Tundra the Great!

Sometimes you wonder if your emergency plan would actually work. Yes, you hope that you never have to use it, but at the same time you'd like to test it.

Well we got to test out our farm EMO yesterday.

A friend of ours came to visit and he brought his dog.....not a smart move. When they say that Great Pyrns hate all dogs that they weren't raised with...well they're right.

I wasn't there but Dave said it was amazing to see. Tundra was growling at the fencing to get to the dog to "save" her goats. Stockings would go up to the fence to investigate and Tundra would put herself between her and the fence. Dave had never seen Tundra growl.

Dave warned our friend to put his dog in his vehicle. So I guess our guardian really works. So maybe that's what's happened to our chickens. She was protecting her "girls".

Speaking of the girls. Febe is due Sunday and Cindi Lou Tuesday. Dave finished the new stall to move the dog into and we're going to use the dog's old pen for the kids. I'm going to attempt the CAE prevention program. That's if I can catch Febe in the act of giving birth. Like I've said before she's sneaky when it comes to giving birth. She's quiet and fast. Which is good if you're not trying to get to them before they start nursing. But.....

Have a Blessed Evening

Lisa

Weird happenings on Spring Peeper Farm.

Cindi Lou pondering life

First of all, the date on top should be December 4, 2010.

Well, well, well... Two Fridays ago, we were driving home from J's hockey practice, when we spotted 3 teens walking on the side of the road. It was dark out, so we only saw them at the last minute since they were wearing all dark clothing.

We were just beside them when they threw a two by four in front of the car! What the heck!!?? We just couldn't believe it. We heard Thunk! as it hit the car. By the time we realized what was going on the culprits were gone. We stopped at a friends house to call the cops, for all the good it would do. But we did anyway.

We started on our way home again, when Dave said, "This is bugging me! I'm going back!" So he turned on a dime and we went back. Don't ya think the buggers were there again!

So we went to the house we called the cops at and Dave dropped us off and picked up his friend.

They was gonna go idiot huntin'!

To make a long story short, they found them and Dave chased them down, first with the car, then by foot! He caught one of them, and brought him at the fire hall, since that's where they were at the time and Dave has a key to it.

He called the cops from there and the kid squealed on his friends (honor among criminals eh?). The cops came and took a statement. The kid's dad came and he was not a happy camper! Since they are all underage they have a curfew set on them by the cops. No damage was done to the car. In a way I wanted some damage to the car, because they were obligated to pay for it, if there had been some. I know that's not very Christian of me, but I am so sick and tired of young punks getting away with everything, just because they're underage. My motto is, "If you're old enough to do the crime, you're old enough to do the time."

So putting that behind us, we thought our brush with the law was behind us. WRONG!

Last Saturday was an extremely busy day. I was working, Dave was at a craft sale till 4pm with my soap and spices (he sold 22 bars of soap btw, very good) J. had to be at the Sunday school concert practice at 1pm, then at a hockey game three hours away for 3pm, then he somehow had to go to my mom's in the other direction 45 minutes away for 4pm to go to the Santa parade for 6pm. Then Dave and I had to be at a banquet for 6:30pm. So needless to say, it was busy and J. didn't get to the hockey game. Only so many hours in a day and I don't really want to cut my son in half, like Solomon wanted to do in the Bible.

Anyhoo...We all got home around 9pm and all fell into bed soon after. We were pooped.

Little did we know.....

What had transpired in......

our back yard!

Sunday we were still clueless until after we got home from church and our neighbour came to see if we liked the new creature in our backyard.

We were like, huh?

Till we saw this......

Kids... this is what happens when you drink and drive!

I won't go into details with it, since the police are involved and it's not over yet, but I will say one thing, this poor truck is in a swamp that has 80 feet of mud under it. It's slowly sinking....it's been raining, this is not helping matters. It's been a week today and it's still here. Technically it's not on our land, but it visible from our land and people are coming to see it and it's causing congestion in the road. They stop to have a look, block our driveway and we are at the bottom of a blind crest. Not good.

The police have been here so many times, you'd think someone died here. Geez! I just want it gone. It was funny at first, but it's not anymore.

Febe giving us a kiss.

Anyway, I can't leave a post without photos of goats, it's been a while since I've posted some and new ones of Tundra.

Tommy and Tundra. (Stinky LaPew and Penelope too!)

She's now in with the goats permanently. She even sleeps with them at night. I have my house back. Phew! She wasn't happy in the house anyhow. She's so happy outside all day and in the barn all night. Someone told us it's cruel to keep a dog outside all the time and not bring it in the house. They said, "what's the point of having it?"

Uh...well...to protect the animals it was bought for. It's bred into to her to protect those goats. And she's happy and does it well.

