From Spring back to Winter

On Friday it was Spring.  We did a bit of pruning of the fruit trees, trying to stop before we overworked our crappy shoulders.  I was down to a t-shirt (I always get warmer than Larry when we are working).  I washed all those loads of laundry.  No, our washing machine is nothing special.  An ordinary top loader I bought second hand off Craigslist.

The dogs were chewing on some bones, well Luna and Jake at least.  I gave Calli the best bone.  She didn't care.  We had come back from our walk and she just wanted to go back into her dark hole in the basement.  I didn't want her to.  I wanted her to lay outside in the warm of the sun and chew on her bone.  She didn't want to.  She kept going to the basement door and barking to go in.  We were all outside, and I wanted her to stay out and get some vitamin D.  I have no idea if dogs absorb vitamin D like we do, but I wanted her out there anyway.  Larry suggested we put her in the x-pen.  Great idea!  She never really did chew on the bone, but she did relax and didn't bark about her situation.  After a while Luna realized that Calli had the best bone.  She circled the x-pen and nudged it with her nose a few times, but wouldn't really dare do any more than that  while we were there.

Lunchtime rolled around.  We are always happy to have the excuse to stop for lunch.  The dogs were still outside.  I glanced out of the window and saw this.

Luna had pushed the side of the x-pen in.  She was digging at the outside.  It's hard to see, but the bone is just on the other side of the wire in her shadow.  Then she laid down to see if her pointy nose would fit under.  Not yet.

I managed to sneak out of the back door without her noticing. .

Did I mention what a glorious day it was?:)  It truly was, the birds were chirping, it was warm, we thought Spring had arrived.  Nope.

 The next day, March 1st, came in like a lion.  It was cold, it was windy, my dog club was holding an agility trial in an unheated barn.  A little bit of snow was blowing in the wind.  Snow would flutter down through the venting strip at the ridge of the barn roof.  People were huddled under a patio heater.  The ring crew were huddled in their blankets.  Sunday morning was the worst.  The snow had started in earnest.  The roads were not the best.  People told of seeing cars in the ditch on the drive there.  There was a white strip of snow all the way down the middle of the ring that had blown thrown the vent strip on the roof overnight. Us dog people are a hardy bunch though, and eventually almost all the entries straggled in.  We started the trial late to allow some leeway on travelling times, and then we seemed to get farther behind as the day went on.  I had spent the first hour and a half as the parking attendant, as the parking area is small and we were trying to cram in as many cars as we could.  I figured on Sunday that a lot of people would cancel and I wouldn't really have to worry, but no, that parking lot filled up again.  It was a 12 hour day.

Oh the joys of using outdoor portapotties in the cold.  Umpteen layers seem to make you twice the size, with barely room to manoeuvre in there.  When you're done you pull the first bottom layer up, pull the first top layer down over it, pull the next bottom layer up over that, pull then next top layer down over that, and so on...., so every thing is all nicely tucked in so there are no cold drafts blowing round your back.  Three layers on the bottom, 5 layers on the top.

I was able to run my dogs at the trial.  Jake, well he was just amazing:)  Like someone said, you can bring him out of the closet, dust him off, throw him in the ring, and he just performs.  Neither dog had seen any agility equipment since early January, and hadn't had any serious work since last Fall.  Not that I take agility seriously any more, it's just something fun I do with my dogs occasionally.  We lose our practice barn to the BMXers over much of the winter.

 Jake went 5 for 5.  Five Qualifying runs, with a first, three seconds, and a third place.  Love my little red dog:)  He has now earned enough Q's to get his Silver award.  Two nice rosettes for that, which I borrowed for a photo, and were handed back.   I don't display them, and no point in just stuffing them in a drawer to become more junk.

Luna, well she is a riot to run.  She is kind of crazy, okay a lot crazy on Saturday.  Let's just say we had a lot of fun.  She was the only dog I ran on Sunday, and got 2 out of 3 Qualifying runs, and just one bar down to prevent the third.  A first place in one class for sure, and I think a first in the other.  I don't take any ribbons, and don't care too much about the placements, it is really the 'Q' (as we agility people call the Qualifying runs) that counts.  It is the 'Q's accumulated that allow you to move up in divisions, or receive titles.

