Things I may have said to my dogs along the way

Jesus! Calm down Dakotah, we're only going for a walk,
you're not getting your balls back!

Did you just fart?!

Go away.

Come here.

Do you want to go for a ride?

Do you want a cookie? 

Say yes if you're a meathead!

Mommy loves you.

Maika, what did you do you big bitch!

Show me da belly, oh you wanna scratchies on da belly!

Did you fart again?

Who wants to go for a walk?

No.

Later.

Oh don't cry, you big gay!

(OK this one is attributed to Vegas)

Imma gonna grab your buuuuuuutt!

Go see daddy.

Come see mommy.

No, there's no leftovers for you you giant walking stomach.

Where's the cat!

Get your toy.

Come give kiss.

You're such a little princess, aren't you!

Dakotah you big (lard, fathead, melonhead, fag)

(all terms of affection!)

Do you want a gummy bear?

Let's go for (a walk, a ride, dodo, the park)

Say bye-bye!

*disclaimer: gays and fags rock - and you know it, guys! dakotah just wants to be one, that's all. we think it's cute, LOL!

Escaped horses and glazed cinnamon lumps

I didn't tell you what happened Thursday evening, did I?

Normal end of day routine around 5:15pm, I go to the barn to check on the chooks and to make sure the horses have enough hay outside to last until my friend brings them in for the night around 7pm. Horses are munching happily, no worries.

I spend five minutes puttering around the the coops then head out to the back paddock with a couple of carrots to say good-night to the boys.

Only there were no boys.

Um. They were there not five minutes ago... what the...

And then in the corner of my eye I see the big white gate door swinging in the wind... The latch had somehow come undone... SUMBITCH!!! I run up the ramp and sure enough there are the two hooligans, at the end of our driveway and heading into the street.

Do you think I panicked?

Yep.

Started walking after them, waving carrots and calling out but to my horror they just accelerated at a trot, and here I am chasing after two runaway horses with nothing but loose boots on my feet and carrots in my freezing hands.

Neither horse has their halter on.

It's getting dark, it's windy, the streets are icy and the cars are coming fast over the hill.

I don't believe in god but I think I started praying anyways!

Long story short, I managed to flag down all the cars coming our way so they formed a blockade of sorts across the street (yay for smart people who understand arm signals from afar!), people started pouring out of their houses to help, some half-dressed, some carrying ropes and leashes - we managed to corner the beasties in a driveway and con them into having a carrot so we could rope makeshift halters on their noggins.

Three kind-hearted strangers helped me walk the boys back home and safely into the paddock.

The gate lock has been fixed, nobody got hurt, I probably shaved two months off my life with the adrenaline that raged through my arteries - all in a farm day's work eh?

Worst thing? The two little bastards looked proud of themselves and their little adventure, bummed out at having been caught. GRRR!

I just thank my lucky stars that the gate latch didn't pop open at any other time... Can you imagine if I hadn't seen them leave? Gone. The horses would have just been GONE. Caused property damage and maybe even have gotten hit by a vehicle. Or if they had veered the other way from our driveway - up the road that leads to vast empty fields, blind corners, speeding cars and no neighbors.

*takes very deep breath*

So, in order to calm my jittery nerves I baked some cinnamon lumps last night. Normal people make cinnamon rolls, but noooo not me - mine have to look like dog turds! I had problems rolling the super sticky dough out, totally my fault. The recipe is gorgeous, the taste & texture were out of this world - you only need to eat them with your eyes closed :-)

Dakotah wasn't impressed.

Specially since Mr. Sweet Tooth wasn't allowed any.

Vegas chilling out before bed time.

Digesting my awesome cinnamon lumps :-D

 

This morning he's got soccer games on the telly.

Ooops, sorry: football matches.

Erm.

A photo my mom took when I went to visit a couple weeks ago.

Untouched, so you can see my fatty-fat face.

Apparently I don't look like that in real life.

So I dunno.

Today I want to muck out some chicken coops, even if I ache from head to toe from god knows what. It's better than facing the crowds at Walmart and Loblows... I'm keeping that for Monday. Domestic goddess needs a break, people!

Peace, out.

/end of The Great Escape post/

Pretend it's good for you, ok?

Vegas brought me back some loot from London.

I asked for fruit and vegetables but customs always confiscate those 

so this is what I got stuck with  :-D

One of the packs of Walker's Monster Munch is gone and I doubt the other one will sit around much longer - he he. The yorkies I can eek out for a while and the Hobnobs will get inhaled as soon as PMS hits. Watch out.

And yes, the HP sauce made in England does taste different than the one made here. For reals. Vegas puts "brown sauce" on everything except cake so he needs the Man Size bottle.

