Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Winter Blues

I just have not been in the mood to write lately. Guess the winter blahs are getting to me. I have discovered this great little application on Facebook called Scrabulous. It's a really fun way to play Scrabble with someone who lives far away. As I usually am not great at the game, I'm having fun playing a word each day with one of my friends. A fun and different way to keep in touch while stimulating the brain. Always a good idea at this time of year. Oh, and did I mention that I cannot stand winters in Canada.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Back to the Routine




Well my days of farm sitting are now a thing of the past. Although it was an interesting adventure, it was very tiresome driving back and forth several times a day, dealing with the darkness, snow and mess of the job. The Plymouth Rock chickens are back in the care of their owners. I am glad I experienced collecting eggs along with being able to share that with my son. Not too many children today are able to see the working of rural farm life, little own collect what will be tomorrow's breakfast. But I'm glad to not have chicken poop all over my boots now. That's one less thing to have to clean up daily. I will miss babysitting the Australian Shepherd, Hunter. What a great dog he was.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Ugly Smells

For months now we have had a strange smell coming from our storage room downstairs. There's no way of really describing it other than it's like a metallic fertilizer smell. After ripping the room completely apart and cleaning it top to bottom, we discovered nothing that we could see that would make the smell continuously. So we had an independent technician come in yesterday who tested the air quality in that room as well as the rest of the house. The air samples would then be tested for around 8 hours back in the lab. At the time, we discovered that our CO and CO2 levels were elevated - not to a dangerous point, but definitely elevated. The results came back today and apparently we have high levels of propane and ethanol coming from downstairs. That is now a worry as to how we're going to have it fixed. A contractor is on his way so we'll see how this is about to unfold.


As for my babysitting at the farm, I'm collecting about 2 1/2 dozen eggs per day which is quite fun. But having not had the pens cleaned out in a week now, it's getting pretty smelly. (I draw the line at cleaning out chicken poop). That technician yesterday told me that air inside a chicken coop is amongst the worst and dangerous around. Great! And who knew that roosters could be so darn aggressive? There is one rooster who has tried to attack me several times and has succeeded at nipping my leg more than once. So today I closed up the barn early so I don't have to drive over there tonight as I've been doing for a while now. I think a rest from all of this is going to be nice.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Life as a Farmer

Day one began with my new farming babysitting adventure. This morning was relatively easy - just feeding the chickens and opening up the barn. I now have this family's Australian Shepherd added to my own brood for the next little while. But all of this mud and dirt caused by the massive thaw has caused our driveway to turn into a sinkhole basically. You can stand at the window and watch the erosion happening. I took a video of the mess this morning - it was just ridiculous. So here I am walking around in this black mud covered coat, my pants with mud from the door of the car, my fisherman's boots covered (yet again) and my car...well, let's just not even talk about that. People must see me and wonder what rock I crawled out from.


So my son, my brother-in-law and myself all drove over to the farm this evening...to let out the cat for a nighttime business and to corral the roosters and hens into their pen for the night. My son was a little overzealous (as he tends to be lately) and decided he was going to shout and run after the chickens to gather them. Obviously that did not work. I managed to collect about 2 dozen eggs though and got at least half the wee beasties into bed for the night. The barn is nice and snug now. But the cat? Well, I couldn't find him for the love of God...and in the darkness of that property, hopefully he'll be at the door in the morning.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

And the Mud Goes On (& On & On)

All of the mild weather these past few days has melted a tremendous amount of snow, caused severe fog and created treacherous country roads. I am glad I'm driving a 4x4, because the roads are a mass of pot holes, mud and slippery slopes. Not to mention that my once dark blue car is a subtle shade of mocha and I have yet to see out of my back window for days. My driveway which is about 400 ft. long and is just packed dirt at the moment, has turned into something resembling quicksand with giant tire grooves and craters everywhere. You can just feel the ground sinking as you walk on it (as well as the mushy lawn). It's dirty everywhere and plain gross. Impossible to keep the just groomed pooches out of mud and off my furniture. Every day is loaded with cleaning chores and I'm starting to think that cold and snow is not a bad thing - after all, it is cleaner. And tomorrow my life starts a new adventure...babysitting a friend's farm for 10 days. Stay tuned for some interesting news on that!

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Snowman



My son and I built a snowman today. The snow was nice and heavy - just right for packing. It was the first one I had built since I was little so it brought back old memories. It's really fun to share moments like that with your child. Gives me a chance to be a kid again too...although I still am one, only much advanced in years. So tonight, my 'men' are watching Cops and I am actually having a moment alone - this first in about 2 weeks. Perhaps that's why I slightly agitated today.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Happy New Year

I still can't believe it's 2008. Where do the years go? Today I hosted my first tea party. We had over my brother-in-law, his new friend and her daughter. My stepdaughter and her boyfriend were supposed to come but bailed out at the eleventh hour (as usual). So I spent the morning preparing finger sandwiches (cucumber, ham and cream cheese on focaccia and egg salad). I put out a tiered tray of my baking goodies which unfortunately still stare me in the face. And I made homemade orange-infused scones with clotted cream and raspberry jam. It all came out very well. I chose pomegranate green tea to serve and also heated up some pre-made mini quiches. It's been fun doing so much cooking and presenting this holiday, but I'm ready for a break. I still have to take down the Christmas tree and decorations, but that can wait until tomorrow.