August 2006
Monthly Archive
mowing
Posted by Moo on 30 Aug 2006 | Tagged as: Uncategorized, farm
I’ve just come back in after mowing some of the back three acres. I started off wondering if the mower was going to get going.. it was so slow it was painful. Then I realised that there was dried grass stuck in the blade section and near the belt so I cleared that out. I got going and was mowing well when I spied something moving in the grass. I backed up to get a closer look… it was a little brown furry creature, either a mouse or a mole (I am not sure which but think it was a mouse as I am pretty sure a mole would be burrowing underground.. we have LOTS of mole hills on the farm!) It was hurrying to a safer place away from the noise of the mower. I cleared the section to the right of the irrigation pipes and was intending to mow on the other side of them when I noticed the tyre on the left front had come off its rim. So I carefully drove the mower back to the barn. Hopefully it will still be good and can be put back on the rim when my husband is next up here (he is good at doing that and has doen it several times already for me. Just those times the tyre was flat BEFORE I did any mowing!)
Moose, Snakes, Wasps..and Tumbleweed…… web pages added
Posted by Moo on 30 Aug 2006 | Tagged as: web page
I have added more web pages on
and added more photos to the
new web page
Posted by Moo on 28 Aug 2006 | Tagged as: web page
I have at last got around to doing a webpage about deer as we see so many in our neighbourhood.
The trials of web page updating!
Posted by Moo on 28 Aug 2006 | Tagged as: html, web page
I was busy this evening adding a picture and updating the Rock Candy Mountain web page using PSPad when it crashed on me. This has happened before but unfortunately this time it lost half of my page for me, crashed my computer and left my web site not accessing the page at all!
After getting the laptop restarted (eventually!) I set about putting the photos back on the page and adding information that I remembered! Hence the page now looks different rock candy mountain and does not contain quite the same information as before.
BO’s collar
Posted by Moo on 24 Aug 2006 | Tagged as: pets
Bo is growing quickly and he is getting strong. He has already broken several leads and yesterday he broke his collar. He had been leashed after going to annoy the neighbours! However he was roaming round the yard and we wondered why until we saw the leash and collar lying on the ground, still attached to the long rope. He had snapped his collar right where the buckle is. The only other collar that we had available for him in the house is the one that Otis used to wear. Bo can wear that until we get him a new STRONG one (and more leashes!!) today (hopefully!).
Mowing
Posted by Moo on 24 Aug 2006 | Tagged as: farm
I have been mowing on and off these last few days using the sit-on mower. I was mowing the back three acres yesterday (not all of it, just a portion as the mower won’t cope with running for more than an hor at a time) when I noticed I had run over a little snake (under two feet long). Unfortunately I had chopped a part of it off and felt upset that I was the one who murdered it (albeit unintentionally). I found a snake in the front yard the other day and took a picture of it.. that one was a garter snake but this one had different markings so am not sure what it was.
Apples
Posted by Moo on 24 Aug 2006 | Tagged as: Grow your own
Our apple tree that produced about ten apples last year is laden this year. We previously thought that they were all goi to be wormy and not at all good but it seems that we have some good ones on the tree as well! Delicious they are too and just about ready to eat! We have picked the odd one here and there and it is time to pick more!!!
Plums ready! Pears still hard! Corn tasted!
Posted by Moo on 23 Aug 2006 | Tagged as: Grow your own
The plums on the front tree are ready at last. I say ‘at last’ because by the 8th August last year I was making Jam and canning (bottling) the plums. This year they are later and are only just ready. They have been falling on the floor for days now but the ones left on the tree each time have not been ready to eat… till yesterday! We now have two big bowl fulls picked and are eating them when we fancy with Bo’s help (yes he likes plums!!).
We tasted pears off the first pear tree today. They are hard like a turnip but just as we like them!!! They are delicious though I have to say that most people would not like them like this.
The other day we picked three corn cobs and had them cooked with butter! Yummy! There are no more ready but it won’t be long before we are feasting off them again!
Vacationing with Bo and Jaxx
Posted by Moo on 17 Aug 2006 | Tagged as: pets
We have just got back from a visit to Lillooet which is over a six hour drive away from Grand Forks. (It took us over 8 hours with several stops included.) We took Bosun and Jaxx with us, our two dogs. Jaxx is used to going away and knows what to expect. It is still new to our 25 week old.
Bo was excellent in the car. He didn’t really want to get in and went to sit by the back door as we were about to start our journey at 7am on Tuesday morning. Once he was in the car he settled quickly. We went in the Volkswagen Golf as it is very economical having a diesel engine. We put the back seat down and they were in the bit just behind our seats, with our little bit of luggage at the very tail end of the car.
We stopped several times on the way and let the boys stretch their legs. While we went in for breakfast at A&W on the outskirts of Kelowna they waited patiently. It was cool so they coped well. Later we stopped to see Kamloops lake and later again at Marble Canyon where they went in the water for a while.
When we booked in at about 4pm at the motel at Lillooet we were able to take them for a much needed walk.
We visited friends that evening so the dogs had to be housed in the car again. Poor loves! They coped well and were extremely well behaved, the only mishap being that they tipped their bowl of water over in the back of the car.
At midnight after another walk with them, we settled down for sleep. WE settled down for sleep. The puppy did NOT!! He was restless and would sleep for a while then come and disturb us by jumping on us or nuzzling our faces!!! Or else he would start chewing on the furniture rather than my shoe or a bone! In the end we leashed him so he could not roam all over the room and for the first half of the night I had him attached to me and for the latter half of the night it was my husband’s turn! That worked well as he could get into less mischief!!!
Next time we go away we will definitely pack Bo’s cage so he has a base to settle in that he knows is his!!!
He was delighted to return to the farm on Wednesday evening and thoroughly enjoyed being able to run around off leash. I am pleased to report my husband and I both slept better with Bo back in his sleeping quarters downstairs!
New compost heap in veggie garden
Posted by Moo on 13 Aug 2006 | Tagged as: Grow your own
We have been busy in the veggie patch again. It needed lots of weeding after having several weeks of me doing nothing with my “frozen shoulder”. The peas are now over and the plants pulled out. The zucchini are still producing lots. The tomatoes are slowly ripening. The corn is looking good but won’t be ready for a few more weeks. We are making a compost heap in the veggie garden…. we chose that location so that the animals won’t be rummaging around in it since it is in a fenced area. Also it will be nice and handy for putting on the veggie garden once it has composted down!