Sunday, 23 March 2014
Our rooster crows in the evening
Hey, it's Spring!
Hello!
I've got a few minutes (I'm supposed to be doing the dishes.... Sound familiar Mom?) so it's time for my monthly-ish update.
Dash, or Smash as we call her, is a border collie cross from the rescue that we have been fostering since mid-January. She is just over a year old, and when Nic picked her up in November, she was horribly underweight and malnourished, plus she had lice and mites. She has settled in well her after some proper bonding, and for the first bit Zim was overjoyed to have someone to tousle with. (Now he's starting to get tired of her puppy-ness; she loves to wrestle, and lately there have been a few incidents involving serious growling and a yelp or two. We'll intervene when there is yelping, but if no one is getting hurt, we leave them to sort it out - both of them can use the socialization.) Dash is ridiculously smart and eager to please, which makes her easy to train. We've been working on sit-stay, 'don't bolt out the door when it is opened', 'be calm when you are in the kennel', and 'the world is not going to end just because you are in a vehicle'. We've also been socializing her with Doodle and Pongo, and it is going great. She's still nervous when she meets new people, but she's getting better with that as well. Her #1 skill is chewing, but since we convinced her not to chew the coffee table, she's only chewed bones and toys, as is proper. She's terrible at catching (toys and food will bounce off her forehead, then she'll look for them when they hit the floor) and she's not enthusiastic about fetching either. She also has a slight obsession with the cats - Mander will sometimes let her chew on him (she likes to do that nibble/scratching thing on them) but Molly won't have anything to do with her... which just makes Dash more interested in her. But she's been good with the chickens, and she is eager to come when called.
Dash is up for adoption - if anyone is nearby and interested, get in touch with Nicola at the rescue: http://www.pgequinerescue.com
A few weeks ago, I made a treat bag for training Zim out of some 'lining' (possibly polyester?) a large snap ring and a large snap lid from old canning jars. It has a drawstring top and a loop to which I have attached a carabiner to clip it on my belt loop, and no seam edges on the inside for treat dust to get stuck in. It works AWESOME and I am quite proud of myself for coming up with the pattern and putting it together.
Last weekend I picked up a body pillow to help me sleep. We bought it at Sears but they don't sell covers for them. They had some sheets on sale, though, so we picked up one and I made a pillow case for it, complete with a pocket to cover the open end.
At the end of January, I held another book repair session; this one was for the school district. At the end of the session, one of the teacher librarians came up to me with a box, handed it to me, and asked if I knew what it was. It was a tacking iron, used for repairing torn pages. She had found it in the supplies cupboard at her school, and told me I could have it if I wanted it - of course, I said yes! For a lot of my small sewing projects, it is incredibly handy, and means I don't have to pull out and heat up the big iron.
Well, on that note, there's the usual weekend stuff we should get to - fluffing the chicken bedding, doing the laundry, and doing some training with Zim and Smash.
I've got a few minutes (I'm supposed to be doing the dishes.... Sound familiar Mom?) so it's time for my monthly-ish update.
Dash
Last post, I promised you fine folks some news about Dash. |
| Mmmmmmmm peanut butter..... |
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| More please! |
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| Snoozing on her back |
Zim
For Christmas, Kim got me an obedience class. Zim and I have been going since early January, and Zim is doing great! We finished our first class (which was actually the second level - we were able to skip the first level because Zim is well trained already and I've done clicker training before with Molly) and we're now on to our second course, which is agility. Kim and Doodle are in the same class (we planned it that way, of course) and Doodle and Zim are both doing wonderfully!Creating
Our aforementioned obedience class was previously on Saturdays, so I haven't been doing much around the house or property. This weekend, I've been busy: last night was a sewing night, and I mended one of Kim's dresses, made a new wallet, and stitched 4 flannel squares to use as hankies. This morning I've made two different kinds of muffins: pumpkin and oatmeal raisin. |
| Hankies |
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| New wallet, and the old one - it was definitely time for a new one |
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| Pumpkin muffins! These are the best muffins EVER. |
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| Oatmeal raisin muffins |
 |
| When I want to close it, I just tie the drawstring... |
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| ...and when I want it open, I undo the drawstring and fold the top down over the snap ring. |
Last weekend I picked up a body pillow to help me sleep. We bought it at Sears but they don't sell covers for them. They had some sheets on sale, though, so we picked up one and I made a pillow case for it, complete with a pocket to cover the open end.
