this made me giggle :-D

well!

The last day of vacation was gorgeous!

Sunny, warm and did I mention, warm? ;-)

Vegas, all chilled out by the sea...

My stepdaughter, soaking up the rays...

No, it's not a dead child on the rocks! LOL!

The beanies all nice and cool and sandy
after a last swim in the freezing refreshing water:

We had to cut our vacation short by a day

to avoid driving home under hurricane Irene's wrath.

But!

Home sweet home!

We bunkered down yesterday and weathered out the storm,

so to speak.

Irene, what a bitch your far-flung slap was!

Everyone's fine,  we never lost power

and kept most of our trees.

The creeks bordering our property have morphed into giant lakes

but stopped just short of flooding the farm buildings, thankfully:

Our neighbour across the creek got very lucky...

The waters stopped 6 feet from his basement windows!

So today is dedicated to cleaning up the yard from

strewn branches and leaves,

cleaning out the chicken coops from soaked bedding

and trying to enjoy the warm sun.

So good to be home.

I hope you're all good?

eye candy and techno zombies

A few more pics of beach combing fun :-)

(all pics click bigger for crisp details - mmmm crisp)

We had the beach to ourselves, yay!

Happy doggies...

Ah freedom!

Maika fancied a bit of a swim

so she took herself out for a dip in the sea...

Vegas and his beanies:

I'm not sure what's going on here,

something about a big stick and big dog teethies?

Treasure!

Don't ask...

Dakotah's too heavy to swim

so he just likes to wade in the water for a bit of cooling down...

Made a bit sad by his limping 

and inability to climb rocks...

This will probably be his last vacation by the sea :-(

Vegas, his daughter and the duckface competition...

I'm not sure what started the goofing off

but it led to a pretty hilarious photo shoot!

Yeah, we're on the straight and narrow, we are!

My favorite photo!

OK no I lied, this is my favorite photo!

"Help Me"

Two more days of vacation left - time is going by fast!

Cheers!

some pics of vaycay :)

How can you not love a cottage by the sea that has high-speed internet? :-D

(all pics click bigger for details n'stuff)

Our deck chairs under moody skies:

Our cottage - we have the unit on the far right side,

it's 3 stories high with a wrap-around deck

and the smelliest water I've ever been forced to endure, LOL!

A few steps down from the cottage...

Driftwood, rocky shores and a pier.

Tranquility :)

Vegas testing his "shore legs":

Since I can't ride my horse,

this is the next best thing - LOL!

My stepdaughter being blown away by the wiiiiiinds!

All of this in jammies!

Yeah, we have fun goofing off ;-)

Happy doggies enjoying a strip of beach...

Front view of our cottage,

our unit would be on the left side now.

Completely restored historic building from 1853!

Vegas the sea pirate, arrrggggg!

I was being silly with the "duckface"

since we both think it's hideous...

...and then Vegas joined in.

He totally wins the duckface competition.

Stepdaughter enjoying a beach snooze.

It's not a dead child! LOL!

Hope you enjoyed...

Lots more pics on the way!

'Night!

yippee!

Tomorrow, we're off tomorrow for a week by the "sea"!

It's not technically a sea but it's salty water with daily tides and rocky shores so that's good enough for us. We rented a gorgeous cottage which is big enough for us adults, Vegas' lovely stepdaughter and the two doggies - yes, they're coming too!

I may post some pics as there is internet... so... stay tuned ;-)

XXX!

Thursday funny :-)

Click on the pic for the giggles!

morsels

I finally filed a police report a couple days ago for the property break-in I blogged about... sure glad I did because not only was it a very positive experience, it was rewarding too: with my description of the criminals they now have a pretty good idea of who it was and may proceed with an arrest shortly.

Did I mention one of my close-by neighbours also got robbed that night? And that the theives came back 4 nights later, bolt-cutted through his toolshed lock and emptied it out? All while he was sleeping in the house a few feet away.

So yeah. Not putting up with that shit.

Gotta keep a safe and united 'hood :-)

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Got some oatmeal & chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven as I type this. I don't know how I'm supposed to melt my fat ass down if I have warm cookies within reach. I'm a knob.

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They say when you're hungry in-between meals, you're probably just thirsty. So I'm trying to drink more liquids (the good stuff, not the sugar-laden stuff) instead of snacking. I keep forgetting to fill my glass though, then I'm both hungry AND thirsty and a bit grumpy from it all.

Knob :-D

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Vacation countdown T minus 5 days!!

w00t!!!

/end of Tattered Tidbits post/

oh snap!

Snap as in snapshots of life :-)

Vegas chilling out on the deck yesterday -

he likes to stick his feeeeeets in my face.

He he.

