Sad Days Ahead

Oh we can see sad days ahead...It's not like we haven't seen it coming but a person is never prepared for death no matter how much you think you are.

R came in from the barn this morning with a long face. He said that Owen, our lovely 9 year old yellow lab is failing, that he hasn't eaten in two days. Now I know that doesn't seem excessive to you but for this dog to not eat for two days is serious stuff.  He has a few unexplained lumps on his body that have gotten bigger lately, we suspect cancer.

We got Owen when he was 6 weeks old from a local breeder.  We went to buy a chocolate lab that day and we did see one but when I saw this big yellow puppy and held him, he licked my face and wagged his tail and I was smitten, to be fair I did pick the chocolate puppy up too, but he stuck his head under my arm and shook like a leaf...very timid.  I took the yellow pup and named him Owen.  For R and I it was love at first sight...R had already owned a yellow lab in his younger years but I never had.  What lovely dogs. Friendly, loyal, intelligent and so loving it makes me tear up just thinking about the times I have been so melancholy and blue and have sat out in the yard to find some solace, this dog will come over and lean against my legs, rest his head in my lap and just sit with me...he's the best friend a person could have...no matter your mood he always loves you...and is so joyfull when you deign to pay attention to him.

As a puppy he hated this broom I kept outside...at every opportunity he would chew it to pieces and growl with his mouth full of cornstalks. We had Owen for nearly two weeks when the breeder called to ask if we would consider taking the chocolate puppy as well since they had not sold him and wanted to go to New Mexico for a holiday, but when they left the puppy outside with it's mother, she kept taking it into the bush and ditching it...(self weaning I guess) and thought that since the coyotes would eventually get it they might as well give it to us.  R was very eager to have the two pups...so we took him and named him Riley. There have never been two brothers from the same litter so totally different from one another. 

 The moment R let Riley out of the crate  Owen pounced on him and bit and growled... asserting his dominance I suppose... and so it has been for the past 9 years..Owen is the boss and Riley is second banana.  Owen is very protective and riley is ver frightened...Owen is outgoing and friendly and Riley is shy and untrusting and so on....Owen is exactly the kind of dog I had hoped to find after being without a dog for 4 long years after the death of the best dog I have ever had the priviledge to own "MAC".

When Owen was 2 years old he would follow R around doing chores and got into one of the feed sheds, he ate some of the feed intended for cattle and became very ill (it had rumensin in it which helps with the cattles digestion but is toxic to dogs if they ingest too much) he became comatose and we had to take him to the vet.  They pumped his stomach and then put him on an IV and flushed his whole body with fluids...he recovered but had sustained some muscle and nerve damage...his hind end has been weak ever since and the past couple of years he has become somewhat stationary...since his legs are weak and it is hard for him to move much. But when he is having a good day he runs and jumps and cavorts like a puppy, usually paying the price later in the day ...but there is no stopping him when he is in a joyous mood...usually when "Mommy" comes outside....

It is going to be a sad day... Poor Owen . We are concerned about how Riley will take being the only dog...he is so shy and is so used to following his brother in all things that we worry about him.   Like I said earlier though it is not a surprise that it has finally come to be just sad that we could not deny it any longer.

We had the option of treating our dogs like dogs or welcoming them into our family as members and humanizing them in our minds and hearts and given the chance to do so again, I would not hesitate...because the pain and sadness we are about to go through pales in comparison to the happiness, laughter, love and joy we have recieved from our "boys" OWEN and RILEY.

A First

Well, they say there is a first time for everything and while this is not the first time ever it is the first time in a long time....that I have nothing to complain about today.  Now that could be since I am writing this post so early in the morning or that I am in such a good headspace after our spontaneous outing yesterday, regardless, enjoy it while it lasts, since I am sure my sour, complaining, unsatisfied musing will be bedeviling me again tomorrow.

