And then there were 64

On Sunday we went to the Fur and Feather show in Mount Forest. Pretty much anything with fur or with feathers could be bought and sold. Llamas, donkeys, goats, sheep, pigs, and every variety of bird imaginable was for sale. Taking me there was a bit like taking a heroin addict to the poppy fields of Afghanistan.


These birds didn't fit their boxes. Now there is some serious despooking for the horses.

First we saw this girl, a Partridge Chantecler. The Chantecler is a Canadian breed developed by monks in Quebec, and are known for laying well through the winter and being resistant to frostbite in the winter (pics of our frostbitten rooster to come soon--he looks strangely Italian now) due to low combs. For those of you who don't speak Chicken, that means they don't have spikes on the tops of their heads. We liked her, we wanted her, but the seller didn't have a box. So, we paid for her and went on to look for another chicken, one that would come with a box.


We don't know what she is, but she also had the partridge colouring, and came with a box. But the box was too small. So on we went....

And found these beauties, two bantam white Chanteclers. Again, for those of you who don't speak Chicken, bantam means miniature. They are such sweet, gentle, and CUTE little birds.

So, we made the rounds and finally came back to our first chicken. We passed by a beautiful pair of Buff Orpingtons, some Amerecunas (sp? the ones who lay green eggs) and vast numbers of loudly squacking guinea fowl. And we passed by some of the cutest goats in the world......

OK, this is pathetic

as farming implements go but we lived in the city. We turned the ground for a few vegetables with a fork, spade and human effort.


This borrowed cultivator is so much a better way to make a planting patch.

The eagle eyed will have no doubt noted the offical John Deere beverage holder on the tractor. It's not a bad afternoon, driving up and down, breaking the ground, if you have a quality beer at your fingertips.

This is the space where we dumped the compost in the Autumn, the soil looks rich and we have every kind of seed; something will grow, won't it ?

Frankenstein Fowl.

Once again we have a mixture of chickens. I expect there'll be pictures when the breeds start to look distinctive. Eight of them are what are called "meat birds". They've been bred to grow very rapidly and are the type of bird one finds on the supermarket shelf. The black chicks in the foreground are normal chick sized, maybe a third of the meat bird. It's been a surprise how quickly they grow and it's rather creepy that they should be so different from ordinary birds. This picture shows one in a typical pose; it's asleep in the food. When it wakes it will start eating again and will continue until it next sleeps. These birds cannot live as adults, they quickly achieve a volume greater than their internal organs can support and, if they're not slaughtered, they fall down dead. Note that these are organically fed free range mutant freaks, what you get if you add GM corn and hormones to their diet I dread to think.

The Bathroom.

I had been thinking I'd save the bathroom pictures for a before and after post once it's done but, since the tiles are now up here, this is the current indoor project (the current outdoor project is still sanding the deck).



The bathroom wasn't one of the better features of the house. We wanted to improve it and when a flyer arrived offering a chance to win $10,000 for using Amex points at Home Depot we got motivated enough to cash in some points and to get the bathroom bits. The old bathroom was mostly yellow but the toilet was white and the counter top black.





The wood trim was pleasant enough but, curiously, didn't cover the wall behind the toilet, the trim must have been added without moving it. The wallpaper border was ghastly and the window frame was rotten, it's the only window in the house that hasn't been recently replaced.

The bath had to go, it was shallow and yellow and, anyway, we needed a better horse trough. Getting it out was a challenge though; it exactly fitted across the room. We smashed the drywall around it

and then used a car jack to crank one end up. We used an array of garden implements and fire logs to pry and prop it until it sprang free.

The old tub had had hot and cold taps which we replaced with a single twist thingy, that required soldering a bunch of elbows and whatnot so there was a nerve racking moment when we turned the water on. I was some relieved and, to be honest, quite surprised when it didn't leak.

There was no actual need to have a pipe sticking 18" out of the wall but one must sometimes indulge in fits of whimsy.



One problem with working on the bathroom is that it's always in use. Each burst of working starts with taking down the plastic and ends with putting it up again.






It's alright if the person asleep in the tub is the worker but it's a bother having to step over a wet body to patch the plaster.

The Tile

The easy bits are up and it looks fantastic. Now we're just waiting on the window, and we (okay, Jim) can get to the hard bits.

The Saddle

Today we bought a saddle for a ridiculously low price at an auction. Known provenance, flawless tree, and leather slightly dry but generally in good shape. It needs some work. All of the sheepskin lining underneath has to be replaced, and the bars that you use to adjust the stirrups (don't know the term--anyone know?) should be replaced, but I'm really impressed with the saddle given it's age (about 50 years old, so far as I can figure out). Can anyone tell me anything about it?

The saddle overall:

The back:

The front:

The stamp on the front-most part of the seat. It says "Western Rancher":

The rigging, what is this kind of rigging called?:

The underside, fleece completely eaten away:

Hunter.

Hunter is a dog from around here somewhere. He likes to come over and romp with Charlie and Charlie certainly likes to hump Hunter. Some time after he arrives a man on an ATV will come and collect him. This morning we chatted a bit and so I know that Hunter is 9 months old and half German Shepherd, the other half is possibly Black Lab. Nice dog but not one to go home when called. Here they're chasing a frisbee:



Here Anna's riling them up and getting them to run fast by calling "Charlie, come. Hunter, go home".




Last evening Hunter came over. Voices in the distance called his name. He and Charlie tore up and down the porch ignoring the shouts. What we needed was to trap Charlie so Hunter would calm and hear the calling. Fat chance of that; opening the door caused Hunter to come in rather than Charlie. Not so clever, Hunter then discovered cats! Chaos, big dog chasing cats, lots of noise, chicks chirping in the background. Charlie lingering on the porch, voices calling for Hunter.


Eventually it all calmed down and I drove Hunter home, from the house with the bath on the porch to the one with the half dozen F1 and F2 50s, some with giant tyres. He was no problem in the car and ran off happily enough.


Here's the thing though, Hunter has no experience with horses, if he wanders over and gets kicked, will the owner sue? He has no previous experience with chickens, if he eats one I can lawfully shoot him, will that help us integrate locally?

Sixty.

Counting today's chickens, we now have no less than sixty animals on the property.

We also have appliances, or at least bathroom fixtures, on the porch. I now have a gun licence. Knock me down with a feather, I never thought this would happen.

OK, it's Spring now,

The horses are up the hill again.


and it's time to clean out the barn. This is base of the chicken coop.

This is us clearing out a winter's worth of compacted wet shavings

not much helped by the high level of interest from the horses

It all wanted moving to the new heap

which, considering we've only done half the barn, is now enormous.

We've got the bucket problem sorted though, this, once a heater is added, will be the new horse trough.

It used to be our bathtub and there hangs a tale for another day.

Not how one thinks of Spring.

It was warm this week. On Tuesday. In the afternoon. The temperature had been below freezing for weeks and then it shot up to 50 degrees or so(Farenheit). This didn't make driving any easier, there was much fog and, at the same time, very strong winds. Newly melted snow blew off the fields and across the road, not quite as if it was falling from the sky but more like ocean spray. The overnight temperature was -12 or so (Centigrade) so the newly formed rivers and lakes froze. Roads were closed due to flooding and the talk in the office was of soggy basements. It's now snowing again.

These are fields that became lakes and then rinks.


This is a rare spot where the Grand River is still within its banks.

Still, enough snow has melted that we're excitedly considering a weekend of shit shoveling!