Luna was good, was quite social, and only had a couple of small snarks with dogs that 'stared' at her.  An awesome weekend spent with my dogs.

We got a got about 3 inches of snow on Sunday, and then we got freezing rain, just barely freezing.  Thankfully not a lot, about a 1/4 inch coating on everything.  The roads were good for driving home.  The power went off last night, just as Amazing Race was starting:(  A few branches off a large fir tree near the front of the house broke off with almighty cracks.  The power is on this morning.  Unfortunately this snow melt will not be as kind as last week's, with it's sunshine, mild temperatures and NO rain.  It is wet, slushy and raining out there this morning, with rain forecast all week.  The birds are singing though, so Spring surely must be on it's way.

Logging With Larry

When we walk through our bush in the morning, we always keep an eye out for potential fuel for the wood stove.  The easiest of course is a large branch that has broken off, or a tree that has lost it's head in a strong wind, or even better,  a tree that has fallen over.

A lot of years ago a maple tree fell over, but the roots were still in the ground, so it continued to grow.  It didn't really destroy one of our cross-fences, but sort of bent the wire down a bit, and then became a convenient way for the coyotes to cross over the fence.  They just jumped up onto the log, walked out along it a ways, and jumped off on the other side of the fence.  Just recently, Luna had started doing the same thing, and it was getting annoying.  So I mentioned again that it sure would be nice to get the log sawn up to get rid of the bridge.  There was a couple of problems though.  Two branches on that log had got pretty thick and grown up like trees.  One of them was leaning into another bunch of trees, and the other one was leaning towards the neighbours and wanting to fall on the property line fence.

It's the tree in the middle of the picture, already cut off and some of it split.

Necessity is the mother of invention, so the truck got called into service, since the tractor didn't want to start.  Have I mentioned before that Larry is not mechanical?  (Thank goodness our son is....He got the tractor started on Saturday)  A cable was fastened  up the vertical branch/tree as far as could be reached, and then a few chains were fastened to that, and then to the truck.  After a few attempts of cutting partway through and putting tension on the cable with the truck,  it all came together and the first branch came down, sort of.  We did get it down and in a position to cut up eventually, and then we did the second one and got it to fall the opposite way to how it was leaning.  We managed to NOT get the truck stuck, NOT crush the property line fence and nothing went drastically wrong.  It's always a little nerve wracking though.  There's the potential for a lot of things to do wrong, badly wrong, and it's always a relief when it's all done.  Larry is the logger, I'm the truck or tractor driver, the worrier and the 'TIMBER!' yeller.  I stand there and visualize every possible scenario of how things can go wrong.

Jake gives you some idea of the size of the log.  There are still more rounds to be cut off behind him. You can see the bent down cross-fence in front of him.

We got the logs down on Friday.  Monday when we went for our walk in the morning, we carried the splitting maul out with us.  I think it's because of something in Luna's former life, but she was not happy about me carrying that maul.  She didn't want to come with us, was all wimpy and wiggly and we had to coax her most of the way.  Once I left the maul at the pile though she was fine, and ran off ahead.

On the way back, we let the dogs through the gate near the end of the bush field, because Luna also doesn't like any pounding, like the pounding noise from the maul hitting the logs.  We were hoping that Calli would meander her way back towards the house.  Larry positioned the log rounds, and I started splitting.  It split relatively easily, but even though my shoulders can handle the splitting motion better than Larry's, I can only do so much.  The rest was left for another day or three.  

Thank goodness that I looked back to my left as we went through the gate ourselves.  Instead of heading towards the house, Calli had decided to do some exploring and figured that she had got herself stuck.

Larry went down to help her, he said she didn't seem to be stuck, but I guess in her mind she was.

We'll just keep picking away at the wood, until it's all cut and split, and then take the tractor and trailer down the trail as close to the pile as we can.  It will be loaded up and brought back to be added to the wood pile, and will be burned next winter at the earliest, and maybe the winter after that.

