SNOW!!

It's been snowing!

Alot!

I love it!

But it's starting to rain.

Crud.

I hate rain in the winter.

So to cheer me up I guess I just have to post a few pictures of our cutie patootie in the snow.

Which just in case you haven't figured it out by now...

HATES THE SNOW!

Why did you drag me out here!

I know I'm cute, but dragging me out here for a photo op is just not acceptable.

I'm leaving.



Have a Blessed Day.

Lisa

Crazy Mornings

The last two mornings have just been NUTS!

Several months ago I was asked to be a community correspondent for CTV Morning Live (Halifax).

It's really a simple thing. Every two weeks I Skype live on TV to say what's going on

in my community. 

I'm not sure how many there are of us in Nova Scotia, but I'm in the Clare/ Weymouth area.

I love doing it. The first few times I was super nervous, I mean, thousands of people are watching you.  But now it's getting alot easier.

So this is how is goes. I usually go on at 7:15 or 8:15am.  Since the room my computer is in doesn't have good lighting I bring it in the kitchen.

Then a few minutes before we go on, Cyril Lunney, one of the hosts Skypes me.

I then have a minute or so to get my nerves in check and my act together.

The night before I go on I don't sleep well. I'm so afraid I'm going to miss the alarm or something will screw things up.

I was scheduled to be on Tuesday at 7:15am.

I had my topics ready and I checked my alarm...twice!

At 3:30 am I woke up and remember thinking, "oh I still have two hours to sleep".

That's the last thing I remember...till the PHONE rang at 7:15 am.

The minute it rang I knew who it was, Cyril! 

Oh Crap!

I literally jumped out of bed.

I was like," Oh Mylanta! Cyril!  I over slept! There's no way I can go on. I'm in my nightgown."

He was very gracious about it. He said, "Ok, well maybe we can go to commercial break. You've got 5 minutes!"

So I hang up, bark orders to Dave to set the computer up and I run to the bathroom. I throw on a t-shirt and run a brush through my hair.Not my best by far, but at least I was presentable.

 My bras hang in my walk-in closet (since they drip dry and I know TMI.), but the darn thing didn't want to come off the hanger. So I was flinging bras all over the place! There were bras all over the floor.

For a nano second I even contemplated not even putting on jeans. But I decided against it. I mean, this would have been the time they'd want me to show the weather outside or something.

So I run in the kitchen, Skype Cyril and we were on.

Alls well that end well....

Till the next morning.

Tuesday night Jamie has his drum lessons in Digby. Usually Dave brings him and I don't go, but the cupboard was beyond bare and I needed to go shopping. The hitch was I had a staff meeting that night so there was no way I could get home and drive all of us and Jamie get to his drum lessons on time.

So Dave drove to the car park not far from where I work with Rusty and met me there. From there we all hopped in the car and away we went.

The next morning, Wednesday, Dave had an appointment at 9 am SHARP! in Yarmouth. (For those of you that don't know the area, I live in the middle of Digby and Yarmouth. So Yarmouth is in the opposite direction of Digby)

He figured if he left at 8 am he'd have enough time to get to Yarmouth with a few minutes to spare....till he went outside to get in Rusty, the truck.

IT WAS GONE!!!!

Rusty was gone!

Who in their right mind would want to steal Rusty??!!

How was he going to get to his appointment and me to work. Both in opposite directions! (FYI, no public transportation in the country)

Then the AHA moment kicked in.

We had forgotten Rusty in the car park in Weymouth!!

Holy Moly!

All I have to say is, Thank goodness I was actually ready for work early for once!

This time it was Dave's turn to bark orders.

Like, "GET IN THE CAR! We're going to get the truck!"

Well we got to the car park to rescue Rusty and Dave actually got to his appointment on time.

How? I have no idea. I haven't seen a speeding ticket anywhere.

Have a Blessed Day

Lisa

Peeper, the farm mascot.

I've always wanted a Nigerian Dwarf goat. I find that they're cute. 

