I think this hole in the ice is a sign that someone had a bad day.
But someone else didn’t take the warning.
“What do you mean the ice isn’t safe?”
“My foot’s cold… and wet.”
(And just in case you’re worried, the pond is pretty shallow here, so when Bax did actually break through, he was able to climb out without any trouble. Although he was a little miffed that the ground cracked and he ended up wet. I also had him on his long lead so he couldn’t wander too far.)
You’ve read my perspective on mucking out the barn. Now Baxter shares his point of view.
Being a farm dog is a lot of work. The last few weeks, we’ve been cleaning out the barn.
Usually, Matt and Julia don’t let me in the barn.
They say it’s Ralph’s home, and she’s allowed to have her own space no dogs allowed. I don’t know what the big deal is. I don’t chase her too much. And I’m her brother. Aren’t I supposed to bug her?
The first time I came into the barn, it was very interesting. There were so many sniffs. Ralph was there too. And I didn’t bug her at all.
By the third weekend in the barn, I was exhausted.
Ralph was guarding her food dish, so I climbed into her bed. It’s a big pile of straw, but all of the nests are cat-sized. I turned and turned and turned, but I did not fit. I dug around and was able to make a dog-sized nest.
I gotta say. I’m a farm dog. But I’m not a barn dog. That straw was prickly. This is my not impressed face.
Ralph seems to like it for some reason though. She left her food dish and came over to give me dirty looks from the stairs.
Apparently I was still bugging her. My work as a farm dog and as a brother is never done.
Oh, Baxter. You have such a hard life.
Want more Baxter? Check out That Mutt tomorrow where I’m writing about his favourite toy. There’s even a give-away for your own furry friends.
You’ve been hearing about me spreading manure on the garden pretty much all fall. However, this post has been an even longer time coming. In fact, it’s been sitting in my drafts folder since June 2012. Way back then, Matt and I mucked out our first stall.
I was responsible for raking up the old straw.
And Matt was responsible for getting the straw out of the stall and into the field behind the barn.
We just used rakes, rather than bothering to find the pitchforks, and then we piled the old straw behind the barn. This stall became Wiley’s garage.
The previous owners of our property had boarded horses. When they left, they didn’t bother to clean out the stalls.
And this fall, three years later, we still had 14 stalls full of straw and manure.
We also had a brand new vegetable garden that had been super productive. If I wanted to keep it productive, I needed to replenish the soil.
That meant it was finally time to tackle the barn.
It took me about 9 hours spread over three weekends. There were more than a dozen trailer loads of manure, and I don’t even know how many wheelbarrow loads. There were two assistants, Ms. Scratches and Mr. Sunbather, neither of whom gave very much assistance.
There was no way to get the tractor or the trailer into the barn, so I wheeled all of the straw through the barn, up a plank and into the trailer. When the trailer was full, I towed it out to the garden.
I got very proficient at backing up the trailer through this project. It just fit through the gate on the garden.
I usually laugh when people ask me what my workout routine is. I own a farm. That means I work. No need for a gym membership. Here’s my version of a workout video. Repeat that about a 100 more times.
So it only took me three years (or really three weekends once I got started), but finally the stalls are clean.
Now to find a new workout…
Have you ever had to muck out stalls? Any tips to make it easier? (Not that I’m planning on doing it again). What’s a project that you’ve had hanging around for awhile?
I’m starting off the week with a post from Sarah in Illinois. Today, she’s introducing us to her two dogs. You all know how much I love our Baxter, so I’m very happy to get to know Sarah’s two furry fellows.
I have really struggled with coming up with something to write about this week. I feel like we are in the eye of the storm here. The hustle and bustle of harvest is over. Steve comes home at regular hours again since all the crops are in, and he has all of his ground work done. But I am fully aware of how busy we will be in just a couple weeks. Between both of our families, my work party and the kids’ schedules we will have something to do every weekend in December.
This weekend we took advantage of the fact that we still have great weather here. We mowed the yard for the last time, brought in all outdoor decor, the grill and garden hoses so they don’t get damaged when it starts to freeze. We even hung Christmas lights on the house. However we won’t light them for a couple weeks.
I don’t want to rush the holidays at all, so we are just relaxing and enjoying the calm. Of course, that doesn’t make a very interesting blog post. When I said aloud that I didn’t know what to write, Steve’s daughter said that I should write about our pets. So this week I will introduce our dogs.
Brody
Brody is Steve’s 10 year old chocolate lab. Brody has a very interesting background. He is retired from the US Air Force! We don’t know a lot about his time in the Armed Forces, but we know he was stationed in Alaska.
Brody has multiple health issues, and it makes us wonder what he has seen and what type of things he has been exposed to. About two years ago he started losing his eyesight and he is now completely blind. But that doesn’t stop him from getting around the house and finding his chew toy to bring to us.
He is very talkative. I think because he is blind he struggles with not knowing exactly where we are sometimes and he “yells” at us, which is a harsh bark. We laugh because he doesn’t seem to need anything; I think he just wants to know where we are.
Treu
Treu is my 12 year old German Shepherd. I got Treu when he was 6 weeks old. He is an outside dog, but there were many times when I lived alone that I would bring him in with me to keep me company or to make me feel safe.
When we moved in with Steve, Treu got a really expansive pen with shade trees and access to his own section of a barn. Besides his foam bed and heated water bowl he has a “deck” that Steve built and he spends a lot of time laying out on it.