Oh yeah, add some repair to the cross-fence to that project as well.

Friday Fencing

This week we've been picking away at beefing up some of the fencing.  Just an hour or two here and there. This afternoon we finished a stretch.  We have a whole bunch of random rolls of fencing that I found locally on Craigslist too many years ago.  We've gradually been using bits and pieces of them.  This week we were working on the boundary fence of the north field.  When we moved in it was just barbed wire.  At some point on our side of the posts we added some farm fencing, but it was only three feet high.  The north field is one that Pride used some of the time, and the sheep also, but only when we were home, because it wasn't coyote proof.  Not long ago I noticed a coyote track coming from the field next door, and then into our north field.  I looked out of the window one day and saw three coyotes crossing by the horse shed.  It got me worried, because sometimes Luna goes out to the horse shed and cleans up what grain Pride has dropped.  I was worried about what would happen if she was out there, started to head back, and ran into those coyotes passing through.  We try to make sure all the gates are closed if we come inside and the dogs stay out.  We've watched Luna from the window go to the two gates and the barn door and test them all to see if she can get through one.  She's a sneaky, determined one, that Luna.

Earlier this week we loaded a roll of fencing on the dolly and dragged it out to the field.  Larry thought we could carry it.  We were able to lift it off the ground but to actually walk with it would have been impossible.  The first roll did 140ft.  We went to the other end with the next roll and that did 110 ft., which left us with a 35' gap in the middle.  That's what we filled in and finished off today.

Larry is undoing the broken post from the end of the first section.  That is what we wrapped the chain around to pull it tight.

Jake grabbed a ball and brought it with him.  Sometimes we gave it to Calli.  Calli thinks all orange street hockey balls belong to her.  She teased Jake with it.

Jake got fed-up and eventually wrestled it away from her

And we were back to this

Larry was all set to go at the other end, and was waiting for me to finish my end. I told him to take some pictures but he was to take no 'butt' shots.

The sun came out and it felt like Spring.  We both shed our jackets.

 He had been pounding in fence staples to fasten the broken fence post on the other end while I wrestled with the fastening the two sections of fence together.  Thirteen horizontal wires to connect like this.

In the meantime, Luna was running here and there.  She doesn't like any pounding noises, so as soon as we started hammering the fence staples in, she was outa there.  See how dirty her belly hair looks?

This is the mechanism that pulls the fence tight.  The 'come-a-long' is fastened to the broken post that is stapled to the end of the roll.  The other end of the come-a-long is fastened to a long chain that is fastened to a good sturdy post up the line.  Crank the handle and the fence gets pulled nice and tight.  

We left the old saggy farm fence in place.  It was partially buried into the ground at the bottom, and would deter any digging under the fence.  A good 4' high of 2x4" holes will hopefully deter the coyotes.  There's no chickens in this field to encourage them to challenge the fence.

To make the entire perimeter of our property coyote proof would be a daunting, expensive endeavour.  The perimeter is 5/8th of a mile.  There's probably nearly that much again in cross-fencing.  That's a lot of fences posts we've pounded in.

Dirt!

This is why Luna doesn't get to jump on our bed, and why there is always dried dirt around her bed.


Yep, that's what the water looked like after she got in the tub and I sprayed warm water all over her chest and belly and legs and tail.  The plug isn't in the tub, it's just that there is so much dirt that the filter over the drain is plugged up.

We were outside a lot today.  It didn't rain until we were finished for the day, but the ground is damp, mostly thawed out now after our cold spell.  Just an average Fall, Winter, Spring and part of the Summer, day here on the southwest coast of Canada.  So yeah, Luna gets this dirty A LOT!   We usually leave the dogs shut in the basement until they dry off when they are that dirty.  Lately I've been giving Luna a wash off.  She is okay with it, I can get her into the bathroom and into the tub under her own steam.  But really, she'd rather not be there.  So the instant I even think about doing it, or just happen to stand outside the bathroom door, she is belly to the ground, trying to slink past me and up the stairs.

