You give me fever

It's spring fever.  

That is what the name of it is.  

And when you've got it, you want - 

oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, 

but it just fairly makes your heart ache, 

you want it so!  

~Mark Twain

Against the robot

It seems my spare time these days have been swallowed up by scrabble games against the robot rather than by blogging time - whoops!

Plus today was sooo nice out, I just had to get a few long-overdue farm chores out of the way while the sun was shining warmly. I really dislike being cooped up in the house when the birds are singing outside, it just seems so wrong somehow - specially after being stuck inside the past five months, you know?

So besides raking horse poop off the barn ramp, mucking Jack's stall, dismantling the old chicken tractor and lugging all the lumber into the garage, walking the dogs and doing some carpentry work in the summer coops, I cleaned out the winter coops for the last freaking time this year! wOOOt!

OK fine, I have to do it all again in a month once the flocks have been moved out of the barn for the summer, but still. It's progress :-D

The gang's always happy for fresh bedding

and time spent with momma,

who's quite sore after hauling 12 heavy wheelbarrows

out of the barn - all that shoveling and lugging

of heavy things requires advil and a hot bath tonight!

Worth every minute of work to see these happy faces-

did I tell you how much I love my chooks?

The horses were laaaaazy sleepy old guys today,

enjoying sun baths, mud baths

and foraging for those tiny new blades of grass -

the proof is in the yawn!

Horse fact: he/she will immediately go roll in mud

less than five minutes after being groomed.

Well that was today, I'm off for that hot bubble bath now... The weather's supposed to hold for tomorrow and then go back to crap (ie, snow, freezing rain, grey skies, wind) as of Friday for the whole weekend.

Let's hope the weather monkeys are, once again, wrong on that front!

/end of No Stinky City For Moi post/

Fast(ing) foods

We are all dietetic sinners; 

only a small percent of what we eat nourishes us; 

the balance goes to waste and loss of energy.  

~William Osler

Sugar shack!

Bogged down with the remnants of the "man cold" and sporting a splitting migraine today so apologies in advance for the short and sporadic posts these days...

I'm just not that into it, ya know?

The weekend was a throw-back to winter: cold and grey and super windy but we tried to ignore it and spent  a very lovely Saturday afternoon at my uncle's little sugar shack in the woods. My dad and stepmom made the long trip to be there, so did my brothers with their families - it was such a treat to see everyone again, just like that!

We're all so busy and not exactly neighbors so you just have to make the effort sometimes, eh?

My uncle and one of his friends have owned this piece of land for decades and every spring they hand-collect sap from their maple trees (250 buckets!) and boil it down to the awesomeness that is maple syrup.

Did you know: it takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup?

And then you boil the maple syrup down to a thick liqud taffy

that you pour over fresh packed snow,

you can dot it with peanuts or other yummies

(dried cranberries in this photo)

and then quickly scoop up the yumminess with a stick

before it hardens too much -

soooo good!!

Sugar: it's not just for kids! :-D

In the other shack my uncle made us fresh, thin delicious buckwheat pancakes straight on the wood-burning stove, we stacked them with ham and cheese and doused them with his home-boiled maple syrup. He also makes maple butter, which he served warm with fresh fruit, we had strong coffee, shared a big bag of beef jerky and everyone brought munchies so nobody left hungry!

We're making this a family tradition from now on :-)

/end of Happy Times post/

Woody's woody

Don't knock masturbation, it's sex with someone I love.

Woody Allen

Nobody likes a whiner

But somehow, whining seems to whittle the pain away a little, at least for a moment, no? As long as you're the one doing the whining :-D

This man-cold is still kicking my butt, only it has donned steel-toed boots now.

I feel like death warmed over.

Probably sound like it, too.

Ah well. It will pass... in the meantime I just can't do anything fun or productive and forget about laughing, that sets me into bloody coughing spasms. Take that literally or not.

Don't lick your computer screen while reading this blog, you'll catch the lurgy!

You can still vote on the new poll, though.

Chicken soup and a new set of lungs graciously accepted.

Mom? Are you sick as a dog?

Because I've got nothing better to do: Infomercials that crack me up

Pretty hard to choose from the thousands of silly gadgets we're being conned to buy thanks to the infamous infomercial but these few below are classic!

For the record, I can't stand these time-wasters but Vegas loves to indulge - not sure why since he's never bought anything advertised before. At least that's what he tells me... :-o

OK first up: a mini-vacuum with razor blades.

Safe for the whole family!

Suck up unwanted hair while saving on salon costs!

I don't know about you but

I'm totally creeped out.

Flowbee: Look Like A 70's Porn Star

In Two Easy Steps!

Stashe option extra.

This cool gym-machine thingie will transform you

into a she-male in only 20 minutes, three times a week!

Baseball cap not included.

Ladies, tired of washing those endlessly dirty floors?

Have your husband do it for you while he's schlepping around -

gives a whole new meaning to "slipper foot"!

matching kilt available for only $9.99!

Ah, Vince...

What did we do before you Slap-Chopped your way

into our hearts and kitchens?

