In honour of Hallowe’en, Baxter wants to show you his tricks.
Dude does love his treats.
Happy Hallowe’en from Baxter (and Matt and me). Haaaaaa-woooooo! (That was a howl).
What tricks does your dog know? Any suggestions of what tricks Baxter should learn? Any training tips to share?
Check out last year’s Hallowe’en post, our Drac-o-Lantern, here.
It’s been awhile since I’ve shared a treasure post, and I wore one of my most precious treasures the other week, so I was inspired to write about it.
This is my charm bracelet.
It was a gift from my grandmother when I was young. She had two charm bracelets herself: one gold and one silver. I remember them as being loaded with charms and full of memories. My ambition is to create the same with my bracelet. Over the years, I’ve slowly added to it, always looking for opportunities to remember a special trip or a momentous occasion with a charm. Friends and family know that I collect charms, so they also give them to me every so often. Every link now has one charm, and a few have two.
I can tell you where each charm came from and who gave it to me. It started as a memory of my grandmother, but it has become so much more… so many people and places that have been special in my life.
Just in case I ever forget–or on the off chance you’re curious what everything is–I’m including the list here. Bottom row left to right: teddy bear charm from my friend Catherine, bag piper from Halifax, Nova Scotia, green stone bear from Jasper National Park in Alberta, Hershey kiss from a visit to the Hershey factory during a family trip, heart locket (my very first charm given to me by my grandmother when she gave me the bracelet), goose from my mother, maple leaf from myself, thimble to symbolize my love of sewing, Cupid given to me by my grandmother one Valentine’s Day, coin from Matt’s and my trip to Cuba, good luck symbol from my friend Catherine’s trip to Mexico, 20th birthday (and the year 2000) charm from my aunt, amethyst from my Dad and sister from a school camping trip to Sudbury, knitting needles and a ball of wool to symbolize my love of knitting, green stone totem pole from Jasper National Park, round charm from my university, fairy from my friend Laurie. Along the top, there is a running shoe from my brother Adam to symbolize my love of running, a sapphire (my birthstone) from Matt, and interlinked hearts from my sister’s engagement party.
Over the weekend, I picked up a new charm to add to the bracelet. At my sister’s baby shower, her mother-in-law had charms of baby footprints.
I think this will be a great memento of my newest niece or nephew. This baby will be the first grandchild on my side of the family, so it’s definitely a momentous occasion.
Anyone else have a charm bracelet? Do you collect mementos? How do you remember special times in your life?
I realize I’ve neglected to introduce two very important sidekicks that are always on hand to help us with our projects: Matt’s and my hammers.
Don’t they look like they’re kissing?
Ahem… tough DIY blogger here. Note to self: Do not let people know that you anthropomorphize your tools.
Anyways, these are not just any tools. They are our right hands–literally. And we’re each pretty particular about our hammers (insert “u can’t touch this” joke here).
Mine is on the left. It’s a 16 oz Estwing straight claw that my Dad gave me. It’s the hammer that he’s always used, and when I started working with him, it’s the one I used too.
Matt’s is on the right. It too is a family heirloom from his grandfather.
Now, I’m not trying to knock Matt’s grandfather (and you’ll see later why his is a very special hammer), but I do want to explain why my Estwing is superior. (I’m sure most guys appreciate it when their wives explain how they’re superior).
Take a look at the head on Matt’s hammer. Notice the gap below the head where it joins the wooden handle? You can see that the head has slid off the shaft just a little bit. Over time, the wood shrinks and the head shifts, and eventually the hammer can come apart.
The other drawback of this hammer, in my opinion, is the curved claw.
Let’s take a look at my hammer for comparison. Obviously, the hammer and the handle are all one solid piece of steel. They’re not going to come apart any time soon. (Please note that the duct tape is not structural. It’s simply my Dad’s labeling method so that we can tell whose hammer is whose). The handle is wrapped in a rubber sleeve that helps with grip as well as shock absorption.
My favourite part of this hammer is the straight claw. Yeah, a curved claw gives you more leverage, but you’re severely limited on where you can use it. Hammering in a tight corner and bend the nail? You can contort that hammer many different ways, but you may not be able to get the claw on the nail to pull it out. Trying to pry two pieces of wood apart? The straight claw will slide in, just like a wrecking bar. Good luck doing that with the curved claw.
Wooden handle and curved claw aside, Matt’s hammer does have one very special feature. His grandfather’s initials are carved into the head. In fact, Matt doesn’t even call this a hammer. He says instead, “I need TVP.”
And now we’re back to anthropomorphizing our tools.
