time to work!

My female boxer is pregnant, and I do believe she is in labor now.  She is breathing pretty heavily.  Last night she took much longer than normal to eat her food.  Last breeding was a loss for us, since she only had one puppy and we have to give away to the owner of the male, but this time, their is definitely more puppies in there.  At this point?  I can see them moving around in there.  Lumps and bumps are appearing everywhere.
Ho the memories of my labors!  I hope everything goes well, and I can't wait to see those little potatoes popping out of there.  They will be loved and loved some more by everyone around.

.....fresh from the farm

H1N1

We've all heard about this form of influenza going around the world, and putting a scare into everyone.  We've heard from opposites sides of this.  Should we, or shouldn't we?  Who's more at risk?  What's the consequences, symptoms, etc.......
I'm a little suspicious of the effectiveness of the vaccine.  It's just went too fast.  What are the long term effects?  It's very hard to make a decision.
I've taken the conscience decision to not get the vaccines for my family and I.  I hope I'm doing the right thing.  But only time will tell.  We will take every precaution to keep this virus away.  but trying to teach 2 and 3 year old's the proper way to wash your hands, to cough, and not to share stuff with other kids is hard.  But with constant supervision, we will do it.
What's your take on the H1N1?  Will you get the vaccines for your family and yourselves?  Feel free to post your comments.

busy days

The weather is changing rather quickly.  Frost over the weekend,  DH putting on his long-johns, Canadian geese flying over head, got to get a move on and get our winter organized.
We finally have a bit of firewood, thanks to good friend that give a hand unselfishly.  #0+cm of snow fell in BC yesterday, so we have to know it's coming our way.
DH was a brave one yesterday, he decided to get on the big mare were keeping.  He looked so funny and so small on top of her.  But she behaved gently, like the gentle giant she is.
I'm a little tired from the weekend, waking up every three hours to feed Salvat is a demanding job, but so rewarding.  It melts my heart when i hear the little purring coming from him when his little stomach is full.  It's a first time experience for me, and I'm loving it even though it's time consuming.  Hopefully I can make this one into a house cat that will not attack my birds.

fresh from the farm.....

a long journey ahead

I've taken on the task of raising a newborn kitten.  It's going to be quite and adventure, a first for me.  I really do hope to save this little guy.  But I tell you, it's a proud moment when you see him latching onto the bottle, and just sucking away.  Got a long journey ahead of us, starting in two hours from now.  Yep, fed every couple of hours, for THREE weeks.   Ho well!  Que sera, sera!  I will update this post threw out the night, keep track of the progress that Sal's(Salvat means saved in Catalan) doing.

3:22am-  We've had successful feedings all night. Urine and bowel moments.  We are doing good, or so I hope.


UPDATE: 12/10/09  Sal is doing very well!  He's quite the strong little bugger.  When he smells the milk near, he's hard to hold down.  I'm pretty confident in saying, that Sal is saved!


.....fresh from the farm

saving baby kitten

Doune, my female cat has had her share of ups and downs with her litters.  Always one that dies, is not normal,or all but one of them don't make it.  One litter, seven kittens, one alive.  Let's just say that turned out to be one fat cat.  She's always had her litters in the house, except this last one.  She spends the night inside, and goes out during the day.  But three days ago, she didn't come in for the night.  I found her the next morning, all skinny.  She'd had her babies during the night, outside somewhere.  Guess i was going to become a cat stalker.  We are just about ready to go to the store, when we hear whimpers coming from the basement.  Seven baby kittens!!!  One was not alive, so that left us with six.
For some reason, my female just won't take care of them.  On the first day, she managed to sneak out of the house early afternoon, and was nowhere to be found.  We called and called her all evening.  She finally showed up at around midnight when i got home, only to find her kittens very weak and freezing.  I rushed them into the house, placed them on the furnace grill trying to get heat to them. For some unknown reason, she just doesn't want to care for these little guys.  Threw out the night, I lost five of them.  Only one of them is still alive, and I'm going to fight for him with everything I have.  Rushed to the pet store this morning, got replacement milk and little feeding bottle.
What a joy to finally see the little tongue stick to that nipple.  What a hungry little guy.
So far, he's doing great.  Only have to get a bowel movement for today out of him, and we're all set.
It'll be hard work, feeding every two hours for three weeks, but it's all worth it if i get a cute little kitten to live in the process, will keep you updated.
Now all I need is a name for the little guy!

fresh from the farm......

