Trail Cam Update

Tonight we went back to have a looky-loo at the trail cam pictures.   Well low and behold we found a very photogenic bunch of wild turkeys!   Only a week late for Thanksgiving but I guess they were hiding out last weekend, "just in case"!

We also caught a lovely buck on the camera, or maybe this is 2 different bucks??

AND someone was out back with their dog???

Shelter Progress and Doggy Update

Saturday morning we had a heavy first frost.   Good thing the girls had their blankets on for the first night too!  It was -3C when I did morning feed.

Here they are waiting for morning feed.

This is the only existing flower garden on the property...the center of the circle turn around in the back drive.   I think the petunia's may have seen their last sunrise.

This weekend was set aside for more work on the shelter.  This is how we started off after Chris worked on the roof rafters on Friday.

This is the first attempt at building a shelter.   We are not using a set of plans for the construction.   Basically, I know what I want it to look like and I know how I want it to function.   DH is the construction side of the process.   He puts my thoughts into real life structure.   So once this one is completed the other 5 will be easier to build as we will have all the kinks worked out on this one!
Here is what we ended the weekend like.

It was too windy to do the roof today and we worked through the rain on Saturday to get the roof rafters complete and the back wall up.   I got the job of cutting the lumber as he nailed it all into position.   I could see he was afraid to let me use his power tools.   I was't sure if it was because the pink power combo with power tools or if he was actually afraid I was going to sever a finger in the radial cross cut saw!   I only cut one board wrong all weekend...so I think that's pretty good and we were able to salvage it and use it anyway.   By the end of the weekend...we got the walls all up and now we can work on the roof, the kick boards and the manger.

Corona Update...

Corona went to the vet on Saturday morning...she is sick.   The vet is not sure what's wrong with her.   She had blood work done and we will know the results on Monday.   She came home on Saturday and was perked up somewhat.   I thought she was turning the corner, however my hope was false as Sunday was not a great day.   As of right now she doesn't want to eat.   We have tried 4 different types of food and food combos now.   The last one is the only one she is even remotely interested in; ground beef and rice.   If it smells like dog food she just turns her nose up at it.   This is VERY strange because Corona is the dog that will eat anything!!

Here's Corona on Sunday out for a few hours of fresh air with her Daddy.

   

Vermin Update...

I think I may be ahead of them now!!  Yeah Me!  I checked all the bait boxes and they all had bait still in them.  I will maintain bait in the boxes now and hope that I don't have a big influx of rodents when spring mating season hits!  :-)

Splendid Maple Update...

The maple out front his trying to hold onto her leaves.   Even with the rain and gale force winds we had this weekend she still adds a wonderful splash of colour to the front yard.

Miss Kitty has been spending alot more time in the house these days as well.   That means we don't have the early morning serenade at the bedroom window.  <Insert Happy Dance here!>  She has decided that sleeping on our bed morning, noon and night is a perfect place.  She does however like to have a break from napping now and again and look out the window in the kitchen.

Visitor Update...

We had a lovely drop in from a co-worker and his parents this weekend.  Rob and his mom and dad stopped in with apples for the horses!   Ursela and Gord golf at the course in Cayuga and they used to enjoy seeing the horses across the road when they were on the course, since the old house was across from the golf course.    Rob has a small plane and he has given us fly overs since we moved in...I have seen him once myself as he came down low and I waved from the clothes line.   I can't wait for him to take me up for my very own fly over!  :-)

Sick Hooch this Week

Here at HP Haven we have been dealing with a sick doggie.   Tuesday night Corona come down with "something".   She has been off her food for at least 2 weeks now.   This has been very worrisome for me as this is a dog that eats ANYTHING!   And I really mean ANYTHING!   Meat, veggies, horse poop if she can get away with it, Christmas lights when she was little (She pooed sparkles!), whatever hits the floor you have to be fast to get it before she does!   She has started to turn her nose up at pretty much everything.   I had to hand feed her and DH has even had to coheres her to eat.   Very strange for her.

Tuesday night she had us up 5 times throughout the night.  Pretty much every 1.5-2 hours she was up and wanted outside.   DH pulled the first shift and let her out the first 3 times and then I did second shift and let her out the last 2 times.   The final time I just got up and got ready for work and went in early...no sense trying to go back to sleep for 45 minutes!

