Merry Christmas

I have intended visiting this project often, but got distracted as is my way!

Anyway, I thought I'd share some of my Christmas, and I will try to attend to this project more frequently. My 'trouble' is I journal on paper, so forget to come to the blog.

As only a mother will understand, not having ones children near for Christmas morning is harsh. This year all 3 were away from me. I console myself with the fact that they are adults and have lives of their own, and it is time for me to start my life. But still........

Our Christmas has been a busy time getting there and deliciously quiet on the arrival.
We started our hall rental and catering just in time for a few Christmas parties, so we were really busy the week before Christmas week. we cooked too many turkeys to want to cook another for ourselves AND we had sufficient turkey meat (and stock) in the freezer left over from the functions, so we just heated up more of that. We did do fresh everything else, but that was a no brainer!
Last Christmas we invited our minister from church to have Christmas dinner with us as he is from the States and has no family here. This year he asked if an invitation was being offered again. We took that as a compliment of last years time (I was working all last Christmas Day so hardly was involved in the home life) and were happy to have him this year. Last year he brought his Christmas Pudding, and offered to bring one this year. Having tasted last years one, there is no option - he had to come! Further to that we asked him to bring anyone else he knew who would be home alone for Christmas, so he brought Mary. I also knew Janina could be home alone, so I left her a note on her door inviting her to come. She was ecstatic because she REALLY needed a social outing! So our Christmas dinner moved from 2 people to 5. I loved it, I feel this is what Christmas is about - giving and sharing.
As we live in a small community we don't have the large numbers of folks who have a lonely Christmas, but I would like to think we could be here for those who do. So maybe 5 around the table will become more next time - or maybe, instead, we have family - or of course, both!
This year we had the dining room and living room to use for Christmas. It was in a state of renovation last year. This year our kitchen is there, but is still functioning. Our plan is to get that resolved this year. So we had Christmas dinner in the dining room, not the kitchen as we did last year. Our table only sits 6 max, and we only have 4 chairs for it, so I used a stool. If we have more than 6 to dinner we use the barn, as we do for our functions. As the barn was decorated for Christmas, we didn't put any decorations up in the house. I just put candle lamps and our Christmas cards, so it felt quite festive.
Here are some pictures of our Christmas in the Barn.

What a weekend this has been!
Being squeamish about killing the roosters - and to be honest the young ones were hardly a meal - we decided to give them to folks who wanted them for their own flocks. So we gave a few away. We kept Barry and a handsome Americauna (that will spell trouble - like his dad) and we still haven't got to the youngest of the flock.
Tropical Storm Danny arrived Saturday and brought a deluge of rain. From mid afternoon until mid early morning it just threw it down, then when the rain subsided a wind came. in the morning we were out checking on the chicken family only to find that Barry had company in his pen - and had lost his head. A mink had broken into his pen & killed him. We were quite disturbed by this - I actually had heard a ruckus going on & thought it was another rooster getting frisky with the girls! Wrong!! Poor Barry had no escape, what an awful death.
So now our chicken family is quite quiet! We have the one Americauna who now thinks he is Alpha, and the younger ones who haven't shown their true colours yet. AND we are uneasy in case the mink comes back - or brings friends. we have a live trap waiting to snare it, but thus far no mink. They have a fierce reputation.
What a sad time.

Well, our hurricane amounted to a bit of rain & some wind that didn't do any damage here. Halifax got hurt a bit & Peggy's Cove had a lot of water over the rocks. So we didn't get much more than a fall day. It's still humid though. I hate the humidity, I long for fall & wearing a cardigan again. That thought at the moment makes me melt!
Because of the storm the Gilberts Cove Lighthouse historical Society used our barn for their AGM & pot luck supper - another excuse to party!
Hopefully this is the last weather 'worry' for a while.
This is a picture of our 'barn' in case you think we had a meeting on the hay bales :)

We are supposed to be meeting Hurricane Bill over this weekend.
The word is Nova Scotia is going to get the brunt of the storm, usually it's the Atlantic coast that gets the most attention from storms like this and I think this will be the case again this time. We are not on the Atlantic side of the province so are hoping to miss the hardest part of the storm.
In preparation for the storm I have just come in with a harvest from the garden - in case the garden gets trashed with the storm. I have 3 different kinds of beans, peas, blueberries & blackberries. So I feel quite proud of the garden. We have had a good crop of beans & peas, so are set for winter. We are just about to get smothered with zucchini, so I'm going to be making a lot of zucchini breads & whatever!
OK, we'll see how we are affected by the storm.
Watch this space!!!!!!!!!

final hatch of the year

This week end saw our final hatch occur. We had put Batwoman in with Bobbins - both black chickens hoping that we would get more very black chickens, so 5 of her 6 eggs hatched. We also put 14 more Dominique eggs in to hatch & 11 of them have hatched, so this is our most successful hatch. They continue to amaze us with the will to escape the shell, and ability to play so soon after hatching. They are all very cute too, all black at the moment some with blond bits bit for the most part black.
Conch is now in the 'high school' part of the chicken house & he is as feisty as the others. His identifier is he has no tail feathers -yet, so I can tell it's 'him'.
The incubator will be put away now til next year. You may be glad to hear that!