Newest members

 

 We've been pretty busy getting things organized around here for the cold months.  So much to do to keep all those beasts warm.  We are starting to be known in the region as "the people that will take your unwanted animals".  To some extent, we love helping out people, and we love even more helping out animals in need.  We would never turn our back on any animal that needs shelter and food.

We have two new members to our animal family.

A beautiful baby belted galloway heifer that we name, or I should say, Audrey named, Ice.  The owner found her half way out of her mother, with the mom too weak to keep pushing her out.  So he helped the little one finish it's course into this world, as he slowly watched the mom leave.  He took it upon himself to bottle feed this little creature, and loving it completely.  It became man's best friend pretty quickly.   And let's just say that both my daughters fell madly in love with Ice from the fist second they saw her.  They can walk her around the yard on a leash just like our dogs lol.

Second newcomer is a two and a half percheron mare.  She is a giant, but a gentle one.  You cannot walk into the paddock without being invaded by her.  She will follow you everywhere.  We were a bit intimidated by her size when we first saw her, but we are slowly getting used to her.  She is so gentle and careful, that you can't help but want to cuddle her.  And she loves to give us kisses.

Well, it's time again to go back to my chores.  Gotta get everything ready for everyone to have a comfortable winter, including us.

fresh from the farm........

fall is here!

You know fall is here when:

-the leaves are changing color in our maple trees, and falling to the ground.
-you take out the hats for the little ones, and you make sure their ears are covered.
-you here the distinct quack of our Canadian geese making their way south for the winter.
-the hens,ducks and geese want in the barn before supper is served.
-the soy plants in the field are all turning yellow and are just about ready to crop.
-when helicopters start flying lower and lower, scanning the corn fields for the beloved "weed plantations".
-the dogs sleep in later and later every morning.
-you suddenly have the urge to pick everything from your garden and can them.
-you suddenly have the urge to take your knitting basket out and knit something.
-When I move my rocking chairs from my porch back into my kitchen.

and last and foremost, you know fall is here when:

Your DH asks you where his long-johns are at!!!!


So, fall is DEFINITELY here!

.....fresh from the farm

Another project almost done!

Having such a large yard, with so many buildings, their is always something that needs fixing or other.  We don't seem to have enough time on our hands to do it all, so we take it one step at a time.  One of the attributes that sold us this farm, was the sugar bush and sugar shack. It was a total mess.  Broken glass, tarps flapping in the wind, critters of all kinds getting in there.
We had big plans to move it into the bush, but after considerable deliberation, we decided to keep it close to the house for now.
Made a weekend with friends out of it, built a fire, made food outside, enjoyed the beautiful weather and nice company.
We are trying to do all of this, with as little money as possible, and I think we pulled it off.
We covered it all with old pool thins donated by some good friends(thanks Steph & Sue).

We used old windows we found in the barn, which one was brand new.  Never installed. It's already looking so much better after so many nails hammered in, and so many swear words from hitting ourselves on the thumbs with the hammers.  And we finished it off with slabs of cedar, donated by another good friend(thanks Buck).

But sweat and tears were paid off!  What a beautiful little sugar house we now have.  We'll be able to enjoy spring even more now.

