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

Abby Finds A New Home

Earlier this week, Shawn and I made the decision to put Abby up for adoption and started advertising. Don't get me wrong, she's a good dog and had come a long way in just under 2 weeks. All her food guarding issues resolved quickly (though I did fully disclose that to her new owners) and she had come a long way in learning her name and we began working on her recall.

But, it was very soon after losing Buddy to add a new dog to the household and having 2 pups and an older dog is way more work than having 2 older dogs and a pup! I wasn't ready to commit to that kind of work for a dog that just sort of showed up here. Plus... she's a lab... her whole personality, the way she runs, eats, learns... its all so "labby".

I know many people LOVE labs... but they really aren't my favourite type of dog... we already have one lab, Pixie, to whom we've made a life long committment to and that's fine... but I decided YEARS ago, there would be no more labs in my life. Then Abby showed up and thinking about committing another 10-15 years of my life to a type of dog I really don't like... just seemed overwhelming.

So we advertised her... we got a few responses, but no one was actually interested enough to come and see her. Then I got an email saying a friend's sister was very interested and was given contact info. We made contact via email and on the phone and I did my best to ask all the appropriate questions and they asked everything they could think of about Abby.

Given that these people were recommended to me by one of HJ's members who has done much good for both horses and dogs in need in the past, I felt reasonably comfortable that they would provide a good home. After talking to them, I was even more sure.

So today, they drove from Guelph to Ottawa to pick her up!! They have two kids, 8 & 10, so not really little. When they first arrived (I had my 2 whacko mutts locked in their crates upstairs so as not to cause total chaos!) Abby was in her crate in the mudroom. She was initially a bit overwhelmed by the extra people, but we took her out in the yard and let her explore the new people at her own pace.

It wasn't long and she was following the kids around while they held her leash and feeling pretty comfortable with her interactions. They already have her booked for puppy classes starting THIS week, like in 3 - 4 days!!

The adoption agreement was signed, the fee exchanged and all was good... Abby's crate and her tub of stuff was going to get loaded into the back of their mini van and then Abby put in her crate.... then it was discovered that they locked their keys in their van!

Some attempts were made with a coat hanger and various bits of wire... then CAA was called. They said it would take them 90 minutes to arrive! While waiting for CAA more attempts were made ot unlock the doors, but no go. During this time, Abby was taken for several walks around the property with the kids and me.

We made an effort this morning to tire Abby out in hopes she would sleep for the long ride home... by the time we were walking around the property, she was practically a zombie! She kept looking at her crate longingly, in hopes she could soon nap.

During one of the walks around the property to distract both kids and pup, one of the kids had a major run in with a burdock bush and required some help to get unstuck from himself! I bet that kid gives the next burdock bush a WIDE berth! :) Burdock trauma ;)

Anyhow, the local tow truck finally showed up... much sooner than 90 minutes! (They were here a total of 90 minutes) and the tow truck driver got out his fancy tools and in minutes had the doors open! Abby's crate and tub of stuff got loaded and then I lifted her into her crate, told her to be a good girl and that was that.

I don't imagine they will get home to Guelph until 8 or 9pm tonight, depending on how many stops they have to make... what a LONG day for them!

Due to the timing, Shawn and I missed lunch (and we shared a box of kraft dinner for breakfast... gross, I know!), so we went into town (we were in NEED of some groceries!) and picked up some groceries at Farm Boy... we also bought some food to eat in the car... Shawn had veggies and dip and I had a small container of Farm Boy potatoe salad. We gobbled down our snacks and were still hungry, so we stopped at the Shell gas station on the way home and got a couple nasty, yet delicious, gas station hot dogs and gobbled those down too!

Oliver and Pixie seem fine with Abby being gone... they are both exhausted from the 2 weeks of constant playing... neither looked for her or anything like that... they are both sound asleep now... Ollie on the couch and Pixie on the floor. Its so quiet here... not that Abby was that noisy, but her presence made Ollie be busier than normal and often made Pixie bark when Ollie and Abby were playing.

It's almost 6pm and at some point I'll make us some supper... but maybe a late supper since we inhaled a bunch of snacks at 4-430pm! :)

I'm pretty sure Abby went to a good family that will do right by her... and I'm sure she'll turn out to be a wonderful dog, once she settles in there... she's got a good friendly heart and just needs some consistency in her world and someone to teach her how to be a good dog. I hope they enjoy her... they have said they will send me updates, so we'll see.

It sure is hard letting them go, but I know we did the right thing for us and I'm pretty sure it will be the right thing for Abby, also!