A few days ago I drove to the city where my grandmother is housed -

my mom makes the trip there from Quebec city once or twice a month

so it was a good opportunity to meet and have a girl's lunch.

Overcast day, nice and refreshing!

My mom and grandmother in the facility's gardens -

it's a really wonderful geratric center, 

I was surprised to see how clean it was

and how much the workers there care for the elderly.

Make no mistake though, this is a place where people come to die -

very sad, in a way.

My grandmother can still stand to move from chair to bed

but that's about it.

I love my mom, she truly is the very best there can be.

We can still pass for sisters, you know ;-)

Moi et grandmaman.

She is 88 years old and afflicted with alzheimer's, 

one of the worst curses ever.

She still has bits and pieces of her old self left

but it's just the rare flash here and there.

Soon she will lose the ability to speak altogether,

it's so heartbreaking :-/

But at least she still laughs and smiles a lot,

everyone adores her at the facility.

The past two years she has held onto this crazy little doll,

night and day and day and night.

She talks to it, kisses it, keeps it warm and covered -

it's a bit creepy but apparently very normal with this disease,

a link between the illness and the real world?

I'm so very glad I went to visit her-

 the last time I had seen her was last November

when my grandfather passed away.

He also suffered from Alzheimer's.

I only hope this disease isn't hereditary O_o

Wishing you all a good weekend!

because it's super awesome

If you take a moment to watch this,

to listen and to breathe it in...

I promise you won't regret it.

Love, Mother Earth

Please share far and wide!

happy, gay, joyeux

Drag is when a man wears everything a lesbian won't. 

 ~Author Unknown

scumbags!

Really?

You little shitheads think it's funny to break into people's property at 2:30am to steal stuff? It's a freaking farm in the middle of nowhere, get a life!!

So yeah, we got woken up at 2:30am last night by frenzied barking (and I had earplugs!) - Maika was going crazy - she never barks in the night and certainly not so savagely. Vegas went downstairs to see what was going on and I stayed upstairs, ran to the front of the house and looked out the guest room window to see three young guys in hoodies with backpacks hoofing it out of our driveway :-o

I wasn't sure what was going on until this morning -  I found a lock stolen from our small chicken coop as well as one gone from a side garage door.

Seriously, dudes? You steal door locks? From a chicken coop?

I don't know where those bastards went nor what else they stole, we think Maika scared them away before they got their hands on anything costly.

Thank goodness for big mean-sounding watchdogs :-/

Now we have to buy working locks for both coops, it's frightening to think that anyone can (and will) come on our property in the dead of night to mess around - what if they had tossed some of our chickens out in the dark, just for fun?? We cannot lock the garage nor the barn though, so now I'm a nervous wreck.

I worry for my babies :(

Took us ages to fall back asleep last night, I'm angry and pissed off - we left the city because of this shit, you know? And now we can't even feel safe in our bunker in the middle of nowhere?

We should train a few skunks to patrol our property at night - you come here uninvited, you get sprayed!!

Sigh.

Why are people so disrespectful?

how times have changed!

this may be the death of it

(( warning - brain dump ahead ))

It seems I just can't blog anymore.

I keep thinking it's just a phase, I'll get my writing mojo back... but nope, nothing. And I sit there and stare and stare and can't think of anything I want to write about - it's like it just doesn't matter anymore, you know?

My life is shrinking.

Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying every moment - but my farm life/ housewife routine seems too dull to repeat post after post. I've no funny job stories, I have my chicken blog to talk about the flock life, I don't go anywhere nor see many people so the adventures aren't there to share, and the private home stuff can't be shared here because too many wrong people have access to this blog - if I were anonymous it would be a whole different matter.

Most of you know what I mean, yes?

Anyways.

I'll probably get a part-time job after this summer is over, just to get me out of the house for more than grocery shopping.

Not that I miss dealing with the public but I don't want my brain to rot.

Something like that.

Thankfully I have a little "girl getaway" coming up soon, my bestie is picking me up and we're crossing the border for a couple days of eating bad greasy food and shopping at American stores - looking forward to taking lots of pics and just being elsewhere for a bit.

I'll be homesick after 15 hours but oh well :-D

Then in three weeks Vegas, his daughter, the dogs and I are spending a week by the sea for a real vacation, it's been three freaking years since we went anywhere!

So I'm looking forward to that, too.

Crisp salt air, hungry seagulls, the lull of sea tides against rocky shores.

And then it's September, my brother's wedding, time for apple picking and a couple of photography contracts, preparing the barn for winter housing...

...and then maybe I'll scrap this blog or give it a major overhaul, I'm quite tired of this look and feel.

Maybe.

Probably.

/end of Not A Writer post/