Pictures of the gerbil lid

Gerbil Lid

Lisa asked me to build a lid for the fish tank we have Jessica's gerbil Pip in. So I designed one in Google Sketchup and built it yesterday. Here are some pictures of both the Sketchup model and the finished product. I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Busy Weekend

New Tractor

Unbelievably busy weekend so far! :-)

Friday night after work, we replaced the kitchen tap. It had been leaking for a long time, and had recently got much worse. We went over to the new Lowes in Orleans (awesome), and got a bunch of stuff, including a new tap for the sink.

It was quite the adventure. We shut the water off at the sink shutoff, but didn't shut off the house main. :-) Always a mistake.

The old (and unused) reverse osmosis machine left by the previous owners was hooked up before the sink shutoff, and there was a few minutes of excitement while water was spraying everywhere, and we had to shut off the house water (and the house water takes a long time to depressurize, even once you shut it off, we discovered.

After the little hiccup, we got the tap installed fine, and it's wonderful. :-) You turn it on, and water comes out of it in appropriate spots, and not in inappropriate spots.

All in all, the replacement took about an hour. It helped that we didn't have to install new shutoffs.

After that, we went out in the field with the tractor and post hole auger, and drilled a test hole. It works great! What an awesome invention! Now we're looking for fence posts, and planning the fence in the front of the property to keep goats in. Stay tuned.

Yesterday, we went to Yin yoga at Yoga and Tea in Carp. Yin yoga is mostly intense stretches held for a really long time: I quite like it (it was my first time).

I helped Jess with her sewing for a bit, and went outside to build a new lid for the gerbil tank. I made up plans in Sketchup the other day, and used the router table and tablesaw to construct the thing. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. The design makes extensive use of half lap joints and dadoed inserts. I should post some pictures yet... Today we'll probably put the hardware cloth on, and install it on the tank.

Then, after we were all tired and ready for supper, the hay guy phoned and said he was bringing our hay in an hour! :-)

So, after we quickly scarfed down a delicious steak and potatoes supper, we went out again, and emptied out the hay shed (including the mini chest freezer that lives out there for chicken feed), and then they hay guy came and dumped off his load, and we worked for a couple of hours moving the hay to the hay shed in the loader bucket, and packing it tightly in the shed. 80 bales: it doesn't seem like that many, but each bale is really heavy (these are larger than normal bales that our guy makes). So after 80 bales, we were toasted, put the goats back in their shed, and went to bed.

Who knows what today will bring? :-)

April update

Just a brief update of what's been going on around here this Spring...

It's been beautiful! Late March we could already go out and start working on things. We've got a lot done already, cleaning up from winter, and getting ready for summer. :-)

We're tearing down one of our outbuilding/sheds and preparing to build a chicken coop.

We stripped lots (probably 40-50 sheets) of good quality sheet steel off various downed roofs on the property, should be useful when building new things (like chicken coops!)

We put up our solar lights around our property: it's starting to look like people live here! Plus, our "Beware of Dogs" sign that's followed us around from place to place.

We cleaned out the "red shed used for storage needs some work", and a bunch of other stuff off our property. We filled a dumpster with 1.1 TONS of garbage. :-) Plus, there's lots more where that came from. We'll probably get at least one more dumpster this summer sometime.

I put up some new pictures in the gallery: some happy chickens clucking around and our goats down at the bottom of their big field. :-) Fun stuff.

Lots more to come this summer, too! Stay tuned!

Finally An Update...

Turns out I'm not very diligent at updating the blog. My apologies to everyone that has been checking back for regular updates.

Its been a wet summer around here... all the rain has made for a good grazing season for the goats, well, when the grass wasn't UNDER water of course! ;) The goats and sheep are doing fine... nothing much going on with them... we are having a small issue with the sheep beating on the goats... its been going on for a couple weeks now, mostly between the sheep and Ernie... and couple times the sheep has head butted him so hard that its caused the spot where his horns used to be to bleed a bit.