More new chicks!

So Saturday saw the hatch of more new chicks. These ones are Dominique chickens and will grow to be black & white striped. Currently they are wee black blobs with stubbies for wings. They seem to be more fragile & less feisty than the Americana chicks that are now over 3 weeks old, but then that is how the adults seem to be too. Thay are a lot less flighty - if you can use that about chickens - than the Americanas.
So we had a hatch of 7 chicks, making our chick family up to 24, which increases our fowl family by 200%. We have another hatch planned. Bobbins, the big black rooster whom we think is a Black Jersey Giant and got into our pile in error last year, and Batwoman are together, so we'll see if we get more black chicks. We will put down more Dominique eggs too; so that hatch is planned to start on Saturday. That will be the end of the new chicks for this year. It continues to be very exciting. There is something to be said watching the chicks hatch, it's pretty special. We had friends over & they had brought some young kids to see the chicks & they got to see one emerge from the egg. I have to wonder what that sight has done for the children ever wanting to eat a boiled egg again?
And Conch? well, it's hard to find him now in the chicken family, he has grown to be the same size as the others and just as loud!

The chicks are 2 weeks old tomorrow. All are doing well, Conch is now part of the chick family having lost all special privileges assigned to the infirm! In fact it's a case now of 'Where is Conch (Waldo)?' I'm hoping to have some more chicks hatch in less than 10 days, that hatch won't have so many, I hope to have at least some. They are the Dominiques and some of their eggs can be a little small, so we will see. All I want to do is perpetuate the breed as they are supposed to be fairly rare.
Bronzo - the father of the new chicks and Barry the nest-shitter of the Dominiques are both very aggressive and are currently on death row being fattened up for the pot. That will be a whole new thing, and interestingly a full circle! We'll have brought new life in and taken life too. The sad thing is if these bad boys were not aggressive we would let them stay for a while, but they won't even let me feed them without special attention - like making a hole in the wire so they can't get at me!
When it comes time, they will all probably make the pot, but our feeling is they should be given a life first. They get to be out in the sunshine (or snow - which ever season it is) they breathe fresh air, they get good food & they love dandelions, which we have an abundance of, and when the day comes they will leave the happy place for the chicken coop in the sky, or on our table. That's what it is about. But currently, the eggs are good!
This picture is of the chickens - spot Conch. (He's the one in the corner with his back to you leaning over another - the one on the right of the 2)

Conch update

Conch is doing well. he jumped out of his shoe box home on Tuesday morning. he was looking for companionship, but landed on the floor instead. Phil put him in with the other 16 chicks, but as I thought, some of them started to pick on him, so we have moved most of them into another box and put Conch in with 3 more placid chicks, so now he has company. He can see the others through the box sides, but it would be to his detriment at this time to put him with them. He is beginning to fluff up a bit, but all of them are beginning to sprout the feathers at the wing tips, I expect once Conch is feathered he may reach almost the same size as the others. He is feisty though! He has made it this far, I expect he will be with us for a while now!

So, our first hatch is over. We got 16 and a half! The half is a little runt that I had to help out of the shell this morning. It had been trying to get out since last night and I think was pretty close to giving up. I call it Conch, because 'he' is still wearing some of his shell and it's pretty stuck. He hasn't been able to fluff up as he was in the shell so long and his fluff is fairly encased. I tried bathing him a wee bit with a Q tip & it has helped. Anyway, he isn't joining the other 16 yet as they are very rambunctious & may just finish him off. Probably any other chicken breeder would say I'm nuts trying to help Conch, but he's managed to survive thus far, so as far as I'm concerned each day makes him a wee bit stronger. So he has his own shoe box digs, and closer to the warm light to keep him warm as his fluff isn't there to insulate him - being careful of course not to cook him either! The picture makes him look a bit frail, but he isn't as frail as that suggests - least I hope not!

More Chicks.