Anyhow, now I should head out and feed my goat babies and sheep their supper and bring fresh water. Always someone hungry and / or thirsty around here! :)

-- L

Another Friday The 13th

It's been one month since we lost Buddy. So far, and I almost fear saying this, March's Friday the 13th has been much better than February's Friday the 13th.

This week we acquired a new puppy, Abigail. I posted some pics in the FHH album of her, Pixie and Oliver. She literally showed up at our door step and her owners asked us to take her in. I told them I would take her, but I couldn't guarantee I'd keep her, but I'd make sure she'd find a good home if I didn't keep her.

Oliver really likes her and treats her like his own personal toy. Mostly the whole time they are together, they are go, go, go... .run, wrestle, chase, bite and all that. Being as there is only 6 months difference in their ages, there's much fun to be had... Ollie is a BIG fan of fun :)

Pixie tolerates her... she's not afraid of her like she was when we got Ollie, but she's also about 5 months old, so she's mostly a dog already and doesn't have that toddling puppy thing going on that Oliver had.

Abby is said to be a lab x shep... we were told her mother was a yellow lab and her father was a shep x of some sort... another one of those secret, unplanned rendez-vous that dogs are famous for! She was born October 15, 2008 and when we went to the vet this week was 42 lbs. She's short, but chunky... you really notice the chunkiness if you pick her up and carry her anywhere, especially if it involves stairs.

Abby seems to be a bit spoiled and seems not to have had any discipline in her life... while she can sleep through the night without having to go out, she sometimes wakes up and cries a bit... her old owner told me that when she used to do that, the owner would go and get her from her crate and cuddle her for a while. Needless to say THAT has stopped and she's now relearning that if you cry at night, you get taken outside to do your business and immediately returned to your crate. Apparently that's not all that much fun ;)

She also seems to have a few issues with protecting her food, even from people. We started working on that immediately this week and she seems a bit better... she lost the right to just get served her food in a bowl... now she gets a bowl with a tiny bit of food and then I add a small bit at a time. She now accepts my hands near her bowl without problem, as I'm always adding more food to it. I can lift her head out of the bowl and pick up the bowl while there's food in it without any snapping or growling... I make her sit patiently and then she gets it back.

Abby also doesn't know her name, but then again, we changed it on her, so that will take some time to learn... she didn't seem to know her old name though, anyhow. If motivated, she can sit, shake a paw and lay down... but pay any attention to you when you call her... No Way! We'll work on that also. I'm trying not to throw too much at her all at once... after all, she had a kinda crappy week, suddenly leaving her old home and coming here, getting to know new people, new dogs, a new house... a new name... everything.

I'm also not sure if its all the change or because she's fairly young... but she seems to not have much personality yet at this point. She reminds me a bit of our sheep... the sitting and blinking with a blank stare and stuff like that. Hopefully that will change.

The lab blood in her seems to be stronger than anything else... she's very similar to Pixie in many ways... the way she runs, the way she sits, the way she eats and the blank staring! ;) Of course, I'm used to Oliver, who is Mr.Personality Plus... really, he might have enough personality for both of them!

Its probably not fair to say she lacks personality... I don't really know her yet and she's getting used to all the changes and I don't feel like I've bonded to her yet in any way. That combined with the fact that I was not really ready to have a 3rd dog again so soon after we lost Buddy... we'll see how it goes.

Adding her into our house has really highlighted what a good dog Oliver is! Abby thinks nothing of putting her front paws on the counters and if there's anything in reach, grabbing it and running off. I swore I'd never have another lab after Pixie and yet somehow, one showed up on the doorstep. I really should have the "Sucker" tattoo removed from my forehead. Abby seems to be a strong willed, scrappy little girl though... which I suppose is good when it comes to playing with Oliver.

Oliver has changed this week with Abby joining our household. He acts a lot more like Buddy did... being the man dog of the house and keeping an eye on everyone... quite the little busy body. So far, I think he will end up being the dominant dog... Pixie has no inclination that way and Abby is kinda young.

All the dogs are really tired this week from all the playing... it means they are either sleeping or going full steam ahead... there doesn't seem to be much in between... I'm sure that will mellow out with time.

I just want to make it clear that Abby is not a replacement for Buddy, there's just no chance of that and never will be. Oliver on the other hand, is doing his best to try to fill up that Buddy shaped empty spot in my heart. He won't replace him either, but he does help reduce the sting. That's something.

Anyhow... enough about dogs.... we had a bunch of snow and ice melt... we still have quite a bit to go though... I'm looking forward to it all being gone!

