An Alien in the Backyard.

There's something weird out there!

Luna isn't quite sure about it.

Is that thing edible/playable/herdable?

This is the first year I've tried to grow kohlrabi.  I'm not sure if I've actually ever eaten any before.  The experiment wasn't a total success.  To start with they are planted in the wrong spot.  The oak tree to the southeast casts shade on the plants for too many hours. Way too many plants in too small of an area.  I hate to thin seedlings.  Always think I'm going to do it, and never do.  So we have loads of green kohlrabi plants, but not many that have 'fattened' up.  Some of the plants went to seed and have long thin seed pods hanging like skinny, miniature pea pods.  A couple of the plants got quite tall and didn't bulge, but have lovely, healthy, curly leaves on them.  You can see them in the first photo. There are some smaller bulges like the one below.  From what I've read, that is the size they should be eaten .  The whopper above is apparently going to be 'woody'.  I'm getting such a kick out of just looking at it that I'm in no rush to cut it up and find out.

Fall Colours

We'll take our Fall colours any way we can get them.

Yes, it was all courtesy of the sun, which broke through the clouds just as it was setting last night, and touched the trees with red.

This morning, they are all back to plain, boring green.

It's only if we get a dry Fall with cool nights that we get much colour, and nothing like what they get in the east.   It's been a wet Fall:(

But, the sun is coming out this morning, yay!

April Lives Another Day

April is still hanging in there.  Well actually she's doing okay, for an old lady with sheep dementia and failing eye sight.  Probably aren't many people that would still have her around at this point....oh well, no way to justify her being here, but she is.  Easier than sending her off to the great pasture in the sky at any rate.

So quite often we put April and The Old Ewe out in the hayfield during the day. 

This is the view from the kitchen window.  

One day when we were blackberry picking, she wandered out with us.  That was fine, but getting her back wasn't so easy.  With the help of my knee against her neck or shoulder, and Luna's help or hindrance, depending on the moment, it's a slow process moving her anywhere.

Note to self - 

Lose 20 lbs.

Only allow yourself to be photographed in more attractive outfits

Buy a new bra or tighten up the straps at least

Lose 25 lbs

A week or two ago it was starting to get a bit dim, after supper. We'd forgotten about April.  I heard her baaa, (yes I can tell her voice from the others).  We were in the living room at the front of the house.  I thought she sounded kind of close.  When I looked out of the window, she was on the front lawn. She'd come out of the field, down the driveway and around the house.  She had a senior moment, and had got headed in the wrong direction.

She wasn't quite sure which way to go next.

She did head in the right direction around the other end of the house, but the way was eventually blocked.  That piece of old railing is there to stop Luna running the fence line around the sheep field.  Well she still runs it on the other side, but for a shorter distance.  There are specific incidences that cause her to do that, which would take too long to explain here.  The herding people would probably be horrified that she gets the opportunity to do that. We do what we can to prevent it, but aren't totally successful.

There is a gate just off to the right past that green bush, but we had to go all the way back around the house to get to it.

Two times in the last couple of weeks, April has bloated.  No particular reason, and in her lifetime she's probably bloated half a dozen times before.  I've only ever had one other sheep bloat. 

Both times, by the time she got back to her field, she was flinging great gobs of frothy saliva around, or letting it accumulate in pools at her feet.  Not a pleasant sight.

Two tablespoons of baking soda in a cup of warm water seems to do the trick every time.  The struggle is getting it down her throat without lifting her head up and sending it into her lungs instead, but eventually I succeed.  The last time I could actually see her right side deflate as the baking soda did it's trick.

Not sure how much longer we'll baby her along, although we did buy a bag of sheep grain today:)

Oh yeah, April is 15 1/2 years old.

All told, 59 buckets of blackberries were picked!

Early Morning Walk

We had a bit more time this morning, when we headed off to the market.  We stopped at the seasonal off leash park at Campbell Valley Park, just before 8 am..  It's used as a hay field during the spring and summer months, but October to April, you are allowed to take your dogs through the fields.  It's been a year since we were there.  In fact the very same day exactly a year ago, except last year we stopped on the way home from the market.  And the weirdest thing was....we saw the same dogs, and they were the only other dogs besides ours, that we saw when we were there last year.  How weird is that?

I wanted to check out 'our' crab apple tree.  There were some apples on it, but not a lot, and I don't think I'm bothered about going back to get some.  Don't feel like putting out the effort.

We use our smallest folding dog crate in the back of the truck, because that is all there is room for by the time we've piled the coolers with the eggs and the vegetables and flowers in there.  It's a bit small for Calli, but she doesn't care.  She likes to lie in it at the market, and stick her head up through the sun roof!

We have a Ford Ranger, and Jake and Luna ride behind the front seats.

A much nicer day at the market this Sunday, compared to last week, thank Dawg!