It's been very exciting today.
Last night when I went to bed we had 2 chicks with a couple more trying to get out of the shell, this morning we had 6! It was hard leaving the excitement to go to work.
Now we have 12 chicks which is 200% increase on our current flock of Americauna chickens.
There are still a few more eggs that look as if they may hatch - it takes hours for them to come out of the shell! I saw one this morning just before leaving for work actually come out of the shell,I was thrilled!
Once they have dried & become fluffy we put them in a box with a heat light over them to keep them warm. That's why the picture you see has a red glow.
I hope you can feel my excitement as you read this! It may just be chickens to some but to me & Phil it is new life and whether you are a chicken, lion or human it remains special!

It's a momentous day

Happy Birthday Hannah!
You now share your birthday with some chickens. I don't know how many, as I have to get to bed before midnight as I am working tomorrow, and it takes these poor chicks so long to break through the egg, it's agonizing watching them!
I was sitting at the computer this morning & I could hear chirping. My first thought was we had starlings nesting in the eaves, but reality told me this wasn't possible as we had made the eaves secure. Guinness heard the chirping too, so I wasn't making it up. I Googled to see if it was possible to hear chicks from inside the egg & apparently one can - And I did! 10 hours later, there we have it!
I don't know when these 2 little guys broke free but they are beginning to dry & fluff a little, they stumble around for a bit, then seem to nap & then stumble more.
I have to get to bed, will see them early tomorrow - you can bet on that
This is new life - it's amazing!

This is the start of the next 3 weeks!
Sounds a silly thing to say, but thats how long it takes to incubate a chicken.
I put 26 eggs in the incubator yesterday, so I'm hoping we have some sort of success. we have followed the guidelines meticulously so only time will tell. So tonight, if I go by the chart, the brains & eyes will be forming of our new family!
We had to separate the Dominique roosters, one of them was literally shitting in the nest thus the hen didn't want to lay her egg there. Not a nice rooster, so we have put the Dom. girls in with the nice guy and all seems more placid there. we will collect their eggs after this hatch

So, the problem I have at the moment is a deteriorating right hand. the osteo in my joints is making bending my fingers a struggle, but I refuse to let it rule! I keep forcing them to bend and after a while they get more flexible, but just as easily they stiffen up. It's hateful that I can no longer grip things, when I used to have such a strong grip. I continue to make bread and do my crafts as a means of exercise to keep my hands supple. My left hand isn't as useless as my right, but then it doesn't work as much! So expect more hand knits as gifts - see them as treasures, who knows how much longer I'll ba able to do them!
This weekend we started saving our Americauna eggs. We will save them until next weekend then they will be put into the incubator to hatch - blogs will be more prolific during that time!
When I collect the eggs, they have to be washed & cleaned so there is no bacteria on them. Bacateria would be catastophic in the warm incubator. The they get stored in a styrofoam egg carton & every 6-8 hours get tilted so that the white & yolk don't stick to the shell. It's all so crazy, but quite exciting; this is new life we are dealing with!

Another snow day!

We thought spring had sprung, it has been so pleasant with the sun beginning to feel warm, then we wake up this morning to a thick blanket of snow!
It's pleasant soft stuff, so a breeze to move, and the sun is shining brilliantly, so it is all quite lovely, but I was hoping the snow was done for this winter!
Yesterday we put the boys and girls together in our chicken family, in the hope to make the family greater in size. It was quite a challenge as some of the roosters are aggressive & fight. Then they became protective of their girls, and the girls became coy, it was all quite entertaining. We have one rooster who is an 'alien'. He is a breed alone with our flock, so has no girls to go with to perpetuate a breed. I feel quite sorry for him as he didn't get to move or share his life with any of the girls - yet. We'll let him have a moment later in the year.
Now I'm challenged to collect the eggs. As I said, the roosters are protective of their girls so really don't want me in to get the eggs - as if they know why I'm there. And one of them who was quite pleasant, has changed! I tried to feed him & he charged me!
With the snow, they don't go out too much, the girls go out more than the boys - isn't that the way. But then the girls have been able to go out all winter, the boys were nurtured indoors, being protected from the cold. Locking the rooster out while I deal with each pen is my only hope of survival.
I'm hoping to be able to set eggs to hatch in a couple of weeks. we shall see.

Call me lame, but..........