Well that's about it for today.
Have a Blessed day.

Lisa

Gopher Wood anyone?

Methinks we need an ark.

Well ok, maybe not now. But Friday, Saturday and Sunday, it sure looked like it. My plan for that weekend was to do all the end of season yardwork. Clean the gardens so I can plant my garlic, clean up the greenhouse, bring in the lawn ornaments etc...

Meerrp! Guess not. That plan went out the door Friday night. It started to rain, and rain, and rain and rain some more. The wind came into play so that didn't help matters. Then Saturday it rained and rained and rained and rained some more. Sunday morning it just drizzled, then it rained and rained and rained and rained some more.

Are we seeing a pattern here? From Friday night to Sunday morning we received more than 200mm of rain! (for you Americans, 25mm equals one inch) What rain we didn't get this summer, we got this weekend. Everyone is flooded. Us for some strange reason didn't get a flooded basement. Weird.

BUT! we lost our goat fence and a tree. The tree was on it's way to fall on the chicken barn, hay barn and the corner of the goat barn. So Dave and our neighbour took his tractor and pulled it the other way.

My poor goat fence.

Then...my fence posts at the goat pasture broke under the pressure of all the rain being pounded by the wind. It broke alot of them right at ground level. So the goats are stuck in the barn and not happy about it. The front part of the pasture is fine, so Dave is going to block off the broken part and we'll fix it next spring. So that way the goats will be able to go outside.

The tree that fell. It was going on the other side.

As for the tree that got knocked down in the pig's pen...well... It killed the electric fence and the regular fence. Thank goodness we only have 2 little pigs left. They are locked in the barn for now, needless to say. They are also going to the butcher this week. They are only 3 months old, but nobody wants to buy them. So we are going to keep them whole and BBQ them on the spit.

So back to the rain, about an hour's drive from here in a place called Quinan they really got the brunt of it. The news had a reporter in a boat. It looked like are large lake. It was really a farmer's field. There was at least 6 feet of water if not more.

The dam broke!

One of the dams in our area broke. Dave went out today and took some photos. It was nice today, no rain...until now...I now hearing the rain just pouring outside. Sugar Boogers! This is not good for the people of Quinan. Many houses are destroyed, roads are gone, bridges are underwater and the hydro dam is almost ready to burst. They've been keeping a close eye on it.

This is really a nice big lawn. Not anymore. If it could freeze, it would be a nice skating rink.

Not good, not good at all. We have to keep praying that they'll all be safe. They have evacuated everyone, but there's still property and livestock.

Tundra with her Elvis impression

Well Tundra is growing. And growing.. She's a little over 5 months old now and she's 64lbs, extremely clumsy and into everything. The kitchen is getting too small for her. We were putting her with the goats until the fence got knocked down. That was tiring her out and they are finally getting along.

But in the meantime, she's been busy chewing in the kitchen.

Hmmmm... too bad she doesn't have any bones and toys to chew on. NOT! She's got lots of bones, but she prefers my cupboards....

and the baseboards

and the potato bin

and the antique high chair

and more baseboards!

She has got to move to the barn where she belongs! AND SOON!

Dave is going to change the pig pens to a Tundra pen when she's not with the goats.

Well that's about it for today.

Have a Blessed Day!

Lisa

Hurricane Earl update and autumn update.

Well, well, well....It just amazes me how fast the temperature can turn. Last week it was so hot and muggy you could have steamed carrots in the greenhouse. A week after "Earl" went by, God flicked the switch and it's now freezing out. We actually had to start the furnace tonight.

First day of school.

Mind you the first day of school it was still hot and the kids actually went in shorts. That's the first time ever. I don't even remember going to school in shorts. Some schools in Halifax let the kids go home because of the heat. See the schools around here don't have air conditioning.

The pastor we met on the ferry actually called us on the Sunday after the hurricane to see how we had fared. It's nice to know that there are actually people out there who honestly care.

Hurricane Earl. It was low tide. The wet part on the wharf is when it's high tide.

The funny thing is that Hurricane Earl turned out to miss us and hit Halifax. We were prepared and they weren't. Bummer for them. Good for my sunflowers. A few fell but most stayed up. Nothing was damaged around here either. Mind, we had strapped everything within an inch of it's life, so short of a tornado would have moved anything. It was actually anti climatic. On that Saturday morning we sold out of batteries. Funny. But I guess it's better to be prepared.

There are so many things I love about having animals. But there is one thing I really despise about having them and that is BUGS!! Oh mylanta! The last few weeks every time I leave the chicken coop I have a little bug or two on my arm. Nothing serious. It kinda looked like baby spiders. I can handle that. Then Friday night I stuck my hand in the hen's nest. I took my arm out and it was full of bugs!! UGGGGHHH. Oh my, oh my, oh my! I brought the eggs in the house and they were crawling with these little buggies also. So we went out with the Raid. Now 99% of the time I do e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g organic. But when it comes to stuff like that, I whip out the Raid can.

