Our Easter Weekend

Honestly, it wasn't very easter-y around here this weekend, but we did get lots done.

Most of the weekend we battled COLD horrible winds. We had lots to do, but couldn't stay out very long to get it done.... we were still dealing with wind chills around - 15 C to - 20C. If you could get out of the wind, it was actually pretty decent, but man in that wind it was brutal.

Friday, we started working outside and after about 10 minutes, I said screw this and we went to the Ottawa Home and Garden show at Lansdowne park. It was actually a good show, we were happy we went. Right after you gave your tickets, there was a booth giving out free toothpaste... heck, how can you go wrong when an event starts out like that?! :)

Our "thumper" died a couple weeks ago... we bought that at some trade type show in Toronto like 6 years ago... so we decided we'd look around to see if they had any at this show. (For those that don't know what a thumper is... its an electric hand held device that you put on sore muscles and it beats the tension out. Kinda hurts, but often helps and has really helped Shawn keep his wrist pain under control for years.)

Anyhow, we found a similar device and bought it... it seems pretty good so far... maybe even better than the old one in some ways. At the same booth they had those massage chairs, which Shawn tried out... they also had another device I wish I'd bought. Its for your feet, it sits on the floor and kinda looks like two space boots connected. The front of the "boots" are open and you just slide your feet in. You turn it on and then it rubs your feet and lower legs. I sat for quite a while with that machine and it worked very well... it was also $400 which I felt was a little much... but maybe in hindsight might have been worth it... I'm not sure.

We ate really expensive sausages at the home show and then came home. Fun enough.

Saturday the wind was still brutal and we tried working outside again... after 30 minutes, I was frozen solid and miserable and we went back inside. We hung the last of the cabinets in the mudroom that we bought a couple weeks ago. I posted some pics to the FHH album.

After we hung the cabinets, we headed down to Kemptville to Rooney's Feed... they sell rubber stall mats at a reasonable price and we wanted some to lay over the pallets for the goat floor. We bought 8 of them, a hay rack (which I'm not sure if it will work right yet or not) and a bag of goat grain (which my goats are pretty sure is goat poison and won't eat!! Spoiled brats!)

When we got home, we started setting up fence panels inside the tarped building. The ice was still deep and uneven which causes some problems for the fence panels, so we put down some sand/salt and got the ice chipper out and went to work. We worked and worked and it wasn't working great. It was still too cold with the wind for the salt to work properly and some of the ice is like 4 - 6 inches thick.

We called it a day and decided to give the salt a chance to do more of the work for us and we'd try again Sunday.

Sunday arrived and it was still breezy, but nothing like what we'd had the days before and we got to work trying to set up the fence panels under the tarped building. After a while of chipping more ice, moving panels in, it became clear this just wasn't going to work.

We headed back inside to mope and to try to figure out a new plan for keeping our goats dry while all this friggen snow melts. Once in the warm, we thought about different sites on the property and once we'd debated the virtues of many, we narrowed it down to two possibilities. We got all dressed to go out again and took the 100' tape measure to check to see where the goat pen might fit and work best.

We tried the side yard, inside the dog fence and there was *just* enough room... but half of the area was under a deep snow drift. Putting it there would also mean we'd have to deal with dogs and goats interacting... something they really haven't gotten to do... though both species are curious about the other... but I question my dogs intentions. Perhaps I should also worry about Ernie's intentions given his track record with the cat at the vet!!

Our second site was over in front of the machine shed and it was the one we settled on finally. Only problem... it was covered by lots and lots of snow that has compressed and was icy. There were about 2 inches of ice on top... sturdy enough that in most places you could walk without falling through... the rest underneath was dense granulated snow.

Out came the snow blower.... we tried making it go, but it couldn't really do it without help. The help included a flat mouth shovel, the ice chopper and a garden fork. All the snow had to be chopped by hand before the blower could move it for us. I chopped for a while and Shawn ran the blower, but it wasn't long and we switched jobs. Chopping through snow deeper than my knee is apparently hard on my shoulders!

We needed to clear a round ish area about 30 feet in diameter... which turns out to be a HUGE friggen area when you're doing it by hand. At least we didn't have to shovel and move it too! Even with the help, the snow blower had to work its little heart out, but it did. What a wonderful machine.

We worked for a while, then went inside, ate lunch and watched an episode of ER on video tape, from the batch of TV taping my Mom and Sister did for us! (Thanks you two, we really enjoyed watching the shows you taped!)

Then back outside to finish the job. It was about 5pm until the area was clear enough... then Shawn started taking down the fence panels we put up under the tarped building and I moved all the pallets we got over to the site. (I couldn't carry them, I put a rope around each one, one at a time and dragged them over there... it wasn't easy, but easier than trying to carry them myself.)

We moved half of the fence panels over to the new site and then called it a day. It was about 6pm when we got in the house and funny enough, there was no Easter dinner waiting for us. We were both exhausted and miserable and almost dead on our feet. I had bought a cheap prime rib roast at Loblaws (about 6 - 7 lbs) to have and we debated about whether we'd have it or not.

Finally, I decided that while Easter without my family didn't mean much to me, Easter has always meant a good supper, so I got the roast ready, threw it in the oven, peeled some potatoes and started them boiling for mashed and found a recipe for yorkshire pudding on the internet. I mixed up the yorkshire, put it in the fridge like the directions said and then went and showered while everything cooked.

I let the roast cook about 1.5 hours (it was just the way WE like it... but I don't think even the end piece would've been ok for Daddy!)... while it was standing after cooking, I started the yorkshire cooking, made the gravy, mashed the potatoes and tada, everything was finally ready. It wasn't the nicest prime rib we've ever had, but it was tasty and man we were starving. It had a funny gristle thing running through it that made carving it a bit of a problem, but we got through that.

I had expected it to be not the nicest, given it was only $3.99 a lb, but how could I pass up prime rib for $3.99 a lb?? It was just after 8pm til we ate... just after 9pm until the dishes and clean up was done, but in the end, it was delicious and we enjoyed it. The yorkshire pudding turned out well.. .better than I expected (I've not had great success with it before!) although it did "fall" when I removed it from the oven. Didn't stop us from eating the whole 9x9 pan of it though :)

Needless to say, we missed our family this holiday weekend...but we made it through ok. That's it for now..... -- L