July 21, 1994 - Dec 7, 2012

It is with a very sad heart I am telling you that our dear Beth went to kitty heaven. 
She had once again started to become very sick and after being treated more than 5 times this year for kidney failure we felt it was time.

She had a very full and cuddly life.  She caught many mice, rabbits, birds, was very cunning as she survived 18 and a half years without getting caught by a coyote!
Our average here on the farm is a cat living 5 years maximum.  Being an outdoor as well as indoor cat she did extremely well.

She is greatly missed.  In the last few years she never missed a beat when I sat down anywhere at any time.. she was always on my lap within seconds.  She always slept on my bed, right beside me and would not let other cats near me - that was her space.  She even took up issue with Karl when he would try to get close. 

Kidney failure is not a fun disease.  She was becoming quite toxic with it and I didn't want to wait until she started having seizures.   It didn't matter how much she ate or drank she still remained dehydrated and was losing weight.... she was less than 6 pounds...

Dixie misses her too - Dixie is a chatty cat but for the past few days she was lethargic and wouldn't 'chat' when I talked to her.  She seems to be coming out of her shell now.  She just informed me that it is bedtime... so I better get going.

Sorry no pictures.  Still having issues with Picasa web albums.
It may come to the point of making a new blog.

I see.... PINK

Today Tricia was helping me in the sheep pen... we did all sorts of things in the run to help solve the mushy, gooey, sucking mud problem I am getting due to the monsoon rain we are having. 
Once I get this picture and space thing figured out on blogger I will post all about it...

It took us a good 4 hours to finish and had help in the end by some strong guys... okay I won't leach out too much of the story.

After the sheep run fix I dropped Tricia off at her house and she was going to rake leaves.  I, on the other hand, was going back home to have a shower and head to Safeway to pick up some groceries.  I had planned to do it before the run fix but we had drop in company.    I am just about ready to hop in the shower when I get a phone call from "Charlie" (FIL)... actually, it was Tricia calling from Charlies house.   She was quite upset and said she had an emergency, can I please come.  Of course, I am thinking of all kinds of unimaginable things that could be creating an emergency at the other farm where Tricia and Charlie live (in separate houses).

She then said that she has dropped her iPhone somewhere and can't find it.
Now before you laugh and think "addiction" ... Tricia's iPhone is her lifeline.  It is her telephone cause she has no land line and she needs it for work. Also, the weather forecast was for a lot more rain.. not so good for a cell phone.   Its not the first time she has dropped a phone and lost it (first time was on a hiking trip).  She knows what the cost would be if she couldn't find it.
Soooo,  I hopped in the truck and headed over to the other farm (for the second time today).
 
Charlie and Tricia were going through a pile of leaves she had dumped to compost.  Nothing.    I started going around the yard to piles of leaves that she had created and felt all through them for something sparkly pink (it has a flashy case).  Nothing...  I then asked her to retrace her steps...

Oh wait, you are thinking "Call it!"  ah huh! we tried that - it went straight to voice mail.  You see on that farm the service is HORRIBLE.   You have to stand out at the road (hope you don't get hit by a vehicle) to talk to someone without it disconnecting your call.  Even then it can be iffy. 
The best place for the cell phone to get service is in the kitchen window!  Texts come through great but voice calls are still very sketchy.

Oh wait! use "Find my phone!"  Yes, we tried that too but due to no signal in the area the "find my phone" couldn't "find the phone".

We were on our own.

Okay, back to retrace the steps...

She left the piles of leaves looking for a wheelbarrow.  First she had looked for a wheelbarrow in the machine shed (so we searched the machine shed)  nope, nothing.

Then she went to the calf barn looking for the wheelbarrow.  So off we went... all the while telling me Papa (Charlie, FIL) had already looked in there. 

We walked in, turned on the lights and she retraced her steps where she got the wheelbarrow and followed her trail back out the door with it.   She commented that some round bale net wrap had caught on the wheel and she bent down to unsnag it.  So she rummaged through the net wrap... nope nothing.

I said "are you sure its not over where you found the wheelbarrow? "  She went to look again.  Meanwhile I decided I needed to check the net wrap out a little more thoroughly. 
I picked up and squeezed piece by piece - it wasn't a big pile but big enough.  Soon Tricia was making her way back and said "its hopeless!"  I said "have a little faith".    I picked up the next piece of net wrap and suddenly I hear "PINK, I SEE SPARKLY PINK!" 
Sure enough, there was her phone, all nice and dry on the next bundle of net wrap, with a few bits of hay stuck to it, but all in good order. 
She ran out the door yelling "Papa we found it!"  He had still been diligently searching each leaf pile with a pitch fork... a sigh of relief was had by all.  Cause as Charlie said "Rain would not have been a good thing if it was in the yard!"

Suddenly Tricia was no longer into raking leaves - said she would finish it another day - it was getting dark anyway.  She decided to work on her planters, adding more dirt and planting bulbs, but she needed more dirt.  This meant she needed to come to my house and get her stash she stored there.  So off we went... other things delayed us... finally I got her back home safe and sound.

