We Went to the Beach!

Yesterday we went to the beach.

Well not the ocean beach, but the river beach.  At this time of year when the water is low, before the Spring runoff has started, there is a big sand bar in the Fraser River.  Instead of driving 40 minutes to the ocean, we can drive 10 minutes to the river.  The sand is really soft there, and it's hard enough for us just walking in the stuff, so the dogs must have got one heck of a work out.

We did remember to go prepared, with rubber boots and balls and a chuck-it.

We went out to the edge of the river, which meant everything was muckier, but the dogs got some water action too.

It made for some really mucky dogs

We could rinse them off in the river, but then we had a lot of sand to cross to get back to the trail and the car. 

It was one of those spring days that was a mixed bag regarding the weather.  Quite a heavy shower of rain, started, so we decided to head back.

And then we saw this

Which developed into this

Multiple pots of gold, just a river's width away!

There weren't any volunteers to swim across though, too bad:(

You should have seen the pile of sand that was on and around Luna's mat this morning, after her tail and feathers finally dried out.   Oh, and on the stairs, and in the basement. 

She must have felt much lighter.

First Day of Spring

It's here, or at least it was for a while today.  

Spring that is, as of 4:21pm.

Despite waking up to a frost and ice on the water buckets, it turned out to be a lovely day.

I seemed to spend a lot of the morning vacuuming and doing a bit of cleaning. Not exactly spring cleaning, but enough cleaning for me.  Since myself and cleaning aren't on a real friendly basis, and I avoid it when I can,  when I have the urge I really need to go with it,  sunshine or not.

Geez those dogs bring in a lot of dirt, and leave a lot of hair.

Since things were much cleaner now, it seemed to make sense to give Calli a furminator session.

Better to leave the hair outside than have to sweep it up inside.

There's going to be a lot of dog hair lined bird's nests in our neighbourhood.  The other day I saw some chickadee's picking some up.

Larry gave the dogs a ball session in the hayfield this afternoon, which resulted in both Jake and Luna going for a dip in the pool.  Hopefully Luna left a lot of dirt behind.

She seemed to prefer to drip dry and then she went for a roll.

Check here for a weirder version of this picture.

We worked down in the garden, and the human rototillers managed to get another bed dug over.  Thankfully I had tilled it before the tiller accident, so we just had to dig it over again to mix the compost in.

The canine rototiller did dig a couple of holes

And Jake waited so long for his toy to be thrown that he was falling asleep in the sun.  It was warm enough that I was down to a t-shirt, and even Larry was for a while. 

 Luna made herself scarce.  She doesn't like any banging noises, and I had to pound in the metal poles for the pea fencing.   I got sugar snap peas planted down both sides

And then we took turns digging the last few rows and got it all done. I got some arugula seeded, and of course have to protect it in case a stray chicken decides to start scratching there.

I also opened the gate to the pen the new hens were in. Quite a lot of them made it out and headed to the sheep barn and beyond.  There's more grass out there, which I want them to be eating. 

Miracles never cease. 

They all made it back in to the coop by dark, and most of them are roosting on the perches.  I had to count them to make sure, and they were all there.  

Wow, I was impressed!

To top the day off, one of Larry's brothers and his wife stopped by.  His brother is a big tall guy; not Luna's favourite.  She was pretty good with them, despite only seeing them a couple of times before, and it's been a year since the last visit.

A great day all round:)

Spuds and other Stuff

There was no getting the potatoes planted this year by March 3, which is what I aim for every year.   A few days ago I planted this bunch of leftovers from last year, that were going a little wild.

And then the rest of the bed was planted with some Warbas.

Tomorrow I'm going to put plastic over these hoops to help heat the soil a bit faster and give the potatoes a jump start.

It was a bit of weird day, starting out sunny, and then clouding over, and then it couldn't make up it's mind. Hard to tell in this photo, but it was sunny and raining at the same time.

Which meant there should be a rainbow. 

