Saturday, March 27, 2010

Earth Hour 2010

Yes, it's that time of year again!

AT 8:30 pm TURN OFF YOUR LIGHTS!




We were suppose to go to a dance tonight so I wasn't sure how we would participate in Earth Hour this year. As it happens I'm not feeling very well and we will be staying home this evening.... problem solved.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Some Acreage Updates

Oh, how I have neglected this blog. So much happens around the acreage and I often just don't have the time (or sometimes the inclination) to write about it.

Our egg supply has been greatly reduced as of late - the chicken and the ducks are both molting. The hen looks practically naked, Cockzilla is looking extremely scruffy, and Lucky is looking glorious (he has made an amazing transformation after surviving the axe).

Our boxer, Kaiser, had an incident with an aggressive neighbour dog. Unfortunately we did not see it happen or we would have been complaining to the owners. Kaiser received a nice bite on the side of his ribs - enough to clearly see two deep punctures. We noticed it on a Friday and by Monday he had been moping around the house with no energy, would not eat and his side was terribly swollen. I managed to get him into the vet's office right away and he was given a large dose of antibiotics. The vet was concerned that the wound would abscess, but he was lucky and it healed quickly.

The aggressive dog did go into another neighbour's yard and attacked their dog. These people have three children under the age of 5 and are very concerned. The husband spoke with the dog's owner and we have noticed them taking their dog for a walk on the leash and he doesn't appear to be running free as often.

I guess that is one of the things we have to put up with in rural living. Luckily, all of the neighbours we know are extremely nice and responsible people, and most of the dogs are not running around wild.

Husband has been playing with seeds... Our ordered garden seeds have come in with the exception of the flowers seeds (which should arrive Wednesday). This year he purchased growing lights and has already started the tomatoes, eggplant, cabbage, and peppers in the garage. I am hoping it isn't too early - but this winter has been very mild and so spring should be coming soon. We currently still have a foot of snow in the yard, but have been sitting on the front south facing deck on sunny weekend mornings with coffee in hand (and sometimes it has even felt almost too warm!)

I have been working a lot of hours and feel that the house has really been neglected. I haven't even been working/experimenting in the kitchen much. I plan on taking tomorrow off and doing a good cleaning and catching up on some laundry.

I feel that even my recycling efforts have fallen by the wayside to some degree. That actually started over the summer when London Drugs decided that they would no longer accept plastics (other than if it came from something purchased at their store). Well, let me tell you that my garbage output increased tremendously. I'm actually shocked at how much unnecessary packaging there is that ends up in the landfill. My small weekly bag of garbage is no longer small, nor only one bag. I'm going to have to become more conscious again of what exactly I am purchasing, as it is quickly becoming ridiculous.