I, on the other hand, after the 3rd attempt, finally got home, had my shower and made it to the store for groceries.  Good thing too or Karl wouldn't have had any supper! 
 

Filled quota

Apparently I have filled my quota for pictures on blogger.. I went into Picasa to delete some albums no longer in use and it won't let me open the albums to delete them.   Bummer...

I will keep trying... bear with me :)

Not for the Faint of heart (graphic)

This is my newest project.  Tanning sheep hides.  Well, I am not going to do the tanning myself; I am actually sending them away.  I have done rabbit skins before but this is a much bigger project that takes up a lot of time that I don't seem to have. ;)
There is prep to be done beforehand... I have to get the majority of the moisture out... to do this they  need a lot of salt!
I have layed them out on this rack to "dry". Thank fully its not raining... it is relatively under cover here if it does -
Monday they will be shipped to the tannery.

Spoooooky

Last weekend we had some fun... A pizza party at Charlies (FIL's).  Jaylin, Nicholas (neighbor boy) and Katie carved pumpkins that were from Charlies garden.   He had a hard time finding orange ones as many never "ripened". 

Jaylins pumpkin on the left.. Katies on the right

Here is Nicholas, Charlie, Karl and Nick's dad, Rob.. Nick tried not to get gooey but gave up and used his hands LOL

Nick's happy pumpkin!

Corn Harvest October 1st

This year we had the fastest corn harvest on record! It took 2.5 days including break downs. 
Sadly, it was because the yield was largely down.  With Spring rains drowning it out and going 2 months without rain after that... the corn didn't have much of a chance.

We had 2 choppers,  2 dump trucks and one in the silo.    Earl M. & Gary S worked the choppers, Jeff & Charlie worked the dump trucks ( I spared off the dump truck drivers) and Karl or Jeff worked the silo.

Earl (custom guy) in his ford Tractor hauling our equipment - see the corn blowing into the hi-dump.

 

The "new" dump truck we bought from our Alberta cousin. Karl and Jeff revamped the back door and made it a gate.  Got some minor adjustments to make on the new design (changed the design from our other dump truck gate) but for the most part it worked very well.

 

Jeff and Karl recycling tires for the silo -  loading them up for the next bay

Jeff getting a load of corn to take back to the silo

Karl pushing up the corn and packing it down.  The more its packed the less it spoils.

Trucks waiting for the harvesters - they are actually having a chat and eating snacks while waiting

 Uh oh! Why is this hi-dump left sitting alone in the field?

OH, yeah, not so good!  Good eye from Jeff when he pulled up for a load - he informed Gary cause the area that broke the harvester is in front of it and the tractor driver can't see it.  Not sure if you can see but the axle split - lucky we had a 3rd hi-dump and harvest could continue!

Another picture of Karl in the Silo... I took this from the house - it looks like he is driving over the field of corn

 This is what he is actually doing LOL

And that is 2012 corn harvest...

 

Last day standing

Have a good look!

Its going to look a whole lot different by tomorrow night!

At this moment Karl is fueling up the tractors and dump trucks; he has the high dumps waiting and the harvesters greased, sharpened and ready to go!

 

 

 

We  have some nice looking cobs - they aren't all this size but it hasn't been the most optimum year.

I walked into the field a bit - after a very wet spring it has become a very dry fall. 

Shadow had to come and check it all out too... He knows there will be some very grumpy coyotes when the corn comes off.  So far he has been a good watch dog and kept them away... they love to hide in the corn!

A splash of paint

A couple of weekends ago I got busy cleaning up the side yard and power washing the fence and old sheep shed. 

 

This fence hadn't been painted since I got rid of my angora rabbits and taken all the cages down.
Now it looks real purdy!

I even had the old sheep shed painted (it used to be 2 different colors: blue and brown)  It is amazing how much a little bit of paint spruces things up

The New shed was painted too and Shadows dog house got a lift!  To preserve my sheep carrier box it too got on some green.

Last but not least, the old pump house got a splash of color.  I like the old rustic door so kept it "natural"

Old Hip roof

Ain't she beautiful?!

 

Karl has been doing some renovating on the old hip roof barn at his dads. 

Then... we gave it a paint job. 

 It looks almost new again!

 

 

Fall is in the air

 

One morning on the way to the barn I couldn't  resist taking this picture.  I love it when the fog rolls across the field and the sun attempts to push through.

 

I was greeted by our dry cows with a good moooorning...  The leaves are changing colors and some are falling.

It has been so dry here we have almost forgotten what rain is. One of these days the tap will turn on again and we will be forgetting what the sun is!

Manure Madness

On September 12th, Karl, Jeff and myself went to Abbotsford for a morning of manure. 

They had every peice of manure equipment imaginable for the farmers to see and inspect.

 

It was a beautiful day for it!  Here are some spectators and lots of visiting going on too.