The sheep has been a bit of an unpleasant "pet" before... like everytime you have to work with them and trim his feet or deworm him or attempt to put flyspray he's rather unpleasant (to say the least!). I've been willing to work around those issues, but this new behaviour of beating up goats is unacceptable. Not sure what we're going to do to resolve this issue yet... we're just waiting it out a bit right now and see if it changes more or not. I may try separating the sheep out for a while and see if being in "solitary confinement" for a while will help. Perhaps I need to hire a sheep "shrink"! ;)

The chickens are doing fine... they laid well all summer and are still laying, but it has slowed down with the decrease in daylight. The one chicken that we got that was missing feathers when we got her, never did grow any feathers back... not sure what's going to happen to her this winter, I don't hold a lot of hope that she will survive the winter, really, but at this point, she's still happy and lays regularly so we're just leaving her alone for now. We'll see what happens, I suppose.

The dogs are good... not much new with them either. Oliver has been enjoying the paths Shawn cut on the other side of the property... we take both the dogs for walks off leash over there and they like it. Pixie we do need to leash to stop her from eating chicken and goat poop that we dump over there just off the paths. She refuses to listen if hollered at to stop, so we leash her and that at least slows her down a bit! Oliver has great fun running through the very long grass and after a heavy dew he comes home soaking wet! I maintain the paths with the lawn tractor and sometimes I just drive the paths and the dogs enjoy running along with it. We know how to have fun around here :)

Most of you know that I've made a bunch of changes to my lifestyle over the last 4 months... after I was so awful feeling last fall, winter and spring, I finally decided to try to do something about it (going to the dr's office failed) and made an appointment with a local naturopath. Of course, I went into it with a fair bit of skepticism, but I've been very pleased with the results. She's been treating me for a number of issues with some success, its not "fixed" but there's been quite an improvement.

After the naturopath did some food sensitivity testing, I cut out gluten, sugar, dairy and yeast from my diet. Its been a bit tricky, but not near as bad as I feared it would be. Finding bread that is gluten and yeast free is a challenge, but it does exist and its not too bad... though I imagine anyone that's used to "normal" bread would think it disgusting. I don't eat much of it anyhow, its hard to find a palatable loaf locally, I found a decent one in Waterloo on my last trip home and have the remainder in my freezer.

Its quite remarkable the changes that have occurred from changing what I eat. My muscle and joint pain is way reduced... to the point that I no longer require ibuprofen with any regularity... for those of you that know me, know that's a huge change from what was true in the past! The exhaustion that I was experiencing has really diminished, though if I'm not careful and I ingest something I shouldn't, gluten in particular, the exhaustion comes back with an almost immediate vengeance. Given how horrible it makes me feel, I'm pretty careful about avoiding it... to the point of being paranoid. We no longer eat out, because I fear that the person preparing won't be careful enough... works out ok though, eating out wasn't necessarily my favourite activity anyhow.

At the beginning of August, I started doing yoga and that's also made a huge difference. I got started because of a local studio offering a workshop "Yoga and Horses" that appealed to me and I signed up for it. The first week was an in studio class, to learn the moves and breathing before heading out to a local stable to try it mounted. When I signed up, the in studio class was the one I was least looking forward to... yet, when I left the studio that day I felt like I'd received a very intense and relaxing massage. My mind was clear, my body relaxed... amazing.

The following week I joined an in studio class "gentle hatha" and have been going every week since. The yoga and horses workshop is long over and it was enjoyable... very nice to be on horse back again, but I really did fall in love with the in studio classes. How unlikely, eh?

After a week or two of me going to the studio for classes, Shawn wanted to give it a try, so we found some online yoga videos (email me if you want to know where to find them!) that are quite similar to my classes. Shawn and I have been practicing yoga in our living room 4-5 times a week using these videos and some we bought at the store. Its made quite a difference in both our lives and we both enjoy it.

Just recently, I've started adding in a 2nd in studio class a week... one week I did a different type of yoga at the same studio, with a different teacher, but found it didn't have quite the same appeal. I then found out that the yoga teacher I really like has just opened her own studio, so today I went to her new studio and took her class and all was wonderful ;) Her new studio is quite beautiful and has a lovely calm atmosphere. She also brings her adorable, yet shy, dog with her... he hangs out in a different room during class, but comes out before and after class.