There was, but it was the weirdest rainbow I've seen here.  Instead of arching high into the sky, it seemed low and flat and barely showed above the trees.

Remember how I said that neither rototiller was working.  Well I told David that I'd give him $20 if he could get this one working.  Larry has no more mechanical aptitude than me.  Obviously there is some in his family though, as one brother is mechanically inclined, and my dad was too.  David had to get it from somewhere.  

David got the rototiller working, and went and rototilled a plot of garden.  

I love this little rototiller, and I love David even more!

Yesterday Larry seriously wounded the rototiller.  One tine caught on a piece of metal that was jammed in the ground to hold a board in place,  flung it up and it hit the rototiller by the fuel tank and a metal part got broken.  

The rototiller is at the hospital.  Hopefully it wasn't a mortal wound, or an expensive wound.  We don't know how long the recovery is going to take. 

It's back to digging by hand.

The greenhouse could do with a clean out and a power wash.

Jake getting the golden glow of the setting sun.  

Our driveway isn't as steep as the zoom makes it appear.

A random crow in the top of the oak tree

Tonight's full moon just coming up.  Apparently it is 14% larger, or maybe that was closer? than usual.

First day of Spring on Sunday!

A Pedicure for April

April, our old Dorset X ewe, got a pedicure the other day.  Our sheep might only get their hooves trimmed once a year, when the shearer comes.  In fact that's all most of them get, and their feet are fine.  They do lots of walking around and seem to keep their feet in relatively decent shape.  April is the exception.

She has the same kind of feet as her mother, and for some unknown reason the outer claw on the front feet  grows much faster than the inner claw.  I knew she needed her feet doing, and was just waiting for a good day and time, which would be a day that was dry, with dry ground.  This particular day she was laid by herself in the old horse stall that is an add-on to the front of the barn.  We have a few bales of hay stored in there, and since the door is falling apart and falling off it's hinges, we've just allowed the sheep to help themselves to the hay, since the hayfield has been eaten down.  The other three ewes had wandered out to the field, and April was laid there by herself.  Since she is a former bottle lamb, and I've been feeding her grain in the morning, she is fairly tame.  Also, she is a couple of weeks short of turning 15, so she doesn't move too fast anymore.

Since three of her four feet were visible while she was laid there, I was going to try and trim her hooves without getting her up and flipping her onto her backside.

Here's my rather ancient looking hoof trimmers.  A good oiling would probably help them out. Like I said, I don't use them much.  There are much nicer, easier to use trimmers around now, but this was the standard variety about 30 years ago.

And yes, gulp, that is blood on the end of them.  I cut a little close, trying to cut the messy part away.

Here's one front hoof before I started

And here it is after I've finished.  The two claws never look the same, as the longer one is also much wider, but at least now they are relatively the same length.

There's usually some infection in the bottom of the big claw, so I pour a bit of Kopertox on it.  It's like a foot bath in a bottle.

I wish I could say she was as good as new when I was done.  Not really.  She's quite arthritic in her hip joints.  I'm pretty sure she won't be around for another winter.  She still gets around though, and seems happy enough.  Look at the first picture and you can see that she is still bright eyed and alert.

The other day though, I was feeding her the grain.  She got some stuck in her throat I guess.  She stopped eating and her head was hung down.  Saliva was bubbling.  She flung her head around and strings of saliva and wet grain were thrown every where. She sneezed and snorted.  I left her alone while we took the dogs through the bush, as usually the sheep manage to sort this out themselves.  When we came back she was with the other ewes, but wasn't grazing, was still stood with her head hanging.  I went inside, got my sheep book out, and mixed up some baking soda and warm water that I use for bloat.  April's cute, but she has had her issues over the years, including bloating four or five times.  I figured that if I got some of that down her throat, I might help flush the blockage out, or help it go down. Just as I got it mixed, I looked out and she had her head down and was grazing.

April lives another day. 