Yesterday was an awesome day once it got going.  We owed  some friends of ours a dinner out on the town for finding us a customer for our beef and so R decided to crank it up a notch and invite another couple to join us, and they were available so we got all dolled up and the six of us crammed into the cab of our 1 ton truck (which I had detailed earlier in the day) and drove to town for a fine dinner. Lamb chops, Steak and Crab legs were enjoyed by all with a huge salad bar and dessert...we rushed back to the one couples home to watch the Canadian Mens Olympic hockey team play the slovac team and scrape a win out of it.  It was great night of jokes, laughter and whitty banter.  I enjoyed it very much so did R.  Too bad it cost us $200. but I say it was worth it.  We actually all made a date to meet again on sunday to watch the Go For GOLD game between Canada and the USA.  should be great....hot dogs and beer  yeeeeehaaaawwww !!!!

A Day Off Work

Everybody likes to have a day off work, I know I always look forward to spending a day away from the farm.  Isn't there a saying that a break is as good as a change or something along that line.  Everytime we are taking a day off, the sweet, innocent, niave, gullible child buried deep within gets all gittery with anticipation of doing something out of the ordinary and new, and that poor misquided child is always disappointed.  We drive an hour and a half to the city, past all the same scenery that we have seen for the past 30 years, go to the exact same stores we always go to, most of the time in the same order as always, too.  We eat at the same restaurant and then make the same return drive as always... and to make matters even sadder than they were, I think in the past few years, as we get older...we are even having the same conversations as always too...

I have realized lately that there is a small part of me that yearns for an adventure...Oh nothing to crazy, but something extra-ordinary. A road trip I think... I  have always wanted to see the east coast. Quaint villages in Quebec in the autumn when the maples are turning colour, Niagra falls to ride on the Queen of the mists, to stand on the Canadian Shield and dip my toes into lake Ontario.

 One of the things I have always wanted to do is canoe down the milk river in southern Alberta and see the Writing on Stone archeological site.

they think some of these petroglyph's are as much 3000 years old. Incredible.  I love stuff like this, it stretches my brain.

Some times I feel like I might go a little insane with lifes mundaneness. As though under different circumstances I might have been so much more. Like a fruit tree that blooms but never sets any fruit. Some how unfulfilled. Wanting.

When I was young, before I married I used to dream of being an English teacher, I was inspired by my grade 10+ English teacher Mrs. Dicmanus (yes she was married to the BC football player) She gave me the tools to keep going to school,she once told me that it was alright to be great at just one thing but that I should never stop challenging myself, she let me work at my own pace, which was grade 11 english in grade 10 and guided me with kindness and enthusiasm for which I will be forever grateful.

Life gets in the way of our dreams most of the time, and as you know I never became a teacher. I don't think I would have made a very good one since I was never very good at any other subject other than English.  But that doesn't mean we can't still dream and wish and yes, even yearn for something more.

We're being Invaded

Help !! We're being invaded...our yard has suddenly become the winter destination resort for Alberta's second largest rodent. PORCUPINE... so far this winter, starting in November before we even had any snow, our shelterbelt of spruce and pine trees became THE place to be...if you're a porcupine, OR is it? given that everyone of them I have caught here...is now fertilizer on another quarter...  and before you threaten me with PETA again...(and I have to say that threat is getting a bit old) I have, what I believe is a legitimate reason for flexing my trigger finger.

We have the unfortunate misfortune to be trying to farm in really crappy soil... a shallow 3 inches of brown wooded topsoil over untold feet of grey clay...and with all the dry years we have experienced lately the usually moist clay has turned to concrete. It is very difficult to get anything to grow at a decent rate when it's roots have to try and penetrate that concrete.  I wish I had a dollar for every tree and shrub I have tried to grow in my yard alone, that hasn't made it...and that is with lots of water and fertilizer...so 40 years ago when R's parents planted several rows of spruce, pine and fruit trees as a shelterbelt it was a huge undertaking each row is about 150 evenly spaced trees that run half the length of our home quarter.  For 23 years they kept between the rows tilled up so there was no competition for moisture and nutrients.When I first came here 17 years ago the tops of those trees were at eye level...so they grew from seedlings to about 5 feet tall in that 23 years... after living here for a year, I decided that the tilling was detrimental to the root growth and stopped tilling, we let the grass and moss grow in and just kept it mowed, after another 5 years...we stopped the mowing because the trees had grown to the point where we were breaking branches to get through with the tractor and mower.  Since then the trees have grown to over 20 feet tall and are beautiful...so after all the effort that has gone in to keeping them alive and thriving...I am not about to let some nocturnal little bark chewing rodent move in here and destroy these trees...they like the shelterbelt because the trees are close to one another and they don't have to travel far in the two feet of snow we have to get thier next meal.