The sheep and goats are doing well and I think are looking forward to there being some green grass at some point... the sooner the better as far as they are concerned. They are enjoying the hay that I got brought in... its the good stuff and only the biggest, toughest stalks don't get eaten and then I just use it for bedding. (How comfy sounding! ha)

I can't think of anything else new or interesting, so I think that's it for now. Don't forget to check out the pics in the FHH album.
--L

"Spring" Is Exhausting!

So its March and clearly its not truly spring yet... but Saturday was spring LIKE... which meant we did our best to make the most of the day. After feeding the dogs and goats, I decided it was so nice out that I would start picking up dog poop in the yard.

Generally, we like to pick it up right after it happens and not have a messy yard... I hate having poop everywhere, then someone steps in it, tracks it into the house and all that! But this winter was LONG and COLD and it was easier just to open the door, let them out to do what they had to and then let them back in. Otherwise you have to pile on all your outside clothes and boots and hats and mitts, just to pick up a poop.... for most of the winter we had 3 dogs which means that happens at least 6 times a day!!

Anyhow, I've picked it up a few times, whenever there's a decent day and since it started melting this weekend, there was more that became visible. So Shawn I spent almost an hour touring around the yard with bags, picking it up. Unbelievable amounts, is all I will say!! Oh and we were smart to do this BEFORE breakfast, as after breakfast would've been much much MUCH worse!

We also went out into the goat yard and raked up all the nasty, dirty, soggy, wet, poopy hay that had accumulated over the winter. When its nice outside, I like to feed a bit of hay outside on the ground... the goats like to eat in the sunshine and I figure the fresh air is good for them. Every evening when I lock them up in their shed, I like to rake up the leftover hay and if its not too wet, I toss it into the shed as bedding... but of course, you always miss some... sometimes it snows on it and covers it and stuff like that.

We filled and hauled (Shawn did most of the hauling) at least 8 - 10 muck buckets of this nasty stuff out of the goat pen.... mind you, the buckets weren't full, at about half full they were almost too heavy to carry!! Gross stuff now that will hopefully make nice dirt to grow pretty stuff in eventually!

We also took down the outside Christmas lights and all the extension cords (except for one that part of it is still frozen under some ice and snow. They are all rolled up neatly and waiting to be put away in their rubbermaid container until next time.

We also went into town on Saturday and I ordered my new eye glasses... I had gone in earlier in the week looking for new frames and found ones I liked the style of, but not the colour... the manager of the store was a great help during the process and told me the style I liked came in another colour, but they didn't have them in stock, but could order them in for me to try.

So by Saturday they were in and I took Shawn with me to make sure I didn't look TOO stupid in them. They are a similar style to my current ones... a bit more chunky though... the fronts are a dark gray / almost black and the arms are a brownish colour. They look better than my description makes them sound :) They should be ready in a couple weeks for pick up. They are the kind that come with clip on sunglasses (sort of like the magnetic ones I already have, but they happen to not be magnetic, if that makes any sense!) Thank goodness for extended health insurance, otherwise, I'd have to keep making do with the ones I have!!

While we were in town, we made a trip to Home Depot... a spring day and Home Depot... a perfect combination! We looked around at various things, Shawn bought a new pair of gloves (I got a pair earlier in the week). They are very similar to our SSG riding gloves, but a little bit thicker and definitely cheaper!! ($10 compared to $35 - 40!) They are still think enough to operate snaps and fasteners which is what we were after.

Today we took it a bit easier, it was quite a bit colder out and there was a nasty wind... we mucked out the goat shed though... a good day for that... yesterday would've felt very warm... today was cool enough that we needed our hats and coats on and no one worked up a sweat!

We also spent some time thinking about chicken coops and what we want to build and how to do it cheaply and still have it look nice and have the features we want. We didn't come to any decisions yet, but we're going to look into the shed kits again (sold at HD, Rona, etc).

We had looked at them for our goat shed last year, but decided they were just not going to be durable enough for goats without a lot of $$ improvements... chickens on the other hand are smaller animals and don't need the same level of durability... mostly it just has to be strong enough to keep predators OUT with chickens. So we'll see... I'm sure this topic will be debated for a while yet... I'm sure you all wish you were here to listen to it in all its excessiveness! ha!

So that was our tiring weekend.... some where in there Shawn's laundry got done... meals got made and enjoyed.... dogs fed and played with... goats fed and fussed with... all in all busy enough compared to recent weekends. We're both tired and I think both of us are feeling a few muscles that got a bit soft over the winter... but the good weather comes, you start to feel like doing stuff and you start gearing up again... that's just how it goes around here.

