continue my blog on facebook. My facebook blog page can be found by searching Lpine Meadow Blog. Sorry for the inconvenience but I will be able to do more and put in pictures and videos without problems there. :)
After dealing with issues on this website with my phone I have decided to
continue my blog on facebook. My facebook blog page can be found by searching Lpine Meadow Blog. Sorry for the inconvenience but I will be able to do more and put in pictures and videos without problems there. :)
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Last Sunday Paul came over with Sammy. I kept Django in the kennel for his first meet with Sammy. After that went well, we let Django out and it was so nice to see how well they got along. We took them for a long walk and they ran and had so much fun together. They look so alike except for size. Maybe related in some way as they were both strays in the same area.
Paul and I had a nice supper together and I enjoyed the iced cap he brought for me. So nice! Thanks Paul :) Monday Carol came to visit and met Django. Django is great with people and was so happy to meet Carol. Carol brought a nice chicken and lots of other goodies. We enjoyed a nice meal and Scruffy loved her dog cookie that Carol brought too. She played with it for a half hour or so. Cute! Thanks Carol for the lovely visit and goodies. Always nice to catch up with you. I made a nice soup of the leftover chicken with veggies of the garden. :) Tuesday I went to the well and after I had filled everything up I picked veggies and made the chicken soup. Big pan so I shared with Paul, Ben and Sheri. Can't keep it too long in my cooler because of meat. It probably would be fine but I'm always careful when it comes to meat. Thursday I went home in town. Got lots of books at the library, did laundry, got groceries and charged my things. Also cleaned up a bit for Paul. He works such long hours and dishes were piled up. So I did those while Sammy kept me company. I got a great book callex: the pioneer years by Barry Broadfoot. All stories about the first pioneers, told by people who were actually there. Amazing book. Stories about the harsh times of breaking land and trying to make a living in a new country after they left Europe, USA and many other countries. Lots of funny stories too! But wow. Those people went through things I don't think anyone could go through now. Very interesting read. Friday I went to Kamsack to pick up a push grass mower. On my trip I saw a big moose bull crossing the gravel road. Awesome! Also saw a little fox running from the ditch into the canola field. Didn't look too good though. May have manger. They get that a lot. Probably won't make it. At one point I had to slow down because a grouse was in the middle of the road. Another vehicle approached from the other direction and we both had to almost stop before this bird would finally move away. Hahaha we both had to smile. That's the prairies for you. When I got back, I tried out my push mower. Works awesome for the spots in can't get to with the ride on mower. Also good excersize! :) I harvested all the peas and beans. Beans are drying now in the cabin and I have to peel the peas when I have time and store them. Got a small pail full! Great for soup and of course for seeding next spring. I got lots of the Crimson Flowered broad beans and will plant lots next spring. I also will give beans away to people so this bean can get back on track again. It's a lovely bean and tasty but very rare here so I like to bring it back in the gardens in this area. I cut up lots of dead branches and small trees and the woodshed looks great with the little pile of logs and I got garbage cans full of thick branch pieces. Those are great for a small fire when it starts to cool off in fall. The weather is awesome. Not too hot lately so I could get lots of things done. Now I'm going to get some potatoes from the garden to make a salad. I also will pick some lettuce and make a nice couscous salad. Paul will come to visit to help me secure the play pen for Sammy. I'm going to watch her for a few days when Paul goes to Winnipeg for a course, but need a place for her to be in when I need to go away. It will be fun to see Sammy and Django play again. Scruffy is just too old to play wild so Django will be happy to run with Sammy in the hills. :) Last Sunday, early morning, one of Carol's horses , Sarah, passed away due to severe colic. Sarah was a beautiful quarter horse and born on the property. She stayed when Carol bought the farm. Rest in peace, dear Sarah. May you find joy on the green pastures with many other horses that crossed the rainbow bridge. Carol , you are in my thoughts. It's always hard to loose a dear pet. Django is doing very good and is getting used to our routine of walks, being brushed, guarding the yard and sleep in the kennel at night. I made an appointment with the vet to get him fixed for end of the month. He is ok with the cats as long they don't run. If they do run , he follows them but doesn't harm them. When a cat is on the deck with him , he doesn't react at all. So I believe he will be fine in some time. The cats can stay in during the day and outside at night when Django is in