For Your Heckling Pleasure, I Present...

The "Goat Ghetto" that I framed up this morning. Go ahead, laugh.. heckle... whatever... I can take it.

I feel a bit like a little kid that says "Look Mommy, I did it all by myself"... to which the mother always replies "That's awesome, you did a great job! It's beautiful and I'll cherish it always!" (or something to that effect) but often in her mind thinks "Oh. Yeah. If only you'd asked for some help, I wouldn't have to deal with this ugly thing now!" Not that *I*, as a mother, EVER thought that thought, but I've HEARD from others this can sometimes be true! ;)

Before I get myself into more trouble... Moving on...

So anyhow, with all the snow we have and the wish we have that spring will arrive sometime before July, we are a little worried about our goat babies getting flooded. Well not worried, because we KNOW it WILL happen, just not sure WHEN. Could be this weekend, really.

Wednesday, Shawn took the day off work and we attended the Ottawa Valley Farm Show. It was pretty good, smaller than I expected, but we did get some contacts for some tree seedlings and stuff like that... not a waste by any means, even if they had NO and I mean ZERO goat information or products there. I think there were two sheep booths, both with mostly info for sheep's wool, not so much the actual raising of sheep.

Anyhow, since Shawn took Wednesday off and the farm show only took the morning to walk around, we decided to go to TSC and buy more chain link dog kennel panels for our goats. They were on sale this week and they are VERY useful to us and do a great job holding goats IN and predators OUT.

TSC Arnprior only had one set and when I called, they said it was buried under about 10 feet of snow, the plow guy had piled it up against them and they were really not interested in digging it out. That suited me ok, I was after 2 sets, like what we already have. I called down to Kemptville and lo and behold they had 8 sets. I had them set 2 aside for me and into Kanata we went to rent a cube van.

We drove down to Kemptville, was a lovely sunny day for a bouncy truck ride... its like a big adventure... clearly we do NOT get out enough. We made it through the round about that's right outside the TSC in Kemptville, no problems... got parked in the tiny snow filled lot and went in and paid for the kennels.

Then I had to maneuver the cube van and back down an alley into their yard. I'm sure it was just over a 100 feet and then I had to make a turn at the end. The passenger side mirror was poorly adjusted for backing up in kinda close quarters and I tried fixing it once and failed to get it perfect, so I just backed up blindly and hoped for the best. Shawn and the TSC employee were watching, so I figured someone would scream if there was a real problem!

We loaded up the 2 sets (8 panels) and off we went. Brought them home. On the way home, we debated how to put the cube van in the driveway at home... I didn't really want to have to back up the driveway off the road ... and I didn't really want to back down the driveway onto the road when I was done either. I was worried that with all the snow, there just wouldn't be room to turn it around like there is in the summer.

Finally I decided I'd just drive it in and then evaluate once I was in there and could see if I could turn around or not. I pulled in and up towards the car shelter and then backed up towards the snow bank. I did manage to turn it around in that space... twas about a 896 point turn, but I did it. It would've been easier if the damn cube van could've gone over snow piles that were like 4 inches high without spinning its wheels, but apparently its less capable than my mini van of coping with a tiny bit of snow.

We got the panels unloaded. I had the fun job of jumping up in the truck each time and down again... of course, I thought of my Dad who does that everyday all day long and I attempted to make him proud by grumbling in a similar fashion.

We returned the cube van without incident and I was happy to get back in my mini van where I can at least see behind me a little bit. I don't really mind driving the cube van though, I do wish I was good at it like my Dad though.

The point of that long story is now we have some more fence panels that are not frozen into the ground. Now we can in theory put up the fence and move the goats to higher ground and just leave the other panels and shelter until its thawed enough to really get in there and clean it all up and stuff.

Since their shelter is frozen into the ground about a foot, there's no hope of getting it out anytime soon. My idea was that I would build a quick and easy shelter and try to spend as little money on it as possible. Hence the Goat Ghetto... I think my goats may actually be embarrassed to live and be seen in it, but whatever, they are my goats... I OWN them, they'll live where ever I say ;)

I looked at many goat shelter designs online and finally decided on this one. It's triangular, but with a flat top. I'm sure that shape has a real name, but who knows / cares what it is? You get the idea.