Both of the dogs were pretty tired yesterday and today.... they aren't used to being outside so long and running, running, running... Ok, only Oliver runs like a madman... Pixie runs only when necessary! :)

I will still likely eventually get around to making my own post here about Buddy... I'm still not nearly ready to go there... I'm hoping with time comes perspective and with perspective the pain will diminish enough to make a posting and move forward... but not... not yet.

I think sometime overnight tonight we are supposed to get SNOW... which is not springlike.. maybe 5 -10 cm in the next 24 hours... but its not spring... but while March can be nasty, its not likely to be death cold and any snow we get, won't linger too long... and that's encouraging!

That's it for now...
-- L

Buddy

Buddy

We had to put Buddy down the week before last, on Friday February 13th. In the end, it was just his time. He had started to have troubles with his front leg, dragging the toe a bit, and it was steadily getting worse.

He passed very quietly. Our vet did a wonderful job.

I've posted some pictures and a movie of Buddy that I took the morning before we took him to the vet.

He had the best life we could give him, and he leaves behind a lot of wonderful memories.

Running away from hot air balloons, dragging me back through town when we still walked him. Hot air balloons (or anything similar, like the moon) were his nemesis. The poor dog, in the past few months, went outside in the morning to see a giant Mr Peanut shaped hot air balloon in a neighboring field. He was very offended.

Acting like a nut at the dog park, wrestling with Pixie, running and running and running.

Playing obsessive fetch with his blue ball. Beating Pixie if she dared take his. :-)

The time we got the new dog beds, and when I was finally done assembling it, he realized what it was, licked my face, and jumped up on it.

Putting his blue blanket over him at night.

Endless tummy rubs.

Being constantly underfoot. :-) He always wanted to be where the action was.

The time he tore off after a deer, and we thought we'd lost him.

He was a good dog. He will be missed. :-(

Time Flies...

So somehow I haven't posted since November!! I'm not really sure how that happened exactly, but I can hardly believe it!

I suppose December was a little busy... Christmas came early around here, as my parents came for a lovely visit about 2 weeks before Christmas. So our fake tree went up early, but it also came down early, before New Years day, but now of course, I can't remember what day it was :)

Just before Christmas, on December 20th, we got another new addition to our little herd... a sheep! Now we have 3 goats and 1 sheep in the shed... they all fit in there just fine and have mostly worked out the herd dynamics. The sheep is now known as Gordon, though often gets referred to around here as "the sheep"... honestly, he doesn't seem to care one bit.

Ernie and Bert don't mind the sheep too much, though Ernie will boss him around if he's standing in the way of the hay or something... Bert is still a little freaked out by the sheep, but has gotten over it a bit and will now bite chunks of hair / wool off the sheep to make him move! Grover has an extreme dislike for the sheep and will boss him around at any and every opportunity.... just as Ernie and Bert, especially Bert, love to boss Grover around. Herd dynamics are certainly interesting, that's for sure.

Winter is pretty much in full "bloom" around here and has been for well over a month now. Blah. Right now its snowing and about -1 degree C... later tonight, it will be -28 C with the windchill, and later this week it'll be -34 C WITHOUT the windchill... so friggen cold!

Today I pushed all the decent bedding in the goat shed aside and scraped out the bottom layer of wet bedding and filled 2.5 muck buckets (not much). I then rebedded using the decent bedding as a bottom layer, then some old stalky hay out of the feeder that they weren't interested in eating was spread over and then I added another half bale of straw so they would have lots of bedding to burrow into and snuggle down when the temperature drops tonight.

A couple weekends ago we rebuilt the hay feeder to accommodate the extra animals so there would be room for everyone at the feeder. Its on the same wall, but is now a 6 ft long hay feeder. We also changed the design slightly... its somewhere between the first feeder that Bert hated and the 2nd feeder that allowed them to waste too much hay. This one is working out pretty well so far and the waste has been dramatically reduced! Wish we'd come up with it sooner, but live and learn.

Oliver is about 9 months old now and still growing. I'd say he's as tall as Buddy now... I just weighed him today and he's 62.2 lbs! And after holding him in my arms on the scale, I now remember why I get Shawn to weigh him usually!!! :)

Thankfully, there's not much new around here these days... same old, same old. I figured I should update the blog though, just to prove we're still around :)

Winter Prep Continues

We've been busily working on winter prep for a couple days now. All the windows in the house have been sealed shut with removable caulking and our bedroom and upstairs bathroom windows have also been covered in heat shrinkable plastic. We still have to add the heat shrink plastic to Jess's room and the guest room.

We won't bother plastic-ing the downstairs windows, they've been caulked shut and that will do, I think.

A guy from Rogers cable finally came today... no not to bury my internet cable, I couldn't be THAT lucky (plus the ground is frozen) but he moved it... he tried running it under the driveway through the culvert, but couldn't get through there. The culvert is quite low and I imagine filled with "stuff". Yuck.