The finished product:

old friends

  You have to love facebook!  It's just awesome finding old friends that you haven't seen or heard from in more than 10 years.  I'm a big nostalgic baby.  I NEVER forget anyone that has crossed my path.  And some people have influenced my life to a great deal, then we've gone our separate ways, but THANK YOU facebook, we have now reconnected.
About 15 years ago, I got into horses.  Started taking lessons from a super coach, met lots of great people.  Started working for this great coach, then went on to work for her parents.  Took care of their stables for the winter while they went away to the nice sunny states.  I met some great people while working and training there.
We tend to forget about friends from the past.  Lives change, people move, circumstances happen.  But their's nothing like the warm feeling you get when you reconnect with those friends after so many years.
Everyone should take a minute and think of all those that influenced your lives, or just did a little something nice for you on the way by, and maybe try to find them, and say "thank you!"

.....fresh from the farm

cultural differences

Cultural differences are a present mind set in our society, and no matter who or how someone tries to change the world, these will always be present. With the anniversary of 9/11, it reminds us of this. But the differences I want to talk about hit closer to home. It's more of a city and country mouse story.
Having lived in both situations, I will pick country over city any day.
My city experience left me stronger for sure, but it didn't mean I liked it. Some city folks think they're so smart, and can handle just about anything. Remember January '98??? Ice storm ring a bell?? I actually lived in Montreal at the time, and it was like living in a war zone. I was one of the lucky ones that lived on the same electrical grid as the hospital, so we were less than 24 hours without power. I remember people being taken out of their homes by rescue workers, cold, hungry and in trouble. You couldn't even go knocking on your neighbors door, because you don't know them, and you make no effort to know them. You could be stuck on the side of the road, your life in jeopardy, and they will step over you as if you were last year's garbage. It's happened to me, and I wasn't impressed.
Now take me out of the city, and drop me back into my country setting, and HAAAAA I can breath. Around here, in '98 they went for more than 24 days in places without power. Communities got together, worked and helped out each other from the comforts of their own homes. One farmer would milk his cows, take down their generators, load them up, and head on down to the neighbors farm to get reconnected and start the milking process over again. Some of us ended up exhausted to the point of collapse because of their kind hearts. Some small towns got together, put up the funds, and rented mega generators that could run the whole village on power. Those who could cook, took dishes to those that couldn't. That is what community life is all about. Helping out each other in time of need, not seeing who can make it out first in line.

Born and raised a country girl, tried to become a city chick, would probably be dead if I stayed there, and came back to my roots pretty quickly.
Not because we don't have access to high speed internet, cable or other services that we are retarded. We might be a bit slower in some areas, but so much more advanced when it counts!
These is my personal experiences and opinions.

.....fresh from the farm

A success for second edition of the Carrière's corn festival

Last Saturday was the second edition of the "Carrière's corn festival". It was a success. We've been telling everyone that we got close to 100 guests, but after sitting down and counting, we are more around the 60 mark! OOooops!
The weather was on our side, it was a beautiful day. It always seems that no matter how prepared we think we are, we forget things. The first year, we forgot a BIG must have, LIGHTS! We didn't get fooled by that this year. This year, We didn't have long enough prongs to get the corn out of the boiling water, that's already been taken care of for next year(thanks to end of season sales). We had our beautiful outhouse that made quite a few people talk. Now that I think about it, I didn't even take a picture of it yet. Gotta get onto that later on.
Little problems with keeping the pig on it's rod, but thanks to a very handy DH, it still worked. We had planned some games for the afternoon, but people showed up later than we expected.(Another change in next year schedule, invite people to come earlier.)
Thanks to my cousin for cooking and serving the pork, and to my crazy sister-in-law for keeping the pig hydrated while cooking by pouring everyone's beer on the roasting pig. Thanks you to all the good friends that put in time and sweat to make this what it was.
Another mistake we made? We were counting on different people for stuff we needed, and we learned not to. Do not depend on anyone, otherwise you might wait for part of the day.
Lot's of old friends, family members showed up, had good food, great company.
Some stayed over for the night in tents, trucks etc.....
The evening was pretty cold, but a bonfire kept things warm enough.
Hopefully next year, more people will come. Remind to add your name to our guest list!!!!!!

