Enjoying the Heat

It has been a nice hot weekend and we've been taking advantage in order to get the yard up to speed. Yesterday we assembled a netted cabana on the deck. Now we have not only a lovely outdoor "room" but also a space to sit in and not get attacked by mosquitoes. Today we've been gardening...digging flower beds, moving topsoil, planting and cleaning up. My hubby was cutting the grass with our new John Deere ride-on mower. Now it's time to park ourselves on the deck and enjoy a margarita, I think.

Wilderness

The past few days has been the most incredible summer-like weather and we are just enjoying every minute of it. Cleaning up the yard, organizing the patio furniture and just being outside without shivering is a real treat! The early mornings are fresh with the sounds of woodpeckers, Canadian geese honking, frogs chirping and songbirds chanting their melodies. I even saw a coyote yesterday up close as I was driving and he was scampering into the woods. That was pretty amazing. My neighbor has even told me that she's seen the odd wolf coming out of our property in the past few weeks. This confirms my theory from months ago when I saw what looked like giant dog footprints across our lawn (and also the occasional pile of bird feathers dotted with blood left near the feeders).

Rescue

The winter thaw has been continuing all week long which has led to creeks about to flow over, massively squishy earth and loads of mud. Not a good situation when you have 2 pooches racing through it all and dragging it inside. Into the shower they go several times a day now. Keeping my floors clean is an all-consuming job. But spring is in the air. Just this week alone right near my house, I've seen packs of white-tailed deer, a coyote with meal in mouth trotting through the corn field and loads of Canadian Geese (who like to rest in our marsh). It's wonderful to hear all the bird calls now. But late today I had to perform an emergency rescue from the marsh. Dixie, my big girl, saw the geese and took off - flying down the hill & with a leap she went right out onto the ponds (which are still partially frozen). But after she was done with that, she couldn't figure out how to get off the ice. So as my son cried in horror and my dog shook with cold and fear, I trudged down the embankment, into the icy cold marsh water and pulled my dog to land. I thought I'd have trouble getting out as my boots were then lodged in thick, heavy mud/water. It's hours later and my feet are still cold. Always an adventure here in the country.

Earth Hour

Last night was an interesting global experiment - have as many people and buildings as possible shut off all electricity between 8pm and 9pm. Being that my son's school was hyped on the topic, we also participated. And to my surprise, so did my 2 visible rural neighbors. We lit a bunch of candles, pulled out the Game of Life and played the old board game as a family. It was a lot of fun and the first time we all played a game like that together. Hopefully we saved some electricity, but more importantly it gave us a reason to all be together as a communicating family in quietness...that is a real rarity in today's modern world.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Complications in Communicating

I never realized how rough to the body moving can be. At least I don't remember the same things from our last move 6 years ago. I have so many bruises all over my arms and legs from lifting and carrying heavy boxes, that I could literally start playing connect the dots. And just when I think there's hope of them fading, I bump myself again and yell, "there's another one to connect!" I'm a tad embarrassed to wear shorts or short sleeves at this point. But at least around the house it doesn't really matter.

We're still without telephone and that's really bugging me. I have to use a cell phone - which is fine in a pinch, but definitely not my preferred method of communication. According to Bell Canada, there is no main phone line linked to our lot and because that would require a crew to start digging and try to find it, they tell us it's our expense and they're not responsible for it. That is complete hogwash. However, knowing how quickly frustrated my husband gets with service people I think I will have to call them and start the ball rolling. In the meanwhile, we have ordered Vonage but I am now finding out that it is really not compatible with satellite internet (according to the satellite guy). So once we received it, I guess we'll send it back and start all over again. I just want a regular telephone. Why does it always have to be so complicated? I guess that's old Murphy working his magic again. I mean, if everything came simply there would be no exciting challenges to write about in the blog.