At the end of January, I held another book repair session; this one was for the school district. At the end of the session, one of the teacher librarians came up to me with a box, handed it to me, and asked if I knew what it was. It was a tacking iron, used for repairing torn pages. She had found it in the supplies cupboard at her school, and told me I could have it if I wanted it - of course, I said yes! For a lot of my small sewing projects, it is incredibly handy, and means I don't have to pull out and heat up the big iron.
 |
| This means that I actually iron the things I'm supposed to when sewing, which makes the whole project easier. |
Chickens
The chickens are doing good. Phoebe is still broody, and has been since the middle of January. We continue to evict her from the nest box when we are in there, but she doesn't stay out for long. Foghorn got a bit of frostbite on his comb, but it looks like he is healing well.Spring?
It is now officially spring. We've had some lovely, sunny days, and it was quite warm two weeks ago, with highs up to 7 or 8. It has cooled down again, and it's supposed to be cloudy and cold this week, but I am confident that Spring will show up eventually. Our road is still ice, but the snow banks are slowly shrinking and there's a thick crust on top of the snow.A gift!
My friend Buttons knit me a wonderful toque that fits over my ponytail and keeps my ears warm (follow the link to see the toque in progress!). She also included a pair of fleece socks her friend had made - they are super cozy, and I am thinking of making a few additional pairs for myself. |
| Thanks Buttons! I love it!! :) |
Upcoming
We don't have much in the works at the moment. We will soon be planning the garden and starting seeds. The greenhouse made it through the winter, and we still have the seed trays and the starting station thingy I put together last year.Well, on that note, there's the usual weekend stuff we should get to - fluffing the chicken bedding, doing the laundry, and doing some training with Zim and Smash.
Monday, 10 February 2014
Goals for 2014
So now that we've made it through our first summer on the farm, and we're working our way through our second winter, we have a better idea of our resources (ex. money, time, know-how and ideas, physical capabilities, PITA tolerance, etc.) and how quickly plans can get sidetracked. With that in mind, we sat down a few weeks ago and decided on our 2014 goals:
- Organize the garden better, and keep up with maintenance
- Finish the soffits and fascia, and possibly put up eaves troughs
- Chink the house
- Start composting for real, instead of just throwing random stuff in a pile and forgetting about it
These might actually be attainable! Yay!
I have two personal goals as well:
- Fix my physical issues and keep up with exercising
- Knit a pair of socks
Everything else is a bonus!
Let's try this interaction thing: What is one of your goals for 2014?
- Organize the garden better, and keep up with maintenance
- Finish the soffits and fascia, and possibly put up eaves troughs
- Chink the house
- Start composting for real, instead of just throwing random stuff in a pile and forgetting about it
These might actually be attainable! Yay!
I have two personal goals as well:
- Fix my physical issues and keep up with exercising
- Knit a pair of socks
Everything else is a bonus!
Let's try this interaction thing: What is one of your goals for 2014?
Sunday, 9 February 2014
2013: Year in review
Look, a Year in Review post that's only a month and a half late!
(Posts)
- We discovered how much our roof leaked. We collected lots of water, and we couldn't even get it all. And that was pretty much all we did in January, because it was so stressful.
February
(Posts)
- We talked to a tin roof guy, who told us why our roof was leaking. We also talked to a log home guy who encouraged us to fix this house instead of building a new one.
- I bought a serger! Yay! {I use it quite frequently, and hope to start some larger projects with it soon!}
- We attended our first Seedy Saturday, where we attended a few workshops and picked up seeds for both us and Tessa and Matt.
March
(Posts)
- I posted our plans for 2013. {We'll review those in just a minute.}
April
(Posts)
- I discovered water leaking between the logs due to the amount of ice on the deck, so we took a day or two to try and fix it.
- I made my first trip down to visit Kim's family. {I've been back a few times since then - they're truly wonderful people!}
- I set up our seed starting station, and the cats only managed to attack a few seedlings.
- Tessa, Ellie and I attended our first farm auction! I am still kicking myself for not bidding on the trailer full of buckets and wooden crates.
May
(Posts)
- We released the forum Jordan and I set up for BC farmers. {We've since terribly neglected it - oops!}
- We put screening in the roof in hopes to exclude the bats. It kind of worked - they hung out on top of the screens under the peak caps instead of in the roof itself.
- I started building a bat house for our insect-eating friends.
- The tree swallows returned!!
- We hired someone to locate the power and phone lines on the property. As the water lines aren't metal, we couldn't find those without cutting them and sliding a metal thingy (that's the technical term) for the locator to track, so that will wait for another day.
- I planted over 100 raspberry canes from Hal and Cathy, and 20+ strawberry plants from my coworker Flossie. {All but three of the raspberries died, but the strawberries did awesome! I'm looking forward to this year now that they are established.}
- We cut sod for a new garden!
