Wednesday, October 25, 2023

 I do not think we will be going on our long eight hour drive each way trip for a memorial service this weekend. Husband has messed up his back and wants to let things heal and calm down, rather than being in a car for that long and standing and sleeping in a spare bed somewhere. I don't blame him and truth be told, I'm rather glad (not about his back...).

I seized the opportunity with this mild weather today to do some cutting back of perennials late this morning. I stop when I have filled my five big "buckets", that way I don't mess up my back.

Here are some pictures of what my neck of the woods looks like right now - still lots of pretty leaves, even with the recent wind and rain.

The above picture is facing south (pool house in background).

The above picture is facing north (neighbouring yard in background).

A couple of you expressed an interest in seeing more chicken pics. Here is one of the whole chicken coop and covered run.

Husband built all of this. The large black container in front of the coop holds a bale of shavings and some oyster shell. I can't store it inside the coop because there isn't quite enough room (and the chickens would just roost and poop on it). 

This is inside the coop. I call this brown chicken "Rover" because she is more like a dog. She always has to be underfoot, wondering what I'm doing (mostly hoping for food). She is old and hasn't laid an egg for about three years. This is a retirement home for chickens.

This girl was in one of the nesting boxes (I get these from Dollarama - sturdy, stackable, and washable). She is a Noiran which comes from the line of Marans (for those of you with poultry knowledge). Her eggs are a lovely dark brown.

Here are some more members of the flock outside in their run. They spend most of their days outside and come in to roost at night. 

This afternoon I am meeting up with a friend with whom I usually go for a long walk when she has Wednesdays off work. I am working tomorrow, teaching in a grade one classroom. I hope you are also enjoying a bit of mild autumn weather wherever you are. 

Regular Life

 The world is crazy enough, so here’s a whole lot of boring old normal:

- I cleaned out the chicken coop today and spread the contents in my vegetable garden to be tilled in for spring.

- Yesterday was Nana’s 86th birthday ( my husband’s mother) and we brought her to our place for supper and watched the Croatia episode of “Somebody Feed Phil” on Netflix. She was born in Zagreb and now has dementia but still has some memories of long ago.

- We drove daughter to a city about an hour away so she could take a train to another city and then finally to Ottawa to see a friend from university. This was her first time doing something like this ( we are very rural and don’t have public transit). The autumn colours were still lovely.

- I finished reading Ann Cleeves new book The Raging Storm and enjoyed it very much. I take books out of the library which is twenty minutes away.

- Why is flea treatment so bloody expensive?? It’s ridiculous.

- I recently discovered the series, Doc Martin. I am now recording both new and older episodes.

- My husband recently did my rear brakes and my parking brake. He does almost all of our vehicular maintenance, being self taught over the years. 

- We are going to a big city about eight hours away for a memorial service/ celebration of life for my husband’s uncle next weekend. Things like this wear me out even if I’m not the one driving. I really am more of a homebody, perhaps even an introvert. 

- This morning I got up earlier than my husband and when I went back upstairs to our bedroom a bit later to get properly dressed ( and he got up), I opened the curtains and looked down at the yard. Within about a minute I saw a red squirrel find a walnut and leap along the rail fence and into the trees with it, a nuthatch hopping head first down our big old spruce tree, and a big cottontail bunny jump up our cement steps to our little front porch. I joked that it was Peter Rabbit coming to ask if we had found his little blue jacket and that husband should go down and open the door for him. He did, but the bunny was gone.

- I made fried eggs, fried mushrooms, and little breakfast sausages ( which I despise but son and husband like) for supper tonight. I’m always looking for ways to use up eggs.

- That’s it. I hope you too have a normal ordinary weekend! 

To My Canadian Friends

 

Whether you are celebrating today or tomorrow, or not at all, I hope you all have a cozy, contented Thanksgiving!

October 5, 2023

 It has been the weather of July lately, but some decidedly October weather is on its way. 

Here is a little autumn chicken picture for you.

I spent a good part of yesterday clearing out my vegetable garden. The girls enjoyed some rutabaga greens.

As well, they received the last dregs of the tomatoes.

They will happily convert all of this into eggs for us. (Except for that brown chicken, she hasn't laid an egg in about three years!)

This is what I salvaged and I'm done, completely done. I don't care if I don't see another tomato for months. The mystery vine turned out to be spaghetti squash (from some that I threw in the compost months earlier). 

I'm not even sure what those squash are like on the inside, hopefully o.k. 

Today we have a technician to come and finalize wiring and set up a proper working internet system in our old house. We recently had an excruciating ten rounds with two providers as we were not happy with losing services and the amount we were paying, only to find out the other provider couldn't even get us internet here. Reliable internet in rural Ontario is still not a given for everyone. We have a choice between two providers. That's it. And neither one is inexpensive or perfect. In order to save some money, we finally dropped our land line. I know, most people who have crawled out of the dinosaur ages have already dropped their land lines ages ago, but change is hard for some (cough husband cough!!). Our problem is due to the physical nature of our home with an addition built on with double brick old walls and a big expanse of metal roof over a car port in between. Our son is in the addition, and in order for him to have a strong enough, fast enough signal, hard wiring has to be put in, and boosters, and other such stuff that I'm not sure I fully understand. Husband and son pulled through some wiring last weekend in order to prepare. 

So how are the other gardeners on here? All done for the season? Anyone else done battle with Bell in rural Canada?