It's the Final Countdown

Our Advent calendar treats are dwindling.

Our little elves are busy, busy, busy, preparing for the big day.

Shopping and wrapping - check!

Gingerbread houses are halfway there - built but awaiting decoration.

Letters sent to the North Pole - check!
Gifts sent to teachers - check!

It's the final countdown!  Happy Solstice everyone.  Welcome winter!

She's Just a Pest

Miss Ava has taken a liking to jumping the gate between the goat paddock and the backyard.  I am not sure how she expects to protect the livestock from coyotes when she's lounging on our back deck.  Ugh.  No, she is not cold and she is not lonely.  She's just a pest, plain and simple.

Emily: "MOM! Ava's at the door AGAIN."

Winter Wonderland

Today was a wonderful day.  After dropping Alistair off for lunchtime at Grandma's, the big boys and I headed out to enjoy the winter wonderland that arrived overnight.  We trekked our way through the beautiful forest of High Lonesome Nature Reserve and I enjoyed every minute of it.  Even when the whining started at the 3.6 km mark, the crisp fresh air, gorgeous snow covered boughs, and warm winter sunshine made it worth it.  The boys are out of shape though.  I have pledged to whip them back into shape over their Christmas vacation with lots and lots of hiking.  I am not sure that they were thrilled to hear this plan, lol.  I cannot wait to spend more time outside!

Careful of the Icy Patch!

Even though the boys have a week left of school, we can tell that the holidays are approaching by the sheer amount of craziness in the air.  They are not sugared up.  They are well exercised.  They are still NUTS!

Today we hiked 3.5 km on the very icy Carp Barrens trail, we kept the boys busy with holiday crafting and nut cracking, and we even tried afternoon naps (which failed miserably).  

There is no doubt about it, our boys are excited for the holidays!

A Long December

It has been a long week.  The latest covid news is getting us down and Ian and I are both very busy at work.  Not to mention, Seamus has been at home for a few days doing online school due to a classmate's positive test results.  

#1 Thank goodness Seamus goes back early next week. 

#2 Thank goodness Bell is currently installing Fibre internet at our farm; our go live date is Dec 22nd.

#3 Thank goodness Grandma has made herself available to assist Seamus with online school otherwise things would have been much more difficult.

#4 TGIF

Tonight Ian and I took some time off to hang together and snuggle with Charlotte and Emily.  He made us a couple of Bourbon Old Fashioneds and we fired up an oldie but goodie on the Netflix.  

All I can say is covid sucks and thank goodness it is Friday.

Sweet Little Nibbles

We took advantage of this unseasonably warm (and delightful) weather to finally get the last of the carrots out of the ground before the snow comes around again.  These Parisian carrots were grown in our pallet gardens in the season's third succession planting.  They are now full size and probably the sweetest carrots you will ever taste.  

We roasted them in the oven with our homegrown potatoes and our farm fresh (now frozen) Pekin duck covered with a generous sprinkling of Herbes de Provence.  It took longer to roast than we anticipated but it was worth the wait.  Delectable.

Bloody Lucy

Our new chickens arrived and I thought that they were settling in nicely...until I went out to put them to bed tonight and walked into a bloodbath.  Red everywhere.

After a minor heart attack, I located the source of the chicken blood fest - whom I have since named Lucy - and discovered that she nicked the ridiculously large and floppy comb on her head resulting in a copious amount of blood.

Lucy got brought inside, given a warm bath, and is now residing in the mudroom in Emily's dog crate until her feathers dry out and her comb stops bleeding.

Never a dull moment. On the plus side, our new chickens laid us eight beautiful white eggs today.  What an improvement!  We had eggs and bacon for supper to celebrate.  Egg plans are back on!