Today Jake was really dirty too.  We were out putting up some more fencing.  Jake was there with his stick, running through the wet field.  Luna was with us, with Pride, with the sheep, all over the place.  I gave Jake a rinse off too.  Even though he has more hair, and looked dirtier than Luna, the water was no where close to being this black.

Out of the Fog

Today turned out to be a glorious day.   From a cold damp foggy day on Friday, a flirting with the fog Saturday, to a lovely sunny clear day today.  We lucked out, because it seems that places closer to the ocean stayed foggy today.  The wispy clouds that were hanging around made for two days of lovely sunsets.  And I'm loving the longer days.  We took the dogs for a walk about 5 o'clock.  Larry went one way with Calli around the one mile block that starts across the road from us.  I went the other way with Jake and Luna.  That way Larry can dawdle along at Calli speed (I hate dawdling), and Jake and Luna can get a bit more of a workout.  By the time we met, Larry and Calli had gone just over 1/4 of a mile, and we'd gone just under 3/4.  Larry turned around and we all walked back together.  Calli's coming along pretty well, we certainly noticed a lot of improvement today.  She's pretty close to being back to 'normal'.  And the sky.....so beautiful.

I did take some pictures of it yesterday.  Larry headed out with Calli.  I was finishing off cleaning out a chicken coop.  I was trying to keep Luna and Jake occupied so that they didn't notice that Calli and Larry had left without them.  When I got to the manure pile with it's clear view to the south, I had to stop and stare, then and go get my camera.

Looking to the south, over the hayfield

Looking to the southwest, where the sun was setting

And then I thought.....backdrop for a silhouette....

So got Luna and Jake on the top of the manure pile, doesn't everyone use a manure pile as a prop in their photo shoots?  This part of the manure pile is well aged shavings and horse manure, so wasn't too messy or smelly.

By this point they had both figured out that Larry and Calli had gone.  I think they could hear them going down the road, or maybe smell them?  Who knows, but they were certainly looking around quite a bit and trying to figure it out.

Tell me which of the three silhouettes you like best.

Some Days It Just All Works Out

I've got to admit, I'm still a Craigaholic.  I can't wean myself away from reading the furniture section on Craigslist.  There's not a whole lot that I'm still looking for, but it's just so fascinating seeing what's for sale and what's for free.  You could decorate a whole house with some wonderful, quality furniture for nothing, if you had all the time in the world and were lucky enough to be the first to respond to some of those ads.  So yeah, I still look, because...well...you just don't know what you might find.

I got really excited about something I found last Saturday morning.  So excited that I just phoned right away and said I wanted it.  Usually I think about if for a bit, then call Larry down to the computer to have a look and ask him what he thinks.  He has yet to say,  'oh, that's wonderful or just perfect or is just what we need, quick, you'd better reply right now', so I'm not sure why I bother.  I guess I just want to forewarn him of what we might be going to pick up:)

This was one of the pictures in the ad.

And the other one looked something like this.  It's made in Germany.

(Just to clarify, it did not come with a sewing machine, that is mine that I put in there). 

The price was $45.  And I was the first one to call!  The ad said it was made of solid oak, but I think it is probably oak veneer.  It has all these cool little compartments that swing out.

And some of them lift out

On the other side there is a lid that lifts up, and has a mirror on it.  Another storage area for spools and bobbins that also lifts out.

There are three drawers.  The top one is fake and the bottom one is a double depth drawer.

The platform that the sewing machine is on is easily raised by pushing a lever.  It will come up level

with the rest of the table, or stop just below so that the bed of the sewing machine is level with the table top.  There is a plastic frame that goes around the sewing machine to fill in the gap.  And I love the tape measure along the front, so handy!

And then it all folds away again to look like this, a decent looking, compact piece of furniture.