Anyhow, we still have a number of outside projects to finish up before winter actually arrives... the chickens need their coop insulated (I'll add a heat lamp as needed) and the coop needs to be moved to its winter spot, that will take us some time to get it done... I don't want to do it too early though, since the chickens winter spot is in the field beside the dog yard where the goats currently go during the day to graze. Once the chickens are in there, the goats will not be able to be turned out in that field. So its a balancing act, as usual ;)

We still have some stone dust to move from the load we got in the spring, but not that much... what's remaining will get put along our path to the hay and goat shed to help build it up a bit to keep us from having to walk through lots of mud and ice this winter.

I probably should cut the grass at least once more before winter, its long now from all the rain we've had... but it also hasn't been dried out enough in a LONG time to even consider cutting it. Hopefully there will be a day where it will be dry enough to cut so its not so long over the winter. We'll see! ;)

So, in spite of not updating for months, there's not really been much to say... its been boring around here... just the way we like it :)

-- L

Time Just Keeps Flying By!!

I always intend to update the blog... but you know what they say about good intentions! ;)

Anyhow... lots of stuff going on around here these days.... we planted all our seedlings that we ordered back in February. We ordered about 140 seedlings, some eastern white cedar, some white pine, some spruce, some sugar maples and some honey locusts. Those all got planted.

I also bought some cedar hedging to put across the front of the property.... I don't remember how many I got total, because I bought some at different times, from different places... but likely around 25.

When I picked up the seedlings, I also bought 5 willows... we also bought some very baby trees (yep, that's the technical term!) about 200 1-2 inch balsam fir seedlings... we planted those in pots for now and many of them are showing signs of new growth... obviously there have also been some causalities with those, but that's not surprising. We'll see how they do over the summer, I might plant them for real in the fall. We also sold a few pots of these ones right around earth day... that was entertaining :)

We also got a 4ft spruce for free off kijiji that I planted on the front lawn in the spot we had planted a tree we got from the city last year that didn't survive. We'll see if this one survives!

I've actually got a flower garden... its the one Jess and I dug last summer and planted annuals in.... now this year it looks more like a real garden.... its got a forsythia bush in it and a diablo ninebark (that I got from Mom and Dad last time I went home, Thanks!!) I bought 4 lilies to go in and they've been blooming like crazy ever since they went in the ground.

I also got a bunch of perrenials from Mom and Dad when I was home, some hostas, forget me nots and other things that I can NOT think of the names of at the moment. I also got some ferns and some varigated grass and a few other really invasive plants that I didn't put in my garden (ok, some snuck in here and there) I mostly planted those at the front near the cedar hedging, they can grow crazy there and save me from having to mow an awkward area.

A few weeks ago we got 4 laying hens from a lady about an hour away that was downsizing her current flock so she could start raising some different more exotic type chickens. They are Plymouth Barred Rock hens, about a year old and they are laying really well. We usually get 4 eggs a day, sometimes only 3 if one takes the day off and after the first 2 days, they've been excellent quality eggs, perfect everytime!

They are also very delicious and we've been enjoying them! The chickens have a 4ft x 8 ft mini coop... its actually the goat "cube" shelters modified for chickens. We added a floor and its on "skis" so it can be moved around by the lawn tractor. Though, we moved it the other day and the lawn tractor alone couldn't actually get it started, Shawn had to give it a shove to get it going! Such a surprise that we would build something heavy! ha!

They also have a 4ft x 12ft outside run area that's covered in 1/2 inch hardware cloth so nothing can get in easily and eat 'em. So far, so good. We also let them out daily for a little while to "free range" and eat whatever... they eat grass, bugs and they LOVE worms.... they also go crazy for grapes! They are becoming more adventurous in their free ranging, so we watch them carefully and hang right around, I don't want them to head for the road! ;)

I've always been a bit afraid of chickens... scarred as a child, I was! I'm still a bit freaked out by them, but its getting better. The other day while "free ranging" the hens decided it was a good idea to go behind the red and white sheds and peck around.. there are burrs bushes back there and a couple of them got burrs stuck to their bottoms.... that night, after they'd gone to roost, Shawn went in and plucked the one off the roost that had the most burrs and I picked them off... handling chickens at night works ok, as they are kinda sleepy and stupid... but this poor girl did wake up while having them removed and was moving her feet near me and that kinda freaked me out a bunch! We got it done though and put her back in the coop and she went back on the roost and made noises to show her irritation. We'll try to keep them out of there from now on... we tried removing the burr bushes, but its a tricky spot to work in and we weren't succesful.