I don't think this atrocity needs any introduction...

Note that, in a pinch, you can wear it to church choir practice.

What's scary is the dog version.

I'd call the SPCA.

Teddy bears for the in-laws' breasts.

You know, for those cold car trips,

gotta take care of the nips.

I really wonder who's behind these dastardly inventions.

Do you buy it?

He gave me it

The man-cold.

Now I have it, too.

Thank you dear husband, thank you.

*wipes nose with frozen fingers while coughing*

How a smile brings a smile :-)

This awesome video has been circulating on Facebook lately,

if you haven't seen it yet then you just must!

I challenge you to watch it and NOT smile :-)

Denver, my hero! 

On another smile-making note, since it's a gorgeous sunny day and the rest of the week looks cold, wet and snowy, I just came back from a long horseback ride up our country dirt road and have confirmed two things:

a) my old man Jack loves running, and
b) the way home always takes half the time as the way out! LOL!

We both came home salty, sweaty and pooped and happy.

Jack got a rub-down and some fresh hay in the sun, I got a hot shower and an apple. I wonder if it should have been the other way around?!

Vegas is still coughing up a storm, awe my poor husband - man colds are the *worst*. He's got a long difficult work week ahead of him so I really hope it passes. Dinner tonight is breakfast (eggs, bacon, pancakes...) as I've heard it was an old-time remedy. Or it might not be, I dunno - I'm just in the mood for bacon!

/end of Sunday Scribblings post/

Jump on it

Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better.

~Albert Camus

And so it starts

Hmmm are we really in the throes of an early spring or is this just Mom Nature playing a cruel trick on us? I guess time will tell... But in the meantime it sure is nice to see all that snow and ice melt away, to hear the melody of long-forgotten birds gracing our trees again and to see some green shoots in the garden!

See? Magical!

I thought the chickens had eaten all the seeds and bulbs last autumn,

looks like they missed a few - LOL!

However frost is on the way, along with more snow 

and other horrible things so these little green lovelies

will no doubt be dead before they can bloom.

Drats.

Here I am, contemplating the giant mess that is our land
and wondering where to start the massive spring cleanup.
Ooooh! The choices!

I decided to attack the eyesore that was the fallen vine awning -

a casualty of heavy winter snow and rotten wood,

it's what you see when you look out the front door

so it really had to go.

No more cute shaded passage for the chickens

in the hot summer sun :-(

I won't tell you how hard that mess was to pick up,

but suffice to say that a 100-year old vine wrapped around

trellis for sides and a roof does not make for a quicker-picker-upper!

All I had was a small saw and a drill

and lots of elbow grease.

It looks much better now but I still have a lot of small debris to pick up

once the snow melts and I can lug the wheelbarrow out.

Not sure whether to leave the posts standing so the vine 

can grow back on it (the roots are intact) -

or should we tear the whole thing down?

We'll see in a few months what it looks like

with the grass, leaves and stuff...

I also started dismantling the rickety chicken tractor (mobile pen), I don't need it this summer so I'm happy to get rid of the atrocity. Since I need to re-use the parts to build other stuff for the coops - I'm frugal, not cheap! - I had to yank hundreds of big-ass staples from the wood to remove the chicken wire, netting and tarps. The pain in my arms & hands cannot be described - and I'm still not done! 

One project at a time, one project at a time...

Vegas has the man-cold so I have to concentrate on being a good wife-nurse.

You understand, right?

*grin*

Right now the wind is screaming and howling and trying to bloooow our house down. Loud and scary - I'm always wondering if a tree will snap in two again, if we'll lose shingles on the roof or have a dog blown away across the field.

Yeah, it's a strong wind today :-o

This weekend is for horse poop duty. Gotta start cleaning away the mountains of shit in the pen close to the barn so we're not ankle-deep in brown sludge and flies next month. Grim. Very, very grim.

I'll have to go riding again to counteract the yuck :-)

/end of Happy Friday post/

Small joys

So here's what happened yesterday afternoon - yeah, it was just a perfect pre-spring summer day wooooo! I'm so lucky and grateful I got to enjoy it :-)

Turns out Jack is very well trained, only he's been testing me to see how much he could get away with... Now that he knows that I know that he knows stuff, well, the respect is starting to settle in. I need to work on his brakes though - that boy is stubborn, when he doesn't want to stop (which is more often than not) then whoooaa it's a battle.

I'm slowly getting my "horse legs", 

although Jack is standing all crooked here

thanks to the soft spongy ground!

This was after the ride,

Mister Jack was getting impatient -

mom! enough already!

My friend took the pics atop her horse,

now that was funny juggling :)

Since the wooded trails we normally use are boggy, soggy, icy and very dangerous

we had to ride around the neighborhood streets -

at least this way the horses get some sort of exercise

and it's a great way to socialize, desensitize and train them.

Plus all the kids and grownups who smile as we pass

are well worth it :-)

A quick live-action of the above -

ignore my goofy face, please!

Hope you enjoyed!

Happy Tuesday

Am I strange?

I love daylight savings time - either way it sets the mood for the half year ahead, you know?

