Miscellaneous

Some happenings around the Vriends' homestead over the past months:

I found this painted turtle in our back field.  Nowhere near a body of water.  We drove him to the wetlands at the end of the road to make a new home

Look at those claws!

 

His belly pattern and colouring was beautiful!

With all the rain we've had this year, we have ponds where there is usually dried ground

The kids really enjoyed them!

Morel mushroom!  Yummy!

I gave our hen Rainbow several guinea eggs to hatch!  They are notoriously difficult to hatch under a bird.  Most are hatched in an incubator.  Only one of Rainbows eggs hatched

So I brought home a few others that were hatched in a friend's incubator a week before.  2 more guineas, and 2 banty chicks

Rainbow adopted them without hesitation!

Unfortunately, like the roosters of last winter, the keets (baby guineas!) and chicks decided the coop was too good for them and started perching in the trees.  The first few nights I sent Zander up the tree to fetch them down.  But they kept going higher until they were roosting 30 feet up!  I had to make the decision to let them.  I don't know what got them, but one morning we were down one keet and one banty chick.  The good news is that the following night the remaining chick and keets went into the coop!

Weed salad!  All ingredients from the garden.  Lettuce, peas, beans, and cucumber that were planted on purpose.  Purslane, lambs quarters, pig weed, red clover, and sorrel that most people call weeds.  We call them delicious and nutritious!

Always Never

We've learned a few things living out here in a rural community. 

Always shake out your boots before putting your foot in.  You never know when you will find a dead mouse the cats lost track of.  (I apologize for not having a picture of this one to show you.  I was too busy washing my foot and trying not to vomit to grab the camera)

Always neuter your male cats if you want to keep more than one as indoor/outdoor pets.  When male cats reach about 10 months old, they start to fight and best friend brothers become enemies.  Its sad to see the boys that used to cuddle together try to kill each other.  But the good new is, after being neutered, and after the hormones have a chance to leave their system, they can become good friends again!

Always try to get all the chickens in the coop at night.  From our last hatching of 10 chicks, 8 were roosters!  They decided they were too cool to roost in the coop at night and would fly up into the high branches of the pine trees instead.  One morning we awoke to find one of them decapitated in the yard.  I took the carcass away to dispose of it.  A short time later I heard the chickens making a fuss and looked out the window to see a Barred owl sitting in the snow where the carcass had been!  The chickens were only about a few meters away from the owl, acting agitated, but not running away.  Keep in mind, this is late morning on a clear sunny day!  The chickens knew that the owl was a predator, but also knew somehow that it was not a threat to them in the daylight.  An owl that size would only be able to take a bird as big as our chickens from a roost when they were sleeping.  It wouldn't be able to take them when they were awake and able to run or fight back.  The owl stuck around most of the day just watching the chickens, sizing them up.  That night a few of the young roosters went to bed in the coop, but the others stupidly stubbornly still perched up in the trees.  The next morning, there was yet another decapitated rooster in the yard.  And the owl once again hung out observing all day.  That night the remaining roosters ALL went into the coop!  For the following weeks the owl paid us regular visits in the daytime (and probably at night too) but we didn't loose any more chickens to it.  About a week later, I heard the chickens acting agitated again and looked out the kitchen window just in time to see the owl swoop down right beside the coop.  He grabbed a mouse and flew up into a tree in one quick motion!  He was about a metre away from the nearest chicken!  He gulped the mouse down in 3 bites and then just sat on his perch watching us for the rest of the day until nightfall prevented us from seeing him.

Always buy farm fresh eggs if you can.  Not only are the chickens living a much better quality life than those factory raised, but the eggs themselves are more nutritious and healthy for you.  With the winter lull in egg production we ended up picking up a dozen store bought eggs.  When I was making french toast I used all store eggs but for one of our own.  Guess which one is ours!

And finally, never walk around without your camera if you can help it.  You never know when you will see a thing of beauty.  

Icicles hanging off the roof after a slight melt and re-frozen

A curl of snow beginning to fall from the roof

Misty morning looking down the driveway

Quick update

I've discovered I'm not very good at this blogging thing.  What?  You want updates more frequently than a few times a year?  Since waiting until I have "free time" to blog hasn't been happening, I guess getting sick and not being able to function for any other purpose forces me to blog.  So this should bring you all up to date on our progress.

Chris has been working on attaching the plumbing pipes throughout the house

Our original plan did not include a sump pump.  The excessive rains this year have shown us that was a mistake!  Good thing Chris noticed before the concrete pad was poured!

 

This is the ceiling of the master bedroom, also the underside of the floor of the girls' room and upstairs bathroom

Some of our awesome friends loaned us their backhoe!

Chris used it to dig the trenches for drainage, well, electrical, and septic

Thankfully, he didn't find any rocks he couldn't handle

I think Chris enjoyed driving the Kubota

Making our way around was tricky for several days

Of course Zander needed to give it a whirl

And so did Phoenix

And Finnlee.  Notice the concentration on all their faces

Drainage trench.  See the puddle?

 

After laying the wire and pipes, Chris is now working on filling these trenches back in

Walls, windows, and stairs

The work may have been slow, but Chris was able to work on bits and pieces here and there as he was recovering.  Zander was a big help! 

Zander helped build and raise the wall to his own bedroom

Phoenix and Zander helping Chris put up the wall for the girls' dressing room

And windows framed in on all the outer walls

We had some help from friends to do a lot of the work this summer while Chris was not at full strength.  Here Louie and Steve put up cladding on the West wall.  We had hoped to have the straw bale walls done by now, but since that isn't going to happen until next year, we have to cover the walls temporarily so work can continue indoors over the winter

We have a temporary set of stairs going to the upper level.  Now we don't have to climb in the window at the back to get onto the top floor!

Zander and Chris finishing the windows and cladding on the East wall

I love that the kids have been able to actually help building their own house.  It gives them a greater sense of ownership and pride

Austin and Chris cladding the South wall with plastic to let in light and passive solar heat

Snug as its going to get for winter this year!  It actually warms up quite nicely when the sun is shining!

Now Chris is working on the electrical.  He will then move on to plumbing.  Both run through the floor to some extent and must be completed before we pour the concrete slab in the spring