If you remember our electric fence experiment from last year (5 strands of electric, 3 strands were wire and 2 were electric rope)... we felt that was a failure... Ernie just went under it (even though the bottom strand was under 9 inches!) even though he'd get shocked, he'd still keep doing it. They both got tangled in it a couple times and got zapped repeatedly until we could turn off the fencer and free them. It got to the point they didn't like to go over there anymore... then the electric fencing unit died for unknown reasons and we returned it.

Anyhow, so we removed all 5 strands of electric and left the posts in. They we started putting up chainlink on those posts... we had gotten some chainlink off kijiji last spring/summer and then we got some more at the Restore not long ago. We didn't stretch it for real, just by hand, since our tposts would not be able to hold that kind of tension. When we ran out of chainlink, then we started using some of our pagewire we got the first year we were here and we're doing 2 layers of that, with the stays offset to make the "holes" half the size.

We've been putting the goats out there daily (even though weren't not actually finished putting up the 2nd layer) for a short time... so far the fence seems to hold them. They really prefer if we just sit in the paddock with them while they eat.... Ernie and Bert are still a bit freaked out about the electric fencing, even though its all gone. They are getting better though. Today I put them in there while I cleaned out their shed, that was a huge deal for them, me not being in sight and they were ok with that.... progress!

We also extended that paddock to go down to just this side of the swamp area... they must have about 1/2 an acre now... with LOTS of grass... soon we'll build a small, temporary shelter in that paddock for them... there's no natural shade or shelter of any sort there and it can get awful hot, so we definitely need some sort of shelter for shade. It'll just have a stone dust floor, I'm actually getting a load of stone dust tomorrow, so we can get started on that part whenever there's time. Hahaha!

Its quite the adventure when I lead the little animals from the shed to this paddock... Ernie and Bert wear rope halters... the sheep prefers a regular dog collar and leash (he loathes a halter!) and I've been putting a collar and leash on Grover. Ernie and Bert generally lead well and aren't too bad on their own... the sheep likes to lollygag behind and eat whatever he can on the walk over, so I always have to pull him along. Grover... well, he's a sweet goat and we like him, but on a halter or in a collar, he's a bit of a butt head.

Part of the problem is that if he touches Ernie or Bert, they beat the snot out of him... the other part is that if the sheep touches Grover, Grover beats the sheep up! Plus, even though we've made the walk back and forth a few times now, they all like to try to run in different directions, at different speeds. I can not even imagine what the people on the road passing by must think I'm doing... some sort of demented goat and sheep dance! Stupid animals.

This past weekend we bought a new light fixture, a chandelier off someone that advertised on kijiji (we LOVE kjiji!!). Its quite beautiful, its black with a wrought iron look and white glass shades. I put a pic up in the FHH album. It replaced that butt ugly red ceiling fan in our bedroom.... the new light fixture matches our black metal bedframe very well... its almost like decorating or something!!! ;)

Today I went to a place not far from here that grows and sells asparagus right from the farm. I was all excited, thinking we could maybe find some decent local produce... we'll have some for supper tonight, so I don't know if it will be good yet or not.... but I damn near had a heart attack about the price!! They charge $4.50 a lb!! I bought 2 pounds, just because I was there and would've felt awkward not buying it, but unless its super wonderful, I doubt I'll be going back.

I was also at Farm Boy today and they had Canadian asparagus (that's how it was marked, no idea where it was from!!) for $2.49 a lb. I'm sure where I used to buy it in Southern Ontario it was around $3 /lb! I don't understand how this local place gets away with selling it for so much and I have to GO to their place (which is not on my way anywhere else, its a specific trip!).

I know the produce around here can be pricier compared to KW, but come on.... I think that's a bit ridiculous! As I said, it better be very good to justify the price... for that price, I should get gold plated asparagus, or at least asparagus that doesn't make your pee reek! Something!

Anyhow, all is well around here... just busy... but we do bring that on ourselves! :)

Busy Weekend & I'm Exhausted!

I just have to say upfront, I'm exhausted... so if the following post is incoherent, I apologize!