Winter is for early evenings, cocooning on the couch and hearty meals... yeah, jammies at 7pm aren't a rare thing in our house when it's cold and dark outside. And now the days are longer, the sun is stronger and WOO! Spring is right around the corner. Love it.

I like seeing the list of spring chores stack up before my eyes.

Makes me feel useful, strong and capable. Plus I'm a sucker for "instant results" and I do like cleaning stuff up, making it pretty and neat. Bye-bye winter crap!

Oh, this is so exciting!

Yes, I know there is more snow on the way, we're only mid-March after all. But days like these does give one hope! Plus the temps are milder now so anything that falls won't stay around too long.

One day at a time.

Tomorrow is going to be just gorgeous: +6C and sunny, almost unheard of this time of year! - so my friend and I are going for a horseback ride around the neighborhood, woohoo! The trails in the woods are impossible to navigate (deep soft wet snow, ice and mud...) so we have to improvise - luckily nobody minds seeing a couple or horses pass by their house.

As I said, the city can kiss my hiney - LOL!

/end of Spring Forwards post/

Be hap-pea

Ain't no man can avoid being average, 

but there ain't no man got to be common.  

~Satchel Paige

Ho boy!

I went for a riding lesson yesterday and let me tell you: just when you think you know just enough to get by, you realize you don't know even half of that!

Humbling.

As soon as the land isn't boggy soggy anymore I have a lot of ground work to do with Jack, gotta practice some basics here. And then I'll go back for a lesson a month or so to learn a bit at a time, then practice, repeat.

At some point I'll start to feel my "horse legs", or so I hope!

Rainy grey weekend.

At least it's not snow and it's not freezing, a small mercy.

I'll try my hand at potato salmon cakes for dinner tonight, with some cranberry lemon scones for dessert. Scones + glass of red wine = happy farmwife. Then tomorrow leftover scones + tea = happy Sunday farmwife. Or something like that.

Are you still with me?

Cuz I'm on a blogging flatline, if you haven't noticed already... shit I'm boring. I gots the writer's block or something, I dunno.

Life is interesting and fun but talking about it?

Meh. So yesterday by the time I get to it!

Anyhoo.

Time to sort out the free box of fruit n'veggie scraps for the birds and other delights. Yay me.

I wish it wasn't raining.

/end of Whinging Bore post/

On moms

A mother is a person who seeing there are 

only four pieces of pie for five people, 

promptly announces she never did care for pie.  

~Tenneva Jordan

Kiss my country-lovin' arse :-)

So, I was reminded a few days ago that the world is full of filthy, disgusting people who make pigs look clean and well-mannered.

Like the two guys dressed as homeless hobos who got off a bus, all stink and rags and long filthy hair, lifting their legs in mid-stride to trumpet out horrendous wet farts while loudly proclaiming that "they needed to take a shit, man" - I mean, seriously? My dogs don't do that in public!

Sitting at the bus station on Monday enduring a two-hour layover between rides to get home gave me a hundred new reasons to be glad I don't live in the city anymore.

Home sweet (clean) home.

Gonna bake some banana bread today, probably make a big pot of soup or something comforting - it's grey and raining and will probably stay like this for a few days - yey! melt snow, melt!

My dad after a dump of heavy wet snow - he's got a huge driveway 

so it's quite the job, but he likes it :-)

If you wonder where I got the crazies,

it's genetic! LOL

I've got no musical sense though, bummer!

Um, what else... I posted a flock update in The Chicken Diaries, complete with a couple pics of the chicks who are now six weeks old... more babies on the way if I'm lucky, wooo!

Laters, innit.

Creativity

I saw the angel in the marble 

and carved until I set him free.  

~Michelangelo

I'm back! Almost!

Had a great weekend at my dad's, 

almost got stranded due to a ginormous snow storm, 

am still catching up on farm and house duties, 

today is day 7 of nasty headaches 

and it's eating away at my happy mojo, 

I made tilapia fillets for dinner (yum), 

took an impromptu ride around the neighborhood streets and woods 

with Jack this warm sunny afternoon, 

I promise to post news and pics and other schtuff tomorrow. 

Or Thursday. 

After I've caught up on your blogs! 

Now, what's for dessert....

yeah!

A vacation is what you take 

when you can no longer take what you've been taking.  

~Earl Wilson

Short blogging intermission

Aaaaaaaaaa!

I made the big mistake of buying Scrabble for my laptop... so now my every moment with the machine is spent playing game after game after -

Worse than crack, I tell you!

Plus the next two days I am soooo flippin' busy I'll need more hours in the day to keep up.

Oy vey.

Friday is for traveling, I'm spending the weekend at my dad's in Ontario. Lots of buses and hours on the road. Back late Monday, just in time for my farm chores and wife stuff - whooo!

I'm not sure I'll have online access this weekend so let's pretend I won't.

So I'm not ignoring your blogs, I'm simply taking a breather from posting and reading... but I'll be back next week, promise!

After my Tuesday evening riding lesson.

I can't keep track of my life, I need a Personal Assistant.

Volunteers??

/end of Will You Miss Me? post/