Pretty in Pink

Luna is quite happy to lend her support to breast cancer research and to those dealing with breast cancer.

I was quite happy to give a donation going through the checkout at Safeway a few weeks ago. The young cashier seemed thrilled when I said yes.  She must have been getting tired of asking everyone that went through, and not getting many positive responses.  I don't mind being asked to donate at the checkout for a worthy cause.  To me it's an easy way to do it.

And I'm quite proud to flaunt this gaudy pink badge on the shoulder strap of my purse.

Thinking of you, Sandy!

As for Luna, well last Monday she was outside tussling with Jake.  Next thing I see is her stood by the dog pool with blood dripping from her foot.  After I got the bleeding stopped and struggled with her to get a look, all I could see on a foot that was never held still enough was a raw spot where skin had been ripped off between her two middle toes.  A long way from her heart I thought.  But then Luna started licking it, and licking it, and seemed obsessed with it.  I put a fleece bootie on her foot, and she licked the bootie.  On Wednesday I had to take her back to Lana the chiropractor for a re-check.  Her back was in pretty good shape, other than a couple of minor adjustments.  I asked Lana to check her foot for misaligned toes.  Luna protested wildly, it was very painful, but Lana managed to straighten them out.  One was badly out of alignment, and the other wasn't quite as severe.  I though that was great, would probably be the end of the toe licking, but it wasn't.  She wore the bootie most of the time, and then when she went outside, I sewed a piece of waterproofed nylon into a tube and fastened it on her leg with electrical tape.  By Friday she was still licking it.  It was a real struggle to get any sort of decent look at it.  I debated about taking her to the vet, but I  figured that since it was already Friday, the chances of getting her in to see him before this week were slim. I thought I'd wait it out over the weekend.  Her foot was smelling really funky and disgusting but I couldn't see any sign of infection.  Anyway, it does finally seem to be drying up and healing between the toes.  She is still licking it at times, but not as much.  The gross smell has gone.  Maybe the pink bootie is almost ready to be retired.

Market Moments

Today was a farmers market at Abbotsford.   After the regular season ended the week after Thanksgiving in the middle of October, there were five markets on various Saturdays before Christmas.  I chose to go to two of them, maybe three. (There is one more yet the week before Christmas).  For the most part, the market is now held indoors.  There are always a few vendors that are outside, some because they operate out of a large trailer, others because they prefer it that way.  If there's a chance that the day is going to be decent, I'd much prefer to be outdoors.  I lucked out at the market at the beginning of November, and it was a lovely sunny day.  It is so much easier for me to set up outside.  The jam that is not part of the immediate display can remain in the utility trailer that we park at the back of our booth.  It saves a lot of lifting in and out of the trailer, loading onto a dolly and transporting inside.  As well as that, there is much more room.  When I'm setting up inside, there never seems to be enough room.  Mostly room for the ten to fifteen boxes of jam that are there to refill the display once a jar is sold. (On any given day I have around thirty different varieties)
 So today was supposed to be sunny, with overnight temperatures around the freezing mark, and sun and about 5 degrees Celsius.  A bit chilly to start, but by mid morning it would be quite pleasant. Or so I thought.
This morning when I got up, it was cloudy.  That's okay, it kept the overnight temperatures up a bit higher.  The sun would burn the clouds away, and I'd be glad I'd chosen to be outside. When I got to the market, there were only three of us hardy souls outdoors, with another twenty vendors or so, in the nice, waaarrrrrm basement of the church.  One of the outside vendors was set up in a trailer, and had a heater at his feet.  I had taken all the right clothing I thought.  I waited patiently, and then impatiently, for some signs of the sun breaking through.  It never happened.  In fact we got some drizzle.  What the....?
The sun never did come out.  The drizzle was enough to wet the pavement.  It didn't get any warmer, and neither did I.  Two hot cups of tea and some delicious soup kept me at just feeling cold instead of freezing.  Lots of my regular customers wanted to know why I was outside in the cold.  I kept telling them it was supposed to be sunny. Good thing I can laugh at myself.  What I think helped to keep me from freezing was that sales were brisk, and it was a very profitable market:)  I think if I go to the market in two weeks, I'll pick the inside option though.

Fearless Friday

 Not exactly fearless yet, but Nelson has certainly come out of his shell, and the bedroom, and instead....

Has gone into a box!

 If Luna doesn't move fast, he is 'okay' with her.  In fact I've seen them almost nose to nose a couple of times.

Jake is a different story.  Nelson hisses at him sometimes.  If Nelson gets too close, Jake gets all stiff and tall. Maybe he's remembering the time at my mum's when he stuck his head in the little doghouse where Nelson used to hang out, and got soundly whacked across the nose for his rudeness.

Golden Friday

None of that Black Friday stuff here.  Although I did hear there were retailers offering their own versions of the retail deals and madness taking place in the States, to keep the Canadian money from crossing the border.  Not interested.

We celebrated that golden orb in the sky, not a black cloud to be seen.  