They look like mini goats, not like Pygmies that look more like a barrel with 4 legs.

So a friend of mine raises these cuties and she offered one to me.

We really couldn't afford it right now, so we bartered.

We disbud and band her goats so we traded the goat for services.

You gotta like that!

The little thing doesn't eat much.

I'm used to feeding a large scoop to each goat twice a day.

The first time I fed him I gave him a whole scoop of grain.

I think he figured he had died and gone to goat heaven...

till I realized what I had done and scooped some out.

But I mean, come on! Look at that face! You just want to feed it all the time.

It's soooo cute.

When we first got him, he was ALL boy. ( He's only 3 months old)

But we are slowly changing that, or the band around his testicles is anyway.

Until he loses his manhood he can't go outside or Pisnak will beat the poop out of him. Because I mean testosterone is testosterone. Doesn't matter if you're standard size buck or three apples high buck. But needless to say Pisnak would win.

So we bring him for walks everyday until he loses his manliness.

Then we'll start introducing him to the rest of the gang.

We have already started introducing him. 

Maggie hates him and Azelle loves him. Maybe she thinks it's her baby.

Bear the guardian finds him amusing.

Peeper tried to attack Bear. 

Bear was like, "Really? Seriously? Come on, my paw is bigger than your head!"

Oh well. In a few months they'll all be one happy family.

I would have blogged Peeper earlier, but I've been having issues with Blogger...again.

But today they were resolved.

Have a Blessed Day.

Lisa

It's here! It's here!

Now let's get one thing straight.

When it comes to seasons I don't play favourites.

I love them all. 

Each one of them for different reasons.

But....it seems like fall isn't long enough.

Have you ever noticed that? 

Winter. I love it. I love snow and I love the cold. Winter also means cuddling inside with a wood fire in the furnace, watching the snow fly outside, board games, baking, Christmas, New Years. But by February, I've had enough. A lot of our winter is slush, wind and rain. I get tired of driving in crappy weather to work and bringing water to the animals.

 Bring on Spring!

After a long winter, spring is so welcomed. It feels like a rebirth after cabin fever for all those months, kids and chicks being born, warmer temps...but after a few months of spring you've had enough of the rain, mud and blackflies.

Summer! I love summer. I love the heat and being able to walk barefoot in the grass, laying in the sun on the beach, long, loooonnng days and short nights. But after a two months of intense heat (and it does get hot here in Canada, contrary to popular American belief!) and mugginess it's time for Fall.

Soooo...here comes Autumn!!! I don't think fall is long enough.

The beautiful colours have just begun and the cool temps are just starting. The crops are in, the wonderful smell of the buck is in the air (okay, that might not be a good thing), Everyone is frisky again, the mugginess that was pulling us down is gone.  Thanksgiving and Halloween is here!

Then just as you're enjoying it......Winter shows up. 

You haven't gotten over Fall yet. What's up with that?! 

I guess it's God's way of showing us that too much of a good thing is not always good.

So anyway...while it's here let's enjoy Autumn in all it's glory. 

And enjoy the Fall pictures I've taken today, including goat pictures. 

I know ya'll are missing all the pictures of the goats I used to put.

So I took a few to satisfy your appetites.

I love pumpkins, especially if I grew them.

Azelle posing

Maggie

Monsieur Stinky a.k.a. Pisnak

Chinese Lanterns

Have a Blessed Autumn Day

Lisa

Little Drummer Boy.

Jamie has started on his drum lessons again. He hasn't play drums in about 3 years.

But after the hullaballoo of lasts year's hockey season he didn't want to play anymore.

I don't blame him.

So he's started on his drum lessons again.

Well we had a Christian band come and play at church for the youth last weekend.

They stayed for the service on Sunday morning and played a few songs.

And guess what?!

They asked Jamie to play a song with them.

He's never played in front of anyone before and he'd only had one lesson since he began again.

But he actually did it, and looked and sounded like a pro!

We were sooooo proud of him.