  I love it!  And of course I love it even more when I check out the website and see what the most recent version of that same sewing cabinet is selling for ....

https://www.hornofamerica.com/products.cfm?func=productdetails&productID=87

'On sale' for $1134.00!!!  I'm still grinning about it:)

But that wasn't the only good part of the day.  I had also found a bunch of free ink cartridges for our printer on Craigslist that morning.  And low and behold I'd managed to coordinate the pick-up of them for right after the sewing cabinet, just 5 or 10 minutes further away.  So now I also have 6 brand new, still sealed 'knock off' ink cartridges off E-Bay.  

Since we had had to head out to Chilliwack (40 minutes from home) for these deals, I said lets take the dogs along and go for a walk on the dyke out there.  So that was what we did next.  It was a beautiful day, there was no wind, and we had the dyke to ourselves.

The dogs had a great walk, well except for Calli.  On the way back she was just done in, so we had to give her a lot of help.   In reality, she still hasn't recovered from the exercise she got at Oliver, as well as two pretty long walks we had taken her on since then.  It's going to take her a while to get over it, and a lesson learned for us.  What happens is that when we are away, she gets more exercise than she would at home.  She handles it okay for the first few days, and then all of a sudden it catches up with her, and her back legs just get very weak.  We need to remember that we can't take her on a long walk every day.  It is taking her a while to recover, she's still pretty weak and is not getting the walks that she would like to be getting.  She's going to be 13 in a week, so as she ages the recovery time is longer.

After that we stopped for something to eat, and then hit the library and the grocery store on the way home.    A good day, some good deals, a nice walk and all done it one trip.  Just the way I like it!

Sunday Morning Walk

Not too far from our place in Oliver is this cute little church.  Back in the Fall I thought it would be a Christmas card sort of picture when there was snow.  So last Sunday morning I wanted to go and take a picture or three.  If I'd only waited one more day, there would have been a couple inches of fresh snow on everything, and it would really have looked pretty.

We were doing one of those back lane/street walks on Sunday morning.  We were trying to take it easy on Calli.   Larry was walking Jake and Calli, so I said I was just going to go up the little hill and take some pictures.  Since that wasn't the direction that we were planning on going, he could just wait at the bottom to save Calli the extra hill climb, and I'd just be a few minutes.  When Luna and I got up the hill, she really noticed that the rest of the family wasn't with us, and started shrieking and making a fuss, because she thought she was missing out on something.  I had to hurry, because I figured people would be coming to their windows wondering what was making that doG awful noise.

As it turned out, we ended up coming back from the other direction past the church on our way home, so I made another photo attempt.  This time instead of one border collie making sounds like she was being murdered, we had a fight play session break out.

A few minutes earlier, while passing another church, the bells started ringing.  Well more like a taped version of bells ringing that was being broadcast far and wide.  A few minutes later another church just down the street from our place started their 'bells' going too.  I haven't heard church bells for a long time. It was like they were trying to outdo each other, and the combination of the two was a bit discordant sometimes.

Walking, walking, walking.....

When we come back from Wyndson Cottage, we are always reminded of how much exercise Luna gets here without us having to put out any effort.  Sure, we are on ten acres here, compared to a 6000 sq.ft. lot there, but it's not like she just takes herself off around those acres and exercises herself.  But, as soon as we step outside the door, she's off and running.  Make a move toward the sheep field and she makes a big outrun to get there.  If she isn't allowed through the gate, she runs along the fence line a few times.  If she does get in the field, then she runs around the perimeter and then back up through the middle, and might repeat that a couple more times.  Out towards the chickens, she's running there too, then on to Pride.  She's moving constantly, and fast.  So without really doing much, by the time we've done the morning chores and the bush walk, she's probably already run a couple of miles.  At Oliver, we do play a bit of fetch in the backyard, but once the snow has gone, that will be limited, otherwise the grass will just be destroyed.

So each day we are there, we have to make a specific plan to give the dogs some exercise.  I guess city people have to do this all the time, but we aren't used to it:)  Fortunately Oliver has a good sized dog park.  It is a very large ball diamond, fully fenced, that is available as a dog off-leash as long as there isn't a ball game.  We've probably been there half a dozen times to play soccer and fetch. In the mornings it is mostly deserted, and the most we've seen is three other dogs there.  Apparently the whole park is off-leash between 6am and 9am, but we've never got there that early. This last trip we seemed to end up there at the same time as two golden retrievers, who would always steal one of the dog's balls.  No big deal, it kept them happy, we had an extra one, and the owner gave it back to us before he left.  Luna was occupied with her toy, and as long as other dogs stay out of her face, it's not a problem.  So every other day we went to the dog park, and then went for a walk somewhere else in the afternoon.