I finally talked him into running it along the overhead wires, across the driveway and then down the big evergreen tree in the front yard. It then runs from the tree parallel to the driveway along the front lawn to where it comes into the house. Now I hardly care IF they ever bury it.. I managed to not run over the cable on the other side of the yard with the lawn mower for the whole season, I imagine I can work around this. I'm happy now that it no longer interferes with the driveway. Now the snow removal guy can come when needed and I don't have to run out and disconnect the internet before the cable gets chewed! Yay :)

I also moved a small pile of scrap wood that was out by the new goat shed that had just been sitting there. I just threw it into the raspberry patch for now, but at least its out of the way of the snow removal guy.

The weekend before Shawn's surgery we also put up some tposts out near the new sheds to help keep the snow removal guy from hitting the sheds or catching the edge of the rubber mats I have out front. I think we're all set for him now :)

I still have a pile of "stuff" to move out of the yard next to the white shed... some plastic skids, some chainlink fence, a couple bags of soil... nothing major... I'm hoping to find space in the white shed and put it in there.

Shawn also clipped off the pop cans off the electric fence for the winter, so they won't fill with snow and ice and drag on the wires... he did that before his surgery.

I don't think you can ever be READY for winter, but I'm doing my best to plan and be as close to ready as possible. I'm sure I'll forget something vitally important... just not sure what that will be... YET :)

I'm A Bad Not-Updater

So its been almost 3 weeks since i updated. Time just flies.

Lots of things have changed, but more has stayed the same, which is how we like it :)

We got a new goat last weekend from a local horse boarding facility that was not really looking after his needs. His feet were pretty messed up, I already posted pics of them to the FHH album. We renamed him Grover to fit in with our theme and it seems to suit him. I gave him a good trim this week and now he's moving around quite a bit better and is peppier. The first couple days he spent a lot of his time laying down.

Grover is also quite afraid of brooms, shovels and pitchforks and the first time I found that out was when I was done trimming his feet and I had the other 2 boys locked out of the shed and I thought I would sweep up the nasty hoof trimmings before I re bedded the shelter(I mucked it out before so I could have a nice work surface, right on the rubber mats instead of on the straw).

I took the broom and started sweeping and poor Grover went ballistic and ran blindly around the shed and tried to climb the wall to escape. I stopped right away and only continued once I had turned him out with the other 2 and even then he moved far away from the door while I did it. He's been slightly better since, but he doesn't hang around if I'm working, unlike my other 2 that are always right in the way, trying to eat the tools and stuff!!!

He's also enjoying treats here... at first he was sure I was trying to poison him with a carrot, but he quickly figured out that carrots bits are yummy. Now he's almost as grabby as the other 2 when I have treats. Tonight I took them eat a feed bowl with banana, carrot bits and some peanut butter muffin that I made yesterday. They all inhaled and looked for more! Spoiled? My goats? ha... never! ;)

Shawn finally got his wisdom teeth removed on Monday... all went well and he's recovering nicely. He's more sore now at the end of the week than he was right after, I imagine since the swelling has decreased now there's a bit more pain. Mind you, he's not taking the prescribed percocet, either, just ibuprofen and tylenol, so that's not bad.

It was about time he got the teeth out, he was supposed to do it many years ago, but never had benefits etc... he had 5 wisdom teeth to remove and 2 of them were in a cyst in his sinus cavity. (Yuck!) Now once he's healed a bit, he'll go back to the regular dentist and get some work done on one of the back molars that was against one of the wisdom teeth... it has a cavity in it from the wisdom tooth being in crooked and food getting stuck between where it was hard to get out. Then he should be good to go for a while again.

Its been quite chilly here lately... at least it seems chilly to me... I've been cold all the time and am already wearing as many clothes as I did last year during the coldest weather... I dunno what I'm gonna do when it gets colder... freeze, I guess. I did get some nice long johns from Walmart (of all places!!) this year... they are black, come in "chunky girl" sizes and cost about $6 for bottoms and $6 for tops. I've been wearing them as pajamas also, they are so comfy :)

Buddy has been cold too... he's not as young as he once was... this week I ordered him a dog coat from Greenhawk and it came the other day. Its the same kind as I had for goats last winter... his is black (cause he's a tough guy! ha) and he likes wearing it. They are reasonably priced and wind and water resistant, I think overall a good deal.

I technically have enough blankets of appropriate sizes now to outfit all 3 dogs. The 2 younger ones don't really need them yet, but they might when it actually gets cold. Oliver doesn't have a really thick coat and when the wind blows he can get a bit shivery if he's not running around like a maniac. Pixie generally only gets cold feet, but she's not as young as she once was either and may appreciate another layer eventually.