June
(Posts)
- We tilled and planted the new garden.
- We fostered Diamond, a lovely older lab. {She got adopted by a wonderful family and the last I heard, she was doing great!}
- We bought a new lawn tractor!
- We re-skinned the greenhouse.
- I finished the bat house, and Jordan hung it for me.
- I modified a stall in the barn to make a brooder because...
- Our baby chicks arrived!!!!!!!!
- Kim and I took the boys (Zim and Doodle) to the local Dog Expo, where a great time was had by all.
July
(Posts)
- One of our chicks, Chirpy, got sick and died.
- The rest of the chicks grew big enough to be called chickens!
- I had a minor fail when trying to hook up the water in the longhouse. {This is still incomplete - Dad glanced at it while he was here, but we had bigger fish to fry.}
- The tree swallow chicks hatched - they are ugly!
- I cleaned up the greenhouse in an effort to hang curtains in the office.
August
(Posts)
- We coop-ified an outbuilding and built a run for it.
- Jordan and I enjoyed a day at the local Exhibition with Kim and David, where we watched the draft horse pulls, a pig race, and an agility trial {which planted a seed which has since sprouted}.
- Jordan bought an old car to restore.
- My family came up for a visit and helped us fix and prep the roof.
September
(Posts)
- The chickens started crowing.
- We harvested the garden.
- We went back to Alberta to visit our families.
- The roofing company put the tiles on the roof.
October
(Posts)
- We installed pot lights in the soffits - they look great!
- I posted a video of a crowing cockerel.
- I picked up 20 small bales of hay for the chickens' winter bedding.
November
(Posting fail - my bad!)
- We harvested 11 chickens in two separate sessions.
- I coop-ified a stall in the barn, and moved the chickens into their winter abode.
- We sold 5 chickens to Tessa and Matt.
December
(Posts)
- The hens started laying!
- I started clicker training Zim.
- We got TONS OF SNOW.
- We bought a newer truck!
- Kim and I made a chicken delivery to her grandparents.
- Fix the bathroom wall: Nope. But the new roof has stopped the leak behind the wall, so the logs in the bedroom and the office are drying out.
- Chink the house: Also no.
- Replace the root cellar: Nope. Though I got some good ideas from Hal about retrofitting it for now.
- Grow food: Well, we did cut and plant a new garden. And we 'grew' chickens. So I'll count this as a moderate success.
- Move the greenhouse: Nope, but we got it reskinned.
- Green manure the hay field: Ha! Not a chance. This is so far down the priority list right now, we'll be lucky to get to it in the next 5 years.
- Harvest rainwater: The roof took waaaaaaay longer than expected, so the soffit isn't done, which means the fascia isn't done, which means the eavestroughs aren't up. We'll work on this in 2014.
- Get chickens: Yup, more or less! We had hoped to slaughter them all, but alas, we only did 11. We sold 9, and we have 6 left for eggs and to hatch a new batch of "Dinners" in the spring.
- Fix the vehicles: Well, sorta. We fixed the oil leak in the car, but now it has a transmission leak. And we ended up buying a newer truck, as Gertrude (the diesel truck) is getting quite old and is not really worth fixing.
- Replace the well pump and pressure tank: Nope. We don't know when the well pump was put in - we suspect it may not be the original pump - so we'll focus on replacing the pressure tank and try to keep some cash on hand if the pump goes. So far, she's going strong!
I think our goals were WAY too ambitious. We really had no idea how much money and time everything would take. I was lucky to get every Friday off last summer, which really helped with completing projects, but the roof still ate the whole summer.
Next up: goals for 2014!
First, let's look at what we accomplished:
January(Posts)
February
(Posts)
- We talked to a tin roof guy, who told us why our roof was leaking. We also talked to a log home guy who encouraged us to fix this house instead of building a new one.
- I bought a serger! Yay! {I use it quite frequently, and hope to start some larger projects with it soon!}
- We attended our first Seedy Saturday, where we attended a few workshops and picked up seeds for both us and Tessa and Matt.
March
(Posts)
- I posted our plans for 2013. {We'll review those in just a minute.}
April
(Posts)
- I discovered water leaking between the logs due to the amount of ice on the deck, so we took a day or two to try and fix it.
- I made my first trip down to visit Kim's family. {I've been back a few times since then - they're truly wonderful people!}
- I set up our seed starting station, and the cats only managed to attack a few seedlings.
- Tessa, Ellie and I attended our first farm auction! I am still kicking myself for not bidding on the trailer full of buckets and wooden crates.
