Picker's Sky

It just seems like we have finally got into summer, and suddenly Fall is nipping at our heels.  On Saturday morning the alarm went off at 5:30.  I wanted to have enough time to get everything picked and ready for the market, with out my usual last minute crazy mad rush.  The only thing is that now at 5:30, it's just too dark to see what I'm picking.  So a few more minutes of lazing in bed, and finally outside I went.  There were some interesting cloud formations in the sky.  This was about 5:48.  I'm not really one for looking for shapes in the clouds, but looking at this picture later made me think of a herd of elephants, tromping along with trunks held aloft. A couple of elephants seem to have lost their trunks, or maybe the trunks have lost their elephants, but no matter, it's all in the imagination.

Saturday morning was chilly, my right hand was numbing up gathering those cold vegetables.  The vegetables know that Fall is on it's way.  They are slowing down.  There was less to pick, but it takes longer to pick it, so in the end you spend about the same amount of time.  

This morning (Sunday) wasn't as cold.  The Red Sky Rhyme was giving fair warning of the clouds that were forecast to roll in this afternoon, which they did.  

We actually were sort of organized this morning, but even then those few extra minutes seem to get frittered away, and all of a sudden it's a rush again.

It was a good market.  All the vegetables sold except for five bunches of Kale.  Kale sold really fast at the beginning of the year, and now it seems to have eased off.  We'll be having zucchini/kale/onion/whatever else we have to add to it/ stir fries for lunch this week, all sprinkled with parmesan cheese when it's done.  

MMMMmmmmm....

Luna said it was a tough day at the market.

(This is the first time I've seen her use a toy as a pillow)

The Rover has Landed

  Much to David's relief, his landrover, the British import, finally arrived home today.  It's been sitting at the port in Tacoma for the last 12 days.  Red tape and Union pig headedness has kept it there far longer than David had expected.  Apparently, the powers that be decided that the landrover needed to be washed.  Since it was a farm vehicle, it could be transporting contaminated soil or other debris from Britain to North America.  Now in all honesty, wouldn't it have made much more sense for it to be 'decontaminated' before it ever left British soil.  Apparently it was the luck of the draw as to whether the washing would be required or not, and luck was not with David.  And then the employee's union at the port was not allowing another company to come in to do the washing.  That meant they had to find a bonded carrier to take the landrover from the port to an off-site washing facility.  David was on a first name basis and in daily contact with people in Tacoma.  Whatever they washed the landrover with must have contained gold flakes, considering the exorbitant amount he was charged.  It was finally confirmed yesterday afternoon that the landrover was free to go.

David and Christina left about 5 this morning and arrived back 12 hours later with the landrover on the back of a trailer.  Here it is a few seconds into it's first trip on Canadian pavement.

Kind of cute, and well..... sort of stubby.

 'Stubby', I think that's my nickname for it.

And up the driveway

Checking out all the lights

And all Jake felt was frustration.

All these people standing around, and no one would throw the toy.

Inspiration

I think I need some.  I seem to have hit a blogging dry spell.  It's not that I don't have lots to write about, I just got a bit waylaid, and then didn't know where to pick up and get going again, and it just seemed easier to let things slide.  

I saw this story on the news last night. (sorry, you have to watch a commercial first)

       

Talk about inspiring.  Or maybe it's kind of depressing, comparing this active, gung-ho, fit, 93 year old to how I feel myself.  Remember all that running I did, training for the Sun Run.  Haven't done a run since.  And that is not because I didn't want to.  I had some trouble with my hip and knee a few days before the run. The day of, the hip was okay, and the knee, well I could feel it, but it wasn't painful.  It wasn't painful running on it, but the end result was that I had really messed something up.  I gave it some time,  a lot of time, and it didn't seem to be sorting itself out.  I mentioned it to my chiropractor, who couldn't find anything wrong with the knee, but worked on my hip.  That helped.  The next time I went, I told him it wasn't much better, and I was going to give in and go to the doctors.  He said to go to the physiotherapist instead.  So I did that.  The physiotherapist also determined that the problem was stemming from the hip area.  He gave me some stretches to do.  You know how that goes.  I was a bit hit and miss with those, but they did help quite a bit.  Even though my knee now feels much better when I'm walking on it, I need to get back into that stretching routine so that I can really get it sorted out and get back to running.  I need to keep thinking of Olga.  

They're Watching You!

I bought these at the grocery store the other day.

They are Smelt. They are high in omega 3s.

http://fishcooking.about.com/od/meetyourfish/p/smelt.htm

The poor cashier. She barely touched the package and averted her eyes.

'It's those eyes, I feel like they're watching me' she said.

