Slow and Steady

As I mentioned last week, I have been getting Dixie out back as often as possible to run off her energy. I really struggle with doing no work, so while we were out there this week I focused on the fire pit. A rather large pile had accumulated over the past three months but I kept thinking it was too wet to burn. Wow was I wrong! Evening after evening this week, Dixie would run with her frisbee while I would throw as much wood on a fire as I possibly could in one hour. Finally, the pile is almost gone and today I was looking around to see what would be next to cut and grow that pile again!!

Dixie has really been my focus this past while. Since it is just me here now, I have felt guilty about the hours I work and how she has she no company for much of the day. So Saturday we went on our first adventure to Tim Horton's! She has been car sick in the past but I thought a 10 minute drive hopefully she could handle, and if she did well, I am hoping we can start to stretch it out and she can come with me when I go places. She absolutely loved the car ride, did not get sick, and was too enthralled by the passing scenery to even care about the timbit treat! Then this morning, I only worked a 5 hour shift, so for the first time I left her out of her crate, free to roam the house. I tried to dog proof by putting everything I could think of away or out of reach and crossed my fingers. She was absolutely perfect!! No accidents, no damage, and the cat is still alive! I will trust her again tomorrow!

I am also still slowly picking away at the little jobs in the bedroom we have been working on. Today I changed an outlet that I had bent, cut baseboard, and started trimming the new window. Slowly but surely this room is getting done. The goal was to have it finished during the winter so I could move downstairs and stop heating the second floor during the winter....but I am running out of winter I fear.

My Animals

Let's talk animals this week.

First is sweet, wild, energetic Dixie. I love her to pieces but she has so much energy! I have been working long hours and feel very guilty that I am not home enough during daylight hours to let her run and play outside. Whenever we do get the chance though, we are out in the back field playing with her frisbee or with the whippet stick and ball. The weather has been all over the place this week. We have had beautiful (muddy) +5 degrees and freezing, snowy, windy -20 with wind chill days. Dixie doesn't care. She just wants to be outside! So we have been muddy and we have been frozen, and we have tried to run off some of her endless energy.

Next are the chickens. Last weekend was very difficult. I lost three chickens. The first one was one of the older Rhode Island Reds that had been the victim of our aggressive rooster. He tore at her comb and she never was able to recover from the shock or blood loss. The second was the rooster. We had three roosters. Two are good little boys. They take care of their ladies. They stand guard when they leave the coop and make sure the girls are safe and protected. They are gentle and allow me full access to the coop, the eggs, the chickens and they let me pet them and coo over them. This third one however was not so nice and he met his fate last Saturday when our friend came over and taught me how to humanely prepare him for the soup pot. The third loss was so sad for me. I have no idea what happened. My beautiful, big, grey, gentle, calm, peaceful chicken laid her first egg, a robin's egg blue coloured one, then was dead two hours later.

This sadness and loss aside, they are still a joy to watch and love everyday. Today it was a lovely 0 degrees out with no wind so I opened the barn door and watched as they sat on the door frame but refused to get their feet snowy! More and more of the new girls are starting to lay eggs now. The size difference between the older girls and newer girls amazes me, so do the colours. We have had one blue egg, green eggs, brown eggs, and even pink eggs! Makes me smile, love all my girls💖

Christmas Gifts

I know this topic seems old now, but I did not have a chance to mention the amazing gift exchange that took place between my parents and I.

I was spoiled, as usual, by my amazing parents, but two gifts that really stick out are a new Swiss army type knife. My last one was confiscated at an airport when I forgot to remove it from my purse, and I have felt its loss ever since. This new fandangle one even has a tick remover (which unfortunately I will probably get a lot of use out of). When I left Beamsville, I spent some time talking to Laura and Martin Van Den Hurk at Naked Acres Farmstead and one of their pieces of advise was a farmer always needed to have a knife in her pocket!
Mom also spend hours copying and creating a book with all my 2018 blog entries. It is beautiful and so wonderful to be able to glance through it and see the pictures, and read how we were feeling at different times. It is on display on the mantle in our living room and I love being able to pick it up and remember things we have accomplished.

I struggle with the gift giving concept at Christmas. As many people I have talked to agree, the holiday has become so commercial and gifts often resort to "stuff" rather than something meaningful. I am one of the encouragers of the experience gift. So on this train, I gifted my parents with a day in Wolfville. Upon arrival we went to the Church Street Brewery and had an amazing lunch in a gorgeous setting. It really is a renovated church that they seat you in. The food was very good, as was the flight of beers that we sampled. From there we moved on to the Annapolis Cider Company, then to Lightfoot & Wolfville Winery with a most amazing outdoor fireplace (and because my dad insists on spoiling me - he got me a copy of Eating Wild in Eastern Canada: A Guide to Foraging the Forests, Fields, and Shorelines........  guess what they are getting for lunch in May when they return?!?! ) We ended our tour at Benjamin Bridge which makes sparkling champagne style wines. They also did not disappoint and we picked up a delicious bottle of sparkling for New Years Eve. The joy of this gift was I had not spent any time previously in Wolfville myself, so I think I got as much pleasure out of the day as my parents did!

Another Visit Comes to an End

After a seventeen day visit my parents have returned to Ontario. It was such a wonderful visit. As usual we accomplished a lot and ate some great food. This visit was very special to me as it meant I was not alone during my first Christmas with out my children and extended family gathered around. That my parents were willing to leave the rest of the family in Ontario to come spend it with me on the farm shows how loving and selfless they are. I can't say how much I love them and how grateful I am for them.

One highlight of our time together was amazing seafood that mom cooked. Coquille St. Jacques with Digby scallops, fish cakes, and a chowder made from local lobster. These were all paired with amazing wines and champagnes from vineyards both in Ontario and Nova Scotia.

As always, no visit from mom and dad is complete with a list of jobs we want to tackle. Our two main ones this time were:
1. Splitting wood that has accumulated over the past year. Dad and I went out and rented a splitter and within three hours we had a cord of good burning and Shannon manageable wood! I had never split wood this way before and loved it!! We could not believe the size of wood and amount of knots that this splitter could manage.

2. We wanted to get as far as we could on finishing a bedroom. This bedroom has been a thorn in my side since almost the day we moved in when we started the process by tearing up the carpet. We have since removed a wall, dropped a chimney, removed two small closets, replaced a window, replaced drywall, and this past visit, we painted the ceiling and walls, replaced the electrical outlets, stripped and sanded the floor and finally, on their last day here, mom and I got the first coat of stain on the floor.

Hopefully by the time mom and dad return in the spring, I will have the trim up, a new door on, a light fixture hung, and be sleeping in there!

Not only will I miss mom and dad but so will Dixie. Between the hikes, and frisbee, and evening cuddles, she absolutely loves her great grandparents.