And of course any time we are out in the yard where we can watch him, he has free reign.
Treu is starting to show some hip problems that are slowing him down. However, I don’t think he knows that his hips are failing. He still tries to run and chase the cats. It’s just his legs don’t always get the message.
Both of our dogs are getting up there in age. We joke about how high maintenance they are. We are constantly buying special food, medicine, supplements, and vet visits. But they are a part of our family. They are waiting on us when we get home with smiling faces and a wagging tail. And we treasure every moment that we have with them.
I know exactly where you’re coming from, Sarah. I can tell Brody and Treu are well-loved. Brody’s history is so neat. I had no idea you could adopt a dog after his tour of duty.
As cute as the pumpkins were on the fireplace mantel, I had a different idea for Hallowe’en decorations.
It’s a little bit haunted forest with all of the twisty branches.
And it’s a lot haunted forest with my collection of skulls.
I had the idea for a little while, but it really came together when Matt’s Mom brought home these silver candlesticks for me. They used to be Matt’s grandmother’s (the same grandma that had the piano). Their tarnished finish was perfect (although I’m sure not up to Mama’s standards–and I’m sure she never thought they’d be displayed with skulls either).
It looks extra spooky with the candles lit (although it doesn’t translate in pictures very well).
Happy Hallowe’en, everybody.
How are you celebrating? Have you decorated for Hallowe’en? What’s your preferred Hallowe’en style: spooky ghouls or cute pumpkins? Does anyone else have a creepy collection?
I’m a little bit geeky when it comes to my birdfeeder. When I first built it, I was super disappointed that it took a whole month for the birds to find the feeder. But when they finally did, I spent a lot of time watching them through the dining room window. And the novelty hasn’t worn off yet. It’s become a winter tradition for me.
This year, I wanted to make installing the birdfeeder just a little bit easier. Unscrewing the feeder from its base and hammering the pole into the ground was a bit too much effort–and we ended up breaking one of the brackets off the post last year.
Not the best approach. So the post went to my cousin’s for repair, and I went to work.
I found a length of pipe–because we just happen to have things like that lying around here–and cut a 16 inch section.
Then, I used a very narrow shovel–since we don’t have a posthole digger lying around–to dig a 16 inch deep hole.
The object of the game was to have the top of the pipe level with the ground so that the lawnmower can drive right over it.
I carefully backfilled around the pipe (not in the pipe), and then my sidekick inspected to make sure everything was as it should be.
When the repaired birdfeeder post returned to the farm, I slid it into the sleeve–perfect fit.
I screwed the feeder into place, stocked it up with seed and waited for customers.
This year, it took just a couple of days for the birds to find the feeder. The chickadees were first as usual. I’ve also seen juncos, a woodpecker and a pair of blue jays (small consolation for not seeing the other Jays now that they’ve been knocked out of the baseball playoffs 😦 ).
Who else enjoys bird watching? Do you have a feeder at your house? What birds do you see in your neighbourhood?
Everyone who guessed last week got it right. Our new addition at the farm is our birdbath.
As usual, when it came to my birthday last month, my wishlist was pretty short–as in there was only one thing on it. This year, what I wanted most was a top for the birdbath.
The base has been here at the farm all along, but we’ve not seen any sign of the top. It probably broke sometime ago, so we resigned ourselves to having a new top made.
A house down the road has a sign out front for pre-casting and a yard full of concrete animals, fountains and birdbaths. They said yes, they could cast us a basin.
I picked out a design that I liked and that I thought would work well with the base. About a week later, they delivered the birdbath (delivery was so helpful, as it weighs about 3 tonnes).
It’s obviously the end of birdbath season here in Canada. So we’ll be tucking this away for a few months, and I’ll be getting my morning bird-watching fix from the birdfeeder.
Nonetheless, I’m thrilled to finally have a complete birdbath. Thank you, Matt!
Do you have a birdbath at your house? Have you ever had anything cast in concrete?
Birthday presents previously:
The other weekend, while working outside, I felt a tickle on the back of my neck. I craned my head around and managed to catch a glimpse of the tickler: a praying mantis.
Because of course. Out of all of the vegetation available on the farm, why wouldn’t you land on the human?
I think praying mantises (plural?) are really neat insects. Sightings are relatively rare, so I’m always happy to see one.
Eventually, it flew into the garden where the camouflage was much better. Just look at how it blends in with this lily. The brown and yellow and green tones are so similar.
Nature’s pretty cool.
What insects and animals are you seeing around your house? Who else likes praying mantises? What’s the best example of camouflage you’ve observed?
Baxter turned 5 on Saturday.
We gave him our best helicopter tail. (This video isn’t quite the best example, but it gives you an idea of his very special wiggles and wags).
We went for a hike with his furry friends.
He got lots of scratches from cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas.
And we didn’t laugh at him too much when he got ice cream in his eyebrows.
Happy birthday to our best dude.
The meadow behind the barn has popped out in a mass of wild flowers.
Baxter and I enjoy walking the path that Matt keeps mowed around the edge of the field. With the flowers blooming, the air is filled with the sound of buzzing bees.
Now if only we could find their honey… I love comb honey.
Matt and I have talked about adding hives to the farm. That’s definitely a someday project though. For now I’ll enjoy the fields and the flowers and the bees and the wonderful walks.
Do you have wildflowers blooming at your place? What’s your favourite walk in your neighbourhood? Do you have bees flying around? Who else is a honey fan?
Home on 129 Acres 