Check out Farm Friend Friday over at Verde Farm

Happy St. Patrick's Day

While searching for the pieces of flooring that we took out of the old closet in our bedroom, I came across this, tucked down the side of the little freezer in the small bedroom.  Haven't found the flooring yet, which we have tucked away somewhere, but I thought this Irish blessing was worth sharing on St. Patricks day.  I embroidered this sometime in my youth, between the wild parties I used to attend (yeah right!)

Didn't find any four leaved clovers either, although I wonder why they didn't include one or two in that embroidery pattern.

What I did find was two ladybugs on the bedroom window.   They were nice and still until I asked them to pose.  The first one was totally uncooperative and flew off before I had a chance for a shot.  She must have heard that her house was on fire.  The second one flew off also, but not before I got this one and only photo.

Please excuse the dried out, paint flecked knuckles.  And yes, the sun was shining!

You can go to this link and learn the story about the *Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home* rhyme.

And on a more serious note

Please check out this link http://www.pawcurious.com/2011/03/paws-for-japan-why-animal-rescues-matter/

and help support the animals in Japan that are also suffering.

A Special Birthday.

Yep, another Birthday.  This birthday is one that few people get to celebrate.

It's a very special birthday.  Larry's mum turned 101 today.  There was a big party for her last year, but by rights, this year's party should have been even bigger.  I mean, after 100, shouldn't another year lived mean an even bigger celebration?

She's a very special lady, and I couldn't have asked for a better mother-in-law.

Here she is with Meredith and David when she was 80.

Of course now she lives in a care home, but she lived in her own place until she was about 97.  

She doesn't walk anymore, after breaking her hip when she was 99.

She can't see much at all, but her hearing isn't bad, and she still has a sense of humour.

Larry and I went to visit her this morning.  We took a potted rose, which she wasn't able to see, but she felt it and she was able to smell it.

I got a few laughs out of her.

When the young care aide came to take her for her lunch, she was amazed when I said Elizabeth was 101 today.  She said she had never met anyone over 100.

Happy Birthday Elizabeth Priscilla!

And here's her moment in the media.

Get Yourselves Outside.

When my sister and I were young, that's what my mother used to say.

'Get yourselves outside'

She was big on fresh air and exercise, and kids inside watching TV or reading on a nice day, well that just didn't cut it. 

I remember going over to friends and knocking on the door and asking if they could come out and play....

Never a problem if they came knocking at our house.  My mother couldn't get us outside fast enough.

That's what I felt like today with the new hens.  We've had them since Thursday afternoon.  I've only seen two of them come out of the coop since then.  Not that I can really blame them, since it's just about rained non-stop (or at least it feels that way) since then.

But, I don't want to complain, because, well, compared to Japan, it's really nothing.

This afternoon though, it actually stopped rain AND the sun came out.  My first thought was that maybe the pullets would decide it might be time to venture out.  I looked over that way, and couldn't see a bird.

I figure they needed a little help. 

The chicken coop sits on the fence line.  That means that the man door is on the side of the coop that is not in the field, and there is only the little chicken door opening into the field.  That little door is under the dropping boards under the roosts.  I thought I could just go in there and gently herd them out of the little door.  No such luck.  I got a pole, and then I got a board, and then Larry came in to help.

You'd think there was a fox in the hen house.  They were going nuts.  Squawking and flying and flapping and totally not cooperating. 

Between herding and grabbing and shoving through the door, we did eventually get them all outside.  Then I shut the door so that they couldn't get back in. 

 They settled down right away.  They enjoyed themselves out there.  There is an old crumbling partial pen on the north side of the coop, but we had made a bigger pen.  

They'll stay in there for a while, so that they can easily find their way back into the coop.  Depending on how long it takes, I might wait until they start laying, so they get used to laying in the nest boxes.  Then we'll open the pen up and they'll have the run of the whole field.

We did remember to go back outside a bit later and open the door back up for them. 

I'm hoping that now they've tasted some freedom, they'll be searching for it themselves.