Fortunately behind the house, and every other house in the area, there is a back lane, so that makes a decent walk straight from the house.  We have to avoid a lot of pavement because Calli drags her back feet a bit. Although since most things were covered in snow this last trip, that wasn't too much of a concern.

There are also good trails alongside the river.  As soon as you are out of the town limits it is off-leash, and it doesn't take long to walk out to that point.  We did a lot of those walks too.

One this particular day, there was blue sky, but it never really lined up between us and the sun, until late in the afternoon, just before it went behind the mountain to the west.

Canada geesers on the river.

Luna loves rolling in the snow.  She is the most rollingest dog I've ever had.  And the week in Oliver is probably the cleanest she's been in a long while.

I always love watching the dogs play.

 We tend to end up taking Calli too far.  Not that we notice it for the first few days, but then it starts to catch up with her.  It's hard, because of course she is always ready to go.  On this walk, on the way back, her back end started to give out.  She starts to fall over to the right.  We looped the leash around her waist and put some resistance on it to keep her back end upright, although she still had a lean happening, and she was able to make it back okay.  Unfortunately Luna found enough crap along the way to give herself the runs that evening.  Not exactly sure what the big black plops were along the trail, but Luna thought they were some sort of delicacy. It's disgusting the things she will eat.

Is that me you're talking about? 

Let me come and give you a kiss!

Bah Humbug

Trying to stay with a Christmas theme, but at the moment I'm not feeling very jolly.  There's words I'd much rather use, or one word, and it starts with F:(

We got hit again, as in something came and went on a killing spree in our north chicken field this time.  I was out yesterday afternoon, and Larry was just returning from a 40 minute walk with the dogs.  As he got close to home he heard a chicken cackling, and then more than one chicken.  He arrived home to discover another massacre.  No bodies this time, but 6 chickens missing, three injured, one of which was dead by last night.  He and David, who had been watching a football game on the TV at the time, hunted around.  They found chickens in shock hidden in weird places.  There were patches of feathers all around the field.  There was no evidence of where anything(s) had come in or out.  I did a pretty good search of the perimeter this morning, and there are no chicken feathers outside the fence.  No evidence of coyotes going over or under.  It's a bloody frustrating mystery.  I just feel so furious, and helpless.....and sick.

We went to bed last night (I guess that goes without saying).  My clock wasn't showing the time.  It is one of those things that broadcasts the time onto the wall or ceiling.  It's great!  Larry had been doing some cleaning and had knocked it to the floor.  I finally got the time working, but it was showing three hours later than it should.  Finally found the right button to fix that.
Luna usually sleeps in our room, on a mat in the corner, but sometimes she does that reverse sneezing thing, it can be quite bad and go on for a long time, usually around 5am.  And when she figures it's time for you to get up, if you happen to rustle the sheets even slightly, she walks over and pokes you with her cold nose, and 'encourages' you to get up.  Larry moves, and she comes and gives me the cold nose.  So I started shutting her out of our room so I would get a better sleep, since I need all the help I can get some nights.  If she's not in our room, when she thinks we should get up, she starts doing a gentle woof every ten seconds or so from the living room, which wakes me up.  Larry sleeps through it all.  So I'm damned if I do, and damned if I don't.  Last night she was in our room.  She must have eaten something gross, because she was stinking up our room something fierce.  Also, the Fat Ewe, was baaing the sheep field.  Kind of like Luna's morning living room woof.  Not loud, but regular.   Unusual for sure.  I listened for a while, and figured I had to check it out, because there was no way I'd fall asleep while that was going on.  It was already past midnight.   The Fat Ewe and Young Ewe were stood in the field, which was strange.  Normally they would have been in the barn. This is the field where the chicken massacre took place, it's also the sheep field.  The sheep were out in the hayfield when the killing took place.  I have to wonder what the result would have been in the sheep had been in there.   So there I am in my nightie and crocs with a flashlight, in the drizzle, trying not to slip in the mud.  (Going downstairs to get boots and a jacket is too much work and gets the dogs all wound up, barking etc). The Old Ewe is down on her side, thrashing away in the barn.  That was weird too.  She hasn't done that in more than a month.  Has actually been doing quite well for an old lady.  Anyway, I heaved her to her feet and went back in.  Shut Luna out of the bedroom.  Finally fell asleep.  Was the Fat Ewe looking out for her friend?  Something similar happened before.

