Tag Archives: winter

by

🥶🥶🥶

Holy.
Frickin’.
Moly.

I wasn’t kidding when I said this weekend was gonna be cold, but I think Mother Nature done outdid herself!
We are currently sitting at -31*c, feeling like -45*c at 11:30am.
Yikes!
And it’s looking like it’s going to last for a few more days yet.
Gross.

But that’s winter on the prairies in Canada.
Cold. A.F.

The horses have blazed through a bale in 3 days.
Yeah, that’s normally a 8-10 day thing…but they stay warm by eating.
And eating they have been!
Plus they get their daily pail of yummyness…and we’re adding oats too…but of course, our poor CinderBella has problems with her jaw, right?

It ain’t easy being the horse with arthritis in her jaw…poor dear. ❤

So oats don’t really soften in the pail of beet pulp and it’s been getting hard for her to finish her pail before it freezes.
Yeah, it’s that damn cold!
So I’m on the hunt for a complete feed that I can add to her pail for that extra ooomph they need come cold snaps, that’s 1. easy for her to chew/breaks down in the soaking water (beet pulp has to be soaked for horses to eat) b. has no soy or alfalfa in it so I can give it to Astrid too and 3. is economical.
*sigh*
Dietary issues with equines.
That’s my life. lol
I thank Epona for my easy peasy lemon squeezy gimme beer ’cause Ima slightly alcoholic fat girl Ruby.
That painted bitch is so easy to feed and I’m so grateful for that! Whatever feed I find, she’ll eat noooooo problems. 😉 ❤

So with this cold, the urge to order the seeds I need for the garden were strong.
Driving me bat crap crazy strong. lol
So I had a discussion with Hubby about using his credit card to place the order…he said “it’s in my wallet…do what you need to do.”
So I did.
But when I logged into West Coast Seeds, I found that half my shopping cart was now sold out.
Which made me panic again.
*sigh*
My brain is so very broken some days.
I grabbed my stack of seed catalogs, and used the 🦆🦆goooooo! to find someone who had the seeds I wanted.
I finally hit on McKenzie Seeds.
They had everything except for the johnny-jump-ups and the ancho pepper seeds.
Score!
So I ordered what I needed.
Then hit up a local nursery to find my rhubarb…and then made a list of plants from there I want to add to the medicinal garden areas. 😂😂😂

Oh and a friend wanted to order from the Prairie Shelterbelt Program, which give us access to a lot of trees for a lot less than local nursery costs…and she asked if I wanted in on the order so that we (along with a few others) could keep admin and shipping costs down.

Done!!

So in May I’ll have 10 Siberian Crabapple trees and 10 saskatoon bushes coming.
I haven’t figured out 100% where I’m putting them yet, but since they’re in the 12″-24″ size range, I can pot them up for a year or two if I have to…
Food forest, here we grow!!

Today Hubby is clearing the driveway.
Hopefully with the crazy stupid winds it won’t blow back in.
Ugh.
The wind really is the worst.
The cold you can work in, but combine the cold with 70km/hr winds?
You just can’t dress warm enough for that.
So he’s just doing a quick pass so that hopefully he can get out in the morning for work.
😂😂😂
We’ll just have to see what happens.

Fuck I hate winter.
I understand and recognize Mother Earth’s need for all of Her seasons, but I don’t have to like this.
This dog however…

This dog and her log love the cold weather…

She’s a special one, this nutcase.
She likes the cold, she likes the snow, she loves her log.
😂😂😂

by

September 1st

How did this happen??!?

I’m not ready for September!
I’m still cutting hay…2nd cut started this week.
I’m still working chicken butchering.
I’m still canning veggies.

We still have to finish a coop for the turkeys for winter.
Hopefully a duck one too – but then can go with the chickens like last year if necessary.
Plus I want to work on the garden expansion so that next spring it’s just plant and grow.
And we still have to get the greenhouse built.
😭😭

I don’t know how we’re going to get it all done.
But we’ll do our best to get as much done as possible.
The coop for the turkeys is 90% built (was originally for ducks, but ducks went in with chickens) it just has to be placed and doors added.
The garden expansion can wait ’til spring if necessary…it’d be easier if it was done in the fall but if it can’t be done soon, well, we’ll adjust.
But the greenhouse…
I’ve *got* to get that done so that we’re good to grow seedlings come March/April.

So enough whining out of me.
Off to work I go…but enjoy this cute photo I took on our road last month…

by

Canada Geese

The geese have returned.