Saturday, we did odd jobs around here... we finally got the little shelf unit hung in the upstairs bathroom. There's a history to this job... about a year ago I bought it at IKEA... it has that black wrought iron look with glass shelves... anyhow, we attempted to put it up... we were going to use toggle bolts, so we drilled big holes. Well, they wouldn't go in properly and at the time we thought maybe we had run into brick behind the plaster. It was something very solid and wouldn't allow the toggle bolts to expand. We loathe drilling brick and masonry type stuff, so we gave up.

About 6 months after this failure we were randomly talking to our next door neighbour and he offhandedly mentioned that he thought our house was made of logs. (So we're talking a layer of vinyl siding, a layer of red brick, a layer of logs, then lathe and plaster... hopefully some insulation in there, but I wouldn't bet much!) At that moment, Shawn and I both looked at each other and thought "Wait, that must be what we ran into in the bathroom wall" (its an outside wall). Time passed and passed and we never got back to trying again.

Then yesterday we decided it was time... it was cold, windy and rainy out, so doing inside stuff was a good idea. Turns out we just put up the shelf unit put 2 screws through the holes it has and into the exsiting large holes in the wall and screwed them in. It does seem that its wood of some sort, perhaps logs, even! So the job I had waited like a year to happen, just happened in like 5 minutes!

We also installed one of our "scrap" pieces of Formica (leftover from what we bought to put on the island) onto the wall in the downstairs bathroom behind the big laundry sink as a sort of "back splash". We just drilled holes in the Formica (put masking tape down where we were going to make the hole, started the hole with the drill set to "backwards" and then very slowly made the hole with the drill turned to "forwards"... no cracking, no problems at all!) and then put screws through and zip, zip, zip, instant back splash! The scrap piece was exactly the right size, we didn't have to cut it or anything... easy cheaty project.

I think we're going to do the same with the large (almost 4ftx4ft) "scrap" we have left... again in the downstairs bathroom, but behind the bucket rack... that wall always gets splashed and beat up when the goat buckets are scrubbed and put on the rack to dry. We just didn't get to doing it yet, but maybe one evening this week.

We also hung another curtain / blind thing in our bedroom... just more blackout cloth... almost all our windows are covered with the black out cloth now, just need one more small piece on the rod we just hung... at some point I'll go buy a piece... but at least we used up all we had laying around.

Yesterday we also went into town... went to Home Depot and bought a Skil reciprocating saw... it was cheap (under $100 with tax) and one of the highest powered ones they have. Its a NICE tool... very heavy... you certainly can't operate it with just one hand! I can't even lift it horizonatally with just one hand!

We did a few other errands in town, picked up a few groceries... a prime rib roast at Farm Boy for $5.99 a lb and a 20 lb fresh turkey! We ate the prime rib last night for supper and today I cooked the turkey and we enjoyed it for supper!

Today was a brutally busy day that started out badly for me... I woke up with a horrible neck kink that prevented me from turning my head and from lifting my arm. Just f'ing lovely. Shawn worked on it for a while and got it to loosen up a bit, though its still quite sore. I'm sure after a day or two it'll settle down... I hope.

Then we got started with the reciprocating saw in the bedroom! Do we know how to have fun or what? :) We started chopping up the hot tub... the new saw did a wonderful job... we had bought really aggressive, scary blades for it and they ate right through the fiberglass, the foam insulation, the wood, the nails, the pvc pipes, everything!!

We got the whole tub out of our room, out of the house! Its now in pieces on the front lawn in a big artfully arranged pile! It took us about 5-6 hours from start to finish and we did stop for lunch in there. We used the shop vac frequently to clean up the fiberglass and insulation dust to keep it from getting everywhere. Love my little shop vac! (We used to have a big monster one that was powerful, but so awkward and annoying to use... this one I got for cheap, $40 a couple years ago... I was afraid it wouldn't be powerful enough, but its great and easy to use!)

All the pieces of hot tub were made small enough to be carried and fit down the stairs... they are still large, but at least manageable. After we were done and it was all outside, I vacuumed with the shop vac, then I vacuumed thoroughly with the Dyson. (Love my Dyson!)