Have a Blessed Day

Lisa

Happy! Happy! Happy!!

Lookee here! The raised bed fairy came and built me two new beds!!

Woot! Woot!

One is for all my lavender, which I have already filled up.

The other is for the garlic. I'll plant that in a few weeks.

I'm so excited!!

Have A Blessed Day!

Lisa

2013 Growing Season

Well growing season is almost over.  And it was our first with raised beds.

Well I must say, aside from overdoing things, it was a wonderful season and I intend to keep growing in raised beds and hopefully get more.  

I need two more before the snow flies.

So here is the photographic  evidence of this years growing season.

This is the beginning of the season. Tomatoes are still standing.

 

Here is last week. The tomatoes kinds collapsed. But look at the sunflowers!!!

Yes, I know...my quest for HUMAGABUNGA cabbage is still on. The cabbage moth kinda took over.

See the tomatoes? They kinda fell over. I didn't have enough for salsa, but I had enough to  freeze.

I love sunflowers. What can I say. The goats love them to...only for a different reason.

Have a Blessed Day

Lisa

The Trail

Even though I'm a very conservative person, I love things that are different. Things that are off the beaten path.

The Trail is definitely off the beaten path.

It's owned by John and Marilyn Browning.

They moved here in 2001 to take care of John's ailing mother. (I remember his mother was my figure skating teacher when I was a young girl)

They were living in Ontario and John was a teacher before he came here.

Six years after he moved here, his mom passed away. 

He started cutting the Trail about 10 years ago.

Like everything it started small....

Now it's just amazing!

Even though it's on private property nobody needs an invitation. People come and add to his collection of hmmm....eclectic art pieces all the time.

It's amazing the imagination this man has.

John and Marilyn both have a heart of gold. 

The man of the hour

I mean...how many other people would let anyone, strangers come traipsing in their back yards?  I love meeting new people, I love people coming to visit, but I'm not too open to letting strangers come and mosey through my backyard. Especially if I'm not there.

He should start charging admission.

Then again, maybe it's better this way.

Yup, that describes it.

You never know WHAT you're going to find.

The frame. This is where he wants people to sign the buoys and have their picture taken with the  "Frame".

I brought the girls from work here and never realized the sign over Kathy's head.
It says, "Old bag hangout". We had a good laugh.

When ever I can, I bring people over. These pictures were taken through out the past year.

I'm fascinated with The Trail.

Every path leads to somewhere different, wonderful and funny.

Before you leave the Trail, I guarantee that you'll smile, you'll wonder, you'll see "things that make you go hmmm."  But I know you'll love it and talk about it for a long, long time.

Thank you John and Marilyn for being who you are!

Have a Blessed Day

Lisa

I'm baaaack!!

It's been a nice summer.

I missed the goats but I'm glad I took a break.

 If I hadn't I would have made a huge mistake by selling them.

They're back and I'm loving milking them. I'm even milking them by hand. I've splurged and I've bought alfalfa pellets, beet pellets, flax seed and I've gone back to the feed I used to give my goats years ago. It's the best and the milk is tasting even better than ever!

I had stopped using it because I couldn't find it anymore. 

But summer is now over, so it's time to get back to the old grind.

Jamie has started high school! Ack!

So here's a few highlights from our summer.

Cabot Trail

Quilt show during the Acadian Festival

I made pickled beets

My garlic grew wonderfully

Went geocaching, then my GPS died. Bugger!

Made my first batch of dill pickles...and according to the reviews I'll be making some more next year.

Went fishing for mackeral and caught squat.

Jamie and I went to a tea with my mom. Jamie loves teas! It means food.

Camping at Kejimkujik

Kejimkujik National Park

Grapes everywhere!!!

And lastly, camping at Fundy Spray with friends.





I hope ya'll had a wonderful summer!

Have a Blessed Day
Lisa

TROUBLE! I need help!

It's been a while and now I need your help.

I've noticed where the updates are of the blogs that I follow there's one I don't follow. I'm assuming it's spam, a virus or something. It's also not in english.