his kennel. He barks when he sees them but it gets less and less each day. I hope this way he gets used to them walking around the yard. Django is a real sweetheart. He follows me everywhere. A few times I left the yard in the truck and let him stay outside. He did great and didn't leave the yard. But Tuesday I went to the well and he followed the truck. When I got back he was walking a few kilometers away from the cabin on the road. I called him and he followed me back home. So now I lock him up in the kennel when I go away. He's so devoted to me which is wonderful of course, but he needs to learn to stay when I leave and that I will come back. :) The strawberry plants Sharon gave me are doing great! I already ate a few. So sweet! I dug up the first potatoes from the garden. I just took the big ones off a few plants , without disturbing the plants. This way any small potatoes can grow big. It worked great. No plants died. I made lots of potato salad with the 2.5 kg of potatoes. Very easy to peel as the skin was still very thin. The salad tasted great. Especially with the farm eggs from Sheri's chicken . :) Yesterday I went to the library to bring back a bunch of books and order some new ones. I also met with Maureen, who is helping me with quilting. She got me an easy pattern and I got some materials like pins , fabric pencil and batting. She showed me how to get started and wrote down some things for me to remember. We talked about different needle crafts and it really inspires me to try out some things besides quilting. I was very happy with my first lesson in quilting. Such a nice lady! :) Of course, once I got home, I started right away. I cut out the first 3 pieces and sew them together. All by hand. I really need to practice to make the same size stitches. Hahaha. I'm glad it's not visible right now. I'm making a placemat to start with. Not easy but lots of fun though! I'm glad to find a good use for all the fabrics I collected over the years. In the evening I enjoyed the metheor shower and even some northern lights! Then it clouded over but I'm glad I took an hour to watch. I was up very early this morning and afternoon I got Django out of the kennel, I stood on the deck and watched a night hawk flying around the yard. Beautiful! Later a whole bunch of Blue Jays were flying from tree to tree. Lots of young ones. These birds make the most amazing different sounds, from crackling to beeping to whistling to clucking to screaming and much more. Hahaha. They are certainly very interesting to watch and listen to. Hunter got hurt last week by a stray tomcat that was coming in the yard lately. She was limping so I kept her inside for a few days. I was planning to go to the vet with her but after the weekend, yay, she got better and not limping anymore. :) Tuesday I went to the well. When I filled up the water of the horses, I played with the horses with the water hose. Flicka and Freya are familiar with the hose and Flicka even takes the hose in her mouth to catch the water. Yentl liked the water flowing over her nostrils . So cute! I gave her some water in a little tub because she pawed in the big tub , making the water all dirty again. Hahaha. Very playful pony! She loved here little tub with water and splashed away. Tuesday evening there were beautiful northern lights. I turned off all lights in the cabin and had a beautiful show right from my windows. This week I also enjoyed many shooting stars. It's that time of the year again with metheor showers. So nice to watch. Last night during sunset, I could hear the drums from the Indian reserve near by. The wind carried the rhythmic sound and the sound of singing all the way here. With coyotes howling in the background, the amazing colors of the sunset and the drums and singing......beautiful. :) Sunday there were big thunderstorms going on and a couple of tornadoes touched down. One house was totally ruined. So sad! Fortunately no people hurt. They storm split right before getting here so that was good. Wednesday another thunderstorm in the area but again, fortunately , it passed and we only got a good rain and some lightning. Both evenings I spend with Sheri. We made movie nights out of it. It was lots of fun and we enjoyed two Startrek movies and great food and snacks :) Yesterday I started cutting up the big branches that I had dried. Then I dragged some more big branches out of the woods and cut those up too. Lots of dead wood laying around. It's good to start to collect that. They are great for small fires during the first cooler days. I also started to make manure fire logs. I got a wheelbarrel of fresh manure out of the pasture. The older manure is for the gardens. I put the wheelbarrel behind the white shelter so I could work right there where I stored it to dry. I scooped manure in a bread pan that I use as a mold. Then turn it out on a board in the shelter to let it dry. I will try to make 20 to 30 a day. Or more when it's not too hot out. I was planning on starting this in spring but didn't get to it. I hope to make enough for at least half winter. The Cicada insects are out again. They make a very high pitched sound , almost like an electric buzzing. Really different! The wood frogs