Goodbye Again

Monday Brandon went back to Ontario. It was very sad, I hate saying goodbye to him. He does however, make me laugh! I love this boy who has been here for a week and decides after we leave for the airport that maybe he should have seen that last room in our house. Zoe's bedroom is under construction and therefore the door is always closed. Brandon had never peeked into it and thought he had better see it before he leaves. So we turn the truck around and head back. He sees the room and is happy. We get in the truck again, start the engine and head out the driveway "Wait mom. Maybe I should hold a chicken just once before I leave." Back up the truck, turn off the engine and go find Racheal. Chicken held, photo taken, and we get back in the truck. I did not start the engine, I did not head out the driveway, instead I turned to look at Brandon. I ran off a list of everything he may not have done or seen to decide if there was anything else he wanted to do before we left for the final time. Nope, he was good! Off to the airport we went. His flight was delayed so we enjoyed one last meal together at the airport then took our family selfie and sent him through security. The hardest part of this goodbye is not knowing when we will see him again. At every other parting we have been able to say "See you in August" or "See you at Christmas" or "See you this summer". This time I was at a loss as no future plans have been made.

At home, things have continued to go well for Zoe and me on the work front. As I believe I mentioned before, Zoe has proven herself at work to be honest, reliable, and hard working and as a result has been promoted to supervisor. She was thrilled and has done an amazing job in that role. Sadly though this is just a summer job and will be coming to an end next week. Then the job search starts again and she will apply these newly acquired skills to another position. I love working at the YMCA. Both the staff and members are terrific. Everyone is so happy and welcoming and I feel so lucky to have been given the opportunity to work there. About a month ago there was a different position posted within our YMCA that I applied for. I was fortunate enough to get this and am now Membership and Sales Lead. I am still learning all the responsibilities of this new position, but have a very supportive group of coworkers who are making the transition very comfortable.


One of my coworkers has a young dog with whom Dixie has become friends. We have had two previous dog dates for them to socialize and run and have fun. This weekend we met for a third such date. This time however we decided to take them to the beach at low tide so they could run on the mud flats. We had not quite anticipated how soft the mud would be though and had two nose to tail mud covered puppies. They had so much fun and were so exhausted that it was totally worth the mud flung everywhere bathroom as I tried to bath Dixie on our return home!

No blog is complete without the weekly chicken update: our new fifteen girls were introduced to the original flock of hens this week. We are letting them all out together for a few hours in the evening and it is going very well. My instinct is to protect, so when Monica starts chirping and nipping at my new babies, I just want to step in and shoo her away. But I know there is a pecking order that has to be established and over the week it has been interesting to watch this develop. There have been a few plucked feathers and a few arguments. But things are settling down now and the two groups are starting to mix.

Visitors

And it begins.....

Last Monday I had my first visitor of the summer. Unfortunately it was a very short visit as I was headed to Halifax to the airport to pick up the second visitor!!

Paul Haskins arrived at my doorstep at 10:30 in the morning. I have known Paul since kindergarten. Our mothers both taught at Maple Grove School and as a result, we spent a lot of time together growing up. When Paul messaged me asking if he could visit, I was thrilled. I had to laugh when he said he was headed for Newfoundland but could drop by for a visit on his way. To be fair, he was visiting friends in Nova Scotia and I was not as far out of the way as I had originally thought. It was a terrific visit, showing him our house, introducing him to Dixie, going for a drive to the waterfront, having lunch (thanks again for that). He then showed me where friends of his from Ontario will be moving to at the end of the month. It will be wonderful to have Bruce and Betty here and hope that they do reach out and contact me!

Once Paul hit the road continuing on his travels, I also headed out to pick up my son from the airport. First of all, this was Brandon's first flight ever and he did it alone!! I felt so honoured that he would do that to come visit us. It was so fantastic to see him, I have missed him so much!! We have had a lovely relaxing week together.

We went out for a dinner to celebrate both his and Zoe's birthdays. Brandon of course wanted steak so we did some research and found a restaurant at which the food was excellent if very slow (we didn't get our food until 9:45pm-the restaurant had closed at 9pm?!?! and they were still packed with almost every table full at that time.)

I coerced Brandon into helping me cut down a tree one afternoon. It went very well. He got to drive the Cub Cadet and be the first person to use the new chainsaw. He did a fantastic job and the help was really appreciated.

We have done some driving to show him the surrounding area. He also had the great fortune of chauffeuring Zoe and I back and forth to work one day. Not his choice, but we were really grateful he did it anyway!

Brandon has also introduced to me a new series of anime which we have been enjoying together. The one thing we were unable to do which was on our list, was have a bonfire. We are in a burn ban right now and decided that although we could burn in a barrel, it just isn't the same.

We head back to the airport tomorrow to send him back to his life. As a mom, I am so proud of how well he has done on his own. He looks good, sounds good, is confident, smiling, happy in his job and with his friends. And while I want the best for him and know a life in Ontario is where that best life is right now...I miss him already.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this week and look forward to more visits...maybe Paul again on his way back to Ontario and Sandi in twelve days, and my parents next month.