I'm doubting that I'll blanket goats this year since they have a good shelter now... I don't think I'll need to... I hope I don't need to. Keeping them from undressing themselves is a pain :) When the weather is colder, I may just keep them locked up during the day to help conserve the heat in the shed... when its cold they don't go outside anyhow.

I'm having a really hard time wrapping my head around the fact that Christmas is coming! It's like a month away! I think in general we're going to try to make it a little "leaner" Christmas than some...but there will still be a little something for everyone... just not overboard.

I have the vet coming this week to give the goats their shots... I would do them, but I vaccinate for rabies which only the vet can do, so she'll do them all for me... easier that way too, I often have to give them shots by myself and this way I can hold them still while she gets them. Plus, I like to have the vet just look at them now and then, at least once a year, to make sure I'm not missing something...another set of eyes and all that.

My internet cable is STILL not buried from last fall... I've been on the phone with Rogers all summer and fall and getting a run around. It MUST be moved before the snowplow needs to come and do our driveway. No way will they get it buried now, the ground is almost frozen. I had a brilliant plan that we would run it from the pole, through the culvert under the driveway and then just up the side of the driveway to the house. Seemed brilliant until we looked at it carefully and realized the culvert is very low and pretty much always under water... now ice. Poop.

Our latest scheme is I've scheduled Rogers to come out this week and assess the situation. What I want them to do is to run the cable back up the pole and along the overhead wires until its across the driveway and then run it down and across the front lawn. This would solve my snowplow issue and I'd be fine with waiting til spring to bury the damn thing. We'll see if I can sell the idea to the Rogers guy.

I found a local small engine repair guy through my mechanic up the road... I called him the other day about having our snow blower maintenance done... he came by about an hour after I talked to him and picked it up. We tried to start it to load it and when he pulled the cord we noticed it was just hanging by a thread... a very thin thread. He replaced that while he had it and did the maintenance (changed the oil, clean spark plug, checked belts etc, lubricate controls, inflated tires, checked gear oil) All that, plus he picked it up and delivered it for $81.95 bottom line. I thought it was really reasonable and great service. We had it back about 24 hours after he picked it up! So now our snow blower is ready and hopefully we won't need it :)

Our furnace guy is coming out this week to do a maintenance on the furnace and to get us set up with their maintenance plan. If nothing else, perhaps it will give us priority should our furnace go out like it did last winter, when my parents were here just before Christmas. He's also supposed to fix the furnace exhaust pipe and extend it so that maybe this year it won't get buried under the snow, which was what caused it to go out during that storm we got.

I'm sure I'm forgetting other very "important" updates, but that's all I can think of at the moment.
-- L

All Moved In!

Today we got the goat fence moved over to the new goat shed. They are officially moved in now. I added some pics to the goat shed album. They've been sleeping in the shed overnight though for a few days, since the snow storm the other night. During the day, I would halter them and walk them over to where the fence was and they'd spend the day outside... then just before it got super dark, I'd halter them and walk them back to the shed. Worked ok, but now things are more convenient :)

Now in the morning I just have to open the gate and the door and they can come and go all day long... at night, I shut them inside to stay warm and safe. There's a few more bugs to iron out with latches and stuff, but nothing major and I'll get those done this week. All the windows and shutters are currently fastened shut with screws, we'll get on to installing the mechanisms yet, but depending on the weather, we may wait until spring. I don't think we'll need the windows open before then anyhow! Plus, even with them shut there's lovely ventilation in the shed.

We also built them a new hay feeder today... nothing fancy, just out of wood. Hopefully it will help stop the excessive hay wasting. (Bert likes to stand on a new flake of hay that I give them and soon after that, pee on it. Then of course its no good at all and they scream for more, which they usually don't get... I'm a mean goat lady.) Bert seems to be a bit put off about it so far, but I'm sure he'll figure out he could just pee in the deep straw now instead... you know, like he's supposed to!!

We got the second inside gate hung properly this weekend also. We also moved the goat ghetto, the 2 parts of the goat shack (the cubes) into one area inside the electric fence for winter "storage". I cleaned up one huge lawn tractor cart load of dirty hay and straw from where the 2 cube shelters have been for the last few weeks. It was pretty wet and smelly and normally I wouldn't have left it so long, except I knew we'd be moving them soon and I was kinda busy doing stuff in order to get them moved. Oh well, I'm sure it didn't hurt them, its not like they were spending much time in the cube shelter lately anyhow, with staying overnight in the new shed.