May
(Posts)
- We released the forum Jordan and I set up for BC farmers. {We've since terribly neglected it - oops!}
- We put screening in the roof in hopes to exclude the bats. It kind of worked - they hung out on top of the screens under the peak caps instead of in the roof itself.
- I started building a bat house for our insect-eating friends.
- The tree swallows returned!!
- We hired someone to locate the power and phone lines on the property. As the water lines aren't metal, we couldn't find those without cutting them and sliding a metal thingy (that's the technical term) for the locator to track, so that will wait for another day.
- I planted over 100 raspberry canes from Hal and Cathy, and 20+ strawberry plants from my coworker Flossie. {All but three of the raspberries died, but the strawberries did awesome! I'm looking forward to this year now that they are established.}
- We cut sod for a new garden!
June
(Posts)
- We tilled and planted the new garden.
- We fostered Diamond, a lovely older lab. {She got adopted by a wonderful family and the last I heard, she was doing great!}
- We bought a new lawn tractor!
- We re-skinned the greenhouse.
- I finished the bat house, and Jordan hung it for me.
- I modified a stall in the barn to make a brooder because...
- Our baby chicks arrived!!!!!!!!
- Kim and I took the boys (Zim and Doodle) to the local Dog Expo, where a great time was had by all.
July
(Posts)
- One of our chicks, Chirpy, got sick and died.
- The rest of the chicks grew big enough to be called chickens!
- I had a minor fail when trying to hook up the water in the longhouse. {This is still incomplete - Dad glanced at it while he was here, but we had bigger fish to fry.}
- The tree swallow chicks hatched - they are ugly!
- I cleaned up the greenhouse in an effort to hang curtains in the office.
August
(Posts)
- We coop-ified an outbuilding and built a run for it.
- Jordan and I enjoyed a day at the local Exhibition with Kim and David, where we watched the draft horse pulls, a pig race, and an agility trial {which planted a seed which has since sprouted}.
- Jordan bought an old car to restore.
- My family came up for a visit and helped us fix and prep the roof.
September
(Posts)
- The chickens started crowing.
- We harvested the garden.
- We went back to Alberta to visit our families.
- The roofing company put the tiles on the roof.
October
(Posts)
- We installed pot lights in the soffits - they look great!
- I posted a video of a crowing cockerel.
- I picked up 20 small bales of hay for the chickens' winter bedding.
November
(Posting fail - my bad!)
- We harvested 11 chickens in two separate sessions.
- I coop-ified a stall in the barn, and moved the chickens into their winter abode.
- We sold 5 chickens to Tessa and Matt.
December
(Posts)
- The hens started laying!
- I started clicker training Zim.
- We got TONS OF SNOW.
- We bought a newer truck!
- Kim and I made a chicken delivery to her grandparents.
With that in mind, how did we do for our goals for 2013?
- Fix the roof: Yes, more or less. This was a huge project that made it impossible to complete some other things we had planned. We are incredibly lucky and extremely thankful that my family came up to help with money, time, and effort - we couldn't have completed this without them! We are finished most of the soffit, and can start the fascia as soon as the soffit is done.- Fix the bathroom wall: Nope. But the new roof has stopped the leak behind the wall, so the logs in the bedroom and the office are drying out.
- Chink the house: Also no.
- Replace the root cellar: Nope. Though I got some good ideas from Hal about retrofitting it for now.
- Grow food: Well, we did cut and plant a new garden. And we 'grew' chickens. So I'll count this as a moderate success.
- Move the greenhouse: Nope, but we got it reskinned.
- Green manure the hay field: Ha! Not a chance. This is so far down the priority list right now, we'll be lucky to get to it in the next 5 years.
- Harvest rainwater: The roof took waaaaaaay longer than expected, so the soffit isn't done, which means the fascia isn't done, which means the eavestroughs aren't up. We'll work on this in 2014.
- Get chickens: Yup, more or less! We had hoped to slaughter them all, but alas, we only did 11. We sold 9, and we have 6 left for eggs and to hatch a new batch of "Dinners" in the spring.
- Fix the vehicles: Well, sorta. We fixed the oil leak in the car, but now it has a transmission leak. And we ended up buying a newer truck, as Gertrude (the diesel truck) is getting quite old and is not really worth fixing.
- Replace the well pump and pressure tank: Nope. We don't know when the well pump was put in - we suspect it may not be the original pump - so we'll focus on replacing the pressure tank and try to keep some cash on hand if the pump goes. So far, she's going strong!
I think our goals were WAY too ambitious. We really had no idea how much money and time everything would take. I was lucky to get every Friday off last summer, which really helped with completing projects, but the roof still ate the whole summer.
Next up: goals for 2014!
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