are using the water bowl that I always keep full for dog and cats. It's funny to see how they like to stretch out in the water or sit on the rim of the bowl. I'm thinking of making a tiny pond in the flower garden. Something easy to clean. I love to watch frogs bathing and maybe some Gardner snakes will come for a bath too. I know that they enjoy a bath so now and then. Best news saved for last. I got a new addition to the critters family. Today I picked up a dog from the animal shelter. He was found , wandering the streets. Very shaggy looking. He's probably wandering for a long time. Short nails , rough coat , full of fleas and worms. So a visit to the vet next week and he needs to be neutered for sure. But he is so sweet! Very friendly and happy. When we got almost home, he put his big paw on my shoulder and licked my cheek. Like he was saying : thank you for adopting me! Aw, Soooo cute! I called him Django. It means: I Awake. Once we got in the yard , he didn't wait for me to open up his side of the truck. Climbed over the front seats to get to me. Hahaha, he is definitely not used to riding in a truck I guess. I let him drink and then I walked him on the leash around the yard and on the driveway. He walks good on a leash ,which is good because he's big. Don't want a puller this size. He's a pyrenees cross. His head comes to my hip. Very large boy. He was a bit worried with the horses. Their nickering scared him. I put him in the kennel and then got Scruffy out so they could meet in a safe way. I'm glad I did it this way because Django wanted to play and him being so much bigger than Scruffy and Scruffy being not that well , he would hurt her. I left Scruffy outside for a while and then I put Django on his leash and let them meet outside of the kennel. It all went well. Both happy dogs. I walked them on the driveway, so Django could see that Scruffy wasn't worried about the horses. The horses followed us and Django got more comfortable with them. On our way back in took off the leash and Django just ran back to the yard really fast and so happy. I think he was very glad to be able to stretch his legs. So far he is not interested in the cats. The cats are not sure yet but hopefully it will all go well. I hope Django has find his forever home here. He is a real sweetheart. :) A few days ago I saw a deer having fun in the pastures. It was so cute to watch her. She was running around , jumped over the fence of the summer pasture and then jumped the fence of the winter pasture. A few seconds later she jumped back onto the driveway and playfully ran up and down alongside the fence of the summer pasture. Flicka was close by but didn't seem to be bothered. It was so cool to watch. I have set up the screen tent. I'm very grateful for easy construction and simple instructions. I had it set up in just over an hour. It's great to have a place to sit outside without bugs. Especially in the evening when mosquitos are bad. The baby swallows flew out. From the five babies one died. I found it on the deck when I came back from town. But the rest is flying around and learning how to catch insects from their parents. At sunset they go back to the nest to sleep. I noticed that in my previous post something was missing in the text. I had put a picture in of the most valuable player that Paul got from basketball. The team won the local games! So cool! It was Paul's 21st birthday on the 27th and I organized a party for him yesterday evening. I cleaned up the garden chairs from dead caterpillar cocoons and put them in the screen tent. I got groceries and ordered a nice birthday cake and Saturday morning I made four kinds of salads. I picked some Saskatoon berries to mix in with the fruit salad I made. So many growing alongside the road here. The raspberries that also grow there , were gone. The bears must have had a feast on those already. Hahaha. Of course I picked peas and beans and got an onion from my gardens to use for the salads. The young green beans were great in the couscous salad! When everyone arrived, we had a nice supper together and a piece of cake as dessert. Paul was very happy to see everyone and got lovely cards and presents. Sharon brought me 3 beautiful strawberry plants. One with strawberries on it already! Im so happy. Thank you so much , Sharon. :) When it got too warm in the cabin we went and sat outside in the screen tent. The soft breeze was just enough to cool us off. We had so much fun and Paul really enjoyed his party. When the sun started setting, the horses called me as they were distressed by the mosquitos so time to wipe on bug repellent. Some of the guests left already but Carol and Melva came to see the horses. The mosquitos were so bad that they couldn't stand there long though. Freya was covered with the nasty bugs but as soon i had wiped them all off they could relax. And we escaped from the bugs in the screen tent. Hahaha! It was a lovely party and want to thank everyone for coming and make Paul's birthday very special. :) Last week was a great and busy time. Carol organized a Girls Camp for the week and I had the honor to give a clicker training demo to the kids. The horses Sugar and Sarah were great in helping me teaching the