it today. What it seems to be is a rectangular hole, maybe 6 by 10, by 5 feet deep (I'm bad at estimating like that, but around there). The hole has cast cement sides (I'm not sure if the bottom is cement as well -- it's got mud at the bottom).

Around the outside of the cement are T bars and other types of metal posts -- I don't know if it's to keep it from falling apart or what.

Over top is some sort of cage made of pipes. On top of the cage is sheet metal: really thick (like a quarter inch). There's also an old old dead shovel on top of it. It looks strong enough to stand on, although I didn't try.

Pictures in the four horse haven album.

What on earth is this thing? I have no idea. But whatever it is, we own it. :-)

Also while I was out, I saw a big turtle and a muskrat down in that pond (the turtle startled me, it was hiding, then pushed itself out into the water suddenly).

Lots more old dead wood and skids, as well. The previous owners liked to leave stuff everywhere. :-) But neat stuff!

Update: I've heard two theories about what this thing could be so far:

• a foundation for some old building - this one would be odd: this thing is underwater a lot of the time. Also, the metal framework over it seems to be profoundly part of it, rather than an add on after the fact.
• an old septic system for the original house - this is based on the fact that this "thing" is roughly in line with where we suspect the original house is. Hope this isn't the case: having a septic tank that's underwater much of the year seems really gross. :-) But it could be.
  

Another Couple Days And It'll Be ALL GONE!

The snow is just about gone here... another day or two of this warm weather should do it. I expect by the end of the week it'll be all gone, as its supposed to be quite warm this week.

I put up a couple pics in the FHH album showing the tiny bits of snow we have left, as well as a few I took a couple days ago.

There's still quite a bit of standing water around, but we are noticing even that is starting to go away a bit. Quite exciting.

Not too much to report around here... I've been busy, but not doing anything interesting. I did manage to flip the old goat shelter yesterday... both halves... the back half was easy, the front half was still pretty frozen into the ground and required a big shove. Lots of the bedding was still frozen solid inside, but after a little while in the sun I was able to clean almost all of it up and pile it in my temporary manure pile. I have a bit more cleaning to do there, but nothing major... I need to pull up the stall mat that was under all that bedding, it should be unfrozen and easier to move today... I couldn't quite get it yesterday.

The goats are enjoying the warmth and sunshine and like to lay flat out and sunbathe for hours on end. They are feeling good these days and are wild men when we go into feed and visit... lots of jumping and carrying on! Silly goats.

There's several pairs of Canadian geese hanging around in the field next to the yard... sometimes they come into our yard and if I'm not paying attention when I let the dogs out, the dogs chase them and have great fun. I try not to let this happen though, because I'm a little worried that the geese will hurt my dogs, but so far, so good.

For the first time in months, we smelled a skunk last night. It was very strong when we went out around 11pm and I suddenly worried that perhaps my goats had tangled with it somehow. But after shining the big flashlight around and making lots of noise, I went to feed and check them and they were not any stinkier than normal :) Thank goodness!!!!

Yummy Dinner... No Incidents! Yay :)

Tonight we managed to successfully go out and have our fancy dinner WITHOUT incident. No flat tires or anything :)

Of course, the night isn't over and I really should be careful not to jinx ourselves!

It was very tasty and we enjoyed it.... we started out with Young Organic Salad Greens... tender baby lettuces with house vinaigrette, red pear, goat cheese and crispy shallots. They also brought us a complimentary thing from the kitchen... tuna tar tar with avocado on a cracker, or something like that. It was tasty... I ate it even though I don't eat seafood anymore and I've survived to tell the tale ;)

We then had the Beef tenderloin, served with Oxtail Potato Gallette, Broccoli Rabe, Roasted Onion Purée and Bordelaise Sauce. The steak was delicious, they apparently age it themselves for 35 days. The oxtail potato thingy was ok, a little weird... I asked the server about it after we ate it and he said its not really ox, but just beef... not really sure how those are different anyhow... but it was kinda stringy, like the meat you get on a pig tail or turkey neck. But we ate it and enjoyed it well enough.

For dessert we had Crème Fraîche Brulée, Fig Compote, Micha Goat Cheese Crostini, Bruléed Fig. The whole fig addition almost made me not want to order it, but I love creme brulee generally, so I ordered it anyhow. It wasn't dried figs, but fresh figs, so it was a big relief... dried figs just look nasty! Anyhow that was delicious and we enjoyed it. Needless to say, Shawn ordered the exact same as I did, which makes posting about it faster :)

At the end of the meal, they brought us another tasty tiny num num from the kitchen for dessert, a vanilla brownie and the tiniest chocolate cookie I ever saw! It was about the size of a dime. The vanilla brownie was excellent, chewy and delicious, slightly larger than a postage stamp.