All part of a dogs breakfast.

Not the dog's first choice, but they all got eaten.

Nelson gave them a sniff and a lick, and then walked away.  That doesn't surprise me.  I really would have been surprised if he'd eaten one.  He always turns his nose up at my raw offerings.

 I might get brave enough to try them myself one day.  Cooked though of course.  I'm not a sushi kind of gal.

Under the Microscope

This morning, early, I could hear the roar of the propane burners of a hot air balloon.

The dogs had gone out a little bit before, and Jake now had his nose pressed to the glass door, begging to come in.

I went out to let the chickens out, and here is the balloon coming right over our house and heading over the trees in the sheep field.

Right over my head.  When I waved, people waved back to me.  I heard someone say 'look at the dog', as Luna did her usual outrun around the sheep field.  I felt like I was putting on a performance, being watched from above.  It was a weird feeling. 

I headed over to the south field to let the other coop of chickens out, away from the direction the balloon was going.  Those hens would have been able to see the balloon from the window in their coop.  They were a little more hesitant about coming out, and stopped to have a good look at that great big 'predator' in the sky.

Coming down!

Just landing in the field next door

I thought Pride might be all wound up and snorty, but I don't think he'd even noticed.   His hearing isn't so great any more.  He finally saw it when  Luna ran out to him and he put his head up and then saw the deflating balloon out of the corner of his eye.

I brought Jake back out, he wasn't really thrilled about even looking at the balloon, but since it was no longer making those roaring noises, he figured he was going to be okay.

The wind late yesterday afternoon undressed some of the blueberry bushes.  I dressed them back up again after I picked the ripe ones. 

 Breakfast appetizer!

Oh My Aching Back!

Every other Saturday, my next booth neighbour at the Abbotsford Farmers market is Darlene from Mountain Farms Soap.  She has the most amazing array of products, and some of her soaps are made to look like cupcakes and slices of cake.  They really do look good enough to eat.

You can see some of them here:

http://www.mountainfarmsoap.ca/index.php?cPath=76

See something you like?  Darlene can ship it to you.

Luna had rolled in something gross, gross, gross on Friday.  The bright orangey yellow disgusting smelley something or other was smeared all over the left side of her head and neck.  She was quite proud of herself.  Larry hosed her off, which got rid of the worst of it, but stick your nose in close enough, and you could still get a whiff. 

So on Saturday I bought a bar of soap from Darlene.

Neem soap with peppermint and tea tree oil.

http://www.mountainfarmsoap.ca/product_info.php?cPath=101&products_id=90 

(Yes, I do know that tea tree oil in high doses can be toxic to dogs)

Today after I got home from the market, I figured it was time for a bath.

We have an adapter that allows us to hook a garden hose to the kitchen tap.  That's what we used to do when we bathed our horses. Warm water is much nicer than cold. Since it was warm and sunny, it was easier and less stressful to wash the dogs outside.

Luna doesn't trust anyone that stands outside the bathroom door.  Bathing a dog might be the last thing on your mind, but Luna slinks away just in case

But outside was pretty stress free.

Except for my back.

Then it was hard on my knees.

When we first got Jake, he was terrified of the hose.  The first big agility competition I went to, they had doggy pools and hoses.  Every time we walked within a hundred feet of them he was straining on the leash trying to get further away.  He still doesn't 'like' the hose, but he can deal with it, and was quite relaxed having his bath.

Calli wasn't too thrilled either, but sometimes a dog just has to put up with these things

Yes, she sits funny like that.  It's because of the nerve damage to her back legs.

One aching back and three clean dogs later....

I like the soap.  With enough water on the dogs, it lathered up nicely.  It seemed to rinse out easily.  Not like some shampoos that seem to take forever to rinse out.

Hopefully Luna doesn't find anything stinky to roll in for a few weeks now.

Breakfast

The first thing the hens do when you let them out in the morning, is to put their heads down and start pecking at grass.  Since they peck at the first grass they see, the grass near the coop is always quite short.

Then a whole bunch headed over to the water bucket to wash that grass down.  We keep the hose dripping so the bucket is always full.

After opening up both coops, I took my morning wander through the garden, and had some breakfast appetizers.

I could stuff myself with these peas, pods and all.

And then Larry comes out and gives Pride his breakfast - 'senior horse pellets'.

Hey lady, since you aren't sharing those peas and raspberries, how about getting us our breakfast?

No food, no toy throwing.....boring!

Some dogs take matters into their own mouths, and help themselves to what Pride drops.  

Finally!

Even Smudge gets in on the 'raw act'.  Somehow she seems to magically appear when it's dog feeding time, and requests her share too.