Another Calf

Just a quick post to share the latest picture of our newest calf:


And a picture of the sun coming up yesterday morning (I was trying to capture the mist that was hovering on the horizon..... but didn't. Sigh)


And to point out to you that if you don't already read the hilarity that is POD, click here now and go read all about her latest adventure. I promise it will have you laughing (and perhaps wincing just a wee bit....)

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

It's been a busy weekend on the ranch. The Rancher and his brother have been fencing a new pasture and the Bag Lady has been trying to get her house in order, but has also spent a lot of time cooking for the fencing crew.

The weather has actually been almost perfect for fencing - not too cold and not too hot. And it still hasn't rained, which is desperately needed, but also allowed them to get quite a lot done on the fence line.

They laid out the fence posts in a line where they wanted to put the fence:

Then they strung a tight wire as a guide and pushed the posts in with the loader bucket. (Filling the bucket with dirt added a little weight to make it easier to push the posts.)



They will string three strands of wire on these posts and staple each wire to each post. That is usually the Bag Lady's job, but this time around she passed the hammer was happy to let her nephew take over. That's a lot of walking, and a lot of staple-pounding.

There is rain in the forecast for this week, and that may put a halt to the fencing for awhile, but the rain would be very welcome. There is grass seed spread on all that dirt in the pictures, and rain would certainly help.

Rain Dancers Apply Within

If you click on this photo, you can see the smoke from a huge grass fire burning across the river (toward town) from where the Bag Lady lives.

It is desperately dry in the Bag Lady's neck of the woods. For that matter, it is desperately dry in most of her province.

Does anyone know how to do a rain dance?

Fixing Up the Farmhouse

Warning: this is a long-ass post!

The Bag Lady and the Rancher have been living in a state of upheaval for a week now, and it's not over yet! They decided it was time to renovate a wee bit. The flooring in their home was looking a little tired and worn-out (much like the Bag Lady herself, ahem) and it was time to do something about it. They had been humming and hawing for quite some time, but their friend who is a master carpenter had some spare time and was willing to do the renovations for them, so they bit the bullet and this is the tale of the farmhouse "flip":

Here is the dining room with the old, worn-out flooring:
And this is what the kitchen looked like when the Bag Lady left for work on Monday morning:


This is what she came home to in the afternoon:

Poor old Tommy cat went into hiding when the flooring started coming up, and only came out after the workers left:


The Bag Lady almost fainted when she saw this:


But it was worth it when she saw how nice the floor looked with the morning sun streaming across it:




This is her front hallway:



And this is the new dishwasher, which she had to buy when the old one was pulled out of it's space and they discovered that the floor underneath it was BURNT! There was no way she would allow them to put the old one back ....

Here is another angle, with the finished toe-kicks:



Here is the Bag Lady's office:


And here is the Rancher's office:


*giggle*

Congratulations on making it this far! There is still some work to be completed (re-insulating around the windows and doors, then replacing the casings) but it is starting to feel like home again! The Bag Lady thinks she may actually get everything back in order before .... Christmas, maybe.....

That Monday Morning Choo-Choo

The Bag Lady is glad that it's Monday! She can go back to work and get some rest!

She and the Rancher decided that, after 14 years (and the unfortunate New Year's Eve firecracker incident!) that it was time to replace the linoleum in their house. They shopped around, looked at sales flyers and finally decided to go to town and see what was available. The laminate flooring that they saw in one sales flyer turned out to be the kind that looks better in pictures than in real life, but while they were wandering around the store, they found some they quite liked, so they bought it.

Conssequently, the Bag Lady spent the weekend wrapping and boxing china and crystal, moving china cabinets and tables and chairs and bookshelves and other furniture, cleaning out closets and trying to find places to put things out of the way! It took her two solid days. The Rancher got a call to go to work hauling some equipment and was gone for most of those two days, so she had to do it alone. (She also had to leave the fridge and stove for him and the installers to move - she's tough, but she's not crazy!)

She has never watched the TV program "Hoarders", but some of her facebook friends have pointed out that perhaps she should..... *ahem*.

She hopes to have pictures to share with you in a week or so. In the meantime, here is the newest addition to the ranch:

Wednesday

It is Wednesday, isn't it?

The Bag Lady is a little confused this morning because, although her computer says it is Wednesday, the weather thingy says Tuesday, and facebook has also regressed to yesterday morning.....

Tommy, on the other hand, doesn't care what day it is, as long as you share whatever it is you are eating! He is 14 years old, and for the first 12 or 13 years, ate nothing but dry cat food (and the occasional mouse....) but has become increasingly interested in whatever it is the humans are eating.
Yesterday, he would not rest until the Rancher shared his cake with him..... understandable, when one considers it was a bunny cake.


(which, sadly, looked more like a cat than a bunny, due to it's shrunken ears..... sigh)

Monday, eh?

Just a quick post to give you a peek at the newest calf. She was a little camera-shy and kept moving behind her mother, so this was the best picture the Bag Lady could manage.


The Bag Lady had a very nice Easter weekend, with lots of food, family and friends. The weather was reasonable, but nowhere near as warm as it was in the east, apparently! She saw the news reports about the record-setting temperatures in Ontario and Quebec, and was a wee bit envious. There are still patches of snow on the ground in the Bag Lady's yard, but it is slowly melting. There are even the odd little bits of greenery showing here and there, but no flowers yet.

What's it like where you are? Is spring in full blown glory?