It was one of "those places" where you get frou frou food in teeny portions... but we enjoyed it and had fun. Not really the sort of place to take my parents or Jessica, but the sort of place if you had frou frou friends you could go out and celebrate birthdays or something... whatever people do when they have friends, frou frou or otherwise :)

I ended up wearing my "bad luck" clothes tonight... the nice very dark wash jeans I had bought to go to a coworkers dinner party when Shawn decided to shove a rusty nail into his skull... and I wore the black velvet top I bought to go to the formal soiree with Shawn's work that we missed due to a family emergency. Apparently if you pair two pieces of bad luck clothing together, they bring good luck... who knew? :)

I did enjoy wearing my black velvet top though... it fits nice and is comfortable and looks ok. I didn't feel the need to pick at it the whole time I was wearing it like I often do when I wear clothes other than jeans, tshirt, sweatshirt, so that was a bonus.

Anyhow, I think that's it for now.
--L

Spring Cleanup

We've started spring cleanup around here and boy does the place need it!!

Last night we took down some of the Christmas lights off the fence... it was the first chance we could, as a bunch of them were frozen down under the snow and ice and that part has just melted over the last few days.

I took down the rest of the Christmas lights this morning, they just have to find their way to the storage container upstairs. There's still one extension cord out there that's frozen in some ice... a couple more days of warmth and it should be free.

I also picked up some of the random objects that were laying around... there were 2 pieces of rubber matting on the front lawn that I had used to cover the internet cable when it still crossed the driveway. They got tossed on the front lawn once the snow hit and I had to move the cable for the snow removal guy... since then it of course got an extension added to it and it runs a long way around the property now. I imagine some day they will show up and bury that.... likely sometime after all the snow is gone and the frost is out of the ground.

There were some salvaged boards laying around from when we made the goat ghetto, I picked them up and added them to the "weird shit" pile that is beside the feed building. There's all sorts of boards, pipes and strange objects in this pile... seemed like a good idea to put like items together.

I raked up some piles of hay/straw that were outside the feed room door that had been there most of the winter but have just been revealed when the snow melted there. I hauled that away in muck buckets to one of our THREE manure piles!

I have 3 manure piles because the original one, we used most of the winter, snew blew paths to it, slogged through the deep snow... but then with the last really big storm we gave up. So I started another pile (its small) closer to where the goats were living at the time, figuring I would load it up in the cart with the lawn tractor in the good weather and add it to the original pile.

Then, when we moved the goats, both piles were too far and too inaccessible from snow to carry all that way, so another pile was started closer to the new pen. Its not a very big pile yet and I'll likely move it and add it to the original pile once the lawn tractor has a chance to get around the property. Too much snow and mud for it right now.

I also started to clean out the winter goat pen today. There's quite a bit of stuff there to be cleaned up. I made two piles in that enclosure, one for really wet, partly rotted stuff and another pile for the dry stuff. I'm hoping to move the really wet, partly rotted pile right to a garden destination (to avoid moving it twice) and the other pile will have to go to the original manure pile and cook for a while.

I made a pass around the whole goat pen and piled up what I could. Underneath the loose stuff there's still quite a bit of ice... it was insulated by the loose stuff... now it should melt a bit better.

I also started cleaning out their old shelter... man is it deep in there!! The shelter itself is still frozen down into the snow and ice, so I can't tip it yet... which means I have to go in there and practically crawl around. Lovely. I got a bunch out of there, but again, lots of it is wet from the thaw and frozen solid. I took out what I could and hopefully that will help it melt now that that insulation is gone. Its really remarkable how much hay/straw/poop there is!

I have a few windows open again today to let in some fresh air and man is it nice! Its clouding up now and we're supposed to get a bit of rain this afternoon, so I'll have to close them again, but for now, I'm enjoying that!

Well its just about goaty lunch time so I should get out there before the rain starts... I've started separating the goats at grain time... Bert eats all his and then sets to work on Ernie's. Bert needs LESS grain not more... and Ernie needs MORE grain, not less. I've been putting a collar on one of them and pulling them out of the pen to eat and then feeding the other in the pen. Works well and Ernie is now getting a bit more grain.... scrawny little bugger that he is!

That's it for now!
-- L

The Conclusion To My Flat Tire...

The mechanic up the road got my tire replaced yesterday, no problem... they came and picked me up afterwards, which was great.