We moved a bit of stonedust also... did the final grading around the goat shed... mostly just added some to go under the rubber mats at the front and back doors. We also put a load in the low areas of the tarped building and some on the grass (that I had sprayed round up on) in front of the tarped building. There's still another couple cart loads to be moved and we'll put them on the grass in front of the tarped building too and try to make it more like a driveway.

I'm cooking a sirloin roast for supper tonight... it was on sale at Farm Boy. Hopefully it will be good enough, its not a cut I buy usually, but it was $3.99/lb.

We still have small amounts of snow left around... where the drifts were in the fence line and in other areas. Its spotty, just here and there... the rest melted. Its pretty darned chilly again this afternoon... we came in around 4pm and there was a real nip in the air already!

The dogs are doing fine... Buddy is moving a bit slower these days... I think the cool weather and his NEED to chase Oliver around are making him a bit sore. He was feeling much better in the summer when it was warmer. I've been trying to keep him from chasing Ollie by having them take turns outside, but it still happens sometimes that they all go out together. Buddy has also had a sick tummy for the last few days. I gave him some pepto bismol yesterday and that seems to have helped quite a bit.

I think that's all what's new around here.
-- L

Goat Shed Doors Are Up!

We got both doors hung this weekend. I posted pics to the FHH "goat shed" album. One door was very easy and straightforward, the other needed to be adjusted slightly using the dremel tool. They both work fine, open and close... now they just need some hardware on them. We did put a hook and eye on each door just too keep the wind from ramming on the doors and either breaking the doors themselves or the hinges.

I got a bit more hardware cloth up, I just have one more large fiddly piece to put up... possibly tomorrow, I'll see what I feel like doing and if the weather will cooperate.

I lied when I said all the painting is done.... there's a bit more to do... we added some 1x2 to the inside of the door frame to act as door stop and then the few places we had to modify the door needs touch ups too. Nothing too much, but not officially done!!

We still have to find gates for both ends... the gates will cover the doorways and swing inside (the doors swing out) and keep the goats off the doors and will hopefully allow us to come and go and not let the goats escape easily.

So we're not quite done yet, but we're getting closer... at this point if we had to, we could move the goats in... but I'd really rather wait until we have the gates up... the door hardware on...the hardware cloth up... the final grading done outside... we're going to put a couple skids with rubber mats on just outside their door to help reduce the mud and give them a dry place to lay outside when needed. An eye hook for the water bucket needs to be hung... a hay feeder installed ... 2 tie rings where I could tie them inside to trim their feet or give shots... mineral and baking soda feeders need to be hung... all that "interior decorating" type stuff :)

I made a pot of soup earlier which we ate for supper... it was turkey with veggies plus we had a leftover prime rib bone from a roast I cooked the other night so I tossed that in and then pulled the meat off at serving time. It was definitely a soup kind of day... quite windy today and not really warm, but we didn't get any rain til after 5pm tonight, so a much nicer day than Saturday where we had heavy rain all afternoon and evening.

Not much else new around here... hanging doors took enough time that we didn't have time left for much else! :)

-- L

Dang It's Cold! & New Pics

So it seems that late fall has now arrived. Its cold and windy and has been raining (sometimes thick rain, but not quite snow... unlike some other places in Ontario!)

I've been working on the shed some more... installing hardware cloth over the windows and openings to keep birds and critters out and to encourage goats to stay IN.

I'm hoping to paint the first door tomorrow when its SUPPOSED to be sunny and a bit warmer... its a bit chilly today to paint.

I put up a few more pics in the FHH album... some in the goat shed album and a new album with a couple pics of the 3 dogs...gives a good idea of how much Ollie has really grown!

That's about it for now!
--L

It's Been 2 Months...

since we started the sod breaking on the goat shed. As of today, I'm all caught up on painting again, thank goodness, since the weather for the next few days looks iffy! Sounds like a long time to be constructing a shed, but I think its not bad considering we've only worked weekends and evenings (which are getting SHORT!)

I put up some more pics today of the trim being all painted and showing the beginning of the first door construction. We probably would've finished the first door today, but we ran out of the right length screws, so I'll need to pick up more. (Wish I'd thought of it when we were AT Home Depot earlier today!!)

I'm hoping to get the doors painted before installation, but we'll see how the weather cooperates.

As for things left to do on the shed... the hardware cloth can go up anytime now, over the windows and in the spaces between the roof trusses to keep birds and other critters out. I need to move some stone dust and finish grading.