Let’s draw this post to a close, shall we?
I’ll leave the final sign off to MC. (I know dude is known for his pants, but holy bicycle shorts, hammer man! I’d forgotten about those.) Break it down.
I guess I should add the usual blogger disclaimer here. Estwing has no idea who I am. This post is just my opinion. I was not compensated in anyway for this post.
For those that have been following along, the obvious question after last week’s post about Baxter’s baking attempt is why was the dog in the house instead of the dog run? Wasn’t your plan to let him stay outside when you’re not home?
Well, that was the plan, but you may have heard the saying about the best laid plans…
The dog run was not a hit.
We started slowly in the summer, trying to have Baxter spend just a few minutes in the run.
The first time he didn’t even make it a minute. It turned out the gap between the gate and the fence was big enough, and our dog is strong enough that he could push his way out.
I adjusted the hinge, tightened up the screws and closed the gap.
It didn’t work. Bax braced his shoulders and still pushed his way out.
Plan B was a second latch at the bottom of the gate. The result of that was a tunnel.
Look at the happy dog, free at last.
Plan C was a mesh base that Matt and his Dad wired to the fencing along the perimeter of the run.
I buried the mesh in dirt and then covered it all with a layer of wood chips. The result of that was more excavation and another demonstration of Baxter’s strength–this time in his teeth. Look at how he tore the mesh.
Moving on now to plan D. I added patio slabs over the mesh in front of the gate where Baxter most liked to dig.
This worked for a little while and we managed to make it up to about 3 hours in the run at a time.
But as we headed into the fall, neither of Matt nor I was really comfortable leaving Baxter alone in the run all day when we weren’t there. He loves being outside, sniffing all of the smells and watching all of the birds and animals, but he hated the run. We weren’t confident that he’d still be in there when we came home at the end of the day, and, most importantly, we didn’t want to stress him out all day.
We tried leaving him alone in the house, and he seemed to do okay, so we decided to go with that plan.
We did revisit the run on the Day of the Skunk. I’d given him a bath and kept him on his long leash outside all morning, but I had to come up with a better solution when I couldn’t put off going in to work any longer. I chose the run. I took the long leash and snapped it onto the fence just in case, gave him his kong full of kibble and a big dish of water, latched the gate and drove away.
I came home to definitive evidence that the run was a big fat #fail. The mesh was completely torn, the fencing was bent, the rocks that I’d used to fill previous holes were exposed and a new tunnel was dug.
Because of the long leash, the dog was still in the run, but we decided it was for the last time.
Now, Baxter is completely an indoor dog. He spends most of his time snuggled in his bed.
Although he does occasionally take advantage of being home alone to bend the rules.
What do you mean dogs aren’t allowed on the furniture? Matt gets the couch. You have your chair. This one’s mine.
We haven’t tried a crate, and our fingers are crossed that Baxter continues to do okay on his own in the house. If his baking urges return, we do have a separate mudroom where he could spend the day.
Does anyone else have an escape artist dog?
This is our second fall on the farm, yet I feel like I didn’t notice the leaves changing colour this year. This weekend walking around and actually looking around, I was surprised to notice that most of our trees are nearly bare. The colours are gone, and I didn’t even see them.
It feels like time is moving so fast these days. Friday was my last day at work. I’ve spent 11 years at the same organization, starting as a student intern, moving to different departments, trying different things, meeting different people. It was a great place to begin my career. I’ve been very nostalgic this fall as I prepared to leave my job. I have a new job to go to at a different organization, which I’m very excited about, but first I have a two week break.
I’m hoping over the next two weeks to slow down a bit and savour my time at the farm, with family, friends and Baxter, working on my projects, relaxing here and there.
How do you slow down? Any suggestions for how I should spend my two weeks? Any advice for handling a job change?
Baxter was feeling a bit lonely one day last week while we were at work. To show us how much he really cares, he decided he’d bake something for us.
Okay that’s not it. That’s the birthday cake that he helped Matt with last month.
Check out Bax’s solo effort.
He got as far as getting the flour out of the cupboard. Then, unsure what to do next and still feeling a little lonely, he did what most of us do. He turned to comfort food.
In Baxter’s case, that’s chocolate. (If there was any question about whether he’s meant to be our dog, his chocolate obsession has cleared that up).
Fortunately, there were three boxes of instant chocolate pudding powder in the baking cupboard. Snuggling down in his bed–his favourite place to eat his kong–he eased his lonesome heart with powdered sugar and chocolate crystals.
