The Weather Outside is Frightful

Up until a number of days before Christmas, we'd had very little snow.  We usually have snow starting anytime after mid-October. Hallowe'en is usually very cold and rainy but sometimes snowy.  So not having snow until Christmas was a really nice break for a change.  The last time I remember a fairly snowless December was 1993 when my 3rd daughter was born on Dec. 4 and I drove to the hospital in the rain. 

But now that we're into January, the weather is more than making up for lost time and the snow is really coming down, day after day.

This used to look like...

...this.

This used to look like...

...this.

This...

...used to look like this.

This used to look like...

...this.

I usually don't mind living where it snows so much but every so often, I wish that I could live somewhere where I could actually plant a January Garden!

My January Garden

I was reading a post called "January Garden Chores" on http://littlefarminthebigcity.blogspot.ca/2013/01/january-garden-chores.html that I found on http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2013/01/homestead-barn-hop-95.html#more-4412. 

I couldn't help but smile because, as I was reading, I looked out the window and saw this:

and remembered when it looked like this...

You can see the clothesline in both (one yellow and the other darker) and also the tree-filled fence row in the background although the fence row is almost impossible to see in the top photo. 

My January garden needs this...

instead of this...

My son used to leave his window open sometimes, even during the winter.  He was always hot and didn't want blankets.  When he woke up one morning last winter and found this, he laughed and found it kind of funny (I didn't!).  I've noticed though that he's never left his window open since.  Guess it was colder than he was willing to admit!

A Tribute to Our Beautiful Dog

This is Lukie (Lucas), one of the sweetest dogs ever!  (Doesn't everyone say that...and it's always true!)

Before we bought this farm, we came to see it quite a few times, either to see it, talk about it more with the agent as we couldn't get a straight answer from the agent about anything and then to sign and resign the deal.  Sometimes I came along and other times one or more of the kids came.  During those visits here, the kids all fell in love with Lukie who belonged to the previous owner.  The kids asked me if we could keep the dog at which point I explained that dogs are completely a part of the family, unlike furniture, equipment, etc. and go with the family, not the farm. 

1 week before closing, the agent asked us if we wanted the dog.  So much for my explanation to the kids.  We couldn't imagine how anyone could leave their dog behind by choice, let alone a single man with 2 teenage boys who had grown up with the dog.  We knew that, even though this man was downsizing (not by choice), he still had to have room at his new place for his 18-wheeler (he was a trucker with his own truck) and surely if you have room for a huge truck, you have room for an itty-bitty dog.  Oh well...their loss was definitely our gain!!!

The agent told us that Luke (he had a different name at that time that I didn't care for) was 5 years old but the neighbor told us later that he was 8 years old.  Her dog was 7 and they had bought that particular dog because he looked like Luke who was 1 year old at the time. They thought that Luke was just the most wonderful dog so they wanted one just like him.  I guess the owner and agent (who were good friends) thought that we wouldn't take the dog if we knew that he was older.  A shame that they lied because we would have taken him anyway, no matter what!

Luke had always been left in the garage (with the garage door open year-round) his whole life on a pad and blanket and not allowed into the house.  We let him in the house that first night.  No dog of mine was going to sleep outside, alone, at night (unless he was a working dog that was supposed to stay with the sheep or something like that) and it took about 6 months of bringing him in every night for him to stop huddling against the door, seemingly worried about whether he was truly allowed in or not.  After 6 months, though, he became very confident and relaxed in the house.  He became very good at scratching at the door to get IN, not OUT! 

About 10 months after moving in, our house got struck by lightning.  This happened late in the evening and the hydro guys came at 2:30 a.m.  We spent the next 2 days checking to see what was damaged, talking to the phone people, internet people, plumber (the well pump was done) and insurance people.  It was after that that I noticed that Luke wasn't responding to noise and jumping to his feet at the slightest sound.  He had always been a very jumpy dog, seemingly worried that he was in the way if you barely touched him or even looked in his direction.  This meant that he never seemed to relax completely or go into a deep sleep.  Suddenly, after the lightning strike, we could make all the noise we wanted and he never moved.  At first, no one believed me that he was deaf so of course, they had to 'test' him and came to the same conslusion  - that our previously nervous dog was deaf and no longer responding to any of our sounds.  We were told at the time that when this happens to dogs because of the thunderclap that accompanied the lightning strike, the dogs usually recover but Luke did not.

After this incident, Luke became a lot calmer and much less nervous, mostly because there was so much happening around him that he did not know about and he was now sleeping soundly, so soundly in fact that a touch would not wake him up.  We learned to touch his butt end with our toe to wake him instead of petting his head because he would wake with such a start that he would whirl around with his mouth ready to snap.  He would never, ever try to snap otherwise.  We learned to use hand signs to communicate with him.

He had one major flaw that we could never correct - he liked to stand in front of vehicles coming in the driveway, whether challenging or welcoming.  Our neighbor came in one day in a big pick up truck and drove over his paw.  It took him quite a while to recuperate from that but it did not teach him a thing as he continued to challenge any and all vehicles.  If we knew ahead of time that someone was going to be driving in the driveway, we kept Luke inside and out of harm's way.  Sometimes though, DH, who works at a feed mill, would order feed while at work and not call us to let us know so that we could keep Luke inside.  Our house is quite a ways off the road and the barn is past that.  The driveway takes a fairly sharp incline right before the house and big feed trucks, amongst others would need to increase their speed to get up this little hill except suddenly there's a dog standing on the driveway, blocking their way and challenging them.  They either have to continue on, hit and likely kill him or stop and end up sliding backwards down the driveway and have to start over.  Pissed more than a few people off! 

He was now about 10.5 years old and having trouble getting around inside the house because of our slippery wooden floors but the minute he got outside, he could still run like the wind.  We've had other dogs for 24 years and none could ever run like that.  2 days ago, only my son and I were home and I went outside and found him dead.  He seemed to be a little 'off'' the day before and he was definitly getting older but I always hope that they'll never leave us but of course, they always do.  I'm still grateful that he went from natural causes.  I'll always love him and miss his sweet, gentle, eager to please personality.  R.I.P. beautiful Lukie!!!

Homegrown Beef

We held this black calf back months ago after all of his barn mates were shipped out to market.  We got him butchered around Christmas time and he's now in our freezer.

The bottom photo shows the freezer full of beef (under the chickens) and the rest is in the other freezer (photo above) with enough space (we hope) for the pork. 

I know that some people are squeamish about this kind of thing (eating a living thing) but there are only 2 choices:  stop eating meat completely (not an option for us) or continue to eat meat, realizing all that that entails. 

Old Farm Sign

This hand painted mural is inside our side porch over the doorway.  I have no idea who painted it but it's beautiful and if we ever take out the brick wall to make room for a new kitchen, it'll be taken down carefully and preserved. 

This strip of marble is underneath the above mural, joining the living room and the side porch.  If we ever redo the side porch (it's on the south side of the house and very hot all summer and very cold all winter - a few degrees above 0 - due to no heat) I'd like to save this little piece and incorporate it into the new room.  The floors are different heights so I'm sure that it would have to come out.  There's not much about this farm house or farm that I like but every once in a while, I find some little thing that tells me that, at some point in time, there must have been some love shown to this house.