Release the Mowers!

It is very dry here.

The sheep's pasture is not growing as fast as they can munch it so I let them loose in the goats' paddock today for some fresh greens.  Based on how quickly they zoomed through the gate, I am thinking that they were very, very happy with their new salad buffet.  It seems that the grass really is greener on the other side!

A Burn Barrel Birthday

We had a fantastic time celebrating Liam's 8th birthday today.  He laid out the plan for his special day (in great detail) and we were able to deliver.  Whew!

After his prescribed breakfast of champions - blueberry-banana pancakes with chocolate chips - Liam had us head off on a "cool hike with education placards" (his very specific request).  I figured the Mer Bleue Bog would fit the bill so off we went.

If nothing else, it was memorable. The first half of the hike trekked us through ankle deep swampy mud while we were dive bombed by swarms of hungry mosquitoes. This section was more like a trail run.

We managed to find a dry place that was relatively bug-free for our picnic lunch.

We all really enjoyed the 1 km boardwalk through the peat bog and we did learn a lot from the informational signs.  The wind managed to blow Liam's sun hat off his head and into the bog (there were some ugly tears) but Seamus spotted a "swamp rat" (well, at least a swimming mouse) so that kind of made up for it.

After his hike, we headed home where Liam and Seamus built some new Lego vehicles.

We finished off the day with a burn barrel BBQ and some birthday cake and gifts.

A fun and exhausting day was had by all.  Now we all need a hot bath to wash away the layers of sunscreen, bug spray, sweat, mud and smoke.   We are dirty and stinky, indeed!

A Saturday of Irritation

I started with high hopes for today.  We planned to finally get our tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and eggplant sown in our kitchen garden.  Unfortunately, today had other plans in store for us.

After last night's epic frost, I spent the morning watering our garden plants to reduce frost damage.  We are supposed to get another very cold night tonight which completely derails our plan to plant our warm weather crops.  Argh!  At least our plants are still safe and cozy on our covered porch.

Next I noticed an error with Emily's pain medication this morning and ended up spending a good part of the day on the phone with the vet's office, and then driving Emily to and from the vet's office, to get it sorted it.  And we have to go back again on Monday for repeat blood work to make sure that her accidental over-medication did not damage her kidneys.  Argh!  At least I caught the medical error early.

Charlotte is not feeling at all well after her dental day.  She (and consequently me) was up every two hours all night with bloody diarrhea.  Argh!  At least I am pretty skilled by this point in parenthood at dealing with poop.

I am supposed to be making Liam's birthday cake today for his party tomorrow but I am out of butter.  Argh!  Why do I not own a milk cow?!

My online grocery pick up (with all the food for Liam's party) got cancelled because of an electrical fire at the store.  I managed to re-book at a different store but some of the items I need for the party are out of stock there.  Argh!

And the worst of it?  Ian managed to move Gus-Gus to check on her eggs and she is sitting on unfertilized chicken and duck eggs!  There is not one single turkey egg under there!  ARGH!

The raspberries I transplanted this morning look about how I am currently feeling.  

I am ready for today to be over.  Let's start fresh tomorrow, please.

The New Zealand of Ontario

One of the things Ian and I enjoyed most about travelling across the south island of New Zealand all those years ago, was the frequently changing landscape.  You could go from beach to mountains to forest and back in less than a day.  We discovered a hike today that was reminiscent of this wilderness variety.  Starting from the Lime-Kiln Trail near Stony Swamp, we saw a sky high pine forest, barren limestone flats, a cedar maze, a beaver pond, a burnt out marsh, a giant fern glen, a root-filled jungle, a huge stone quarry, a vibrant green maple forest and so much more - all in 14 km!  

This was one of our best hikes yet; it was in our top 5, for sure.  What a glorious day!

Doggy Dental Day

Charlotte and Emily were both due for some substantial doggy dental care.  Emily had ten more teeth extracted (she had ten (out of 42) removed during her last tooth intervention).  Poor Charlotte had three quarters of her teeth taken out.  Our doggies are getting old.  Poor, poor toothless beasts.

Life, uh... Finds a Way

Everything on the farm has grown at least a foot in the past week.  Our lawn is a jungle!  Both our asparagus and sorrel have gone to seed!  This is amazing given the utter lack of precipitation we have had.  A big "thank you" to both Ms. Erin and Ms. Kerry for keeping our flora and fauna nourished and flourishing during our absence.

It seems that I forgot to mention to Erin that Gus-Gus prefers to lay her turkey eggs on the floor of the coop instead of in the nest boxes with the hens.  As a result, Gus-Gus has been allowed to keep a week's worth of her eggs, which she is now sitting on.  Apparently, she decided this was her chance to be a mama and she took it.  Gus-Gus was definitely not interested in showing me how many eggs she was incubating and gave me a menacing hiss when I tried to poke around underneath her.  I guess we will just have to see how she fares in her quest for motherhood in about 27.5 to 28 days. 

Baby turkeys were not in our plan for summer 2021 but in the words of Jurassic Park's Dr. Ian Malcolm, "I'm simply saying that life, uh... finds a way."

One Last Day

All good things must eventually come to an end.  Our vacation is over.  Today we were back to home schooling and it was time for cottage clean up.  We head back to the farm tomorrow to see what surprises our farm family has in store for us after our week away.

Inspiring Dreams of Forest Trails & Fish Fillets

The big boys and I started the day with a lively morning jaunt along the Cedar Lake South Loop in Frontenac Park.

We hiked through lots of pine forests.

We saw many sparkling waters.

Crazy haired Liam!

We trekked through many fern glens.

Everyone loves a good beaver dam.

Liam and Seamus then spent their afternoon fishing with Daddy.

You are not the right kind of fish.  Get outta here!

You are just a baby fish.  Get outta here!

Not to worry, they did come home with enough keepers to feed us for tomorrow night's supper.  Yum!

Needless to say, no one had to rock our big boys to sleep tonight.  Good night and sweet dreams of sun drenched forest trails and crispy fried fish fillets.