Goose on a hot tin roof

  We think this is a first. Two geese were spotted this morning on the sauna roof. Getting a bird’s eye view, I suppose?  They were there for about 20 minutes, arriving sometime after I came in from feeding the horses.

Photos from George’s birthday

Video done by Randy. George turns 50, and Bob turns 50 minus 1, let the bells ring out, let the banners flare ...

Migratory visitor

We had a new traveller stop at the Compound pond last night – a Ross’s Goose. Just one, perhaps separated from his flock somehow. He seemed to make friends with the lone Canada Goose that was also visiting at the same time. They swam together, padded over the hummocks together. Maybe they both needed a little reassurance that, although all their respective buddies had disappeared, just one other strange...

Jane Austen’s Family Jewels

I watched again a particularly dismal film version of Jane Austen’s Persuasion. So dreadful I shudder to recall its failings. The writers took such liberties with the dialogue they gave lines to the wrong characters, moved conversations from one part of the book to another and the very worst crime of all – made stuff up. One complete out-of-time puzzler, they made the climax of the story a chase scene. A...

Post Frolic

Film by Randy Fiedler – Frolic the 13th is over and the house is empty again. Even I think it’s too quiet now, by comparison. The last of the guests rolled out by 4 p.m., but Levi didn’t come out from under the house until 10. Just being thorough, I guess. This year’s new sport – Frisbee Golf proved to be a lot of fun, and tons more exercise than curling. There was plenty of snow to be...

Not the smartest…

I’m working away in my office, and as usual the animals are with me. I’m not sure if they figure they’re babysitting me or vice versa. It’s a small room so Mulder seldom does more than stop by and snooze for a few minutes before padding down the hallway to his mat. That’s where he can conveniently be in everyone’s way, all at once. Most efficient. I heard a strange noise, not a...

Word play at breakfast

I bought some apple cinnamon pita thingys that go in the toaster, called Toast’ems. The first line of the cooking directions is: Place the Toast’ems in the toaster and toast until toasted. It’s two nouns, a verb an adjective, all in the space of ten words. How many other words are like that?  “Garbage” is a good one – a better one even because it doesn’t even need suffixes...

The Christmas stove

This year’s Christmas present to ourselves was a new woodstove for the Balehouse. In a way, it is also a present to our guests as we were suspicious that the older stove was past its prime. Very fancy, by our standards, it is properly rated and can be as close as 16 inches from the wall. Unfortunately our last stove needed to be miles away and the stove pipe still dictates the placement of the new one. At...

Making ice like Ma and Pa Kettle

There’s a 7 foot length of downspout that slopes from the water hydrant outside the corral into the horses water buckets. It’s not a very steep slope and over the past month of watering has slowly built up a tiny layer at a time. We’ve noticed over the last few days that the water was only making it out the end in a tiny trickle. Time to bring it in to thaw. Carrying it into the house it was...

Happy effing New Year

Prophetic moment – George and I are enjoying the traditional New Year’s Eve sauna. “This sauna sucks!” I say. “There’s not enough heat. I’m bailing.” and I wondered out loud if this was an omen of a sucky year coming to a close, or of one to come. The wind from the south was coming up as we walked back to the house, and it howled around the house all night We wake the...