Sunday 23 March 2014

Our rooster crows in the evening

My guess is that he crows because the heat lamp is on...?  It's 5:42 pm in this video, which was taken in mid-February.  There are no odd sounds outside that would encourage him to crow...

Hey, it's Spring!

Hello!

I've got a few minutes (I'm supposed to be doing the dishes.... Sound familiar Mom?) so it's time for my monthly-ish update.

Dash

Last post, I promised you fine folks some news about Dash.
Mmmmmmmm peanut butter.....

More please!
Dash, or Smash as we call her, is a border collie cross from the rescue that we have been fostering since mid-January. She is just over a year old, and when Nic picked her up in November, she was horribly underweight and malnourished, plus she had lice and mites. She has settled in well her after some proper bonding, and for the first bit Zim was overjoyed to have someone to tousle with. (Now he's starting to get tired of her puppy-ness; she loves to wrestle, and lately there have been a few incidents involving serious growling and a yelp or two. We'll intervene when there is yelping, but if no one is getting hurt, we leave them to sort it out - both of them can use the socialization.) Dash is ridiculously smart and eager to please, which makes her easy to train. We've been working on sit-stay, 'don't bolt out the door when it is opened', 'be calm when you are in the kennel', and 'the world is not going to end just because you are in a vehicle'. We've also been socializing her with Doodle and Pongo, and it is going great. She's still nervous when she meets new people, but she's getting better with that as well. Her #1 skill is chewing, but since we convinced her not to chew the coffee table, she's only chewed bones and toys, as is proper. She's terrible at catching (toys and food will bounce off her forehead, then she'll look for them when they hit the floor) and she's not enthusiastic about fetching either. She also has a slight obsession with the cats - Mander will sometimes let her chew on him (she likes to do that nibble/scratching thing on them) but Molly won't have anything to do with her... which just makes Dash more interested in her. But she's been good with the chickens, and she is eager to come when called.
Snoozing on her back
Dash is up for adoption - if anyone is nearby and interested, get in touch with Nicola at the rescue: http://www.pgequinerescue.com

Zim

For Christmas, Kim got me an obedience class. Zim and I have been going since early January, and Zim is doing great! We finished our first class (which was actually the second level - we were able to skip the first level because Zim is well trained already and I've done clicker training before with Molly) and we're now on to our second course, which is agility. Kim and Doodle are in the same class (we planned it that way, of course) and Doodle and Zim are both doing wonderfully!

Creating

Our aforementioned obedience class was previously on Saturdays, so I haven't been doing much around the house or property. This weekend, I've been busy: last night was a sewing night, and I mended one of Kim's dresses, made a new wallet, and stitched 4 flannel squares to use as hankies. This morning I've made two different kinds of muffins: pumpkin and oatmeal raisin.
Hankies
New wallet, and the old one - it was definitely time for a new one
Pumpkin muffins!  These are the best muffins EVER.
Oatmeal raisin muffins
A few weeks ago, I made a treat bag for training Zim out of some 'lining' (possibly polyester?) a large snap ring and a large snap lid from old canning jars. It has a drawstring top and a loop to which I have attached a carabiner to clip it on my belt loop, and no seam edges on the inside for treat dust to get stuck in. It works AWESOME and I am quite proud of myself for coming up with the pattern and putting it together.
When I want to close it, I just tie the drawstring...

...and when I want it open, I undo the drawstring and fold the top down over the snap ring.

Last weekend I picked up a body pillow to help me sleep. We bought it at Sears but they don't sell covers for them. They had some sheets on sale, though, so we picked up one and I made a pillow case for it, complete with a pocket to cover the open end.

At the end of January, I held another book repair session; this one was for the school district.  At the end of the session, one of the teacher librarians came up to me with a box, handed it to me, and asked if I knew what it was.  It was a tacking iron, used for repairing torn pages.  She had found it in the supplies cupboard at her school, and told me I could have it if I wanted it - of course, I said yes!  For a lot of my small sewing projects, it is incredibly handy, and means I don't have to pull out and heat up the big iron.
This means that I actually iron the things I'm supposed to when sewing, which makes the whole project easier.

Chickens

The chickens are doing good. Phoebe is still broody, and has been since the middle of January. We continue to evict her from the nest box when we are in there, but she doesn't stay out for long. Foghorn got a bit of frostbite on his comb, but it looks like he is healing well.

Spring?

It is now officially spring. We've had some lovely, sunny days, and it was quite warm two weeks ago, with highs up to 7 or 8. It has cooled down again, and it's supposed to be cloudy and cold this week, but I am confident that Spring will show up eventually. Our road is still ice, but the snow banks are slowly shrinking and there's a thick crust on top of the snow.

A gift!

My friend Buttons knit me a wonderful toque that fits over my ponytail and keeps my ears warm (follow the link to see the toque in progress!). She also included a pair of fleece socks her friend had made - they are super cozy, and I am thinking of making a few additional pairs for myself.
Thanks Buttons!  I love it!! :)

Upcoming

We don't have much in the works at the moment. We will soon be planning the garden and starting seeds. The greenhouse made it through the winter, and we still have the seed trays and the starting station thingy I put together last year.

Well, on that note, there's the usual weekend stuff we should get to - fluffing the chicken bedding, doing the laundry, and doing some training with Zim and Smash.