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

Productive Day

I'm having one of those days. It was a very productive day. I cleaned the goat pen, put away 5 loads of laundry, washed 4 loads, went to the hairdresser, did the banking (which I hate), made a large batch of banana chocolate chip muffins, tied the raspberry canes, cleaned the greenhouse and collected the tomatoes, stripped the beds, brought J. his lunch at school since I forgot it, drove him to drum lessons 45 minutes away, carved 2 pumpkins AND made a large supper of glazed ham, mashed taters, spinach, carrots and corn for my family. Phew! I'm pooped. Now I'm finally sitting down to relax a bit.

We've had to make a horrible decision today. It's been a long time coming though. Our dog Roxie has been suffering from Acral something or another (a very long word). In other words, she eats her legs and won't stop. It's been three years, about 1500$ in medication and vets and nothing works. It's stopped for a little while and now it's started back with a vengeance. She's at it on three of her legs. Except for that, she is the perfect dog. So tomorrow she is going to the vet and not coming back. We haven't stopped crying yet. I think that's all I can write about this.

Last night we harvested all the pumpkins. I love pumpkins. I think next year I'll just plant pumpkins and sell them. I didn't think all that many grew. We could only see half a dozen or so, but when we got in the pumpkin patch, there was alot more than 6.

Dave noticed that there was still alot of cherry tomatoes in the greenhouse. So I took a picture of him stuffing his face with tomatoes. He said "how many people do you know that are still harvesting tomatoes on October 26th!" It was so hot yesterday, and today it was sunny, but cold and windy.

On our way to carve the pumpkins in the barn (saves on the mess in the house) I noticed that Wilbur looked so depressed. He was just sitting there in the muck. Poor thing. Oh well, take heart Wilbur, Dave is going to put you in with Charlotte in a few weeks.

One of the little pigs looked under the weather the last few days. Dave gave it a shot of Tylan. Around here they use it as a cure all for pigs. We don't use it often, but it does work. We try and do things as natural as possible, but there are sometimes you just have to use medication.

It has rained so much here in the last few weeks that Wilbur, the laying hens and Charlotte are flooded. Charlotte's pen isn't so bad, but Wilbur and the hens are. The hens look like they're in a health spa with a mud bath. tee hee.

J. and I carved two pumpkins after he came home from school. It was the first time I let him carve it by himself. With supervision of course. He did a good job.

I had to tie the raspberry canes today. They were falling over themselves. I actually ate a few. Some were still on the vine. I saw a few will be ripe in a few days. That's how weird our weather is down here this year. I mean, Febe is still not in heat. Strange. She should be by now. Watch her go into heat tomorrow night, because I'm going to make my first Epicure party tomorrow night.

Well that's it for tonight.

Have a Blessed Evening

Lisa