All in all, it wasn't the worst job we ever did and it was very gratifying to finally get it out of our room, but carrying stuff down the stairs and then climbing back up got tiring after a few trips! I'm glad its not an ongoing job and I'm glad its in the past! Getting rid of that freed up a space about 10ft x 10ft in our already huge room. Eventually, I would like to install an ensuite bathroom in that space, but for now, I will likely pile storage items there.

When we took a break for lunch, I also threw the turkey in the oven and it just cooked itslef while we worked... then when we were done, I peeled and boiled a few potatoes for mashed and made a huge bath tub of gravy once the turkey was done and out of the pan. It turned out really well, the white meat was dripping with juices as I sliced it... it was pretty damn close to what my Mommy makes! There might just be hope for me yet! :)

It felt really good to sit on the couch and eat our delicious supper with our feet up... I was pretty tired at that point... then came the clean up. I finished carving the turkey, gathered up all the nice slices of white meat and bagged them to make cold turkey sandwiches for Shawn's (and my) lunches this week... I made up two plastic containers of turkey and gravy and put them in the freezer for Shawn to eat sometime when I'm away. Easy to heat and put on bread and have an almost instant hot turkey sandwich.

I bagged up the turkey legs and all the dark meat and am saving that to make turkey pot pie... maybe tomorrow or Tuesday, I'll see... I'll just buy the crust and not bother trying to make my own. Then I picked the carcass clean of all the little bits of meat and bagged it and threw it in the freezer and I'll make turkey soup or cassarole or something with it at some point.

I think that was the busiest weekend we've had since last fall... and man, I'm wiped. :)

I put up some pics today also, hot tub removal you can compare to the old pics of the hot tub if you're interested.

Also some random pics in April Update, that we actually taken 2-3 weeks ago. That's the problem when Shawn uses his camera for pics, they never get offloaded or put up until way later!

And as if I didn't do enough this weekend... I'm now doing some laundry and need to change the bed sheets before we go to bed. This is the weekend that never ends... it just goes on and on my friend....

-- L

Its April!!

Yesterday, Oliver turned 1 year old... Happy birthday Ollie :) I also weighed him yesterday and he was 66lbs. He's a very tall and lanky boy and I think its maybe done growing UP and maybe now will start filling out. I'll bet he'll be about 80 - 85lbs when he's all done.

We've had quite a bit of rain lately... though today is lovely. Our snow is officially gone... you might be able to find a patch here or there, but our yard is now melted, finally.

I spent much of the morning outside... I hadn't PLANNED to... but what else is new. I thought since the next few days are supposed to be rainy, I would muck out the goat shed today and then they'd be good to go again for a while.... we just did them on Sunday after not doing them for 2 weeks, so it wasn't too bad. Plus, with the good weather, it means I can get the lawn tractor and cart out and make the job WAY easier.

When I went out, I noticed that Grover's under fur was really starting to come out, so I decided to take a brush with me and work on that for a few minutes. Its technically a hard plastic curry comb generally used for horses, but the goats love a good vigorous grooming with it... really gets all their itchies. Of course, Ernie and Bert have to have their turn first, before they will let Grover have any attention... they both had a bit coming out, but nothing major. (I often laugh to myself about "curried goat" while brushing them... lame I know, but I really don't get out much!)

Then I started working on Grover and tons of under fur started coming out... I worked and worked on him... he loves it... I think I could do it all day... I got about 3 handfuls of nice fleecy under fur out of him... I broke it into a bunch of tufts and put it in the trees, thought maybe the birds might like some for nests.

While I was grooming goats... not the sheep... never the sheep... he doesn't like that sort of thing, though he'll tolerate it if you tie him up... I noticed that one of the gates on the fencing was falling off!! Of course Ernie was hanging around there, sticking his head out through the opening and stuff... the little shit.

Once I got my panic under control, I herded the goats into the shed... Ok, herded is NOT the right word... bribed with hay and then slammed the door on their faces... getting goats to go inside on a nice day, after many crappy days... not an easy feat!!

Then I had a look at the gate and saw that one of the brackets with the pins had come loose and was pushed down. I gave the gate a little tug and off it fell... held on only by the other side that was chained close and padlocked. Wow... very close to loose goats!! Disaster averted! Yay :)

I went back to the house to get the tools... actually I had to make TWO trips, because it turns out the nuts on the gate bolts are a different size than the nuts on the rest of the fencing! How handy. So I got the gate rehung, not a big deal and I tightened up all the rest. I tired to unlock the padlock, but they apparently rusted over the winter and are seized. I jiggaloo'd them, but still no luck.