I had asked the mechanic to see if he could figure out what happened with the tire, whether it had something in it or just what. His opinion is that it was a blow out. He could see no evidence of anything in the tire, though the sidewalls were pretty chewed up from having driven on it while slowing down on the highway when it happened. He said my experience is pretty consistant with a blow out (not feeling like you hit anything, etc). I thought a blow out always made a huge noise, but he says with some of the higher end tires, they try to minimize the noise factor in case of a blow out, so people don't get scared and panic.

There WAS a noise, but it wasn't a bang or anything... so I'm unsure. I suppose it doesn't matter, but in a way, I'd almost prefer that there was a concrete reason it happened, instead of some unknown malfunction. Oh well.

The final total... approx $135 for the tow... and another almost $200 for the tire replacement and disposal fees and all that. The oil change was on top of that. Super fun.

But I now have 4 ROUND tires again... at least for now! ;)
-- L

If There's More Snow... *I* Am To Blame!

I'm to blame if there's more snow and winter like weather. I removed some of the plastic film from some windows today and had the windows open for a while. I also took down the snowflake hand towels and replaced them with plain normal ones. It's a chance I'm willing to take ;)

We saw 2 red wing black birds today in the driveway... happy little spring birds, doing spring bird stuff! They hung around just outside the window for quite a while... I don't think I've ever seen them so close before... usually just in the distance, sitting on a fence post or something. Very pretty.

My groundhog is still hanging around... he lives under the red shed... I'm pretty sure HE is SHE, but whatever... groundhogs aren't near so bad as muskrats! I know they burrow under the buildings, but they've been doing that a LONG LONG time... LONG before we got here and the damage to the buildings is already pretty much done. I did, however, throw a snowball at it when it was sitting there chittering at me to go back in the house!

I put up 2 videos from yesterday's lay in the sun and sleep fest. Here's the first one. And here's the 2nd one.

My van still isn't back from getting a new tire, but I expect it'll be done soon. It's not like I had an appointment or anything, so I'm just at everyone's mercy today. The mechanic did phone a while ago though and said that he noticed I was almost due for an oil change and did I want it done while it was on the hoist? I said sure... I knew it was almost due, but being as I didn't have an appointment, I didn't want to ask him to do that today, I didn't know if he'd be busy, but feel obligated, so I figured I'd just go back next week... before I head back to KW.

But he noticed... and he called... and he had time... so its great! THAT's service :)

That's all fer now... --- L

Best Laid Plans

So tonight we were supposed to have a fancy dinner out. Supposed to.

We planned.. we made a reservation two days in advance ... we remembered our reservation today... we worked all day, but not too hard, so we wouldn't be too tired... we worked carefully, so as not to ruin it by getting a nail in the head or anything like that. We planned... fed the dogs and goats before we left so that we could be away a few hours without feeling guilty.

We showered, we put on nice clothes... we pushed the dog that sheds white hair on black wool pants away over and over again. We left the house an hour before our reservation. We had the address... the GPS.. printed google map directions, just in case.

We headed down the 417 towards the big city of Ottawa... and then... the front end of the car starts to shake and a loud, weird noise comes from the front end. I'm in the center lane and I signal to pull over... the damned rude Ottawa drivers ignore my signal and my braking... the car gets harder to steer... I put on my 4 ways and start edging over and forcing people out of my way... I know I didn't hit anything... at least nothing I could SEE.

I get pulled to the side of the road and I know what I'm going to see when I get out... I know the front driver's tire is FLAT. Sure enough, that's what I see. It's not safe to attempt to change the tire ourselves... plus we're dressed up... plus I don't really want a tiny tire on the front end of my front wheel drive van...I get back in the car and check my cell phone contacts... nope, nothing useful there. Shawn calls the restaurant and cancels our reservation.

Shawn checks the GPS and we find the number for CAA... we don't have a CAA membership, but we call... we are told they are not taking any non member cash calls today, but here's another number you can try. I call that number and am told it will be 2...yes TWO friggen hours, but here's another number you can try... I call that number and get a fax machine.

Shawn checks the GPS some more and we find a number for a towing company... I already know I just want it towed to the mechanic... he can deal with it tomorrow... I call the towing company and they take the information... where am I? Well... look, I've not even lived here a year... and I'm not all that familiar with the area closer to Ottawa... but we figure it out... they will come and tow us back to Dunrobin in about 30 minutes. Perfect.

We sit in the car and wait. And wait... about 40 minutes later the big tow truck pulls up with lights a flashing. I give the driver the keys and he sends us to sit in his truck. We sit in the big loud truck and wait.. .and wait and wait... it takes a long time to load the van onto the flat bed truck.. or at least it seems long enough. We're hungry... wished we'd eaten a bit of something before we left.