I snapped this before pic below an hour ago, the snow has just started to fall so let's see how much we do end up getting... they've softened the forecast a bit, thank the lordy, although it's coming down fast and furious right now. I'll take another photo tomorrow morning before Vegas takes out Big Bertha to clear the driveway.

I know you all love my obsession with the weather so really, I'm doing all of this for you guys. *grin*

Yes, it really is this gloomy!

OK time to get going on the laundry and accounting work... I'm making my famous veggie & cheese chowder for dinner tonight - famous with me, anyhow - and attempting to make my own cinnamon rolls. Don't laugh, the only kind I know are the Pillsbury ones from the blue tube and those are grim.

Wish me luck!

And yes, I will post pics ;-)

/end of Shoveling It post/

Mummify this

Looks like Vegas brought the crap weather home with him!

We're getting hit with a massive winter storm tomorrow - 

over a foot of blowing snow with gusts up to 70 km/h, 

zero visibility, the works. 

Then a week of grey, clouds, rain, more snow.

Maybe I should send him back to London to get clear skies again?

Kidding. 

I'll just put on this suit to deal with everything:

What?

It's protection against bad weather :-D

So I did a bad thing yesterday.

I baked Vegas some muffins, but put them in a cake pan instead.

Oh, they came out pretty good, that's not it.

He said he would never, ever eat zucchini muffins or cake.

He said it was gross, nevermind that he loves carrot cake.

So, um, guess what he ate last night - with a second helping.

I guess if he reads this I'm gonna get a scolding, right?

So worth it though :-D

Batten down the hatches!

WooHoo!

Vegas comes homes tonight! :-D

I better get to making the house clean n'shiny and bake some muffins before driving to the city this evening to fetch my hubby - yeah, the airport is faaar.

Wishing you all a sunny day!

Invitation

Would you like to come for a little tour of the barn with me?

A totally impromptu & short video, shot this morning with freezing fingers - I had originally only planned to film the wee chicks in their new space (click on The Chicken Diaries for total cuteness overload!) but saw Jack's food-encrusted face and I couldn't resist :-D

So then Jack, his buddy Black, then a quick peek at the three flocks:

This is where I spend one to two hours every morning, 

on poop and food patrol - ok there are cuddles too, 

I do love all my babies that much ;-)

Hope you enjoyed!

What to do with?...

...a beautiful sunny day?

You share it so everyone can get a tan!

Well, sort-of.

If it wasn't -15C with snow and ice everywhere.

But still!

Sunny!

...junky food cravings?

You wait a few days.

If the craving is still there,

and getting worse,

well you just give in.

Life is short.

Don't my home-made onion rings look tasty?

They were!

...and that was it for today.

Back to farm work to help burn those calories!

Because old school is cool school!

So very, very catchy

and very, very funny -

the ending has me in stitches every time!

And I can't get the darn tune out of my head -

I wish you the same, LOL!

The first single from The Lonely Island's debut album "INCREDIBAD".

Video features guest appearances by Molly Sims, Jamie Lynn Sigler,
and Justin Timberlake.

The Lonely Island is Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone.

All over the place

Everything's melting!

The rains started last night and ended around lunchtime, then came the blue skies and super warm sun (12C, w-t-hey!) and then nice winds to dry everything up. I can see bits of lawn and our driveway gravel for the first time since early December, what a thrill!

Of course the snows move in again tonight so everything goes back to status quo (deep freezing winter and lots of more snow) but it was still so very nice to get a little break in the middle of February.

I'm almost rejuvenated :-D

OK that's enough about the weather.

I have a new fetish, the Bashkir Curly (or simply, Curly Horse). Am dying to pet one to see if they're as soft as they look! Plus they're hypoallergenic so that's a nice bonus. I wonder if anyone breeds them around here?

Curly cutie!

Vegas laughed at my bread the other day.

Said the loaves looked like slippers.

They were still tasty though :)

My friend N arrives tonight, can't wait to see her! It'll be a short girls' weekend but it's better than nothing. On the menu: midnight pancakes and then tomorrow chinese food. Possibly some scrabble games although she always beats my ass. I don't mind though :)

Five more days until Vegas comes home, he's promised to bring back loads of English loot (read: awesome junk food not available here) but it doesn't make me miss him any less.

Le Sigh.

So a few of my favorite bloggers have taken a hiatus (some permanent) from the blogosphere, which makes me quite sad. Almost like losing a friend. Boo.

Am taking recommendations for new blogs to read so please pass along some of your special ones, those you just could not do without!