So in Nov. before the snow came I shot a really big porcupine and took these photo's

look at the teeth...they are suppose to be orange in colour I read, but they are just like mouse teeth.

The claws are what enable them to climb to the tops of a tree like some lithe Cirque de` soliel performer.>



If the porcupine chews the bark off all the way around the trunk (called girdling) and damage the cambium layer that feeds the tree it will die...we have two pine trees already turned brown due to this girdling of the bark...I refuse to lose anymore trees.  The porcupine can live on willow bark and such in the wild there is no need for them to eat our yard trees....v

I had to shoot another porcupine in early January that was in a Ponderosa Pine that is 5 feet from our house...he wasn't even trying to be stealthy it was 4 pm and I saw him on a lower branch and the bark was flying...v

We came home from the city in mid January to find our brown lab's face full of porcupine quills...and I am sure the yellow lab would have had them too if he wasn't so crippled up and had bothered to get off the deck to investigate... we don't appreciate having to pull quills at 11 pm in -25 * weather. R got bit for all his trouble to try to restrain the dog.  This is about the third time for these dogs getting the worst of an encounter with a porcupine.

And then, just last night I had to shoot a third porcupine, that was in the shelterbelt. The dogs had him up a tree and were barking enough to wake the dead...so out I trudge and low and behold there he was...so I trotted back to the house to get my rabbit gun  before I shot the porcupine R had to put the dogs back in the barn... So ta da...three less porcupine this winter. But  don't despair we see signs of them everywhere...mostly bark chewed off willow branches, pine trees and our neighbours apple tree that is beside the road, so there are still porcupines out there to have babies and make more bark gnawing trouble makers.

We have had cows get into them too, they try to push them around with their noses and let me tell you it is easier to get them out of a cow than it is the dog...we have equipment to restrain the cow... One year a group of 30 yearling heifers found a dead porcupine that must have been in a tree that blew down in a storm and the poor fellow was crushed, the heifers found him and I swear they must have rolled on him more than half of them had quills in their faces, necks, feet and legs... we had to trail them home and spent hours pulling all the quills...by the end we were out there with a flashlight... A couple of months later when the cattle were at home and in the pens nearing calving time one of those heifers was found laying with her legs under her like she was sleeping...but she was dead....R had the vet autopsy her and the only thing they found was a porcupine quill in her liver....it must have migrated there over time and eventually killed her.

So, yes I shoot the little beggers, they aren't getting our trees, dogs or cattle...but just for the record...I only shoot the ones that are in the yard, if they stay away from the buildings...I will leave them alone...after all, there are just too many of them to go around shooting everyone I see.  Stay out of my yard.  Next time I'll tell you all about the wild pigs we are having a showdown with...

Hair Cut day !

I am going to a hair appointment today...my hairdresser has had a baby since I last saw her in mid Dec. and has been taking some time off since then...she used to have a salon in town but when she had her first child a few years ago..she moved it out to thier farm and fixed her basement up...it is actually a really cool place...very canadiana...with homemade quilts, tole painting...hardwood floor and old fashioned barber chairs... we have a long history....she and her father used to buy bulls from us and we used to go and bid on her 4-H calves...she reminds me very much of my favorite niece, with her quirky sense of humor and insight. I was just looking at some old photos recently and realized that I now have my hair cut the same way my mom used to cut it when I was in elementary school.  Huh  I used to hate it back then but it suits me...guess mom did know what she was talking about all those years ago...although I think not...since she used to use the same bowl to cut P and P's hair too.  See the pic below if you don't believe me..