girls about a kind and gentle way of training. The girls were amazing and it was a great pleasure to tell them all about clicker training horses. The next day Carol came over to my place with the group and we had a lovely picnic and everyone met with Flicka, Freya and Yentl. The horses loved all the attention! It was a wonderful time and lots of fun. :) Only Sunday I had a visitor. Isabelle is a photographer from Montreal in Quebec and is on a journey to BC to meet family she has never met before. She documents her travel and will interview people on her route. She hopes to make a photo book of this journey. It was so nice to meet her and an honor to have her as guest on my little homestead. :) The gardens are flourishing. The pumpkins are growing so well! I pick peas all the time to use them in salads. Fresh and so sweet! One of the sunflowers is blooming now. It's a beautiful orange color and pretty tall. The Crimson Flowered broad beans are giving beans now. I've read that these bean plants are very good for the soil too. Last week was very hot and humid but Saturday it rained a lot but the rest of the week it will be warm , sunny and dry. I try to do most chores in the morning or early evening. During the heat in the afternoons, I read or watch something on Netflix on my phone. I keep the cooler cold with the frozen bottles. Every few days I pick them up from Sheri's freezer and have a nice visit with a lovely cup of coffee. Always fun to catch up and chat and have some good laughs together. :) The barn swallows are doing great. The babies are getting ready to leave the nest soon. They are chirping a lot and flapping their little wings in practice for their first flight. I'm so happy I'm able to watch the whole process of building a nest to this point of babies growing up. The babies are so cute and funny too. When they have to poop, they point their tiny butts over the edge of the nest, wiggle really fast , and then ploop! Hahaha. Lucky most of it falls in the grass. Yesterday I took Sammy with me. Paul has to work out of town for a few days so she stays here. We had already a nice long walk in the field and she was so happy. Running up and down the hills and catching grasshoppers. Cats are happy too because they get to be inside for the day and sleep on the couch. The hard life of farm cats huh? Hahaha. The swallow babies are growing. It's so cute to see how they open their beaks when their parents come flying in to feed them. I noticed that when the parents are not in the nest and I am on the deck, the babies open their beaks whenever I move. Hilarious. :)
And few days ago I was preparing my supper and when I looked out of the window, I saw two young bucks passing through the yard. A twin. They grazed a bit and looked around. Then they jumped over the fence and walked into the woods of the winter pasture. Beautiful! Sammy never saw them. She was deep asleep, still tired from a long walk in the fields. Sammy is back with Paul. After she started chasing the horses I couldn't keep her anymore. It got too dangerous. Cats are one thing and I had solved that problem by keeping the cats in during the day so they could sleep and rest. But chasing horses is a totally different issue. My horses panicked and 3 bolting horses is not safe. They can get hurt by running through the fence or trip and break a leg. Or they can turn on Sammy and kill her. I don't want to lock her up in a small kennel 24/7 with just some walks on a leash. She's better off in town with lots of space in the backyard. Paul is going to fence it off and she has shelter in the shed. When he's home she can stay with him and gets all the attention she misses out here when locked up. So Paul came over Friday and had supper here. I had made cous cous and a salad with all ingredients from the garden. So good! It was already dark when Paul and Sammy left. Sammy was so happy to see Paul. I think she missed him. :) So yesterday the cats noticed that Sammy was gone. They started to walk around more relaxed in the yard and when I went for my evening walk with Scruffy, the cats all came running to join us. Ah , how happy they were , being able to go for our evening stroll. The horses came running when they saw us and together we had a very peaceful time, enjoying the beautiful sunset and listening to the Hermit Trush calling. The cats really missed our evening routine to walk close together and being petted along the way or roll in the sand. So for now it's all back to normal. I will still watch Sammy when Paul goes out of town for work. But that is manageable. It doesn't happen too often. Last Thursday I was invited for a birthday supper. Three birthdays to celebrate! Carols, Sharon's and Graham's birthday. Because they were so close in date, they decided to go out for supper with everyone. It was lots of fun and the food was delicious. When David picked me up he brought a starters gun so I could keep bears away. Wow, that thing is really loud! Hahaha. David showed me how it works. I'm sure bears will run off by that noise. Amazingly, Taz didn't care less and just sat on the deck railing. I tried it after, but I couldn't pull the trigger for some reason. Not strong enough. Later Carol tried it on