The alarm went off  at 6am.  What the...?  All the messing around with the clock had somehow got the alarm turned on.  I fumbled in the dark and thought I turned it off.  It started up again 8 minutes later.  Fumbled around again and finally got it right, I think.  (I'd better remember to check it when I go to bed tonight) Luna knows that the alarm is all about.  Since there was no sounds of anyone moving in the bedroom, she started her woof, ten seconds of silence, woof, etc.  I wanted to just yell at her from the bedroom, but didn't want to wake Larry, (it amazes me what he can sleep through) so I stormed out there and gave her heck and tried to reassure Jake that it wasn't HIM that I was mad at.  Went back to bed.  Couldn't get back to sleep.  Got up earlier than usual, and was heading outside to have a look around, see if any chickens had come out of hiding.  Got downstairs to the utility room where Calli sleeps.  As most of you know, Calli has nerve damage, which among other things resulted in some loss of bladder control, and no bowel control.  We have to make sure she pees in the evening.  Larry thought he had accomplished that.  Obviously not, the utility room was a disaster area.  Feeling like the jolly Christmas elf I was not.

Anyway, after my long wander outside, in the field next door, I'm feeling just as frustrated.  There is no evidence of what happened to those chickens.  Mink or weasel, no, they wouldn't/couldn't have carried 6 chickens off.  A family of raccoons? maybe, but then we'd at least find some feathers on the other side of the fence. Same for coyotes, but how did they get in?   Eagles, sure, but they don't work in flocks, maybe in a pair, and we've had one grab a chicken before now, but 6 chickens?  It is just like the chickens were lifted off into the sky, and the worst thing is not knowing what we are up against.  Is it coincidence it happened when the dogs weren't here?

                                                                   Bah Humbug!

Winter Wonderland Wednesday

Just in case you were wondering if we had fallen off the edge of the earth, or had got buried in a snowdrift, or were running in circles and couldn't find our way out of the mall.......here's a few pictures from this morning.




We've flirted with snow the last few days.  I drove home from White Rock on Sunday evening in a blizzard, which petered out to half strength after a few miles, and by the time I was half way home it had fizzled out completely, and there was nothing here.

There was a dusting of snow on the ground both Monday and Tuesday morning, but this morning there was a few inches, which has just about doubled itself in the last three or four hours.  The chickens were not impressed, and thankfully we cleaned out both the coops and the sheep barn yesterday, as they will be getting a lot of use if this keeps up.  Some of the bolder hens made the 50' dash to the sheep barn this morning, but they'll probably lay their eggs in there, because the snow is now deeper and they won't want to make their way back.



The dogs enjoy it of course, although it's quite a workout for Calli, as the snow impedes her back legs, and she has to drag them through it.



Lovely to look at, but the novelty will wear off fast.  We are right around the freezing mark, so the snow is great for snowmen and snowballs, but not so great for driving in.



For once Luna's undercarriage won't be covered in mud, yay!









The hen from the south chicken coop that  usually flies over the fence and heads to the right down that row of evergreens, and lays an egg in the open on some dirt, wouldn't have been too pleased this morning.  Hopefully she will be forced to lay her egg on some dry hay in a cosy nest box.  Poor thing!:)



And speaking of malls, I haven't even ventured there yet this shopping season.  Probably haven't been there since last year.  Maybe tomorrow:)