Not a huge deal, except that I entered the fenced area through the gate that needed to be rehung (that's the side the nuts were on)... then I hung the gate.... the gate that wouldn't unlock. Couldn't go back through the shed, because I'd locked it from the inside... so I tried the other padlocks on the other gates... all seized.

I ended up having to unhang the gate, go out of the pen... go into the goat shed, fight my way through 3 goats and 1 sheep that were annoyed at being locked inside and get back out the other gate without letting them escape (you know, since the gate was off its hinges again and there was a hole in the fence!)... much easier said than done... goats can be VERY obnoxious.. .strong... determined... did I mention OBNOXIOUS?

I finally got out... rehung the gate and then let the wild animals back out into the sunshine. I was pretty damned exhausted at that point and hadn't even mucked them yet! I got all the gates toggled so they were now locked OUT in the pen and couldn't access the shed... I got the lawn tractor and cart out and I mucked them out.

That was fairly uneventful except for the wind which was blowing right in the shed through the goat door and right out the people door. Love having bits of hay and stuff blowing around... awesome. It was only about a cart and a half of stuff to muck today... not bad and so much easier than carrying muck buckets full of poop.

The ground is wet and I had to drive way around to get to THE manure pile (the real one, not the temporary winter one) but I managed to not get stuck... not like Sunday... but I'm not discussing that! :)

Anyhow, so they are now clean... rebedded... lots of hay in the feeder...I just looked out the window and they are all outside in the sun... Ernie is sleeping flat out on the picnic table... the sheep is against the fence... Bert is beside the picnic table on the ground and Grover is right up against the side of the shed.

Last weekend we made some improvements to the kitchen... added a couple new under cabinet lights... bought a little (and cheap!) pantry cupboard to put in the dining room to give me some more storage space... put down a piece of Formica on top of the island so it can be usable counter space (its just sitting on top right now, we plan to glue it down when we have time)... we also added a little shelf in the space above the sink between the existing cupboards. Just a place to keep often used things like salt, pepper, butter, napkins handy, but off the countertop! We also hung the new clock I got for Christmas above the shelf... its a good spot for it.

So, improvements like that... nothing earth shattering, but it makes it a much nicer and more usable space... its still ugly, but fixing that wasn't the goal... at least not yet. Just needed some inexpensive ways to make it more functional... and we accomplished that... for about $250, I now have 2 good sized countertops for work space. Its really nice when I'm making muffins and stuff... I have places to put buttered muffin pans AND still have a place for mixing bowls and ingredients! Such luxury!

Hmm, other things we've done somewhat recently... we took down all the snow fence... nothing like tempting Mother Nature, eh? Its nice to have it down, rolled up and put away for next year. Its nice to have it up when you need it, but after that it just looks junky... oh, don't I sound just like my father?! :)

We're also still working on chicken coop plans and costing it out... I don't think we'll be ready to pick up chickens on my next trip to southern ontario... but that's good (or bad!!!) news for those of you that live down that way, because it means I'll have to come for another visit in order to get my chickens.

I'm considering getting 10 chickens now... I know that's way more than I need and definitely will give more eggs than I need or want, but I'm thinking that if I'm making a trip all the way to get them, I better get enough that if one or two die or don't lay or something that I'm not short on chickens. Besides, I think it might be fun to sell a few eggs to coworkers or neighbours... not that selling eggs will make us rich, but will maybe subsidize the feed and make it easier to justify having them.. .we'll see... stay tuned to "How The Egg Turns" ... :)

We also have tentative plans to extend the dog fence up the side of the house towards the road. We have enough page wire fencing to do it and in the summer it might be nice to have more shaded space available. We're just awaiting the gas people to come mark the gas line... want to avaoid hitting that!! ... and of course time...

A while back we ordered about 150 seedling trees... they should be ready for pick up around the end of April... that will keep us plenty busy at that point, I'm sure. 150 holes to be dug in the nasty clay soil... super fun! Seemed like a good idea in February!!

I think that's about it for now...nothing too exciting. Just trying really hard to get on with Spring.
--L