We’re right in the flight path of thousands of Canada Geese.
Which means they often land on our field in the spring and in the fall.
If it’s snow geese in the spring, we’re happy, because our fall hunting tag is valid for spring hunting of snow geese.
In the fall, we don’t care what lands, Canadas, snows…they’re both good eating.

One side effect of the geese arriving though, is sleep deprived horses.
Unless you’ve lived next to a hoard of honkers, you have no idea how loud they are.
And, at all hours.

This ^^^ is the face of a pissed off at the geese honking 24/7 horse.
She’s actually lying in the straw pile (from February’s bale explosion) trying to nap.
But those geese…they never stop honking.
😂😂😂

Today we’re dealing with a snow storm.
I was a wee bit worried about my chicks, outside in the brooder.
But they have 2 heat lamps, a whole lot of feed and clean water.
They’re bopping around in there just fine.
We did lose 2 of them earlier this week.
It happens sometimes.
1 was really small, the other was normal sized, but it died under the heat lamp.
Either it was crushed in a pileup or it just wasn’t a healthy chick.
So far though, the other 43 are doing amazing!

Next run of the incubators is coming up…hopefully this weekend I’ll hear from the woman with the hatching eggs I wanted.
And then, it’s collect eggs from my birds and go.

I’m looking forward to that.
🙂

by

Yay it’s Saturday!

Got a whole lot of stuff going on today.
We had a March storm blow through yesterday…literally!
With wind gusts in the low 90Km/hr range, it was a bit breezy.
Today we’re cleaning up after that with some snow moving and then it’s rooster rehabilitation day.
Which means 6 of 9 roosters are going into the freezer. 😉

More tomorrow (or Monday) after the work is done.
And then I’ll have a story to tell about how Ruby scared the carp out of me…
Everything is fine, Ruby is fine, so no worries.
It’s just gonna be a story about an over worrying horse owner and lazy horse.
😉

She’s so darn cute.
❤

Sharing with Word of the Day Challenge for Everything.

by

Capture52 ~ Week 7 Love

I’m slow.
Last week was Love.
But I was waiting for weather to settle down, for the sun to shine, for things to be just right before I created the images I wanted for this prompt.

1978
My Dad bought this rifle for my Mom’s birthday.
Had their names and the date engraved on it.
“Elaine May 13/78
Love Rene”

Both my parents are gone now, and this is mine.
A family heirloom that will be passed on to my daughter when she’s ready for it.
Love is shown in so many different ways…this one, to me, is beautiful and captures my parents love for each other perfectly.
💛💛💛

by

Heartfelt

I ask this, with real heartfelt emotion…

What the actual fuck, Mother Nature?

Yesterday we were a beautiful -1*c, and that ^^^ is today.
And it’s warmed up 5* already.
Holy. Effing. Moly.
🥶🥶🥶

Here’s a shot of Astrid sleeping on the composting poo pile for warmth…

Awww, she’s so cute when she sleeps like this.
❤

Sharing with Comedy Plus for Wordless Wednesday
and
Word of the Day Challenge for Heartfelt.

by

Sable is a Little Grumpy

I’m getting a whole lot of attitude from Sable lately.
Nothing that makes me think she needs a training tune up.
More that she needs some hands on time with her Girl.
Since The Kid spent time in the hospital and has been recovering from that, Sable has not gotten as much attention as she likes from her.
As much as that horse likes me, I’m just Mom.
I’m not Her Person.
Plus, I keep taking her picture…

She’s definitely suffering from Photographer’s Child Syndrome.
Which is not normal for her, but she’s out of sorts waiting for her Girl to come back to her.
💛💛💛

Oh the side eye for daring to turn the camera towards her!

I even tried calling her and offering her a cookie…

“Not even going to look at you…”
~ Sable

Not even then.
😂😂😂

Ah well, we have nicer weather coming this week and next…maybe we can get The Kid out there to groom her and pamper her a bit…so she can go back to being my happy to pose equine model again.
😉

Sharing with Comedy Plus for Happy Tuesday

 

by

Digging Out

That special weather disturbance seems to have finally past us.
Leaving us with a whole lot of snow.
And then there was the wind blowing it around, which made for some pretty darn big drifts.
But it all seems to be light and fluffy stuff, so today, after my coffee, I’ll go man the shovel while Hubby runs the tractor.

And this weirdo?

Snow loving weirdo freak dog…

She’ll love every second blasting around in the snow.
She’s from Nunavut.
She lives for snowy weather.
‘Til she gets ice balls in her paw fur, then she’s ready to go back inside.
😂😂😂