Lack of Communication

After 22 years of wedded bliss

(it was our anniversary last week)

you'd think that we'd be able to finish each other's sentences.

And if my brain worked like a normal person's that would probably be true.

But my brain is not that of a normal person. It's mine.

It doesn't stop, even for one millisecond.

While I sleep I'm still thinking of things. 

It never stops.

Where was I going with this....

Oh yes!

Twenty two years!

You'd think that when I tell him just half of the story, he'd know what I meant.

Honestly, I shouldn't have to explain everything....right?

That's how I ended up with 45 chicks.

Dave loves auctions. Me, not so much.

I'm an over-thinker.

 When you're in an auction you can't think things through. You have to act instead of think it to death.

So we went to the cattle sale a few months ago.

Nothing was catching my eye. (well except the mini donkey, it stayed there.)

So then Dave is like, " Look at all these chicks. Do you want some?"

Me-No, I don't need chicks. We just hatched out a bunch. We don't need any.....

Him-Are you sure?

Me-Yes I'm sure.

Him-Are you sure, did you see the boxes of white chicks over there?

Me-Yes, I saw them, but we don't need anymore chicks

Him-Okaaaayyy. Well if you see something, just write the tag number on this paper.

So I wandered around and then wandered to the chicks again.

Stupid me.

Three boxes caught my eye. 

Stupid me. 

The white chicks.

Stupid me.

So I wrote down the numbers and gave them to Dave.

Since I have no patience and the brain for the auction itself, I went to visit the donkey.

He was such a cute donkey and there was a mini horse also.

I got back to Dave after it was done and he proudly announced that he got all 

THREE BOXES OF CHICKS!!!

Holy catfish Batman!

I only wanted one box.

Didn't you realize that? 

I only wrote the three numbers in case you didn't get the first box, bid on the second. 

If you don't get the second box bid on the third.

But don't get all three!!!

And that's how I ended up with this

45 chicks.

They're mostly grown now.  But now I have to figure out who's pullet and who's rooster.

AND find homes for them since I don't have room for all that.

But in my defense, we've been married for 22 years.  You'd think he would have known that I didn't want all three boxes. Am I right ladies?! 

Help me here!

Have a Blessed Day

Lisa

The Girl's Dorm

We've got a new building! I little barn, just for the girls.

Well at the moment it's every man errr...goat, for himself/herself.

I'm trying to train them to go into each of their pens.  It's only the first two days....

It's going to be a long summer.

I think it needs window boxes and curtains!

Claude and |Peanut scoping out the new pens.

Bear wondering why he's not allowed to stay in.

This is the goat's view.


The old goat house is now our hay barn.  No more little tarp barn for the hay.
 Our hay will be safe this winter!

I'm also awaiting some teat tape from Hoeggars. I'm desperate.  The kids have been weaned now for almost two months and when I put them together again. They went right to where they were before weaning.  Not happy!

I need the milk because at the last cattle sale we bought this...

Have a Blessed Evening.

Lisa

Lazarus...maybe?

Nothing is ever normal here on Spring Peeper Farm.

Never

Ever.

Ever.

This morning I was three minutes away from going live on

 CTV Morning Live when the phone starts to ring. 

Who on earth calls at 7:12am?

So I scream (yes, very professional I know) to Jamie,

"ANSWER THE PHONE! QUICK!"

He answers the phone, listens and then hangs up and runs BEHIND ME, 2 minutes before Cyril Lunney says " And now we have Lisa Doucette our correspondent from Concession..." in his PJ bottoms and no shirt. To see what is outside.

Then he says, " Norman (our neighbour up the road) says there's a dead chicken on the side of the road if we want it. The meat is probably still good."

What?!

No!!!Eww.

"Good Morning, Cyril!"

120 seconds later I'm off the air and go see what Jamie and Norman were talking about.

There on the side of the road is one of the neighbour's chickens.  It wasn't there an hour ago when I did the morning chores. And I would have noticed it since I passed right by it with Emilie for her morning ablutions.

It must just have happened when Norman went on his morning walk. He would have seen it.

So I Facebook my neighbour (no I don't call there, we're in 2015, you Facebook people now) and tell her...Another one bit the dust :(

We're both sad.

Then I go to put my clothes on the line and there's another white chicken on my lawn.  

NO WAIT! The dead chicken is not there anymore! It's the dead chicken!

Holy Moly! 

It's risen from the dead!

This deserves a PHONE CALL to the neighbour!!!

"Your chicken has been resurrected!"

"Do you think you can catch it?" she says?

So I go out and catch her.  I brought her home. Not sure if she's going to survive, but at least she might have a chance.

Dave came to visit me after he was done work today.
I told him the story of the Lazarus chicken.

He said," You're going to blog this aren't you?"

Yup.

Have a Blessed Evening.

Lisa

Why did the chicken cross the road....

Last week while I was planting my onions, my neighbour's chickens came to visit me.

Just two of them.

Never happened before.

I didn't mind.  It was kinda funny and cute.

One of the chickens went back home a little while later and never came back.

But this little white hen started visiting everyday.

Little White hen yesterday...notice the green grass!

She would even follow me around.  I didn't mind her being there. She was cute and respectful of my veggie gardens...unlike my chickens that have been under lock down till my veggies are grown high enough to fend for themselves.

So every morning the little white hen would come running to see me. Then when I went to work she would go home.  I called her the Renegade Chicken!

She broke the rules and let everyone know..

"WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD?

To visit her neighbour. 

 I know it was driving my chickens to distraction.

"Why is she allowed to roam OUR territory and we're not!" they would cackle.

I was very concerned about the renegade chicken. I called my neighbour to tell her.
I told her I didn't mind her being there...

but we live on a blind crest and people LOVE
 to drive 30-40km faster than the posted speed limit...