Made the call to the vet, figured it was another urinary tact infection.   She's had several over the years.  Got home on Wed night to diarrhea throughout the main floor of the house!!   I nearly threw up with the smell when I opened the door!   First order of business (no pun intended) was to get her outside to let her go out there!   Next was to get the windows open so I could stop the gag reflex.  Then the clean up started.   All the throw rugs went straight to the washer.   Found the pail, cleaning rags and ammonia.   As you all know Hoochie is a hairy assed varmint ...and this was not a good time for that!   So imagine the mess on those snow white pants and plumy long tail!    It was everywhere!  AND I mean everywhere!   If she laid down it was there.   If she turned around and her butt brushed the wall it was there.   Two hours later I had the house cleaned and smelling better.
I had a very embarrassed and sick doggie that ended up in her bed with the heating pad for the rest of the night.   She was exhausted, hungry but afraid to eat and not exactly smelling her best!

Thursday morning was the dreaded pee sample collection for the vet to test to validate the urinary tact infection.   I taped the container to the broom handle and followed her out the door at 5:45am to do the deed.   She's a low to the ground type when she pees so it's not an easy collection process.   So she doesn't really like the container being stuffed under her as she's going!   So let me paint the picture for you...me with my rubber boots, flash light and the pee container taped to a broom handle, following the dog around the yard until she find the "perfect" spot!  She squats down to do her business.   I try and cram the container on a stick under her butt.  She's too low to fit the container under and there is so much hair under there I have no idea if she is going other than the fact that she is in the right position to be going!   I end up having to use the toe of my boot to actually push it under...whacking her in the butt in the process and she looks back at me with that look as if to say, "Excuse me...but can't you see I am peeing!"

Two days and three types of antibiotics later and she is pretty much back to herself.  Thankfully, she  had no accidents when I got home from work on Thursday.   As of tonight, she's eating again and has interested in when we eat...so I am hopeful that the drugs are working their magic clearing up whatever bug she has.

I think DH was going to have a nervous breakdown with worry.   Funny tho how he wasn't too keen on dawning the rubber gloves and cleaning her tail end up after her bathroom trips outside on Wednesday night!  

Vet check up tomorrow to make sure she is fine...which I am sure will result in nothing to report other than, yes, she has a urinary tact infection and yes, she is old!   O well...it's peace of mind...and since she isn't going to cost us for University, I guess we can afford a vet check up even after the several hundred in drugs!

~Warning!~ Mushy Blog Post

As the title suggests…you get an advanced warning that this is a mushy blog post today.   So if you are Ok with mushy, read on.   If not, check back later this week for the next post!

Seven years ago today, I married the most wonderful man I have ever met.

If anyone would have told me 10 years ago that I would be where I am today; in this place on earth; in this personal space; in this contentment in my heart I surely would have laughed in their face!   Ten years ago I was newly divorced after a very angry and messy breakup from a record short marriage that I knew should never have happened in the first place.    (Why is it we know these things in our guts but we don’t listen?)   It was a train heading off the rails before it got out of the station but for some reason I just felt like I had no power to get off until it was a total train wreck.           

Fast forward a year, my optimism had returned and I was feeling so free and alive.   The weight of those unhappy times had been left behind like lost baggage from the wreck.   I had a new lease on life.   I took myself far less seriously.   I appreciated what I had going for me and I undertook a mind set of gratitude.   I realized how much letting go of everything gave me so much more.   Thankfully that train had a wreck all those years ago because it gave me the chance to change and be a better version of me.

I met a shy bachelor steel worker that was kind, genuine and a perfect gentleman.  He was the perfect compliment for my personality and my lifestyle.   Always the good cop for my bad cop.  The relaxation to my go, go, go energy. J We made an instant connection on the deepest level.   We understand each other with no words and words come easy when they need to.    I knew he was who I was supposed to end up with in this big plan our maker in our world has set out for me.   I know I am not the only one to feel this sense of instant connection with someone or some animal in your life.   It’s a sense of “right-ness” without anyone ever having to know why it’s right.   It was like we had known each other in another life and our spirits had found each other again in this life.  