How do I get rid of it?

It's written by georgiafarmwoman.

If any of you know what to do...HELP!!!!!!

And no, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.

Just taking a break.

Lisa

Summer break...in more ways than one!

Jamie isn't getting any younger.

Soon he's not going to want to be seen with his old, uncool parents.

We want to go places but it's next to impossible to find someone to come goat-sit, let alone milk two goats.

When people say it's hard to find a dog sitter, they have no idea!

I was actually ready to sell the goats. Be done with Spring Peeper Farm forever.

I really couldn't in my heart do it.

But I'm getting burnt out...stressed. I don't have time to do anything.

I'm still considering selling everything.  

I really am.

But then I thought, maybe, just maybe I need a break.

But who on earth would take two does? AND it's someone I have to be able to trust and have experience and room for two more goats!

I thought about it long and hard.

Finally it came to me! 

I found someone.

She's got goats, she's organic, loves her animals and the place is clean, spacious and wonderful!

Best of all....she agreed!!!!

HALLELUJAH!!!!

I wrote up a small contract to make sure there were no misunderstandings on either side.

This way I know what's expected of me and her and vise versa!

So Saturday Azelle and Maggie got in the back of the truck and we drove them to 

SUMMER GOAT CAMP!

How cool is that!

So far Angela ( their summer goat mom) is spoiling them.

(she even gives them warm udder massages)

I don't think they'll want to come home.

This way I'll know if I just needed a break or if I really want to sell them.

So far I really miss their little faces, but I really don't miss the milking.

On their way to summer goat camp!

Their new dorm room.


We actually have places planned! We're going to Cape Breton with friends.

I'm so excited I think I'm going to pee my pants!

It's rained so much here that I didn't think my raised beds were going to do anything.

Well the sun decided to bless us with it's presence a few times and things have begun to grow!

Look at my tomato plants!

Sunflowers, beets, carrots and dill

Brussel sprouts, pumpkins and cukes.





I also bought two red currant plants this year.

Just look at my HUGE crop!

Not bad for the size of the plants.

I'm not going to say it too loud, shhhhh.....

but I think that

I'm going to have a bumper crop of grapes this year.....

shhhhhhhh

\With all the rain I had started to panic for the hay. We're a month behind in getting our hay!

Where we usually get it, the field is still soaked. And it's still giving rain.

This past weekend it actually didn't rain, but it was giving rain again on Monday.

So we found another source of hay.

But Dave still can't do what he's used to doing before his injury and he'll never be back to normal (whatever that was...hee hee) and I can move hay bales, but 100? 

So Dave called a buddy. He came to help. 

OH MYLANTA!!!

The man has arms like tree trunks. Good grief!

He picked up those bales like I pick up boxes of kleenex.

Thank goodness for him or we'd still be there picking hay bales...or at the hospital because Dave's shoulder's would have fallen off! I'd say he picked up 90% of the bales.  I picked up the rest. 

Have a Blessed Day!

Lisa

House Arrest Over!

He is no longer under house arrest! Pico has been a very bad kitty. 

He wanted to go outside...so his wish has been granted.

I do worry about him getting run over, but I also worry about keeping my house standing and not having to call the insurance company for weird claims like...

My cat flooded the house because he opened the kitchen faucet.

Yes he has a sweet face and an even sweeter disposition but behind that soft fur lies the brain of a scheming, conniving kitty!

Let me back up a bit.

A few weeks ago we went to Halifax for Dave's check up with his surgeon. 

We got home around 7ish.

As we all climbed out of the car I could hear water running.

Never a good sign.

I opened the outside basement door. There was about an inch of water on the floor! And the pump was running non stop. But we couldn't see where the water was coming from.

I ran and unlocked the door.

There was the faucet (it's a single lever) running full tilt and hitting the milk bucket I had left in the sink upside down that morning. It was hitting the bottom of the bucket and flying onto the backsplash. Then it was running all over the counter and going under the sink soaking the floor and running into the basement!!!!!