 I was afraid that she was going to get hit.

My fears came true.

The house across the road is where she was from.

This morning as I brought Simonne to do her morning ablutions

 I saw the poor little white hen in the road.

She never had a chance.  It's so sad.

I don't even think she seen what hit her.

Rest in Peace little white hen.

Thanks to you we now know the answer to the riddle...

Why did the chicken cross the road.

Have a Blessed Evening.

Lisa

Sigh.....

Spring has sprung.

Finally.

The garlic is growing, and the reason for the tomato cages is because...

The chickens are free range again. And they'll eat every little green thing they see.

Daisy is "over the moon!" about being outside again.  

It doesn't look like it, but take my word for it...she's happy.

And Peeper is singing the praises of no snow, well not much snow anyway,  longer days and warmer temps. Hallelujah!!!!! Everyone is in a better mood.

Only in Nova Scotia....two weeks ago it was -2 degrees Celcius at 7am and +26 at 5pm.

Gotta love Nova Scotia.

Have a Blessed Night!

Lisa

Goat Trip!

Earlier this winter we had the misfortune of having to put Pisnak down.

He had major issues with his joints and hooves.  We figure that when he was a kid we had fed him milk from Febe that contained the CAE virus.  So even though he was a wonderful buck, I couldn't stand to see him in such pain. We even tried pain killers but it got that even they didn't work.

 So we chose to euthanize him.  Such is life on a farm.

It's sad, but it happens. 

We decided to get another buck from where we had gotten Pisnak.  

A while ago when Hazy Day farm got a new doe I contacted the owner, Alex, that someday I would be getting a buck from that doe.  Little did I know it was going to be sooner, rather than later.

The minute we found out that Pisnak was going to go to the great pasture in the sky, I contacted Alex to put in our order for a new buck from that doe.  He wasn't cheap, but after while you have to decide if you're going to breed just for milk or for milk and quality goats.

We're going after quality goats and milk.

So fast forward 5 months and the future herdsire of Spring Peeper Farm is born!!!

He's more beautiful that I imagined!  He's going to make beautiful babies!

He's in another province.

He's a three hour ferry ride and overnight stay away (since the ferry only crosses once a day)

 or a 6 hour drive one way.....:( 

We tried to arrange transportation but with our crazy schedule, Easter approaching and Alex's crazy schedule it was proving to be impossible.

Finally Dave said, " Let's bite the bullet and go on a Round Goat Trip!"

So last Saturday we left at 6 a.m. for Moncton, New Brunswick.

It was a beautiful day with only a few flurries in the forecast...yeah, we've heard that before.

We actually made record time getting there.  We were supposed to meet Alex for the "drop" at 1:30 and we got there at 11:30.  So we ate lunch and then just sat in 

the Irving parking lot waiting for the  "drop".

Alex arrived on time and we did the exchange, goat for money. Took pictures, exchanged a few pleasantries and we were off again.

The Exchange of goods.

  

I figured we'd be home by 8pm.  At the latest.

Well that was before Dave spotted a HUGE and NEW Princess Auto.

  So we stopped and Dave shopped.  

We left and then had to stop at a pet store so Jamie could buy some fish.

By this time is was 5ish and the clouds were closing in.

Technically we were 3 hours away from home. But the snow started to fall. The roads were still clear.

But we left and hi-tailed it for home.  We stopped in Coldbrook (which is 2 hours away from home) for take out Wendy's and left.

  The road was still kinda clear, then about 10 minutes out of Coldbrook we were met with this.....

What should have taken 2 hours took 4!!!  We got home a few minutes before midnight.

 The picture doesn't do the road conditions justice. It was even worse than what it looks 

like in this picture.

But we got home safe. Thank God!

So the new bucklings name is Hazy Day Something Special  or as he's going to be known to us...Peanut.

There's a story behind why we call him Peanut.

But that's for another post.

Cate welcoming her future beau.

This shows he gorgeous and unique colouring.


Now to get Peeper a new friend.....but we'll wait till the snow is gone for that one.

Have a Blessed Evening
Lisa

The Winter from Hell!

I shall speak one more time about this winter and then I'll stop.

WoW!

This has been the worst winter since I was a kid.

It just did not want to stop snowing.

These pictures don't show exactly how much snow we've had.  Usually in this neck of the woods we'll have a big snow storm...the snow will last a few days, then rain.  And that will be the pattern till March when it pretty much just rains.

Let's put it this way, last year on April 18th I actually planted most of my veggies in my raised beds. By looking at the following pictures does it look like I'll be doing any planting anytime soon?

Ahh....no.

 The last few days we've had sun, so some of the snow has melted.

But I still can't get to my birdfeeder.  I've just been throwing the seeds on the snow.

Then this morning I thought, " Oh My Word! When the snow melts I'm going to have weird grass growing where I threw the seeds. Crud.

I'm so sick of snow.  When I woke up two days ago and it was -10 Celcius I almost cried. It's the end of March for Pete's sake!!! GIVE IT UP!

But God knows what we need and obviously He thinks we need snow.

It's giving rain for Saturday!

Awesome.

Everybody has run out of places to put the white stuff.

About two weeks ago while we were having a particularly bad snow storm..again. I turned to my co-worker and said, " You know what I just realized? That we're going to have to go through winter all over again next YEAR!AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

She just said, " we'll cross that path when we get to it."

Oh well, it's gotta go sometime.  Right?

By July it should be gone....right?

I think I'm going to cry.

Dave had to make a path to go dump the poop to our poop pile, but a few days after he made the pile it snowed again and you can no longer see the path...again.

Back yard.  You can't see the pond or the cast iron egret or my blueberry bushes. Sigh....I hope they survived.

Have a Blessed Day
Lisa