I'm really enjoying the weather out here. I know it won't last but I'm going to suck up as much as I can. I've been cleaing up a few flower beds and trying to clean the yard (it's still strewn with sticks and branches). Sadly all our fish in the fish pond died. It was either too cold or we were supposed to plug in an aerater or something. There was a ton of fish in there. I pulled out about 30 fish and 4 frogs (really nice looking ones too). The fish were huge! Some were even bigger than my hand. I put them all in a pail and left it till the next day to chuck out. eewaauahhah what a smell!! The goat and chickens are LOVING this weather. I can hardly get the chickens to come in at night. They usually follow me back to the coop but there are so many yummy bugs on the ground that they keep getting distracted and ducking to peck at something. Mozzerella is getting used to being tethered up outside. She bawls for a bit at first but doesn't get tangle up or anything. I was hoping she would get rid of all the brambles and growth along the barn where she's tied up but so far she's just been going back inside. Spoiled little goat. It turns out that our goat isn't as fat as we all thought. Here's a quote from one of my favorite websites(http://www.fiascofarm.com):



"If you look at their belly, or width side to side, and this is really big or wide, that is not fat. That is good rumen development and a sign of a healthy goat. A goat's rumen is a big fermentation vat, and the bigger it is the better they process their food. A big rumen is a good thing.
Pygmies goats very often look "fat" when they are not because of their short and stout body structure."



See? So Mozz is just fine. Here. Let me see if I can find a pic.
It's an older picture and not a good shot of her rumen but here she is anyways. Ha ha ha... what a goat. She's supposed to be my teaching goat so that one day I can get other dairy goats. Hopefully by then I'll know about goat husbandry and temperments.

Dan has been playing fetch with Chloe a lot. He thinks that she's doing really badly at it and we need to do more training with her if she's going to be a hunting dog. I think we're getting a little late for that. She LOVES retrieving and will start running before we even throw the ball but the problem is, she doesn't see where it goes and then can't find it. She's got great stamina and will look for days (seriously, she's done it before) but if she would just stop and look where it goes she would find the ball a lot faster. It would also be helpful if she could follow our pointing. We tried this new game where we make the dog stay and then we roll the ball along the ground and hide it from her. Then we try to make her smell it out. She doesn't do too badly at that. We should find some good training books, websites or even a place that will show us what to do. Maybe it's too much fuss and work but I like my animals to be useful. Speaking of useful, the chickens are laying again. Not a lot but more than they were. mmm. It's good to have fresh eggs again. I already have a dozen to give away.
There's some girls at work who found out that I have a blog. I guess my lifestyle is really backwards to them (having animals etc.) and they just thought it was hilarious that I write posts about animals. I guess it is pretty cheesy but it's my hobby; the only sport I'm interested in. Besides, I think they are secretly interested. I think most people are secretly interested. We're all closet agrarians.
The latest music that I've really started to like is by Serena Ryder. She's a local girl with an awesome voice. The two songs that I like the best aren't on her website to listen to but if you can find them, listen to them. "Boo hoo" and "I'm on my knees for you".
Here's one last quote from Wendell Berry (I found him through "agrarianism"): "Every day do something that won't compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing...Love someone who doesn't deserve it...Plant sequoias...Practice resurrection."
That's all for now!!!