Camping!

We went camping on Wednesday.  Yep, we were away from home for a whole 22 hours!  We've been wanting to get out in our little fifth wheel trailer, but between work and my mum, there just hasn't been the opportunity.  Since there is a nice campsite just 20-25 minutes away, we figured if we got a decent day this week, we'd just head out, even for one night.  So I made jam all morning, and helped Larry get the canopy off the truck, the fifth wheel hitch in, and the trailer hooked up.  He got some food together for a few meals and we put in a few other odds and ends we needed, including the dogs and all their stuff, and we were off.

We went down to Derby Reach Regional Park and the campsite at Edgewater Bar.  We figured that since the kids are all back in school, we shouldn't have any trouble getting a spot.  I was worried about fishermen though, so Larry took a run down there in the car in the morning to check it out, and there were lots of empty campsites.  We got there about 3, and got set up in our site right along the Fraser River

The park has a great off leash area, with access to the river, so we took a walk over there.  Our dogs aren't dogpark dogs, as in they have no interest in socializing with the other dogs.  They just want to play ball.  Which is great really, especially with Luna.  Since she is not particularly good at meeting other dogs face to face, if she is focused on a ball, it gives her something else to think about.  Other dogs might come up, but since she is basically ignoring them, they don't get right in her face, and all is well.  She had a goofy young lab bounding along behind her as she chased the ball, but she didn't care.  Only once she told him off when he got in her way.

This photo was taken the next morning, when we had this part of the doggy park to ourselves.

So of course the dogs were hot after all that running around.  Down at the far end and round the corner to the right you get to the river.  We went that way and our three charged to the water, and Luna laid down in it.

Here's part of the river access.  It depends on the water level as to what sort of 'beach' area there is.

We went down to the end to get away from the other dogs.  

We're just unsociable snobs:)

Then back to the campsite to round up some supper.

Here's the view downriver, standing on the beach below our site.

The dogs dined on stewing hen, at their waterside table.

It's not the quietest place.  There are busy train tracks on the other side of the river.

We had simple camping food.  Fried onions and tomatoes, and a can of baked beans.

There were quite a few fisherman along the river, and below our site a spawned out, ugly looking salmon swam back and forth.  Not long to live I guess.

The sun sets over the river.

The mist burns off the river the next morning.  The only negative thing about these campsites is that at this time of the year, with the sun getting that bit lower each day, they stay mostly in the shade as the trees on the other side of the road are so tall.  The dew is so heavy overnight that things never really dry off.  

Lots of places to find the sun though.

After a short walk down a trail, where a coyote dashed across in front of us, which turned Luna into a lunging shrieking idiot at the end of the leash, we went back for some breakfast, and then we headed off again.  The dogs insisted that we make a stop at the dog park, so more ball action.  We skipped on the river this time.  Then we headed off on the trail that leads from the dog park.  We rode through this area on our bikes earlier in the year.  There have been a few changes though.  There are cows in one of the fields.

Get along little dogies!

Notice who's doing the grazing here.

We weren't sure how far we should walk, because we have to take into account that Calli can only go so far.  She seemed to be doing well, so we kept on going.  Down the road between the barns and the farmhouses, and eventually the trail led into another field, where a fellow was plowing by horse power.

(This as well as the cows were cut out of 3/8" steel)

That's Golden Ears in the background.  No snow on them yet.

It was a long walk across the field, but we made it to a new picnic area by the river.  Not a soul in sight.  Dogs are supposed to be on leash of course, but since we had the place to ourselves they got some river time.  Eventually a woman with two dogs showed up, and her's got some river time too.  She said she comes every day and usually never sees anyone else there.

She said sometimes there is a big sandbar here.

Calli did well, although she had scraped the top of one toe raw on the gravel path. (She drags her back feet a bit).  On the way back we forced her to walk on the grass along the edge, and as we walked the last bit to our campsite, her back end started to give out.  I grabbed her tail to help hold her up, and we slowly walked the last little bit.

And then we got ourselves packed up and headed back home, where duty called.

Wordless Wednesday on Friday

Stocking Up

So this past week Superstore put their canning  jars on sale.  Half price or less.  I use three sizes - 125m., 250 ml and 500 ml.  It's not often that I'm able to find a sale on all the sizes.  The last couple of years Superstore hasn't had any extras to clear out.  This year they put a limit of 8 on each size.




















Larry and I have been through with a buggy each, three times.  There's at least 150 boxes, as in some sizes there were jars made by two different companies, so you could get 8 of each    Now I'm hoping that they get really desperate to get rid of them.  Three years I got a whole pickup load for 99 cents a case.  I am using the last of those boxes tomorrow.  ( I do get a lot of jars brought back, and am able to reuse those with new lids on them).  This closet full will last me about a year of jam making.