Fast forward to 2005, we married on Thanksgiving.   We had so much to be thankful for and we continue to be blessed with so much love and happiness.    Here we are on our wedding day!

Fast forward to 2012, we have ventured into a new chapter together becoming farmers.   I couldn’t image doing this with anyone else.   The support of my hobbies, my horses and even my unflattering faults…he’s my rock, my best friend, my shoulder to cry on and my goofy nut that makes me laugh until I snort and cry.   He’s all the things I am not…patient, relaxed, care free.   He’s taught me so much about living life to the fullest and being honestly me in all situations.    He’s made it simple for me to create a habit of being grateful and happy through daily life and the simple routine.    He’s made it obvious that the little stolen moments are what we remember and what really count.   They are what shape us into the people we are and the people we want to become.   I am a better version of me because he’s part of who I am.

Here we are now…the new farmers!

He made falling in love with him easy and living this live has been even easier.    That’s how I know we were meant to be together…he makes being in love with him so easy.   Happy Anniversary Honey.   I love you.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was fantastic on the farm.  I have so much to be thankful for again this year.   My life is truly full of blessings and I know how fortunate I am to have so many wonderful friends and family members.

My parents stayed the weekend and once again worked their tails off helping us get things into shape.

My mom spent her weekend washing the mudroom and sunroom from top to bottom.   That took almost all day on Saturday.   I couldn't believe the transformation in the mudroom just by making it clean.   Still has chipped paint and damage on the walls but what a difference just cleaning that room makes.   Then she tackled painting the ceils.   I REALLY hate painting ceilings so when she was willing to do it, I was more than thankful!   Not only did she get both ceilings painted on Sunday but she also pulled off a perfect turkey and ham Thanksgiving dinner with zero help from anyone.   We got the call out the kitchen window at 4:50 that dinner was at 5pm.  I love my mom!   :-)

My dad was busy with removing all the posts from the back pastures.   They have been very difficult to get out and he finished up the job and also had a massive fire burning all the broken posts and huge pile of old lumber that was stacked in the field.   The old owners rather than clean up the old lumber and broken building that was out in the far pasture they just erected the fencing around it.   Who does that?   

My dad also helped me take out all the old overgrown shrubs from around the house.   I was sad to see the shrubs go because the house looks naked and not what I am used to but they were just too big and too close to the house.   I am rather excited about the thought of starting a completely new flowerbed and gardens all around the house tho.   I love to garden (I know, too many hobbies!) so it will be fun to start with a fresh pallet in the spring and make these my own.   All my friends with perennial beds…keep me in mind this coming spring when you are splitting your plants…I will need lots!!

I tore out the vegetable garden that was out the front door and the tomatoes that were around the side of the house.   Little weird if you ask me having your veggies right out the front door, so it was a definite must go!   

Here are the photos of the house before we started.

Here's what it looks like now.   It seems a bit naked without all the tress but once the new plantings go in it will have a totally new look.   We also need to redo the grading along the foundation since the veggie patch out front was added by ripping the boards out of a deck and then adding dirt into the frame.  Who does that?

Here is Papa Bear on the tractor working his magic.

I also did more weeding.   Why is it that weeds grow 10 times faster than grass and pasture?   I finished off around the round pen and got the south side of the arena finished up.  I forgot to take a second picture of the arena after the piles of weeds were picked up and taken to the weed recycling area that we started.   (I will try and remember that for another time).

BEFORE

AFTER

Chris worked away on the run in shelter in pasture #2.  It was fraught with mishap for the poor guy on Saturday.   He wanted to use the air nailer to help speed up the process and save his arm.   He ran all of his airline and realized that it was too short to make it.   So he dug out the generator and hauled that to the shelter.   He hooked everything up to find out that his portable compressor for the nailer took too high an amperage at start up and he blew the fuse in the generator!   So off to the hardware store to replace the fuse…and bought additional air line!    By late afternoon he was set up and able to get started.

By Sunday this was there progress.  All the rafters are up and the support structure is complete.   We have all the metal for the roof and the boards for the outside, so it shouldn't be long now until the it's ready for horses!

I also spent some time with my horses this weekend.   Izzy had a nap on Saturday morning, so I went out to visit.

Then she had a good roll!   Emma as you can see found all this to be rather boring!