A rare sight this time of the year.

A day where some border collies looked for a soccer playing partner, and others were sampling various piles of horse manure.

A day where dogs once gold are now fading to white

And manure piles threaten to disappear under the encroaching blackberries.   

That only took a year. I always say to people that if you didn't touch those blackberry vines, in ten years our area would be just one massive blackberry patch.

A day you thought would be good to dig some more dahlia tubers out.

I didn't realize just HOW wet it was where that row of dahlias was planted, until I put the fork in and wrenched them free of the sucking mud.

A day where black cats with golden eyes, take their first solo outdoor walkabout, and return!

Nelson was gone for a couple of hours.  I went out once to try and find him, with no luck.  An hour after that I stood and called from the deck, and lo and behold he sauntered  from the barn and came to the back door.

A taste of real freedom now means that he stands meowing at the back door to go out.

Nelson has really come out of his shell, which has it's good and bad points.

We've caught him on the counter a couple of times, and that really grosses me out.

A day where Mt. Baker catches the last blue skies and the sun's rays.

A day to go somewhere a bit different for a dog walk.

When you stop to sit on a new bench at the viewpoint, certain horse manure eating dogs find a stick and beg you to throw it.

And then you throw it to the other dog

How dare you?

Okay, this time make sure you throw it to ME!

We were 'good' park users and kept our dogs on leash.  Well mostly because we've heard that the dog police there are always on your case. There is an offleash area there, but the place was packed with too many people and dogs just hanging around, so we avoided it.  We met a few horses and riders on the trail, and of course other people with dogs, none of which were leashed.  They held on to their dogs as they passed, except for the last group.  Two white shepherd types.  I ended up unclipping Luna's leash, as her hackles were up and she was ready to explode.  Fortunately both dogs ignored her, and she was quite happy to dash ahead and catch up to Larry and Calli.

A nice sunny break before the next weather system rolls in.

A Birthday and a Blogging Dry Spell

It was a fun dinner out at The Olive Garden last night, to celebrate Meredith's birthday.  At least it gave me something to post about, as I've been suffering from Blogger's Block the last few days.

The birthday girl didn't get free cake, but Thomas the waiter told us he would decorate what she chose.  So a lot of whipping cream, two candles and a red cherry that had already fallen off into the whipped cream, later,  she was presented with Rudolph:)

Here's the birthday girl and friend Jennifer.

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends!

A Mystery

Last evening sometime before I went to bed, I heard a soft mooing.  Now it seemed like it came from the back of the house, and the only cattle around here are across the road or two properties to the south.  I thought it was just my ears playing tricks on me, making me think the sound was coming from somewhere it wasn't.  You know how it is, it's dark, it's cold, and you really don't want to be wandering around outside with a flashlight right then, trying to track down the source of one little moo.  I even wondered if it was the sheep, but it sounded too 'sheep unlike' and so I just rationalized the sound as best I could.

This morning we bundled up, did the bush walk, came back, gave Pride some hay, got The Old Ewe out, and I heard it again. I t sounded like it was coming from next door's, and I start to wonder if they have suddenly got some cattle.  Then I heard it again, and it sounded really close, like in our hayfield close.  So I look in the direction of where the moo came from , and this is what I see.

Laying peacefully under the hazelnut tree that is in the hay field, but actually on the other side of the fence in the south chicken field, is this heifer or steer, or maybe it is the heifer bull cow called Bert from Craigslist.  No, probably not, as it certainly wasn't friendly.  As soon as I got within 50 ft, it was up and gone down to the other end of the field.  We wandered around trying to figure out how it got in the fenced field, but it was a mystery.  We headed down to the other end of the field and it panicked and went over the 4' fence with no hesitation.  Got one back leg caught up momentarily, and then it was gone.  It had landed on the driveway, fortunately for us on the part of the driveway between the gate and the road.  At least we didn't have a panicked steer charging around the back yard.  We went out to look for it, but it had totally disappeared.  We walked up the road to see if it had gone into the field to the north of us, but no luck.   I went back to see if it had gone in the field to the south, as Jake was barking out in our hayfield, but there was nothing.  Larry talked to a neighbour walking down the road.  She hadn't seen it, but she had seen the whole herd belonging to the neighbour two doors down out on the road last night, so I think the mystery was solved.  It looked like that steer had got into our field the same spot it got out, as there were frozen tracks next to the driveway.  Hopefully it finds it's way home, or maybe it could find a better home actually. 

We Are NOT Amused!

...said the hens as there was a traffic chicken pile up on the entrance to the freeway chicken field this morning.

They are a ratty looking bunch at the moment, a lot of them seem to be molting to some degree.

We refuse to go any further!

So I led them down the backroad  the chicken trail to the clear spot under the trees.

And on our bush walk this morning,  parts of the trail were almost obliterated.

So I was smart and let others lead the way. 

It was pretty out there, but I'm hoping some sunshine clears most of it away.