Happy Birthday Zoe

I cannot believe my baby, my youngest, my little girl, is 18 years old!!! We had two celebration dinners. One, just the two of us, at Bistro East, a favourite restaurant of ours, and one of pizza and cake after work with a friend. There are two more to come still (yes, we love our birthday dinners and take every one we can make an excuse to have!!) The next one will be with her brother when he comes to visit, and the last one will be in September when her grandparents come. It has been wonderful to watch her blossom over the past year since our move here. She has become more confident, stronger, more outgoing, and overall, happier. I am so proud of her and am grateful to have been a part of every one of those 18 years. I look forward to watching what adventures the next 18 years bring her!

Yes, Zoe's brother, my son, our Brandon is flying in to visit for a week! I am sooooo excited! I have not seen him since Christmas. This is the hardest part of having moved so far away. But it makes me incredibly proud to see how he has stepped up to the challenge of being"forced" to move out on his own. He had made decisions for his life and taken responsibility for himself in ways he never would have if he continued living with me. But as proud of him as I am, and as much as I think it was the best decision for him to go out on his own, a momma misses her boy!! I head out to Halifax tomorrow to pick him up from the airport...I bet you'll never guess what the focus of next weeks blog will be?!

Zoe and I decided to go look for more healthy chickens. I have often heard the saying "chicken math" and I think I am starting to understand it. It is like an addiction. We love these little ladies and are so happy to add to our flock. This time we were smarter. We went to a farm and talked to the farmer for an hour. We grilled him on where he got his hens, if he handles them, if he loves them, where they live, how they roam, we walked into and around their coops, inspected the chickens, and generally were very happy with the health and happiness of the chickens on his farm. We came home with fifteen new young pullets. These beautiful girls are 10-12 weeks old and will therefore not start laying for another month or two. They are lovely, and are starting to get used to us handling them.

I had a rather terrifying / hilarious chicken coop experience this week. I went into the coop one afternoon, fed the girls and gathered the eggs. I then picked up the water trough to take it outside, clean it, refill it and return it to the coop but as I picked it up and turned around, I ran into the coop door. I ran into it because it wasn't open, because it had closed and locked from the outside. I was locked in the chicken coop. Luckily Zoe was home so I reached for my phone to call her to get me out only to realize I did not have my phone! Deep breath (not too deep, I am after all in a chicken coop) calm down and figure this out. First thing I did was eye up the chicken hatch and realized there was no way I could even fit my head through that. I have wooden toggles that turn to hold the door closed. One of these had dropped and was the problem, but the top one was still open. I could open the top part of the door half an inch. Looking around the coop I started to panic as I realized there is nothing long, or hard inside to wedge through the slit and press the toggle down. I start looking for a nail in the wall that I can pull out with my bare hands. I find one but it is too short to reach the toggle.  I break the egg basket apart to see if the wicker was strong enough to push the toggle, it is not. I detach a piece of rope to try and loop under the toggle and lift it, it won't. In between all these attempts, I am screaming in hopes Zoe will hear me -no such luck! She did finally, 20 minutes later, wonder where I was and she did come out to find me and did unlock the door and did laugh hysterically at my misfortune! Nice girl. I have now replaced that latch system for one that can not accidentally slip and lock me in. The lessons just keep on coming!



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Keeping Busy

I apologize for being a day late. I tend to lose track of the days with both Zoe and I working non Monday to Friday jobs. We have no real weekend and I therefore often forget what day it is until my mom texts me asking "What happened to this weeks blog?"

Zoe has been so busy with her work and friends that we have had very little time together. We are both thrilled however that she loves her job and is settling in with some great friends. She has really proven herself at work and was made supervisor this past week! I am a happy mommy to know that, after all her struggles, she is at a place where she is happy and appreciated!

My work schedule has been primarily early morning shifts which leaves me from lunch time on to accomplish things at home.

I have build a wood storage area in the garage (if you recall the struggles I had with wood last winter...moving it from garage to basement to one living room rack to the final burnable living room rack!!) I am trying to make it simpler this winter.

I do not know much about septic systems this being the first I have ever used, but the opening is inside a cut barrel in the lawn? This has no lid, but is never full of water. I feel this must mean that all the rain water goes into the tank and would therefore be filling up faster than if it was just filling with house water. True or not? I don't know? But I still built a lid to cover it and have a flower pot on it so it is no longer an ugly green eyesore in the middle of the front yard! Soon there will even be pretty flowers and trailing vines coming from it.


I am back to cleaning up scrub and roses. There is an area at the front of the house that has always been unmowable due to rocks and bramble and roses. So I have begun tackling it hoping I can get it clear enough to rototill, seed and have lawn next year.

I have also finished predator and weather proofing a second chicken coop. It is different from the "hospital coop" which I cannot ever see putting more chickens in. Now when the opportunity arises, Zoe and I will be able to add healthy chickens or chicks (still haven't decided yet) in a safe manner to our family.

Finally, I am very pleased with our garden. It is August - ugh- and we finally were able to have our first salad last night!?! The lettuce, strawberries, raspberries, red onion and sweet peas made for a delicious first taste of our homegrown Nova Scotian self reliance.  We no longer have to buy eggs, and now this salad...(Yes I am aware one salad and eggs does not make us self reliant, but everyone has to start somewhere!)