I framed it out with some 2x3's we got last fall for free from one of Shawn's coworkers. (Thanks!!) Since we stored them in the "Red shed used for storage needs some work" over the winter, a couple of them got a bit warped. That's reason #1, its a little cockeyed.

Reason #2 was I didn't want to get the chop saw out, so I hand sawed all the boards. Apparently my hand sawing is not the greatest in the world... I know, I'm surprised too! ;)

Reason #3, I designed and built it alone.... the design is ok, I can now see a few things I might have done differently, but its ok. Building something like this alone is a real challenge. Holding boards, screws and drills and trying to get it not to move... yeah, not my greatest strength :) (If I ever figure out what my greatest strength IS, I'll be sure to post it!)

Reason / excuse #4, I didn't want to spend any money or time on it. I succeeded there. So far, the only thing that wasn't free were the deck screws I assembled it with. My time... from the time I started planning this morning til the time I came in to eat lunch... just under two hours. That includes all the measuring, the hand sawing, the board juggling, everything. Not bad, I'd say.

Clearly its not a finished project yet... it wouldn't really provide shelter yet ;) The rest of the plan for it is to try ripping some boards off one of our falling down buildings and fastening them to the ghetto hut. We'll do that for the two long sides and the back. Obviously the front will stay open. The roof, I think we'll splurge and buy a piece of plywood (unless we can find something suitable around here... we haven't really looked yet.) an that will help keep them from getting rained on, which is good.

The bottom will also stay open... I want to build a separate floor piece... basically that's a skid that the ghetto hut would sit on. This means that when we want to move it (to a new location or for cleaning), it wouldn't have to be the heaviest thing in the world and it would also keep them up off the damp ground.

Taking boards off one of our outbuildings and reusing them is actually an experiment... we plan to build a "Caprine Castle" this summer (an insulated shed) and are toying with the idea of using some of the boards off some of the worst outbuildings. This small project will give us an idea of whether that's feasible or not.

So that's what's up today... I'm just in for lunch and then I'll go feed my cute goaties lunch and then maybe poke around and see what building supplies I can find.

Yesterday, I had a little project too... I made black out blinds for our bedroom. Well, just for 2 out of 4 windows in our bedroom. All the windows have mini blinds and they are crappy for keeping out the light. In the morning, the sun actually shines through them and makes stripes of sunlight on my pillow... that's just rude.

We had some black out cloth, which is the stuff that you line curtains with (kinda rubbery cloth stuff). It was leftover from the projector screen we built at the old house. We picked up some of those really cheap curtain rods at home depot a while ago, the white, rectangular sort that hook onto brackets on the wall.

I just made very simple window coverings, I only sewed a little rod pocket at the top, I didn't hem the sides or bottom or anything. (Black out cloth doesn't seem to fray much and again I was after cheap, quick and easy!) I made one for the small window that overlooks the driveway on my side of the bed and I made one for the small window over the hot tub that's cut in half.

Those 2 windows also are the worst for showing headlights from the road. The 2 big back windows will get done, but I need more cloth to do them.

They don't look great, they are kinda weird, but they WORK really well. Last night it was nice and dark and they helped cut down on some noise too. I slept remarkably well last night, which is a friggen miracle.

The black out blinds are really temporary... until I decide on real curtains. Then, depending on the curtains, I might sew the black out cloth to the back of them or just hang curtain over top of these, we'll see what style I eventually choose. At least now, I can sleep while trying to figure out what I want in that room!!

I'm definitely not the greatest cube van driver, curtain maker or goat shelter maker... but you know, I do get credit for getting up each day and trying and getting things done, even if they are not perfect. It's gotta count for something!!

Speaking of which, I'm making another turkey for supper tonight. It won't be as good as Mom's, but since Mom isn't making me any these days ;) it's better than none! Who knows, maybe with all this practice, they'll start to turn out more like hers yet! :)

That's it for now!

Blizzard 2008

It's about 9am (new time) and so far, so good, we're all still surviving. Knock wood, our power has stayed on, so we still have lights, water and HEAT :) Yay!

I read online this morning we got about 49 cm of snow with this storm... not sure if that will be the final number yet or not... whatever, its a crapload.