.....fresh from the farm

godd time with friends and family

It's once again the time of year for our corn/pig roast. It's in it's second year running. Last year was a complete success, even if we weren't completely organized. But this year we are, or at least more than we were last year.
Nothing like being the host of a get together for family and friends, and have everyone congratulate you on all the good work you've done! A pat on the back is always appreciated.
And thanks to good friends, who offer their time and machinery, to make this place so much better.

They're still is area's that need improvement, but we'll get there in due time.
Last year we received around 70 people. This year, we're looking more into the hundreds. We hope to make it bigger and bigger every year.
Nothing like a nice big gathering of friends and family to catch up on old times. Eat good foods, drink good drinks, and laugh a good laugh!


.....fresh from the farm

berry season all over!

Well, we can almost officially say that berry season is now over! When you say berries, I've got them! or almost! We did have strawberries, but the first year we got Miss Pitchounette(our goat), we let her roam free in the yard, and she ate all of them, plants and all. So we are replanting those next spring.
Nothing like fresh fruits for the kiddies. First thing DD#2 does when going outside? Heads for the raspberry patch. I didn't even get to collect any to make jams, they were being eaten' faster then they were growing. Same with the apples, had to watch them as they would grab them right off the ground, bugs and all, and eat them.
They say the dirtier your kids are, the healthier they will be, immune system will build. Well my kids must be super healthy, cause they sure are dirty!

another milestone

As a mother, I always wanted my daughters to have a something "special" in their lives. DD#1 didn't get attached to anything, blankie, pacifier, teddy....... But DD#2 has a doudou. A small blanket crocheted by my aunt as a gift for her birth. It all started has only in bed.....but now she has started to want it outside of bed, which I denied. But now she has started waking up during the night, asking me to cover her with her doudou. No, she is not cold! She always has on thick pj's, and other blankets cover her. So I try and put a stop to that, with hours of screaming and throwing fits threw out the night, I've had enough!
The doudou is officially gone as of this morning. She will be going down for a nap very shortly. Her first nap without her doudou. Ho! How that will go!

.....fresh from the farm


update: The first night with out her doudou went without a hitch! I explained that she was a big girl, didn't need her doudou anymore, that it was now gone with her pacifiers. She understood! Said it was ok! What a intelligent little girl!

.....fresh from the farm

Proud Mommy

DD#1 's first day of school didn't go as smoothly as I thought. She told me yesterday that when she got off the bus at school, no one knew who she was, what class she belonged in, or where she was supposed to go. Her name didn't appear on any of the class lists.
I had to swallow hard not to cry when she told me that. Bad enough she's going to a new school, when she gets there, she feels like she doesn't belong. How scary is THAT for a six year old little girl, having to fend for herself, in a completely new environment, and having to deal with irresponsible adults.
But I'm so proud of her. She took matters into her own hands, and got things done! Figured out where she had to go, found her class, and said "hello, i'm here!" She said she wasn't even afraid, she knew she would figure it out somehow. That's mommy's little girl!


.....fresh from the farm

the weather is changing

It's cold out there this morning. +4c, everything is covered in white morning dew. The sun is getting up later and later, and setting earlier and earlier.
I love this temperature. Having a long driveway, it's always a nice, quiet walk to take my daughter to the bus. The cool air wakes you right up! Bring along the four dogs, sometimes a cat that just won't stay home, and it gets pretty noisy quickly!
I keep checking one of our maple trees that is the first to have it leaves turn orange. So far, still green, but sure won't be long 'till it turns.
Had to get our sweaters out this morning. Soon it will be jackets, hats and mitts. But it's still officially summer, so let's enjoy it for as long as we can.
I just started collecting veggies from my garden, no time for ground frost now!

.....fresh from the farm

change, for the best?