So this morning our butcher guy is here to process another steer for the freezer...half is sold and I am hoping we can keep the other half for ourselves since we are nearly out of hamburger..

R has been having some hip problems again of late and has been going to the chiropractor lately...yesterday he drove into to town for an adjustment and had to listen to our chiropractor slander Barack Obama (R's hero) something about nazi moaist communist or something along those lines...I am surprised R restrained himself.

I don't suppose any of you caught the National news on CBC two nights ago and saw the story by Red Sharen on the failure of the cattle industry...it was very insightful although way to brief.  I cried...those people sitting in the auction market watching 30 years of breeding being sold up, dispersing thier herd.  That could be R and I, if things don't turn around soon...the only reason we are still doing what we do is because we sold off all my investments to pay off our debt when BSE hit back in 04. Now there is no safety net...We are a dying breed of farmers who make thier sole income from the farm and do not have off farm jobs like 90 % of farmers, it takes a lot of sacrifice and discipline and did I mention sacrifice...  we don't go on tropical vacations, or have an RV, we don't go to concerts, or throw big parties anymore and much to my regret any thoughts of retirement are far off in the future.  I have visions of being old and withered and still driving lunch out to R in the field and working cattle through the chute.

Only 10 cows left to calf now...I sure wish the weather was nicer...the temp is okay but the fog is killing me...I want sunny blue skies that make me want to be outside.  hahaha

Well I have to go make lunch for R before I head off to my hair appt.  wish me luck.

A Foggy Dreary Day

Wow, what a difference a day makes. Yesterday dawned bright and clear and today the fog rolled in and everything is covered in hoar frost.

these are the neighbours horses just across the fence from us the always come and watch R feed hay.

Had to go to the hospital lab for more blood work today first thing in the morning...

7am.  The nurse taking the blood told me a funny story about her husband watching thier son while she went shopping with her sister... the son had a hockey game in town and then spur of the moment he and the dad invited all the other boys out to thier acreage for some sleding, they have a big hill, but the 15 boys whose parents dropped them off and would come back in about 4 hours never did make it outside to the hill, instead they played video games in the basement and ate $200.+ worth of groceries she had just bought the day before... things like, baby bell cheeses, out of season blueberries, pizza pockets, gator aid power drinks, over 30 juice boxes and two bags of nacho chips...all the things this 11 year old son would have been taking to school for lunch...(now he will be taking sandwiches) the dad, when asked where the hell was he while this was taking place....said in the living room watching the olympics on Tv.  hahahah   he said to her when she whined that they ate her special treat blueberries,"you shouldn't have been buying those out of season, they're to expensive"....later that same night after the hockey team had gone home...and her kids were in bed the dad roused himself from the olympic couch position and asked what  he could have for a snack....then asked if she had bought him some of his favorite cheeses...she said yes....but that there weren't any left.....he looked at her with such a surprised look on his face and then only seconds later  shouted....SHIT !!!!!!!   hahahaha I thought that was so funny.... lazy turd...should have got off the damn couch to supervise those boys...16 11 to 12 year old can go through a lot of food...hahahahahaha

Owwwww

Owww it hurts... but what an awesome day... It was up to 0* here today and sunny, with a slight breeze... great day.  After lunch  I went outside to help R with some chores.  We tagged a new baby calf # 103 and treated one cow with a sprained ankle from jumping on the other cows or fighting, both things cows love to do a lot of. Then I was conscripted into spreading some straw around with a pitch fork for the cows to lay on. I actually love doing that kind of stuff, it gets me outside where I love to be and I get to peruse the baby calves while I do it.  The problem is it doesn't stop with just one pen...there are six paddocks with cattle in them and once I started helping he was loath to have me stop....now tonight...my arms feel like rubber (I spread 9 bales of straw all by myself....for those of you not from the farm...each bale weights about 1000 lbs.)

 What a work out... We have a bit of scours running through one bunch of babies (that is diahrea) and so thier bedding of straw needed to be done badly...they got two bales. All the walking on rough ground plays havoc with my hips and R had to dose me with muscle relaxants tonight.... But I will be out there again tomorrow if I am able.