Sunday 3 August 2014

Promotion, Gardening and Dunbar Reunion

As I have found throughout my life nothing ever stays the same no matter how much we will it to not change; change just comes along nonchalantly like it has nothing better to do than upset our status quo.   For the most part I like change and the fresh, new feel that it brings to the table.   I've had a big change in my work life this past week.   I was offered a promotion at the company I work for into an area I've been working in for the past year on special assignment.   As I may have mentioned in a past post that I work in a heavily male dominated workplace.   My mother started setting the course for women in the workplace...through her 30 year career in the automotive sector.   I started my career in the auto sector but 8 years in, I moved to the heavy industry steel sector and have been there ever since.   I have worked in a number of different capacities at my current company but nothing has taken me in this close to the leading edge of women in industry than this new position as Asset Maintenance Coach - #4 Continuous Pickle Line (4CPL).   The Maintenance group I now work within has me as the lone female.    I have been working with all of the guys in this area for a few years and in a greater capacity in the last year.   They are an outstanding group of men and they have accepted me and my bright pink work shirts as part of the team.   I look forward to continuing to build relationships with this group and hopefully adding a few new female skilled trades workers to our mix of "misfits" in the years to come.    
I know, for some reading this, they will think I must surely be from another era.   That women have had the right to vote and equality for years in this country.   I agree we have all those rights but to change a paradigm that was formed over generations is going to take a few more generations of women like my mom and I to get true equality.    I am proud of this new assignment and I hope that I bring a different set of skills to my group that we will together benefit from as we move forward.   I look forward to being part of the upset to the status quo...so that we (women) can start fresh in the heavy industry steel sector.

On to farm news!
Wanda is back home after a second attempt at AI breeding her to Sporcken.   I will know later in Aug if she is indeed in foal or like Melissa's husband, Jeff suggested that she is "with pony"!  :-)

Izzy has been training fabulously this past month.   Been working on her basic gaits and in general trying to make her more forward, uphill and elastic.   It's a long journey to create this so in the short term progress doesn't always seem too obvious.   
As time has passed the nasty abscess that created her lameness back in January (here is the post about it) has reached the mid point in growing out her hoof wall.   The affects of the white line separation this nasty infection caused has already reached the sole of her foot were an ugly crevice has formed and constantly becomes packed with dirt and small rocks.   Here's to hoping that when the actual blemish is trimmed away that the white line is securely attached again above in the new growth.   Here is a pic of the abscess as it looks now in its growth stage.  Nice to see healthy hoof growth at this rate.


DH and I (mostly DH) have been working on the shelter in #3.   It's coming along very well and should be completed in the next couple of weeks.  The roofing has been ordered and all the walls and kick boards are now up.   DH is framing in a little add-on room that will be used for storing hay and feed during the winter months so that it will reduce the work load of hauling feed in the winter months twice a day at this distance from the barn.

Weeds...my arch enemy...
I cut the burdocks from the pastures again this year.   The pile to burn this season is far less than last and I hope that trend continues as I diligently annihilate them from my grazing areas.
Here is the first load getting dumped at the burn site.


Veggie Garden
My veggie garden is abundant!  Lettuce has been beyond fabulous and is near its end now.   Carrots are coming along and some baby roasted carrots will be on the BBQ menu in the near future.  Cherry tomatoes, green peppers, jalepeno peppers and spicy red peppers are all ready, as well as a few zucchini.   There are numerous squash growing on the vines which I am excited to make the delicious butternut squash and bacon soup that I discovered last year.   Spaghetti sauce season will be upon me before I know it!  Very excited about that, since last year there was very little sauce produced from my weed invaded veggie patch.   You can read about last years garden here.
My mom planted a row of sunflowers along the front garden fence.   It's hard to believe these over 8 foot tall giants started from a seed less than a cm in length!   


They are truly beautiful and I never tire of the awe I get when I walk through my garden knowing that the things living and thriving there all come from small seeds I held in my hand just months earlier.   
Here are the Poppies and Echniacea that I started from seed this spring. 

Molly has taken to pond crossings not just wading along the shore line.  It seems that she knows just when I am ready to go inside as she runs in for a dip and gets soaked!!


Annual Dunbar Summer BBQ
The farm was also the destination for the Dunbar Clan again this year for the now annual summer BBQ.   The weather had been somewhat looming all week that it may rain but mother nature held back until all the guests had left for the evening and DH and I had the tents and canopies all packed away before she blew in with a wicked thunderstorm.
Once again DH's parents were not able to attend because the elevator in their building was out of service and still remains that way going on 4 weeks now.   Such an unacceptable circumstance from a care facility that promised it would be fixed prior to the get together.  Otis is now running 2 weeks behind which means my poor FIL has been trapped on the third floor now for the better part of the summer after the lonnnnggg winter we just endured.   It's a good thing he's a happy sort with a gentle and easy going personality.   God help them if it was me instead of him!!
Here is the Dunbar clan.