We carved our pumpkins today. The one on the right was my boy's idea. It looks patriotic but actually it is the symbol of his favourite hockey team. We are in full hockey season here with hockey constantly on the brain.
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Got my own pre-Halloween fright today when I went into the wood shed and uncovered this. There's been some mighty busy bees in our wood shed. There was frost on the ground this morning so am thinking it is cold enough to remove this hive/nest without getting stung.
Guess what was delivered in this box tonight? My new stove!! My wonderful mother-in-law bought it for me after feeling sorry for me too long. You see when we moved we were unable to bring our appliances and have had to make due with what the previous owner had left behind. Namely this teeny-tiny oven built into our island. And this wood burning stove with grill and two proprane hot plates. Needless to say they both fail to meet my cooking needs. I have suffered through Easter and Thanksgiving dinners with these stoves and my mother-in-law who I would adopt as my own if I could, wouldn't let me suffer through Christmas as well. Sadly, however, I am unable to plug it in as the previous owners had redone the kitchen completely (including removing all the cabinets---will blog about this later) and drywalling over existing walls and, believe it or not, over all electrical outlets including the stove outlet. So I will have to wait for the electrician's visit before I can start to use it, but until then, I'm doing a happy dance. Bring on Christmas!!
It's mating season for ducks and my pond is alive with plenty of activity. When we brought home the leghorns, we noticed immediately the sad state they were in. Not sure if it was due to age, living conditions or a mix of both, but they were filthy and me and Farm Girl decided to give them a bath. We had never given a chicken a bath before. It actually went very well and contrary to what I had read about leghorns they were very friendly and didn't give us a hard time. But try as we might, there was no cleaning those dark, poopy butts. And some were worse than others. And lets face it, I wasn't real crazy about eating eggs coming out of those behinds. But I had no idea how to clean them up if a bath wouldn't do the trick. Well it turns out, they knew exactly how to look after themselves. After several weeks on our farm, I noticed the other day how clean and white their feathers looked (they were pretty dull and dirty looking when I brought them home) and when one of them bent over to peck at some grass, I was delighted to see a huge improvement. The leghorns are looking far healthier now and I'm no longer ashamed to have them living on my farm...or frightened I'd get e-coli from eating one of their eggs.
While looking through some old albums on my computer I came across this fun photo shoot I did with Farm Girl last year just before Halloween, and since today marks the halfway point before the big night, I thought I'd share. This last photo reminded us more of the movie "The Village" rather than little red riding hood.
Not much is going on around here so thought I'd just share some fall images I've captured. Autumn is one of my favourite seasons if not my favourite, but sadly it is also the shortest season and you can miss it altogether if you don't stop and appreciate it.
It is Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. On Tuesday we will head over to the grandparents house to celebrate with them as my girls have to work all weekend, but we were able to have a quiet meal with just my kids on Thursday evening. We spent the day cooking, relaxing and playing with the pups. My boy also celebrated a birthday. The weather has been gorgeous the last few days and we're expecting some more. Which is great because we had an unusually early blast of winter-like temperatures, though thankfully without the snow.
For me, welcoming in October means...... Welcoming new barnyard friends. Watching old ones grow. A leap in egg production. Decorating for fall. Dressing for colder weather. Watching the leaves change colour. Along with the blossoming of bright vivid colours of autumn. Cozy warm fires indoors along with those you love. Happy October, everyone!
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