The excitement of the month is chickens!
The incubator arrived in the mail last week and since then I have been studying the methods required to create new chicken life.
With the incubator came a book about 'successful hatching' and that along with my other chicken 'Bible' have been my regular companions. The new chicken book gives a chart on the growth of a chicken throughout the 21 days of incubation.It is truly amazing, and I'm ready to be part of this. Heck, within the first day the head & eye are formed - I'm awed by the wonders of nature!
So, one of the things I learned was I had to feed my chickens 'breeder' food, which is higher in proteins & vitamins than their normal 'layer' food - but finding such stuff around here was the challenge. The only thing I could get was 'Game bird breeder' food, which one of my books tells me is a good alternative! Whew! So now they have that and as they chomp their way to a healthier breeding body, I am learning how to use the incubator & all its little intricacies! I want to be successful with this - I don't want to hurt the eggs/potential chickens.
Watch this space.

Snow again

So, this morning we woke to another dump of snow - the nice soft stuff. The weather forecast is talking about more snow during the week so before we left for church we cleared the drive so we could get out easily without making ruts which in turn make snow clearing difficult. We cleared all the drive & then some. All the time I'm thinking 'craft group Friday'. Trying to get the moved snow out of the way so folks can park easily. By the time we had finished shoveling it was church time & we were still at home - so no church for us today! But the drive is clear ready for the next snow fall. Who needs a gym when snow needs to be moved?
It's not cold today, in fact I hung out the laundry & it should be dry in no time. It's just on freezing - that's telling, 'it's not cold'! But when it's been -15 with further drop due to wind chill a sunny dry day at 0 degrees isn't cold.
I don't get fussed by the snow - I know I'm relatively new to this amount, but this is winter & this is what winter should be like. I'd rather have snow than rain, snow it's way prettier & doesn't soak me. Especially when I'm working.

Valentines Day

Yesterday we had our crafting group here, I was worried about the ice & snow, not wanting anyone to fall & damage themselves. The ice that had formed earlier in the week got covered by more snow on Thursday night. The snow seemed to hold some warmth against the ice so as the day progressed the ice was breaking down where it was thin enough. The ice didn't seem as slippery as I expected it would with the snow on it. Luckily!
One of the group has asked me to bake her mother a birthday cake, a Battenburg cake, so I experimented with the cake base yesterday & it worked well, now I have to experiment with the almond paste. I left the cake for the group to eat as I didn't want to be tempted by it, so it was all eaten - that was a good sign. Battenburg cake was new to them, so I'm introducing them to new things. We had a day class here & I made lunch and made them lentil soup which again seemed to be seen rarely. Yet I have it most of the time. Here the staple soup is seafood chowder.
But today we are back in blizzard mode. As I look out of the window here at my desk, the snow is blowing straight across, not coming down. It's cold outside too, there is a wind chill which drops the -4 to much lower. I know lots of folks have ot much colder than that, but that is cold enough. So many people we meet are ready to get rid of the winter, but there is at least another 5 or 6 weeks to go, then spring will suddenly arrive and bring all the early flowers, it is so worth the wait.

Wednesday 11th

It seems that the ice is to be melted! Hurray for that, where I enjoy the snow, the ice is quite deadly. Almost every drive I've been to is like glass despite what owners have done. They try to melt it then over night it freezes again; but we are in for some respite for the next couple of days.
We are lucky here, the roads are kept in good condition. it seems that every or any where one lives there is always some reason to complain about something, and if we could look above that there is always something to be content about too. Here it has recently become the cost of groceries - they seem to be more expensive here than else where. Where I can't necessarily agree with that, I have to say the price of milk is crazy. Here we can get 4 liters of pop for less then $2, yet to buy that much milk would do big damage to $8! Yes, that is expensive and for families struggling to give kids milk at that price it is easier to give them pop with all the consequences that brings. But then we can get on the roads without a struggle, because they are dealt with promptly & adequately.
Similarly, when we had power lines down due to high winds there were the complaints that the lines took so long to fix. Y'know, the folks that fix power lines usually have to do that job in conditions we don't want to go out in, yet there they are up in cherry pickers working with high voltage wires so we can watch tv! The power workers don't get praised for fixing the lines, usually beefed at for being slow.
And that's my rant for today.

It's much milder today and much of our lovely snow has gone. Where tracks were it is quite slippery as they are icy with the packed snow, and wet on top, not a sunny, happy day like yesterday. More a somber, serious one.

our deep snow!

