Time Waits for No One

Time waits for no one, not even if you are bedridden with a stomach bug.  Here are some things that happened on the farm while I was out of commission.

We did lots and lots of laundry, during which a puke soaked pillow exploded all over the house
(after it had been cleaned thank goodness).

We "rescued" Extra Fox (our goldfish) who we thought got herself stuck in the wood decoration in the fish tank. 
Turns out, she was hiding there from the other fish who were trying to eat her. 
As soon as we freed her, she swan right back and wedged herself in again.
After that we left her alone.

It went from -9 degree Celcius....

to +9 degrees Celcius in the span of six hours. 
I was not outside to experience this...I was in bed.

Our avocado tree survived the black death and grew four baby leaves.

And last but certainly not least, I submitted my thesis for defence.
This is the second last step before graduation. Phew!  Almost there.....

Anyways,  I am glad to be back in action.  Lots of stuff going on around here.  I do not want to miss out on all the fun!

A Pedicure for a Cantankerous Equus Asinus

It has been quite the day for the matriarch of a family under siege by the stomach flu.  It is 5:30pm and my entire household (except me) is asleep after a puke-filled day (following an equally puke-filled night). Liam is in recovery, Seamus has finally stopped his every 20 minutes throw-up-a-thon, and Ian has just started heaving.  Lovely, I know.

All this to say, that it entirely slipped my mind that our farrier was coming by today for Charlie's spa appointment.  While most ladies would enjoy the pampering, Charlie hates it.  She is usually such a mild-tempered beast but, as I explained to the farrier today (like many times before), I can't understand it - he is such a nice man but he just seems to bring out the worst in Charlie.

Ears back is never a good sign.
 For Charlie, this means "I'm feeling crotchety!"

Usually Charlie just ties to escape the hoof trimming by dragging me around the farm yard by her lead.  Even though she is a miniature, she weighs close to 400 lbs.  When she does not want to stand still, it is a challenge to make her.  For whatever reason; though, today Charlie was particularly ornery.

or·ner·y

ˈôrn(ə)rē/

adjective

NORTH AMERICANinformal

adjective: ornery

1. bad-tempered and combative.

   
   

   "some hogs are just mean and ornery"

   
   

   synonyms:

   grouchy, grumpy, cranky, crotchety, cantankerous, bad-tempered, ill-tempered

Seriously bad-tempered and combative pretty much sums her up during our visit with the farrier.  Charlie tried to run away, kick him, lie down, and stomp on my foot, repeatedly.  I would have taken a picture, but as you can imagine, I was busy trying to hold her down while simultaneously apologizing for her outrageous, disgraceful behaviour (as Mama Bear from the Bernstein Bears would have described it).

Discarded hoof clippings.

All trimmed up.

She (and the farrier) seemed much happier after the whole escapade was over.  What a day!

Ear position indicates, "I'm happy it's over."

She's even giving me a donkey smile.
What a rascal!

A Little Holiday Bedazzle

The boys were chomping at the bit to get our Christmas lights up.  This morning, in an attempt to argue his case, Liam listed off all the people he could think of who already had their lights up, "Grandpa, and Mr. George, and Mr. Cow Man, and Grandpa, and everybody!  Mama, everybody but us already has them up!"  Ian took pity on them and today we put our Christmas lights up.

Before

During

After

To help make our lights look even more festive we got a light dusting on snow this evening.  I did not even realize it was snowing until Charlotte and Emily came in looking like this.

Hilarious. 
They need their fur cut. 
Badly. 
We have an appointment on Dec 5th.

Raspberry Madness

The winter preparations for raspberry canes are now competed.

They are growing up, up, and away!  See how they are reaching south?

I tied the canes into bunches using baler's twine to give them strength once the snow comes.  I certainly do not want them snapping off - no berries that way.

All tied up.

Mulched and ready to go.  See you in the spring!

Sunrise, Sunset on a Very Hectic Day

A spectacular start and finish to an otherwise very hectic day on the farm.

Like this photo from a few weeks ago,
we have been getting very beautiful sunrises on the farm. 
This morning was no exception.

We proceeded from a glorious sunrise to Liam's most epic meltdown yet over having to put on his winter clothes. You would think asking him to put on his snow pants was equivalent to making him walk the plank, handcuffed, over hungry crocodiles, slathered in meat juice.  In the throes of his temper tantrum he sounded like a dying horse. No wonder cowboys put dying horses out of their misery.

It was a brew day for Ian today.  I love brew days because our house smells all malty and hoppy.  Yum!  Liam was able to help out a bit before school (and his tantrum).

I was even able to unchain myself from the computer for an hour this afternoon to go to the grocery store.  Ah, freedom.  Except that I did not realize that it was both Black Friday AND a PD day for the English school system.  The grocery store parking lot was rammed and every turkey in town must have been out and about.  Not my scene.  I got my groceries and skedaddled!

I did manage to pick up some juicy clementines. 
I love when these are in season!

The best part of the day was heading out to put the animals to bed.  After bracing for an onslaught of frigid air, I was pleasantly surprised by an unseasonably balmy eight degrees Celcius!  What a treat.  It is like we live in Cuba.  Cuba Libre anyone?

The chickens were especially lucky today.  Not only is it much warmer out, they also got the brew day leftovers - a huge tub of extra yummy spent grain.  Their favourite.

They seem to feel like they are in a better place lately.  Their strike is over and they laid a whopping three eggs today.

Hey, better than nothing!