I put up a few pics in the FHH album this morning. A couple from Friday, when Bert was lolling around on top of the shelter having a nap and enjoying the warm sunshine.

We went to bed late last night around 1am (old time) and were up just before 7am (new time). The wind was very loud last night and I find it makes it hard for me to sleep, so I actually used my ear plugs and that helped, even if they are uncomfortable to sleep in. For whatever reason, hearing the wind like that keeps me awake and makes me worry a whole bunch!!

Cleanup hasn't started here yet, the wind is still too strong to bother. Since we didn't sleep lots last night, we're heading back to bed now for a nap and then hopefully in a couple hours, the wind will have died down and we'll go start the cleanup. No point in doing it while the wind is whipping.

Everyone has been fed and watered and is doing ok. The goats are not impressed, of course. I told them this morning this blizzard is their punishment for taking me down on Friday! Now what *I'm* being punished for is still a mystery! :)

Anyhow, that's it for now... off to nap and rest up for the cleanup! Yay us.

Goat Trauma

For anyone that hasn't already heard this story....

Yesterday, I was leaving the goat pen to dump muck buckets and the two goats were milling around me. They like to try to escape when the gate opens, the brats. I was carrying the pitchfork (a real metal tined one, not a plastic one) in one hand and a bucket in the other and trying to get out without the goats getting out.

With all the snow we've had, the entrance to the pen is actually down about a foot or so from the snow level and is kinda sloped, so you have to watch your step. So on my way out the gate, one goat went between my legs, the other went behind my knees and DOWN I went!!

When I fell, the metal tines pierced my boot and the fork got stuck. Of course, I was cold and wet at this point and my feet were numb, so I wasn't sure if the fork went right in or not.

The goats took off to the feed building and went in the open door and had a party in there, climbing on the bales of hay, moving my pile of tarps and eating stuff. They stomped me while I was down on their way by, somehow both on the front AND back of me. (Thank goodness they only weigh about 60 - 80 lbs!!) One of them, and I'm sure it was Ernie, grabbed my hat off my head on his way by!! I found that in the feed building later.

So I'm sitting in the snow and goat poop looking at my foot, trying to decide if I should pull the fork out or not... I wiggle my foot around and decide its ok, but I can't get the fork OUT of my boot. So I take off my boot, my foot comes out easily. Up I get, one boot on, one just in a wool sock and I run after the goats about 100 feet to the feed building, close the door and put their collars on.

I walk them back to their pen (about another 100 feet in knee deep snow with only one boot on) and push them through the gate and lock it up with the 3 chains we have holding the gate shut. (They can chew through twine in no time!!)

I had to stand on the side of my boot to remove the fork, it was firmly embedded in the boot. It turns out the tines entered just under the sole of my foot, thank goodness... not even a scratch on me.

I actually text messaged Shawn at work while the goats were loose and the fork was in my boot... I was thinking I might need him to come home and give me a hand... he was busy in a meeting and called about 10 - 15 minutes later and all was ok again and I was hauling more muck buckets to my new, 2nd, CLOSER manure pile that I started yesterday!!

Later when I was trying to show Shawn what happened, I couldn't even find where the tines went in!!

So I'm fine, the goats are fine... my boots are fine... but why do I have to have two weird days back to back?! :)

It Just Ain't Done Around Here...

I spent the best part of the last hour trying desperately to do *something* about our mailbox. It's been threatening for some time now to go ditch diving and seems to get a bit more serious about it with each snowfall and subsequent beating it takes from the wall of snow the plow bombards it with!

For the last week or so, it's been hanging precariously at a very odd and alarming angle, to the point, when I check the mail, I have to just about get down on my hands and knees!

Today, I decide since no snow is actually falling (*I* do not want to be beaten by the snow the plow throws!!) and its not death cold out that I will make an attempt to fix it a bit... fix it enough to get us through the last 6 friggen weeks of winter... with the plan that in the spring when and if it ever arrives, we will make some sort of more permanent fix.

This morning, before my husband heads off to work, I ask him about what HE would do to fix it...he explains his idea until I finally understand it and then we leave it at that.