the parking lot in front of the restaurant but she couldn't neither. So David said he had another one at home so we will try that next time. I didn't see any bears anymore and for now I just use my cow bells. They are loud too. :) I made a water obstacle for the horses and Flicka and Freya had no problem walking through it. I clicked and treated them and they were right away engaged in the new game. When I let Yentl in the arena, she didn't like the obstacle one bit. Snorting and shying away from it. So I started clicker training her so she would learn it's nothing to be worried about. She followed me to the obstacle, smelled the edge and I clicked and treated her. That was it. She got very brave and walked through it within minutes. Just have to love clicker training. :) Last week Sammy came running on the deck and within seconds I knew why. Sprayed by a skunk! Yuck! I closed the windows at the deck side right away but it still took a few hours to get rid of the awful smell. I poured water over her head and she started rolling in the grass and sand. Then I took her for a long walk through high thick wet grass so she could loose some of the smell. Oh did she ever ran through that grass. Like she knew that would help her. No cuddles for a few days though! Hahaha. I'm very happy she's an outdoor dog! Paul came for a nice visit before he would leave for a vacation with his friends to Calgary. He was amazed by how well Sammy fetching a ball now. She used to run after it and then sit, like here it is! Hahaha. But with clicker training I taught her to bring it back. Paul arrived safe in Calgary and has a wonderful time. :) Sammy didn't really learn from being sprayed by a skunk. She keeps going after it and she spends a lot of time running around the white shed. So I looked and heard stamping noises from beneath the shed. I looked it up online and it appears I have baby skunks. Yay. How fun. Not! Hahaha. The babies stamp with their front feet on the ground to scare off predators. Well , it only gets Sammy going. She can't get to them so she runs around the shed until she's tired. Excersize. Lol. I just hope that momma skunk won't spray her again. Last Friday Kelly came and Flicka and Freya are trimmed again . It went all well and the job was done in no time. Kelly did a bit of clicker training with Yentl. So awesome. Yentl targeted her hand and got quite comfortable with her. I showed Kelly our progress for haltering and touching. She thought I came a long way with Yentl already. Saturday, Sheri and I took Sammy and her two dogs out for a play date. One of her dogs, Shilo, has high energy so Sammy and Shilo would be great together. We took them to a neutral spot right on the corner of our both places. Well , Sammy didn't feel so comfortable and growled at Shilo. Shilo laid down right away and kept distance. Sammy slowly got used to her and after 20 minutes she finally stopped hiding behind me. Hahaha. Sheri and I found Saskatoon berries while walking around on the field so we started to pick them. Very sweet taste! And so much fun to pick the berries. If it wasn't so warm and humid we probably would have picked a bucket full. The weather is rain and thunderstorms on and off. When it's finally dry , I hear thunder in the distance, and never sure if it will pass or comes over. So working with the horses is limited right now. Since a few days I let the cats in the cabin during the day. Sammy keeps chasing them and the poor cats have no rest. So in the morning I let them in and feed them and then they curl up and sleep. All day. Sammy listens really good until she's in the zone. After her chase she comes right back but then it's too late of course. Her hunting instinct is very strong. It's not just cats. Anything that moves. Dragonflies, butterflies, skunks.....she even chased the horses yesterday. I think the horses spooked of her when she ran after a dragonfly and they ran and Sammy went right after them. But I called her and to my surprise she ran right to me so that was great. Her recall is wonderful. When she's not in the zone. Lol. The cats all edits go outside once Sammy goes in her kennel for the night. The cats are fully rested and can hunt mice and such. Which they do and put them around the cabin for me. Sammy finds them and plays with the dead mice. Yuck again. Dogs huh? Hahaha. I dug up some grass polls and put them on the new driveway. Then I thought, hey , I can puck grass seeds and spread those around too. So I picked grass seeds. How peaceful that was! Picking seeds and enjoying the nice cooling breeze, the view at the continuously changing clouds and the wild flowers everywhere. Sammy was with me and she was digging into the ground. Her dirty muddy face made me laugh. Once I was done I suddenly realized that the grass seeds were probably not ready for picking yet. I looked it up online and I was right. Oh well. Once the seeds fall out , I have to do it again. Looking forward to it! :) |
LPine Meadow's Blog by SaskiaIn this blog I will share the process of building a small solar and wind powered cabin and the creating of bird, herb and vegetable and fruit gardens. Archives
September 2016
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