We finished off this crazy day with a relaxing afternoon walk and a spectacular sunset.

That put even grumpy pants Liam in a good mood.

Just Call Me Doctor

Dr. Chokecherry, that is.  Today I played doctor to our favourite chokecherry tree.  The birds love the berries produced by this tree and they make delicious jam.

While waiting with Liam for the school bus, I noticed some black fungus spots had appeared on two of the tree's branches.

Black Knot, caused by the fungus Apiosporina morbosa, is a common disease affecting chokecherry and other trees in the genus Prunus.  These include:

Amur Cherry	Mayday Tree
Apricot	Mongolian Cherry
Black Cherry	Nanking Cherry
Chokecherry	Pin Cherry
Dropmore Cherry	Cultivated Plum
Flowering Almond	Wild Plum
Flowering Plum	Prunus Hybrids
Japanese Plum	Sand Cherry
Korean Cherry	Sour Cherry

We have plum and cherry trees planted nearby so I want to try to keep the Black Knot under control. The most distinguishing symptom of Black Knot is the characteristic black, tar-like swellings that develop on branches of the infected plant. 

To control Black Knot it is recommended to prune out all knot-bearing branches during late fall, winter or very early spring when plants are dormant and knots are easy to see. I cut the infected branches back to the tree trunk and put them into a compost bag. I will put them out for the friendly neighbourhood compost man next week.

Well done, Dr. Chokecherry. 

Reference:

Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.  (2003). Management of Black Knot.  Retrieved from: http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/faq7622?opendocument

What?!  Did you think I had actually finished my doctorate?

You Looking for Eggs? How About Some Poop Instead?

Charlie may be uncertain about how she feels about the impending cold weather.  The chickens are not.  They have gone on strike.  No eggs yesterday.  Not a single one.  Instead, when I stuck my (thankfully gloved) hand inside the nest I found - you guessed it - a big pile of poop.  In every nest! What a way to protest their living conditions.

Does this look like eggs or poop to you? 
Poop.  Definitely poop.

 I think someone needs to remind them that we live in Canada.  It is not my fault that it is freezing out!

We Have a Logo!

It is a very exciting day on the farm.  Thanks to Charlie P.'s trademark ears and the creative genius of Mr. Steve Little (logo maker extraordinaire), we finally have a farm logo.  Watch out - now I am going to brand everything in sight.  Woohoo!

Boozy Cake you say?

Guest post by Ian today....

Signs the holidays are here:

- Parades

- Snow

- Poinsettias & Panettone in the grocery stores

- Krystal complaining about fruitcakes

- Ian eating fruitcakes (and Panettone).

In the spirit, I read something about making fruitcake, and dug up a few recipes.  Found one I kinda liked, but then decided it was terrible and went with another (more specific) recipe.

Surprised when I saw the candied fruit ingredients cost 40 bucks, but the realized I had weighed in KG, and so I had a double recipe.  Perfect!  More for me!

Bulk Barn was next to the LCBO, how convenient, so I could pick up some bourbon for the cakes.  Bought a bottle of Bulleit as I've heard it's good value for money -- little did I know, i wouldn't really have any left for drinking!  That's another 40 bucks into these cakes.  A little christmas cheer is priceless right?

Well, fruit needed soaking in bourbon, and then creaming butter, sugar, eggs, dry ingredients together, mix in some espresso and molasses and you've got yourself some cakes!  Finally, wrap in cheesecloth soaked in the good stuff and let it sit.  and sit.  and sit.  Longer is better.

I even had some help!  Liam was measuring out the Bourbon and giving it good sniffs to know if it was "good enough".

Bring on the holidays!

For the recipe, click HERE

A Beautiful Snowy Afternoon

As predicted, we got our first snowfall overnight.  Upon seeing the snow, Seamus screamed, "LOOK!  LOOK!  Winter is here!"  Liam responded with, "Great.  Can we get our Christmas tree today?"  He accepted the answer of "No, not yet." more gracefully than I expected.

It is a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon on the farm.

Charlie is undecided about her feelings on the change in weather. 
On one hand, there are no more annoying flies or mosquitoes. 
On the other, it is COLD out!  

Deer Sandy, Will You Be My Slipper?

We named our deer Sandy.

After receiving the call from Don's Meat Market in Almonte this week, Ian and Seamus headed down to bring her home.

I was prepared for a freezer full of deer meat.

What I did not expect was to bump into Sandy's hide drying out in our garage.

Ian is planning to tan it himself.  Maybe he will make me a new pair of slippers for Christmas?  My lambies are falling apart.

Christmas is On the Way!

With the Christmas season right around the corner, we began our festive preparations by attending the Ottawa Help Santa Toy Parade.  This is a family tradition and a great way to kick start the holiday cheer. We even got a few snow flakes just before Santa arrived.

The boys enjoyed the parade more this year than ever before.  Seamus gave every big truck a standing ovation.  He also loved the Ontario PC Party float.  Given his left-leaning parents, this was a bit of a surprise but I suppose being politically active of any stripe is better than being apathetic. haha

The boys cleaned up on candy canes.  They were just so cute - no one could resist.  What a haul!

After the parade, we headed to Bulk Barn to ferret out supplies for Ian to make homemade fruitcake. 

We then made a quick stop at Laura Secord to pick up our Advent calendars - a holiday necessity!  Last year they sold out quickly so I made sure not to miss out this year.

Tonight we are scheduled to get our first significant snowfall as well. What a great beginning to the holiday season.