The good news of the day:
That afternoon we arrived home to our usual enthusiastic greeting and an unusually messier house. Matt took our baker for a long walk to work off his sugar high, while I stayed behind to install baby locks on the cupboards.
Baxter seemed to suffer no side effects from his pudding powder binge, although he did have the inevitable sugar crash.
The best news: A week later, the baby locks seem to be working, and Baxter’s baking urges and chocolate cravings seem to be under control.
Does anyone else have a lonely dog? How about a baking dog? Who else’s dog likes foods that are bad for him or eating in bed?
My good friend Catherine and I headed into Toronto a few weeks ago for the Fall Homeshow.
Neither of us knew what to expect, but we’re both enthusiastic about our homes, so we decided it would be a fun way to spend a day together. We decided to go on the Saturday so that we could check out the Property Brothers.
As you can see from the photo, the PB presentation was a mob scene. Soooo many people, Catherine and me included.
Apparently, ’tis the season for me to be dazzled by TV personalities. Just like with Sarah Richardson a few weeks ago, I was impressed by Drew and Jonathan. Their presentation was straight-forward, funny and down to earth. They had a lot of good tips for people about everything from renovating to decorating to financing. I actually really like their show because I’m all about seeing the potential in a place and then working to make it live up to my vision. Plus, I think their designs are usually pretty liveable. BTW, there’s also a little known third property brother whom we also got to see.
Away from the main stage, there were lots of booths and lots of vendors. I had expected more exhibits, but pretty much every booth was someone selling something. Nobody was pushy, but I guess I was just looking for more inspiration than actual products.
There was one particularly inspiring exhibit by Habitat for Humanity where bloggers, handymen and women and other people had all upcycled various items from the ReStore. There was lots of creativity from shelving units to furniture to wine fridges and even a light fixture.
And amongst all of the vendors, there were two that I now covet.
The first was textiles from Andrea Hylton home. She had amazing pillows and blankets in beautiful colours and patterns. There were mellow earth tones, saturated jewel tones and sophisticated fabrics that would work upstairs. There were funky patterns and bright colours that would work in the basement. Can’t you just picture this green mohair throw paired with Strandmon in the basement? I could have bought everything in her booth.
The second booth where I again could have bought everything was artist Beverley Jenkins. She does amazing oil paintings. I love original art, and some day I’d love to have a few pieces of my own. I would have started with the birch forest at right below without any hesitation if only it hadn’t been out of my budget.
The really unique thing about her paintings is how highly textured they are. She sculpts the paint on with palette knives making a three-dimensional canvas. I tried to get a picture of the paint, but I’m not sure it really comes through.
Catherine was the perfect partner to go to the Homeshow with because she’s all about embracing whatever comes. So while the vendors may not have been what we came to see, we got into the spirit, trying out crazy chairs that gave full-body massages, watching cooking demonstrations, having detailed conversations about shower heads with a plumbing vendor, filling out surveys, entering contests and getting our pictures taken in our “dream” room at the Scotiabank booth (mine was the kitchen. Catherine chose a great backyard patio).
All in all, it was a fun day, and I did end up coming home with some inspiration. The best part was getting to spend time with one of my best friends. Catherine just bought her first place this summer, and she’s been busy painting, decorating and making it her own. Check out her blog to see her space.
Who else has made it out to a homeshow recently? Is anyone in the process of decorating a new house? Are there any other Property Brothers fans out there?
Today I am thankful for, in no particular order, pizza, nephews, chainsaws, a wiggly-butt dog, furry-purry puddy-cats, an understanding husband, a generous father-in-law whose usual response to his daughter-in-law’s many requests is “that’s doable,” breakfast, Matt’s shop-vac, my drill, my sander, a brother who traveled more than 1,500 km to be home for Thanksgiving, a sister who drove 200 km, family near and far, traditions, leftover turkey, the farm, sleeping in, chocolate, our dishwasher, weekends–three-day weekends even better, my husband’s defensive driving skills during a close encounter with a deer (he wasn’t injured although the car still isn’t feeling too hot), s’mores, surprise lunches at work with my parents, campfires.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
What are you thankful for?
Fall sunset along the creek.
Our first year as tomato farmers is not turning out so well.
We had a bumper crop of green tomatoes, but rather than ripening our tomatoes are rotting.
We’ve had a couple of frosts and tenderly covered the tomatoes with a tarp to protect them, but our care was apparently unnecessary. The plum tomatoes ripened and remained edible, but the big round tomatoes have become pockmarked with big spots of I-don’t-know-what.
So much for my plans for fabulous flavourful homemade tomato meals.
Anyone have any idea what went wrong?
Home on 129 Acres 