They had signs posted so you knew what equipment was running and you could inspect each section to see what it did, how it did and if it would work for you.

Some equipment had WAY too many parts! We could see manure getting stuck or plugged in many of the gadgets.

Of course to get farmers there... they fed them - the white tent behind this red tanker held all the great food!

This is an aerator - I have a video of it folded down and working but blogger hasn't been letting me upload video's . Sorry.

Erected from the berries

In August, we were working on smoothing out some gravel to fix a driveway and crossing. 
Charlie decided that our Hi-Dump was in the way and if he moved it a little bit he would have more room to work.
Well, his "little move" became a big OOPS!  The Hi-Dump was sitting close to a ravine and with his little push it sent it over the edge

Well, needless to say Karl was none too pleased!  Jeff on the other hand laughed and emailed me the picture "look what Papa did!"  
It took a little while to figure out how to get it out of this blackberry cushioned position.
Last week we finally set to work.

Using a backhoe and the Case tractor they chained up to it

Here comes the gentle lift - worked like a charm!

I am sorry... I have tried 5 times to get the video to upload with no success :(

 

 

The inspection was made once it was up on all four tires and by-gum it was as good as the day it fell over.

 

New Girl in Town

On Sunday September 2nd I got a new girl.
Meet Leah

She took a trip from 100 Mile House and has joined the party of my 4 males.  She very quickly told them who was boss in no uncertain terms. Once she realized they were no threat and the boys realized she was a grand one to contend with.  Everyone settled down and got back to normal.

She is smaller than the males but she will grow... and grow indeed as she is pregnant.  So approximately 350 days from conception we will be having a new cute little alpaca running around the yard. 

Labour Day

For some reason I tend to work harder on Labour day than I do any other day of the year LOL

Okay, this wasn't hard work but I was working.

At 7am I rode shotgun to a work site to pick up those wonderful big boy Lego blocks.  Some were single size and some were full size.

 

 

I was the hooker... haha... the excavator would bring the bucket close to me that had a chain with a hook connected to it.. I would hook the loop on the top of the block and get the heck out of the way.  Sometimes those blocks swing - and they were used blocks and we had the odd loop snap and the block fall.  So I wanted to stand far and clear! 

I will admit I did a very stupid rookie mistake about 6 blocks in... I hooked the block and for some reason (not paying attention or what) I slid my hand up the chain while the bucket lifted to make the chain taught.  Well, when he lifts the bucket he also pushes the edge of the bucket against the chain to lower the risk of the block swinging... well stupid me had my hand in the wrong place and it was getting crushed between chain and bucket.  Thank goodness I had HIS gloves on and not my thin ones.  His were very padded and although I have a very sore, bruised and swollen finger I am still able to type ;)

Poor guy I scared the willies out of him... When I realized my fingers were caught I was thinking "pull hand out of glove and let glove go with block" nope, it had my fingers good... so I thought "tell him to stop, or wait, or put it back down" So I opened my mouth to say one of those words but it came out in a scream!  He quickly, but gently released the pressure and freaked out that I was really badly hurt.  I felt more like a fool than hurt.  One, for having my fingers in the wrong place and secondly, for screaming.  We were both definitely awake after that incident and the rest of the loading went with no issues.  Of course he had to rub it in a few times and joked to get my hands where he could see them LOL

We had another guy join us and loaded the 2nd truck and headed for the farm... they are being stacked here until Karl decides when he is going to expand another bay onto his bunker silo.

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner Time!

Here are some calves enjoying their dinner.  I love how they are all in a row on the nipples.  They make quick work of the 5 gallon bucket of milk!

 

The wee one I am holding up to the nipple is just learning where it is.  She's a smart one and caught on pretty fast.

Quick Trip

Karl and I took a very fast trip last week.  I needed to pick up a ram in Alberta for breeding my ewes this fall and also drop off some fleece for processing.  Both of these places were relatively close... And our awesome hotel was my cousins Vicky and Zane - Great Hospitality!

We left on Monday and arrived home on Wednesday - 12 hour drive one way.
Our trip was slowed a bit by construction on the highway and we came across a forest fire too.  We came across this forest fire in Rogers Pass Summit.

 

Some Farmers were busy harvesting...

We loaded 2 rams; one for me (white - Nash) and the one for a business associate (Black - Helix)  I love Helix's horns!  He is a pleasant fellow but still... a ram and he knows how to "excuse" himself and get through a crowd.

We saw beautiful scenery... it was so green in Alberta! So out of the normal!

On our way home it was a dark sky and we ended up with a bit of rain...

 

But then the sun came up :)

 

 

The rain was a good thing cause it helped wash all the bugs off our window - boy did we collect bugs!  We also had a crow fly right into our front windshield! Crazy bird!

Near Sorrento BC we saw a momma bear and her 2 cubs trying to cross the highway.. momma made it but the cubs chickened out.  We hope they eventually got across too.

Home safe and sound... Helix will leave our place on the 9th to live around 100 Mile house - the same place Jack Daniels went. Its a good home.