My day off was pretty uneventful. I was so excited for a productive gardening-filled day. On Tues. night mom and I talked about what and how I should put things in the garden. I even quickly ran out to Canadian Tire after I got off the phone so that I could get some onion sets and a chalk line (I can't believe I actually bought a chalk line for gardening.. hah ha ah). Dan said the forcast was for a 16 degree day and sunny all day. What a flop! I woke up and it was raining. grrrr. I really really didn't feel like doing anything now. And so i didn't... or at least not much. I had already started soaking some black beans for making frijoles so I did make them for lunch. The rain tapered off for a bit so I pitchforked my huge pile of compost into the bin (it looks really good... ful though). While i had a pitch fork in one hand and big rubber boots on a scary looking SPCA guy came over and said that I needed to have Chloe tagged and I needed a licence or something. It pissed me off that he would just come and threaten and all that so I said no and sent him away. He said he would check back in 2 weeks to make sure we did it. GRrrr. Chloe was jumping all over his truck. I'm glad. He didn't say anything about the goat and chickens though. Yesterday, for the first time in the year we have lived there, Chloe crossed the road. I saw her on the neighbors front lawn. It freaked me out. I ran over and brought her back. She grovelled right away so she knew she did something wrong. Dan asked if I beat her. I have a hard time doing that though (which is why I'm not the pack leader). Cass called me later in the day and while we talked she talked me through making a great marinade for grilled chicken and doing a batch of cookies. So that was about it. I guess I did relax a bit but I think I would have felt better if I had spent the day working on the things I love to do. Oh well, there's always tomorrow, right?

An update

Alright, so a week and a bit later I've got lots to talk about. (This is getting to be a pretty cheesy blog site about my place but if you asked me in person how i'm doing and what's new, the first thing that comes to mind is agrarian stuff. I love my little farm. )
That darn goat is getting to be such a PAIN! All those goat-haters out there are probably laughing and saying I told you so, but I don't care. Mozzerella is supposed to be a teaching tool for me so that I can find out what goats do. Here's what they do: they get out. They focus all their care and attention on getting out and eating grain, or tulips, or the landlords small trees. grrr. So she lives in the chicken coop with chickens but early last week we noticed that she had butted her head against the door soooo many times that the door frame was giving just enough for her to slide through the gap. what a stinker! So we had to fix the door frame and get new locks for the door since the hooks that I had put on she figured out how to pop up and out. smart thing. So we put her in the middle of the barn. It's a big open area that we store the hay in. it was a huge mess last year but Mom W. and i cleaned the whole place out last summer so it's just big and and empty right now. We don't really want the animals there though because sure enough, they poop a lot! What a mess. Dan had planned on bringing his tools home for the weekend so that we could do some building stuff so we figured she could stay there for now. Well, by friday she had found the softest most rotten barn board to but her head against and had broken it right off at a knot! She got out of there too! I ended up putting her on the dogs lead tied to a tree for the next couple of days. That actually worked pretty good. We put her in the chicken coop at night and actually nailed the room shut. We fixed the door frame and put the new latches on so we'll see how that works. Here's my new problem: I like to open the chicken coop up during the day. I like having the chickens running around outside. It really saves on chicken feed. I don't think I've fed them in a week! Also, the ducks have started to use the chickens nest as their own next. They've got about 7 eggs laid right now and if I had the door open, I bet they would start sitting on the nest by the end of the week. I thought it was a brilliant place for them to nest since it's quite protected. The door is open during the day and at night I would have the mother and eggs/ducklings locked up. Besides the fact that its turning one of my chickens broody (she thinks its her nest still and lays her eggs on top of the duck eggs and then squawks and squawks when the ducks reclaim it) now that the door is safely locking up the goat, they can't get in. I'm sure when I get home this afternoon they will be right uptight trying to get in. One morning when I opened the coop the ducks were so impatient that they actually flew in through the doorway while the goat and chickens were coming out. I don't know what I'm going to do. I want to just tie the goat to the lead every morning but Dan (he get's really uptight about the animals) says that it's too long to keep her outside unattended. She does get herself tied up once in a while and has even gotten off once or twice. I still think it's the best way, though.
On Saturday, while the landlord was fixing up the roof of the house (birds were getting in and tearing out insulation to build a nest) Dan and I did our own building. We put a nesting box in the coop (to try to convince the chicken to lay her eggs there instead of in the duck nests), we fixed the door, and we built a compost out of beer store skids. It's a pretty good compost. Now i just have to fill it. I've got a pile beside it that has built up over the last year. I'm debating whether or not to just pitch fork the whole thing into the bin or to do it the way the books say, layering the material in the proper order for ideal and fast composting. That would just be a lot more work. The next project is a garden fence. With all the new poultry coming, I can't see how my garden is going to survive. Free range of the garden for 3 chickens worked amazingly last summer. They were just the right amount of chickens to get rid of the bugs but leave my plants be. Any more than 3 will be a pain though. So I bought one roll of chicken wire (i think I'll need 3 more) and have been scouring my property looking for the right fence posts. I've got lots of really big wooden fence posts around so I think I'll use them for the corners and then along the side I'll use those metal T posts. We have quite a few (7ish?) but I think I'm going to need twice that. I really don't want to go buy any because aren't they everywhere? Does anyone know where there's a good place to find those things laying around? Too bad Oma and Opa already sold their place. I bet there was tons of them there. I've got plants from mom and dad that have been sitting outside during the days and are looking like they really want out of the pots and into the ground. Dan has about 3/4 of the garden tilled (he actually likes the work) so I think that I might plant a few this week along with some lettuce and spinach (too early or late??). I found some plastic things in the garden shed meant to keep the frost from early plants so we'll see if they work.
That's it for now (not really, i still have more stories about accidentally eating duck eggs and a sighting of our lost duck but... no space or time). Enjoy the spring!!