Our driveway is not that long (100 feet or so?) but I decide that since its icy after being plowed just after midnight last night that I will load everything I need into the back of the van and back down the driveway and work out of the van.

I load up a drill, a hammer, some wire, a variety of other tools (clearly I don't have any real sort of plan at this point!) I grab a 2x4, a piece of plywood, a hand saw and some screws from the red shed and then I back down the driveway.

I go out to have a look and see if Shawn's plan will work. Meh, maybe... but I'm not *I* can make it happen. I go back for the hammer as I figure that's a good start to any job.

I stand at the mailbox, I swing it so its straight, I look at it some more. I see a big nail that it's kinda pivoting on and decide I'll whack at that and see what happens. I need to move a little closer to the box and a little farther from the road. Suddenly, the earth is swallowing me whole!! My legs both sink into the deep snow, right to my crotch!! I still wasn't touching anything solid with my feet, I would've sank farther but I have short little legs.

So I'm standing there, swinging the mailbox back to straight, hanging by my crotch in the snow and tapping at the giant nail. Nothing happens. The wood is kinda rotten so I'm trying not to hit it so hard that everything flies apart. I bang harder and it starts t go in... Great!

I'm feeling all pleased that maybe just maybe in spite of my pants that are starting to feel kinda cold and wet that maybe there will be some progress.

Then... I look up and there's a guy looking back at me that I can only describe as a geezer. He looks like he might be a thousand years old, white scruffy beard, the longest white eyebrows I've ever seen and horrible, crooked black and brown teeth!

I nod, but don't say anything... I'm not really in a position to SAY much, I'm holding a hammer in the ditch, by the mailbox suspended in the snow by my crotch! Clearly, I could do without the audience!!

I notice he's pulled over on the other side of the road ... he has a beat up old pick up truck and that back seems to be filled with a variety of junk.

He starts talking "Little lady did you fall in the ditch?"

I look at him, anyone who knows me knows which look it is... and I say "Nope, just trying to fix up the mailbox a bit".

He says "Ahh! I see. This winter sure has given them a beating."

Not really wanting to encourage him, I say "sure has."

Then he starts having opinions about what will fix my mailbox problem and hey don't I have a husband to do this kind of stuff?

I just ignore him and keep banging on the nail... its almost all the way in and the swinging is not near so bad.

Then I hear him hollering a bit and I turn to see what's going on... he's hollering at another guy in a beat up pick up truck who is also pulled over at the side of the road. He's not quite as old as the "grandfather of all geezers", but he's definitely a geezer himself.

They start talking and I wiggle myself out of the deep snow, back to the side of the road and get up and head to the van. I cut the piece of plywood in half so I have 2 pieces that are about 12 inches by 12 inches or so. (There was NO measuring going on,, even though I did bring the tape measure down with me).

I bring the 2 pieces back to the mailbox and the old guys are still talking geezer talk, so I ignore them. I hold up my pieces of plywood and see if they will catch the post and the board that supports the mailbox. It appears they will.

Back to the van I go, I get the drill and the 2.5 inch deck screws. My plan is to fasten a piece on each side and then see how it feels from there.

Once I'm back to the mailbox, geezer #2 says "Hey there little lady, those are serious tools, they aren't meant for wimmin to use! You should wait fer yer husband to get home!"

By this time, I'm kinda cranky... I mean, I started out cranky and its just going downhill as my pants get damper and damper from the snow.

So I say "Actually this IS my drill, my husband has his own."

The geezer that's older than dirt says "oh my yer a feisty sort, aint ya?"

Again, I ignore him and get the screws started in the plywood, just by eye balling where I think they'll go. I climb back down in the snow pit and am ready to fasten the first piece on when the geezer older than dirt starts yelling. I look up again.

He says "Yer not gonna put that board on yer mailbox are ya?"

I answer through gritted teeth "I'm planning to".

He says "Ya can't do that. That's a brand new board. Ya hafta find something just around and put that up. You can't be putting up brand new boards like that.

I continue to put up the board and say "Why not?"

He looks at the other geezer and says "It just ain't done around here".

"It is NOW", I say and put a couple more screws in. I move to the other side and start putting it up.