Threw out life we always have important decisions to make, and the ones concerning our kids' future is always the hard ones to decided. I do believe I made the right choice, but only time will tell.
I have to explain. When DD#1 was just about one year old, I started babysitting an English boy. So DD learned to talk while playing with him, therefor learned to talk English first, even though we are completely french.
So we decided to play off on that, and send her to English school, thinking that the french she would get at home, plus the french learned at school, would be more than enough to hold her threw life. We were wrong! Her french is just horrible. Her two year old sister can speak french better than her.
She came to me one day, and told me "Mom, I think I was born in the wrong family!" It broke my heart that my kid is thinking this, but ho why???? "Because I don't speak like you do!" That made my decision easy, she is now entering french school.
I had to do it for the first grade, otherwise she would've been too far behind to catch up.
Kids are very resilient, she will be making new friends on the first day there, plus she already has three friends that attend that school.
And the good thing about french public schools????? We don't have to buy any school supplies. Right up to the pencil case. They only need school bag, lunch box and a pair of inside shoes, how cool is that!!!!!

.....fresh from the farm

good friends...

In time of need, you realize who your good and real friends are. Weather it be for a ride, help around the house, or just a shoulder to cry on.
Having so much to do here, we tend to ask friends for help. But nothing worse than having a friend say they will do something, only to find out they're a no-show! While others offer their help without even you having to ask for it!
I started this blog because of a friend. I've never blogged before, and i started reading hers, and figured it would be a cool way to keep everyone in touch with our life, and to keep souvenirs of all our event.
I want to take the opportunity to thank my friend for introducing me to blogging. Even though i made serious mistakes in our past relationship, she found it in her heart to forgive me, and i learned the most valuable lesson of my life, "do not betray friends". She's had more than her fair share of hardship in her life, but she as always managed to pull threw, coming out stronger than ever. She's an inspiration to all that know her.
I wish this DF everything she's ever wanted in life, and so much more.

a summer evening at it's best!

Sunny, with a few clouds, 25 degrees, DH, DDs, and myslef! What a perfect summer day!
We are now 2 weeks away from our annual "corn festival"(the event proudly named By DD#1),
and we are getting ready. It's mostly all cleaning of the grounds that is left to do. Final coat of paint goes in the outhouse today.
I spent part of the day pulling out weeds from my garden. I let it go for a while, and now it's overgrown,oops! But I did collect my first vegetable, a red pepper! Ho what to cook with it???
Then I got on the lawn tractor, and got rollin'. The kids were well behaved, always staying within eye sight.
DD#1 figured out how to get herself swinging from a stand still on our swing set. The sun was setting behind the trees, DH was picking up branches, building our fire pit wood for our bonfire.
It was a perfect picture of a perfect family.
It's too bad that we're already mid august. School starts in 3 days. Will mean having to go into the house earlier, but back to the routine of life!


.....fresh from the farm

tried, tested and true!

A mother's patience is the grandest thing that exists, or at least mine is.
DD#2 sure tried it last night! She's been waking up during the night lately for no apparent reason, other than wanting her doudou. So I finally had enough last night, and didn't go see her. HO WELL! That didn't go to well for her.
She started crying, and grew into a total tantrum. After putting her back in her bed too many times, I proceeded to place a gate in her doorway. Low and behold, it's the end of the world.......
Tantrum grew into hysterics, screaming, cryings, gagging, choking etc.....
But I held on, barely, to dear life, wanting to just go and put her back into her bed and tell her it was all OK, and to go to sleep, but it would never end!
Almost two hours later, she finally gave up! Went to bed.
Mommy gave a BIG sigh of relief, and fell asleep too.
Round one went to mommy, what will tonight bring????