I've been having a pretty good couple days lately. It's been relaxing. I worked on the weekend but the shifts were easy and I was done by 3pm on Saturday. Dan's Oma D. had her 85th birthday party on Sat. night so we had a big dinner at her church for a bit of a celebration. Afterwards Dan went on aux. so I went to sleep over at his parents place. I like doing that once in a while. It's only a little wierd when I try to think about how many of my friends like to sleep over at their in laws. I don't think half of them would even visit alone with the inlaws let alone sleep over there. I guess I've just got really great people to work with. :) (thanks mom and dad). Church on Sunday was really good! I really like their minister. He usually has a lot to say to me in his sermons. I rarely feel like the service is dragging on and on. Dan picked me up in the early afternoon and we just hung out at home by ourselves for the night. It was pretty relaxing except for the weekly case of the Sunday evening blues that Dan always gets. I'm always trying to think of ideas to make Monday morning seem like it's not such an awful thing to come. Any suggestions? This week I made sure that he had his most comfortable and best work clothes ready for Monday morning. It sucks when you're up at 5:30 and can't find anything decent to wear. He's been running out of pants for ages so he finally got a really good new pair of work pants. I love the first time I get to wear new pants. I didn't put together a lunch for him. That would've been good too. Anyways, I had other things to plan for. I decided that since I'm not working till Thurs. I should go home for a couple of days. Mom is still on march break so here I am. It's been really nice. I didn't think I would really like to sleep over without Dan but it wasn't so bad. Mom and I just hung out all day. We watched her new batch of chickens (she hatched a whole bunch in January), transplanted some flowers and veggies, had coffee, surfed the internet, went grocery shopping (mostly for dessert), and made a great supper of cabbage casserole (MMM) and skor choc. cake thing. After supper (with Amy and Joel!!) we watch Little Miss Sunshine. I've been urging to watch that movie ever since I saw it in Winnipeg. I really do like the movie but I think I built it up too much. I've been telling everyone to watch it and that its soooo goood but i think that it's actually prob. not a movie for everyone. Mom didn't seem like she thought it was amazing. Dad thought it was kinda silly I think. Anyways, if I told you that you really need to see the movie, disregard unless it seems interesting to you.

I slept in way too late this morning. I kept telling myself that it was okay since I'm kind of on vacation but I missed out on lots of bonding time with Mom. When I finally did get up I found her sitting in front of her chicken cage admiring them. They really do produce a lot of conversation. Especially since they are all mixed breeds (one even has two spurs on both feet. wierd!)

We're trying to figure out what to do for the rest of the day or if we should even have a to do list. Surfing is definately on our list so this is what we're doing for now. I think that some wood stacking and errands are still on the list but anything will work for me today.

Three more things:

1. Here's my latest favorite creation of mom's. Isn't it awesome? And she just does this on a whim... for no really reason. I think it's sooo cute! Oh, and I got her to buy those chocolates. They are the best choc. eggs in the world.

2. We're listening to a group called Sigur Ros. I love it! I love the music but most people get really sick of them since they don't sing with real words but with sounds instead.

3. Here's dad talking about the hypocricy of the penance we can pay to the new environmental religion called carbon credits. It's part of an article he's reading in the Time magazine. Krauthammer (the writer) called it ecological indulgences.

Time

Isn't it wierd how time can go soooo fast and yet go sooooo slow?
Examples of time going fast:

• Larissa and James are getting married in two (2?!!) weeks. Yikes. Mike and Meghan in 2 months!
• Dan and I have been married for almost 3 year!! Man, I can't imagine what we would have done with kids in there somewhere.
• I've been out of school for almost a year and I've still gone no where with this degree I'm supposed to have.
• We have friends who got married after us and have kids that can walk (well, almost) already and are expecting again!! Maybe that's more of a case of kids growing so fast. Crazy!
• February's over and it's March already! We're well into March.
• The time is changing this weekend already!

Examples of time going slow:

• Wahhh!! It's only March. We still have a whole 'nother 2.5 months before we've got constant good weather. And I've now got a rototiller sitting in the garage just itching to till up that garden
• If I do go to grad school, it won't be till Sept. '08 and then I still have at least 2 years before I have another degree that I can work with. I've already got grey hairs, I can't imagine what I'll look like when I'm finally done.

Wow, I didn't think this list would be so hard to write up. Hmm.. maybe it's not that bad afterall. I think I'm just itching to get into the garden. Mom and Dad came up this past weekend and brought me a rototiller and a gardening book and lots of gardening magazines. Isn't that wonderful? I sat in my green chair in front of the window getting full sun for 3-4 hours strait while reading about wide row gardening (I'm hooked). What a great husband I have to encourage me to go ahead with all of this. He might have to start working overtime to support this hobby. :) Maybe not.

Like I said, Larissa and James are getting married in a couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to getting together with all of the Wikkerinks again. I don't know how many are coming from Winnipeg but I'm sure it'll be fun.

Any good books out there? "Lullabies for Little Criminals" that's my tip for you all. Read it!!

See yas!!