More news

We got ducks!! I finally went out and bought some. It was my first experience going to an auction and buying something for myself. I've walked through the auction barns at the Kitchener Stock yards but that's about it. It was fun. What a thrill doing the bidding thing. It turns out that I ended up getting the cheapest ducks that day. Probably because I ended up making friends with an old regular who came just for the fun of it. He knew all the ins and outs and told me exactly what to do. The cage that I was bidding on had five muscovy ducks in it. I only wanted three but figured I could use a couple more. So, I took the 3 females and 2 males home and set them up in the coop with the other animals. The goat didn't care about them (it just meant more grain that she could steal). The chickens, though, were pissed. I actually saw them attacking the ducks once in a while. I decided to keep them inside for a few days to get over the auction and used to me. No problem. They really liked lots of water and got it really dirty really fast. On Tuesday we let them out of the barn when we got home from work. It was sooo fun seeing them find the water. They went to the huge puddles instead of the pond but that's okay. They loved it! They splashed, and flapped their wings and just went crazy for a while. I was kind of worried about them staying outside all night but supposedly that's what you do with ducks. They find their own way. Besides, muscovies supposedly will roost at night. Well, I guess not these muscovies. The next morning there were only 4. Sigh. I like to think that since it was the first night she probably just ended up walking away by accident since she really didn't know where she was. It probably was something that ate her but the other four are still around. Maybe they just got smarter. who knows. We'll see how long they live. Turns out it was a good thing that I got 5 instead of 3.
Oh, and I'm expecting again.... chickens and ducks this time. again. My mom is planning on hatching a bunch of eggs in her classroom this year again so I decided to profit off of it. My in-laws neighbor breeds ducks and chickens for showing in special poultry fairs. I like my 3 egg-laying chickens but I'd love to see some funkier birds walking around the property. I can't even tell the difference between the 3. I guess I'm looking for some more character. So this guy is going to sell me 3 dozen chicken and duck eggs. The duck eggs are going into the incubator on Wednesday and the chicken eggs are going in the following wednesday. That means that hopefully, around May 16 (or is it 23?) I'll have a whole bunch of new babies. The kids will be taking home some, I'm sure, and I'm sure some won't hatch, but after all that I bet there will still be too many left for me. Mom and Dad will probably keep them at there house in the special chicks cage that they have set up until they are big enough. Maybe I can get mom to post some picture updates of the whole process for me.
See ya!!!

Chloe's a natural

I missed it all but supposedly Chloe is a natural hunter. While I was at work Dan took Chloe to a friend of ours who is really good at training dogs. We've been talking about training Chloe to be a hunting dog and we've done lots of fetching and smelling exercises with her but we hadn't actually gone hunting with her yet. Dan and Tom took 4 phesants out to a field and let them go. The point is to let the birds get a head start hiding in the brush in the field. The hunting dog runs a little bit (but not too far) ahead of you to smell them out. When the dog finds the birds they get startled and fly up in the air. At that point the hunter shoots it, the dog retrieves the dead bird and drops it at your feet. Perfect. It was bred into her, I guess. She had no problems smelling out the birds or retrieving them. She even caught a live bird and brought it back to Dan alive still. Isn't that awesome? The only problem now is finding time to do this more often. It sounds like it was really fun. And now we have some pheasant meat in our freezer!
Oh, and work was okay too.

Memory shots

Once in a while, when something is happeing I'll make a mental note, as if I'm taking a picture of that moment. Those who know me know that I have a TERRIBLE memory. I take these mental pictures and for the next week I try to remember them as often as possible so that I can sear them into my memory. Here are some mental shots that I took this last weekend:
-Larissa walking down the aisle during the rehersal to the Lion King soundtrack. It was super funny and really worked for the walk.
-Noticing that there was a roll of Mentos in Larissa's bouquet during the ceremony. It also fit super well. We should send the picture in for a commercial idea.
-Noticing that as her and James were introduced and walked into the reception the roll of Mentos was replaced by a bottle of beer. A little unconventional but, hey, it worked.
-Watching the slideshows that Dan's parents worked hours and hours on and listening to the comments around me as we watched.
-Everyone dancing. Especially when U. Paul knew all the words to "Sexy Back", "London bridge" and many other dance songs. It was also especially funny since he was trying to grind with Dad through it all.
-7 of us all in Opas big purple van racing down the QEW to Ikea to drop of A. Michelle.
-Kristen walking around our property with my chicken, Benedict, and then taking a picture of her with Benedict and Mozzerella. Hopefully I get that picture and can actually post it here.

I'm sure there are actually more but I've already forgotten them. I'll put more on if I remember any but if any of you were there and have special memory moments, what are they. It was a good weekend, eh?

Oh, and for those of you who don't know, Dan's sister, Larissa, got married this past weekend. Congratulations!!!