.....fresh from the farm

Introducing Tubby

Tubby was the first member of our pet family. He basically got here pretty much at the same time as the relationship started between DH and I, 11 years ago.
Tubby is a lab/husky mix. He is now 11 years old, and still going on strong. He's the best dog anyone could every have. Never in your way, requires a small amount of attention. As long as DH is around, Tubby is happy. Remove DH, Tubby is NOT happy! He's spent days upstairs in our bedroom, waiting faithfully for the return of his master.
Tubby "tolerates" me. He does what I ask of him because he's got nothing else better to do,lol. He loves winters, snow, and swimming in our pond during the summer months.
Is favorite thing? Riding in the back of DH's truck.
Tubby's been to a lot of places, and met a lot of people.


.....fresh from the farm

Corn festival preperations

It's that time of year once again. Time to prepare our annual(in it's second year), corn festival. We've learned from our mistakes of last year, so we're a little more prepared this time around.
We pulled out this old outhouse from behind our shed. We figure it's the original outhouse, 1916. It's the cutest thing ever! It used to be a two seater, but we're converting it to a real, working toilet. There was a drawer that came out the back, so you could get rid of the waste, and we found an old vodka, some other liquor and beer bottle. Somebody was hiding their drinking.
DH got his tools out, and got it to stand up straight on it's own, and got everything ready to install the toilet. But doesn't DD#1 tell her little friends to do their business in the whole!!!!! It's not installed yet!!!!! lol, kids!
I finally got to painting the inside, with DH telling me it's a water based paint , so it washes off your hand with water. IT DOESN'T!
Now both hands are almost completely covered with white paint. Thank you DH!

......fresh from the farm

Coincidence or meant to be?

It just seems like life is full of coincidences, or you can believe in "meant to be!" if you prefer. I've known my husband since I was 13 years old. He was my brother's roommate, and I was his then almost 2 year old daughter's occasional babysitter. We lost contact a few years later, never even crossed paths even though we always lived less than 10km from each other.
We found each other again, 15 years later, over 1000kms away, amonst tens of thousands of people. Our tents were set up right next to each other.
Coincidence or meant to be?
We fell in love, and have been ever since.
In 2005, on a Sunday afternoon, our next door neighbor informed us that his sister wanted to buy our house, which wasn't even for sale. Half an hour later, our house is sold, and we are moving out in less than two weeks.
Coincidence or meant to be?
A friend puts us in contact with some people that own property, not for sale, but thinking about selling. We clicked, signed some papers, and took ownership of our dream property on September first, 2006.
Coincidence, or meant to be?
The same day we are moving in, I find out I am now pregnant we DD #2.
Coincidence, or meant to be?
I now believe in meant to be, or better known as "faith", do you?


.....fresh from the farm

death of a family pet

We sure get attached to all these little and not so little creatures that become our pets. Ranging from a small pond snail to a horse, they are all cared for and loved equally.
Our beloved beta fish, Pretty Pink Purple passed away yesterday. She'd been with us since January, a birthday present for DD. Let's just say tears were flowing last night from poor DD. She cherished feeding times, watching her fish come up and eat right out of her fingers.
It's always hard to explain to a six year old the reason why her pet fish had to die. But she is reassured that PPP is now with Grampa in heaven, enjoying the biggest aquarium a fishy can imagine.


.....fresh from the farm

the joys of country living

We moved out to the country, on our lovely piece of land, almost three years ago now. It was the best thing that could happen to us and our DD. Nothing like being able to let the kids go play outside without worries of roads, cars, strangers and all other dangers lurking out there.
I remember spending all of my childhood outdoors. We didn't have satellite tv, game consoles and such. We spent our days playing cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers, riding our bikes or playing hide and seek. And that is how my DDs are spending their childhoods too. Surrounded by all kinds of animals and creatures.
A once ladybug terrified two year old daughter, is now an avid bug collector.
They say dirty kids are healthy kids, well, mine must be really healthy,lol.
Having a private daycare on the farm is a lot of fun. Some people are turned off and go elsewhere because of all my animals, but what a better way to end a day then to bring in the baby ducklings and geese, while trying to avoid getting boinked by Pitchounette the goat.


........fresh from the farm!