Now they are both standing there, shaking their heads at me, clearly disapproving of the "little lady in the ditch, up to her crotch in snow, wielding a cordless drill and brand new plywood".

After both pieces are up, I push on the mailbox a bit. Its certainly sturdier now, not perfect. I climb back out of the ditch and say "I guess that'll hold until spring comes in 6 more weeks when my husband can come out and fix it properly."

They both laugh and make my day even better by saying "Only 6 more weeks? I think it'll be more like 8 - 10 weeks before it warms up at all. And now yer mailbox doesn't look so nice."

Well, he's right about the mailbox, it doesn't. I just hacked up the plywood willy nilly... its not cut to FIT... it hangs out and over here and there. But you know what, the mailbox IS straighter!!

Then geezer #2's cell phone starts ringing and I hear him say "Yeah, I'll be home fer lunch in a few minutes. I'm helping a poor neighbour lady fix her mailbox."

I pack up everything into the van, and both the old guys get back in their trucks and wave and off they go. Umm, yeah, thanks for your help that made the job SO much easier!!

So apparently women in the ditch with power tools is a big draw for geezers. Who knew?

You just can't make up shit like this... only in Dunrobin and would only ever happen to me!!

So in the spring, when the mailbox needs fixing again, I'm going to wait for my husband to come home and let him do it!! :)

(And just so its clear, "geezer" IS a term of endearment and is not intended to be derogatory in any way. My Dad is soon getting on to be a geezer and sometimes when we go out to eat we get "geezer food" at a local diner type place. My husband is a wannabe geezer, but he's got a ways to go yet!)

Snowed In Again!

Shawn worked from home today... we got a bunch of snow... again! I took a few pics and posted them to the FHH album. They don't really do the snow justice... its really unreasonably deep. I'm sure when it all melts it won't cause any problems. Uh huh.

My favourite part is, even though I put down almost 4 bags of sand/salt the other day, under the snow is a nice layer of ice... so you can't SEE it, but its certainly there, just waiting to claim its next victim.

I hope our snow removal guy comes tonight and gets the driveway all cleared up... there's enough other snow cleanup to do when the wind dies down, I don't want to have to clean out the driveway, too!

I'm so loving winter.

Just a Short Note...

Bite me winter.

We're supposed to get another 25 - 30 cm of snow in the next 24 hours.

Just f'ing wonderful.

------------------------

Guess there should only be what, about 6 more weeks of winter... that gets us to the middle of April and USUALLY we are pretty home free by then.

I have an overwhelming urge to eat BBQ'd groundhog.

-- Cranky Lisa

A bunch more around the house stuff

Lisa and I did a bunch more things around the house:

• moved the two Pier 1 desks into the living room at either end - making the living room much nicer, and giving us both work areas. The big monitor is on Lisa's desk, mine is more a crafting work area.
  
• moved all the chests out of the living room (one went to the bedroom, one to the dining room)
• moved the treadle into the living room in front of the stairs, beside the TV -- now a focal point of the room instead of a space waster in the mudroom
• bought and placed a new area rug in the mudroom - replacing the carpet remnant we were using, the new rug is larger, truly rectangular, and won't fray
• bought a Husky pantry-style work area storage cabinet for the mudroom - give tons more storage space for things like goat meds and games. I think we're leaning towards getting more pieces in this series - they have base cabinets and wall cabinets, as well.
• rearranged the mud room - the log bench is now across from the door, so the dogs don't jump on it.
• bought an Ikea boot tray for drying buckets. Put it in the bottom bathroom.
• went on an organizing binge - Lisa reorganized the nursery, now seemingly empty, as well as the upstairs odd closet. All of the boxes are now unpacked (the first house that we've managed to do this in under a year).
• We took a load of stuff off to the thrift store, and threw out a bunch of junk. There'll be a big load of garbage this week.
• A bunch of reorganization of the kitchen - I shelf papered one of the unused cupboards while Lisa was gone, and now it houses a bunch of cleaning supplies.
• I'm probably forgetting some stuff - there was a bunch done.

Again, the difference this stuff makes is incredible.

We also bought a bunch of device box insulators for receptacles and switches - a bunch of the boxes in our house leak cold air in the winter. I think we might install some of those today.