On a parting note,

this sums up what I think about hunting

and the idiots who practice this barbaric "sport":

Have a great weekend!

Speak to the hand!

I became a feminist as an alternative 
to becoming a masochist.  

~Sally Kempton, attributed

A taste of spring!!

Oh golly gosh, it is SOOOO nice outside today - unbelievable|!

The sun is shining strong in the mostly-cloudless sky and it's warm enough to sit on the front stairs with only a warm sweater and house shoes - no hat, scarf, gloves, coat, anything. The birds are singing and you can hear the trickle of melting snow all around.

Tomorrow we're getting rain all day and then back to cold and snow for the weekend, but today is bliss and I'm enjoying it the best I can.

OK fine, heaping wheelbarrow after heavy wheelbarrow of soiled chicken bedding onto the giant pile of manure isn't exactly relaxing but it badly needed to get done, and what better time eh? Today the barn doors are open to let in lots of fresh air (better for my lungs, ooooh the dirty, dirty dust flying up everywhere...) - yep, happy critters all around.

I ache like a motherflipper though.

And I'm only half done.

Ow. Ow. Ow.

Time for a quick lunch, then I promised the doggies I'd take them for a nice walk around the town's park for a sniff-o-thon potty break. I'll finish cleaning out the chicken stalls later, I can hardly move my shoulders as it is.

I LOVE THIS WEATHER!! :-D

Because I like it

This isn't reflective of my state of mind as I'm quite happy today - I've just always loved this song and the video is brilliant.

If you know it and love it, here you can watch it again :-)

And if you've never seen this, I'll bet you'll be hooked after 45 seconds - the concept is so simple yet incredibly powerful. Give it a try and see.

REM - Everybody Hurts

The post of a thousand photos

OK maybe not a thousand photos, but it sure felt like a lot!

I blame those of you who asked for pics of the weekend :-D

Blogger likes to fuzz up photos displayed in posts but if you click on them

to get a bigger view (details! yey!) then everything is crisp and clear.

Weird and annoying, but what can ya do?

At the end of a long stretch of road, 

you can see the two bridges announcing Quebec City:

I let myself into the house as nobody was home yet,

well except Maya the cat and my birthday gifts from last month :)

Maya was more interested in sniffing my stuff

than playing with her little stuffed mouse!

After Friday's dinner we all warmed up our tushies by the fire:

OK our feetsies too:

Saturday afternoon, my mom and I set out for some shopping in Old Quebec.

It was a dark and dreary day...

Old bridge on the left, new bridge on the right:

 

Choppy St-Lawrence river ice floes:

My mom likes to park miles from Old Quebec,

which means lots of walking on crappy sidewalks

and even more moaning and bitching (by me) - LOL!

Cool 2D metal sculptures by the river:

The details are amazing:

can you see the hawk on the tree?

The three human figures?

Carnaval time in the city means lots of tourists

and an advance taste of spring maple treats

(here, hot taffy being poured on snow):

 

We were going to have lunch here as the menu looked nice

but on our way back we just couldn't find the place again, LOL!

Quartier Champlain in full winter glory...

At the art gallery where my stepfather works

I fell in love with this gorgeous painting...

The light emanating from this piece was just incredible!

Ah, to have the money...

Isn't it just lovely in there?

Showing off "my" painting :-)

Inside...

A riot of colors -

In the foreground, a dragon...

Trudging back in the winter sh*t -

Yeah, cobblestones covered with soapy snow = uggh!

The famous "Funiculaire" that takes you up to Château Frontenac -

or not, if you don't take it!

Tacky tourist trade, LOL!

Another way to get up to Château Frontenac up on the hill,

if one is so inclined.

After these stairs there are about another million more,

hence the popularity of the Funiculaire!

We had a bite to eat at the Cochon Dingue -

In the foreground, a tourist showing extremism:

trapper fur hat, Carnaval tooter horn

and sucking on maple taffy!

I like this place :)

My mom treated me to their awesome French Onion Soup -

mmmm it really hit the spot!

More ice floes on the way back to the car:

We had the cold wind in our face but somehow the walk seemed shorter,

perhaps it was because we laughed so darn much!!

Yeah, my mom and I get crazy sometimes:

This is the only sun we saw on Saturday -

can you see it?

Hiding there behind the tree?

Sunday morning, miss Maya-style...

This is why she coughs up lots of fur balls, LOL!

Pretty miss vanilla-chocolate chin :-)

Cat OCD!

My mom showed me how to make her famous orange marmalade,

I documented the process just to be sure!

Here the finished yummies go into the boiling hot sterilized jars:

I brought a jar home, oh bliss :-)

 

The End!