When we got to the coop we opened the lid of the nest and it was teaming with crawlies!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't think it was baby spiders. I think it was a kind of mite. What ever it was, they is dead! Saturday I Raided that coop. I'm amazed the the hens are still alive. What saved their butts is that I let them loose outside. I never suspected anything since the hens weren't scratching. Oh well. We should be fine for now. I hope.

My mother and J. at the picnic

Today was the second annual Meteghan Family Picnic. We were asked to bring Cindi Lou Who for the kids. It went well. Well kind of. I brought her in the back seat of the car. (uhmmmm didn't I say in a post somewhere, that I would not bring a goat in my car again...) She wouldn't lay down, sooo you know what they say...a goat won't poop or pee if it's laying down. Well, she pooped in the car. Dangit! At least I had the dog cover on the seat. Phew!

J. and Cindi Lou going home from the picnic

But the kids loved her. But again, most kids had never seen a goat other than in photos and a few adults asked if it was a dog. Huh?

On the way home we stopped to get an ice cream. Again...not a good move with a goat in the car. I'll never learn, will I.

My tomatoes that I found in the weed garden and the little ones from the greenhouse

Guess what I found in the weed garden a.k.a the veggie patch. Tomatoes!! Beefsteak tomatoes! I'm so impressed. It was hard to find them in all 2 foot high grass, but I found them.

12.8 oz!!

The greenhouse is almost over for the season. I figure by next week I'll be cleaning it. I have been forbidden from making anymore pickled beets. Like I've said before I hate the darn things, but I love making them. But that is one thing that actually grew well in the garden this year. I still have a row of them left, but Dave won't let me pickle them.

Little does he know, I'll get to them eventually. Muahhahahahahaha!!!

Tundra the amazing growing dog!

Tundra is growing like bad weeds. She's almost 40 lbs now.

I just had to leave you with this parting shot. One meeeeaaannnn panther. Or a sleepy one caught in a yawn.

That's it for this week. Have a Blessed Day.

Lisa

This week in farming

Well so far this week things are better.

After we took stock of the chickens we discovered that the mink had killed mostly roosters that we were going to snuff anyway and older hens. With the exception of Hawky and Grisette I don't really mind losing the others. We will be without the usual amount of eggs till the new hens start to lay, but at least we are getting 2-3 eggs a day. Enough for us.

What I can't figure out is that he didn't bother the ducks. They always go after the ducks. Weird.

We had quite the thunder and rain showers this morning. So bad that I didn't want to put the goats out.

Awaiting the batter....yummm

J. and I have been baking again. Oh, and btw the cookies didn't get to the old lady. I brought them to my mother's house and she had company. Needless to say, they didn't make it.

This time we made cupcakes.

Batter time!

When I was a little girl my mother would make cake or cupcakes and I never got to lick the bowl. She'd hardly leave anything in the bowl. So now that I'm a mom I make sure there's plenty to lick in the bowl. As a matter of fact...we eat the raw batter and what's left is what we cook.

Now when we do this it's only for us. I don't give these cupcakes to anyone since we are severely double dipping in the bowl. When I make cupcakes for other people we don't eat the batter.

Anyway, here's the finally product. I mean you gotta have sprinkles!!

Tundra is doing well. Dave brought her to the vet yesterday for a checkup and needles. I guess Parvo is getting very common in this area. The vet says that she's the picture of health. She's got no heart murmur. I guess that breed is known for them.(this I didn't know) And we'll only know when she's closer to 2 years old if she'll have hip dysplacia. But neither of her parents had it so it should be good.

She's lost all shyness and boy oh boy can she pee. I know we should crate train her, but I just don't have the heart to do it. I mean, I don't want to be stuck in a crate all day long. So I can't imagine a dog would. But we'll try this for now. I asked Dave if he got her bladder checked since I think it must be the size of a mustard seed. He then said, "why do you think there are so many P's in the word Puppy!" Ha Ha very funny Dave.

The goats are kinda warming up to her. They aren't super sure what to think. I let her loose alone. I still just bring her in my arms around them. When she 's bigger I'll let her loose with them. Oh and the vet said by Christmas she'll be 100 lbs! Yikes! She'll only be 6 months by then. She said it's a good idea to change her puppy chow to puppy chow for giant dogs. Regular puppy chow is not good for large dogs. It makes them grow too fast and it's not good for their bones.

Well that's it for today.

Have a Blessed evening.

Lisa