Finally its loaded and off we go... off at the next exit and back on the 417 heading the other way. The tow truck driver attempts to be amusing and friendly, but is mostly a bit scary and weird. We interact, but begrudgingly.

It takes forever to get back to Kanata... then on to Dunrobin... we arranged for him to drop us at home, since we're right on the way to the mechanic... he pulls over and takes my VISA info and out we go. Off he goes with the van... hopefully to the mechanic! :)

Hungry and disappointed, we walk up the driveway... through the mud in our nice clothes... our goats are still laying outside and they see us and call to us... trying to convince us they are starving to death. The dogs hear us and bark their big tough mean barks until I call to them and then they start barking their happy, excited barks.

In we go... off come all the nice clothes... on go the jammies... we're DONE. I start making dinner... bacon, eggs and toast are the best and quickest I can come up with. Scrambled for Shawn... sunny side up for me.

Load up our plates and head for the couch to watch tv and eat... not interested in eating at the table tonight.

The food was ok, not what we'd been hoping for and thinking of, but filled up the empties. Watching tv on the couch helped to distract and relax.

But... We... PLANNED.... *sigh* Really, we should KNOW better!

So the tow will cost me around $120... the new tire will be $100 - $150... hopefully nothing else was damaged... we'll see what tomorrow brings.

But at least I managed to not crash the van when it was hard to steer... the weather and road conditions were on my side... we didn't freeze to death waiting for the tow truck... all the animals had just been fed, so I didn't need to worry that anyone was starving (other than us)... we were smart enough to bring our jackets with us... we had the GPS with us that helped us figure out where we were to tell the tow truck driver and find the phone number in the first place... if it had to happen, I guess it wasn't so bad.

Pics & Video

I'm supposed to be getting ready for our fancy dinner out... but I can't resist posting a few pics and a video. I have more video to post, but I probably won't get it done until tomorrow.

We had a lovely warm weekend here... got a bunch of stuff done... won't go into boring details... and then when we were done... the boys were laying around.

There's pics in the FHH album and a new video of me (ok just my legs!) and the goats that I took on Friday.

Signs of Spring...

I've now seen a couple robins... the geese are back... there's mud, water, snow and ice everywhere... and I've been fighting a "plague" for almost 2 weeks now. Yep, must be spring.

I took a few pics on Monday and I finally posted them to the FHH album today. Mostly pics of the mud, water, snow and ice... nothing too exciting. Of course, just 2 days later, it looks all different again... yesterday was really quite warm during the day (+12 C)... then it got very cold and windy last night (-15 C with windchill) and was actually snowing for a while. Lovely. It didn't stick, but it was swirling around and pelting us in the face when we did night feed / check on the goats.

The mud was deep yesterday too... almost got the minivan stuck in front of the feed building (where I always drive!) It was getting iffy whether I'd get it out... I did... but it left deep ruts which I had to tamp back in with my rubber boots later.

I've not been doing much this week... mostly sleeping and whining about being sick. I'm exhausted and sleep at least once during the day, sometimes twice! Then I sleep pretty much all night too. Disgusting.

Shawn's feeling some better, not 100% yet... but going to work and all that.

The new goat pen is working out well... there is still mud and standing water where there are no pallets and mats, but up on the pallets and mats its nice and dry. They rarely go off their little "life raft" unless they are playing and ramming all about, as they like to do.

The one problem we're having with the pallets and mats is that we had to put the pallets down on the snow and now the snow is melting unevenly underneath. So some of the pallets are on a bit of an angle right now and the mats slip a bit. Nothing horrible or dramatic and I just push them back into place when I go out.

A few more days of warm and maybe the snow underneath will be gone... I can dream. Or maybe we'll pull up the pallets and mats for a day and let the sun at it... maybe this weekend if its nice. We'll see how the next couple days go and how bad things shift. We expected this to happen, so its not a surprise and they are still way better off in the new pen than the old.

That's a nice thing about goats compared to horses. You could never put horses up on pallets, they'd just bust 'em. You could never put horses on something so sloped either, for fear they pull tendon or something... but goats... they LOVE uneven ... they LIVE for hilly slopes. They purposely walk along the sloped edges because its FUN. Strange little animals. Plus I only use ONE bale of hay a WEEK! :)

Shawn went down to the basement last night to check for flooding and there was almost no water at all.... a tiny little damp patch and that was it. Considering all the rain and melt we've had this week, that's surprising... last fall we had a little more down there, but still just a couple small puddles, nothing dramatic.

Not much else new around here... *cough, cough* *sneeze, sneeze, sneeze*
-- Lisa the plagued