I'm going to move some of our skids and rubber mats that we have set up for the goats inside the electric fence that is no longer electrified and put them just outside their door to the shed. It'll help keep them from churning things up outside the door and will give them a high-ish, dry-ish place to lay, which they like. Also very easy to just sweep up the poops and keep clean :)

The plan is to get this all done and the goat fencing moved over to that area before Shawn has his wisdom teeth removed the middle of November. I think it's doable, assuming the weather doesn't screw us! We'll see.

That's it going on around here... no time for much else! :)
-- L

New Pics Posted!

I posted new pics to the FHH album... I added to the goat shed album and I made a new one with some pics of Ernie and Bert eating thistles.

We got all 10 windows/shutters hung today and they turned out pretty well, I think. I still have some trim painting to do, I didn't get it all done this week, it takes a while for all that fiddly stuff. I'm hoping I get work on it tomorrow for a while... maybe while Shawn works on starting to make doors for the shed.

It was quite a cool day today with a good stiff wind... it was quite nice to get the windows and shutters up to help break the wind while we worked on the rest! Its nice inside the shed, I'm really happy with how its turning out! There are imperfections and maybe a couple things I would do differently if I was doing another, but mostly its been pretty smooth so far.

Its supposed to be -3C tonight, so I'm glad progress is happening on the shed, we're gonna need to put those goats in it soon!! Though they have a good layer of straw and unacceptable hay in their little shack that they snuggle into, so they have it ok, really. It will be a nice treat for US though when they get moved... doing anything inside their shack with them is a pain now that they are bigger. Its only 4 feet tall which was good last year when they were tiny... left lots of room for us. I'm pretty sure this year that Shawn and I and 2 goats could not all sit in there without someone shedding blood or something! We've not tried it though ;)

Oliver is all back to normal after his surgery.... everything is healing up wonderfully and I've started letting him wrestle with Pixie in the yard again. He's been getting pretty ansty and is very happy to let off some steam!

Not much else new around here... just been darn chilly. Even though its been chilly, I think I will have to cut the grass again soon... once I have some time and its dry enough and all that.

--L

First Filling Replaced!

I finally got the first of my two ancient fillings replaced today. They are about 25 years old and in rough shape... not bothering me... yet... so a good time to get them done.

Anyhow, I opted for the nitrous oxide since I was nervous and haven't had any dental work since I had braces as a teen, other than dental cleanings. That turned out to be the best thing ever! I highly recommend it to anyone that's a bit nervous at the dentist. For me, it made a big difference ... normally I lay there with every muscle in my body tense and have a headache and sore neck and shoulders after.

It was easy to get and stay relaxed with the nitrous oxide and yet you're still totally aware of what's going on and able to follow directions. It's a bit like the relaxed feeling that sets in when you have a glass of wine, that period between being sober and before you start feeling actually tipsy. The nice thing about it is it wears off quickly and you can drive right away when you're done, no problem.

It turns out that I'm kinda hard to freeze... they gave me one shot (where they stick you once and then move it all around) and then waited a few minutes... NOTHING. So they gave me another shot, again with the move it all around fun stuff that they like to do... still nothing. Then came the 3rd shot and my tongue started to tingle. We waited a few more minutes and then they started to work.

About 2 minutes after they started the drill, I jumped in the chair, I could totally feel what was going on! Yikes! So they stopped and poked around with their pokey instruments and then gave me injection #4 and we waited. My lip got a bit tingly and they poked around again to the spot that made me jump and I jumped again. On came injection #5!! This time it went right in the base of the tooth... and I felt that injection the worst!! OUCH! Actually I felt each injection, which was lovely, as that's my favourite part (NOT!!).

We waited another 15 minutes and then they poked around and I didn't jump so they got to work replacing the filling. After about 10 minutes of work, they were done! I took longer to freeze than actually get the work done! Figures!! So now they've labeled me a "hard freeze" and I have to go in early for next week's appointment so we have plenty of time to get me frozen before my appointment.

See? I don't just have a difficult personality, I'm difficult in every way!! :)

Needless to say NOW I'm good and frozen and will likely be for a few hours, half my tongue, my whole cheek from just below my eye down to about an inch above my collar bone. Pretty nice!

I looked inside my mouth when I got home and it looks nicer with a white filling than the silver one. I look forward to having the other one done too, but I dread the freezing going in... but maybe the gas helps make up for it, a bit :) I also have FIVE small bruises inside my mouth where they stuck me with the needles. Quite lovely.

I think the new filling is a bit high and might need to be shaved down a bit, but I'll have to wait until the freezing comes out to be positive. They told me I can just pop in and they can adjust it if necessary, it only takes a minute and doesn't hurt. So we'll see, right now it feels a bit high, but then again, I don't really trust what I'm feeling with being frozen up so well.

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