Then Chris took some pictures of my ride today.   One along the driveway since I trimmed all the trees this morning.

...and another out front.

The maple out front was in perfect colour for Thanksgiving.   This is Sunday morning…what a fantastic tree!   I am so glad we have this tree in the front…it brings me a lot of joy seeing its splendour.  

A special thanks to Sharon and Rob for bringing Julie over for a short visit.  It was so nice to see you guys and Julie...it was The Royal last year that I last seen her.   Where does the time go! 

Our old neighbours Rob and Tracy popped in today.   We really miss them and it was great to see them.   They need to come again when they can stay longer!

AND the final hurrah for this post is the Redneck window that my dad cut for us in our terrible black fence along the back of the house!   (He cut it with my new chainsaw, incase anyone was wondering!)  We had no view out the back of the house because of this fence.   We have no need for a privacy fence in our back yard, so we made it a bit less private!

BEFORE

AFTER

Now we have a view to the barn and the pastures from the mudroom...redneck perfect!  :-)

Beautiful Fall Evenings

This week we have been treated to some wonderful warm fall evenings.
I took advantage of the night to ride and do some small things outside before it got dark.  Not sure if anyone else has noticed this as much as I have but it gets dark early.  By 7:30 PM it's pretty black out.   I always dread the time change, but I am happy that it's been moved back into Nov.   For now tho I am going to make the most of the nights in Oct while I can still ride outside!

Even Corona thought it was a beautiful evening tonight to be outside!

Mouse Update....
Vermin count must be decreasing!  Yeah Me!   2 of the 5 bait boxes were empty, 2 were partially empty and 1 was untouched.   That is so terrific as it means I must actually be getting ahead of the critters.   The good news is the untouched bait box is the one in the house basement.   After the volume of rodents in the barns I thought I better at least ensure that the house doesn't have any.   We have not heard any or seen any evidence but when it comes to a mouse in the house, I would prefer to be on the safe side.   Nothing like having to rewash everything in your cupboards day after day when you find evidence each day.  Just gross!

The tree out front is getting more and more beautiful.
The pictures are not doing it justice as I am taking the pictures in the evening and I am shooting into the sun.   It's still dark in the morning when I leave for work so I will for sure take one this weekend when I am home in the morning sun.

Last night I was fortunate enough to go to a lecture being given by textile artist Kaffe Fassett  from the UK.   What a fascinating man; such a rich, vibrant passion for colour.   Very inspirational and he has given me some motivation to get my studio in order.

I made my way out to the back country tonight to check my cousin Alan's trail cam that he set up.    Here's a pic...of the wild life at the woods.   I won't post the one of me when I got flashed in the eyes trying to retrieve the memory card or the one the day before when I got caught dismounting from Izzy...catching my "best" side in clear view!

The Difference a Day Makes

It was a cool night...look how much the tree out front has changed colour.   It's going to be in full glory for Thanksgiving!

Finally got our answering machine hooked up tonight.  I know; who lives without modern conveniences like an answering machine for 6 weeks?!   Well, I still have a flip phone that is not text friendly and it is often found dead in my car.   I do try and remember to keep it charged for riding since it spends most of it's time in the pocket of my breeches.  Lucky for me (or maybe unlucky) it has not yet made its way through the washing machine!  I keep holding out for an iPhone, but I just hate the plans they have when I never use my phone.  A $100 pay as you go card lasts me longer than 1 year.   Anyone know of any good plans for low phone users and lower data users for an iPhone?   It frustrates DH to no end that I never have my phone turned on but I always have my iPod out and connected to WiFi when it's available.    

I hacked out tonight through the woods.   What a lovely evening to get outside.   I made my way down the trail towards Indiana Rd tonight.   It was our first ride in that direction and the trail is pretty good.   Lots of trees down but I was able to get about half way to Indiana Rd before I popped out into a clearing to figure out how far I had travelled.   I love this time when all the trails are new and you have times when you are lost but just know the general area that you are in.   I had no idea where I was going to come out but was pleasantly surprised when I came out behind the old Marty McSorley farm.  (The hockey player from Gretzky's day)  I will venture out further on the weekend if the weather cooperates.   I knew I had to be back before dark tonight.   Even with the full moon I don't want to get lost at night during bow hunting season!!