See , Pico likes to jump in the window above the sink and sleep on the counter also (something that drives me nuts!!and grosses me out! Think...paws that also go into the litter box)

So he had opened the faucet and succeeded into almost burning the pump and draining the well, not to mention water damage.

But I love Pico, so I gave him another chance. So I dried under the sink. (It took a week) and told him not to jump on the window sill again.

Finally after under sink was dry I planned to put all the cleaners back under the sink that day and I did put all the clean rags under sink where they belong.

That morning I woke up to go to work and I heard the faucet running.

(insert bad words here, even though I am a Christian)

I ran to the kitchen to find that Pico had jumped in the window, knocked down the plant that was on the window sill and turned the faucet on hot!

I'm not sure how long it had been running, but the plant had fallen in the drain and plugged it! So the sink was overflowing and the water was falling under the sink again, soaking the floor AND the rags!

This time I put the dehumidifier under the sink and it still took 4 days to dry!

So this time not only did the pump run and run and run but the hot water heater ran all that time also!

Stupid me...I accepted Pico's apology...again.

I went to work and Dave called me to tell me that not even 10 minutes after I left, Pico was back in the window.

He's outside now.

I worry he might meet the same faith as his brother, but he's slowly destroying the house. 

I think I might bring him in the house every once in a while. Being outside might tire him out.

I've been watching him and he does love it outside.

Hopefully he'll be okay.

Have a Blessed Evening

Lisa

Growing Pains

Ok, not really growing pains, but it sounded good and this post is about growing things.

Oh well, at least I got your attention.

This year I figured that I'd try different mediums (not sure if that's the correct term) to plant our garden in.  Not necessarily different soils, but different containers.

This way if you don't have much land, you can still plant a garden.

Like ya'll know I've started with the raised beds.

But then I started looking around me and I found that Dave had left two old tires kicking around.

So I thought, hmmm...that might work.

They're black, so they'd hold in the heat and moisture and keep weeds at bay.

Can you tell I hate weeds?!

I decided to plant my cabbage in these tires, but I only had two tires and six cabbage. So our friendly neighbourhood garage was more than happy to give us whatever we needed. So not only am I growing something, I'm saving the earth while I'm growing dinner.

Dave keeps complaining that you can't find big cabbage in Nova Scotia like you could in Ontario (which is where he's originally from). So I've made it my life's passion to try and grow giganteus cabbage in Nova Scotia.  I'll let you know how that goes.

Then at work we got a shipment of large buckets? Baskets? Hampers? Whatever you want to call them. They were inexpensive so I brought one home, drilled some holes in the bottom, and Voilá! a container for Jamie's Sweet one million tomato plant!

I also added a few marigolds for extra colour.

My raised beds are coming along nicely but slowly since it's been an extremely cold and wet spring here. It rains for 4 days, sunny for a few hours, rains for 6 days, sunny for a few hours...

You get the point.

Here's some lettuce from our very own gardens. That and the spinach is going nuts and will probably bolt before we get to eat it all. Oh well, the rabbits will like it.

We went to a livestock  sale a few weeks ago and there was two turkeys, a hen and a tom in a tiny little cage. I told Dave to bid on them. We'll save their lives and set them free.

But my generosity had a price tag of only $20!!!!

Dave has a hard time listening. (Selective hearing) and bid $50!!!!!

Well we brought them home. Stupid us, let them loose before we could clip their feathers.

The female is gone. I figured she became coyote lunch, but I heard through the grapevine she was seen yesterday.

The tom we found and brought back home. We clipped his feathers and he's now living in our goat pasture. We've called him Phineas. 

Phineas doesn't like Jamie. But Jamie is afraid of Phineas and will run from him. Bad move!

Never show fear!

Oh well. I like him.  He's looking kinda rough, but when he moults and feathers out again, he'll be a handsome boy. |Hopefully we'll be able to find Philomene and bring her home.

Have a Blessed Evening.

Lisa