February 6th 2009

Yesterday I had to work. It had snowed again in the night but the snow was very light, so the couple of centimeters that fell was easily moved. Because we had taken the car out for groceries the day before I was confident the car could leave the property today. When I left it was still snowing. That's the third day of snow! We didn't get this amount all at once last year, and the texture of this snow is so soft. It's like icing sugar. Because of the huge amount of snow we have everywhere looks so pretty, so I took my camera with me to work.
The roads were pretty good, we are lucky that the roads are kept so clear. we even get our road plowed and we are the only ones living on it! The side roads were less clear but they sand rather than salt those roads because the houses have dug wells close to the roads and the salt may affect the water supply. But I wasn't in any hurry, and I had a full day ahead of me.
After I had done my first patient the sun started to shine. We haven't seen that for a few days! Now everything looked spectacular and I was glad I had my camera. I passed a field of horses eating hay, and it looked so rustic, but I had nowhere to stop and I had a tractor bearing down on me, so that photograph is in my memory. But I did get some shots of the Bangor saw mill & the Meteghan river which looked good. I wanted to get some of the big churches on the French Coast but by the time I had got that far up the road it was getting later and the sun was tired of shining to much. Another day.

February 4th

It started to snow yesterday around 9am and continued snowing all day & night. The wind picked up around 3pm and so the snow started to drift. This morning when I got up there were drifts about 3 ft high and sparse parts where there was very little snow. I was supposed to be working today, but there I was in my snow shoes assessing the possibility of getting off the property - work wasn't happening today; today was a snow day! I love them. It reminds me of when I was at school and we couldn't get there because of the snow, I don't have to work.
I did, however, have to deal with the snow. Where do you put the snow that is in the way. The snow that was a high drift & was blocking the way out of the garage? I made paths using the routes of least resistance from the house to the garage and to the chicken house. These paths resemble bob sleigh runs as they have the high snow banks. Chloe, our border collie puppy thinks they are fun because as she runs along them she can't see over the edges. She's fun to watch.
The chickens were not too impressed with the overnight blizzard. At some time their door had blown open and snow had blown in and had become the new chicken litter. The girls were quite stressed by this & wouldn't come forward as they normally do when I go in. Instead the cowered in the corner looking at the snow on the floor. I had to clear snow from the floor & their feeder. Don't expect we'll get many eggs today!
The snow plow came and cleared our road, but they never come through the gate so we have to clear snow along the drive to the gate. Hannah thought it would be a good idea if Phil used the Titan to make tracks so squash the snow and making it easier to clear. He did that but even the Titan found it a struggle with the deep snow. We can now get out of the property, though I was in no hurry to do so, but Hannah was. We really are not the company she wants so as soon as she could she dashed off, promising to call when she got to wherever she is going!

January 27th 2009

Well, it's snowing again, I'm not sure how much we are supposed to get but it doesn't matter much as we aren't going anywhere. It always looks so pretty when the snow is on the ground, cold but pretty.
The snow also allowed me to see what it was that Guinness was chasing today. Normally when he goes out, he'll sniff the air to see what is out there, then chase off and we rarely see what he is chasing - if anything. If it's deer we see the white tails or in the dark we may hear their hoofs. Today it was a fox he was chasing. I saw it clearly against the snow on the ground. We don't like foxes on the property as we have lost ducks to them, the same with coyotes. And as we have chickens we don't want to lose them to the foxes. The ducks were silly & wouldn't go in to their house at night despite valiant attempts on our part. we would get them to the door then they would fly off. We found that they couldn't fly far and worse still the couldn't see very well in the dark. So there they were, sitting ducks, now they are gone. The chickens on the other hand have a run they stay in and it has predator wire around the perimeter, but we are well aware that if a fox or other predator wanted at them they would manage to get in, thus we shut the chickens in their house at night. They have enough sense in their little heads to come in! So it is with appreciation that we watch Guinness chase the fox from the chicken proximity! Good old Guinness!

January 25 2009

It's Sunday afternoon, it's snowing and pretty cold outside. I am challenging myself to learn new things this year and this is my first challenge! A great opportunity on a cold, snowy Sunday.
As I sit at my computer I look out onto one of our fields where last night 11 deer were grazing on the grass. I know not every one loves looking at deer, but we look upon them as offering them a safe haven as we don't allow hunting on our property. There may be the day when we would like a deer in the freezer, but currently we like looking at them. Guinness, our dog, likes chasing them, but when it's this cold we let them get some grass before Guinness has to go out. There isn't much food out there for them.
We get a lot of wild life here, earlier in the week we think we saw a bobcat. We haven't seen one of those before, but Guinness was curious all day about strange scents outside & was barking in every direction. He likes the wild life to know he is Alpha, and that he will chase though he is gentle. He's pretty swift when he gets going. He protects the property- when he is out, and he does prefer to be outside, but when its this cold he needs to be indoors otherwise we'll find him frozen to the ground! He loves lying on the snow or making snow dog angels!