June 2011 Spring arrives FINALLY

June is almost half over already, I still am babysitting Tanner for Kyle.  Him and his mom needed a vacation from all the stress here so they headed off to Calgary. I agreed to babysit the other dog Sasha, but she is not the brightest bulb on the tree!

The look of DUMB!

I made her a pen like I did for Tanner, she pushed out of it, I tie her up and she gets so tangled up that I almost need the fire department to cut her free! (not quite but almost)  She appears to be in heat or going in heat so I need to walk one dog at a time. If I walk her down the road and Tanner sees her he goes nuts! Even when he just came back from a good long hard run he still vaults the top of the pen and tries to run me over!

More Dog fun!
Tanner also Vaults the pens if there is anything that comes on the yard that he doesn't like. One night he and Sasha were barking their heads off after I went to bed. I turn on the porch lights and there comes Tanner just as happy as could be strolling back to the house. It was threatening to Thunderstorm so I put her into the old chicken coop (still is dry and has straw bedding on the floor, she can play with the mice)  and Tanner back into his pen, all was quiet till morning. Sasha had to have her yard fixed again and then I put her back into it, Tanner was snoozing on the bed I had made for him so he was happy and warm.

Other things (not dog fun)

In this picture mom with 3 babies, The third is hidden in the grass on the road,
Even looking at them from a few feet they are hard buggers to see!
#4 is out of frame on the other side of the road,
and dad was doing the broken wing thing behind us!

The Killdeer have shown up with 4 babies in tow. Makes me feel good, but I am still upset that they left the one nest in the garden with the 3 eggs.

The woodticks are worse than ever. If there was ever a pestilence for the bible it would have to be the damm ticks!










The ladyslippers are starting to bloom, some of the wild flowers are blooming and the wild strawberries (yum) are in full bloom everywhere!!!

Kyle's Mom found someone to rent the pasture out to and they are busily fixing the fencing everywhere. Nice couple, they pop in to say hi when they are around.

Marianne and I have cleaned out the big shed for the yardsale. We had 2 fires like this to get rid of all the garbage that was in there! Approximately ten years of sitting in a musty shed with skunks, squirrels and mice having their way in all the stuff. Hopefully the yardsale will begin this weekend, we have put it off for 3 weeks now since the first try.

This is how I deal with the rodent infested garbage
that was left in the shed

Last shots:

Cranes in the road,
I am thinking of nicknaming them Kyle and Dayna!
Yes the boy does have a girlfriend now!
Let the teasing commence!

Little Yellow Butterflies
are everywhere now!

HUGE fly on the house,
Does that make him a house fly?

Let's play find the Baby Pete bird!

Mitza cat in the laundry basket, she is asking;
"HEY where is the warm clean clothes that are supposed
to be in here for me to curl up in!"

OH look it is RAINING again!

Final thoughts, I am still working on the forthcoming "Calgary story" It will be visible in the top of the blog page with the links to the other pages. Also I am going to put together a couple of collection pages to show off some of the pictures that did not make the cut to the blog, as well as ones that did.

I am kicking around an Idea of posting every other week. Keeping the Inverted cow more up to date, I guess. Some people have asked about the next post. So to give you an Idea this is the first half of the post, Ordinarily I would edit in the remainder of the month, But I will put a break in here and then I need YOU to let me know how you like or don't like the Idea of the twice a month post. 


The whole Idea of writing the Inverted cow blog, was to let people have a laugh or two and to have them gain an understanding of what is involved in taking an old farm and turning it into a self sustaining home. 


I write updates on the blog on Myspace and I have my unofficial web store for Watkins. Marianne and Carolynn work on the Chana site plus have stuff on Etzy. The ads and the links posted on the top are all so I can work on this and not have to go back to a 65 hr per week job to pay the bills. The point is to attract people here so I can get more business, and make a few pennies. If you Think that you would read the blog if it was posted more than once a month please let me know and please tell your friends or share it or whatever you feel that you would like to do to help out! 


I now return you to the Inverted cow!


June (part two)


Pestilence: Something evil and destructive. 
Pest: a destructive animal, especially an insect. 

Mystery bug of the month:
 About the size and body shape of a moth
but with wings like a fly!

June's second half started out with an increase of pests. I have little green caterpillars eating my blue spruce in the front yard that is striving to stay alive. According to some folks from around here these caterpillars will eat everything. The horseflies and woodticks are very bad this year. As are the Junebugs (little black beetles with a red spot in the middle of its back). I also have these big ugly fat beetles that seem to love to drown in the rainbarrel. Nothing says love like waking up in the middle of the night with a spider, or some insect walking over your body. YUCK!!

Biker Frog!
He went for a ride with me
when I took the dogs for a run to the beaver pond and back.

FROGS!
Oh yes with the increase in bugs we got an increase in frogs! You cannot move anything without finding one or two of them hiding in the shade or sunning themselves on part of it. Mow the grass and you have little things hopping every which way.  They are also getting BIG no more just little things the size of my thumb but things almost the size of a child's hand!

Dumber and Dumb respectively  

Tanner and Sasha finally went home. Marianne was missing Tanner about a day later. I guess she got accustomed to the big dummy. Now she wants another one. (I cannot afford it yet). 

The Yard Sale FINALLY!

After the dogs went home we got cracking on the yard sale. Up to this point we were farting around with it, walk the dog, work online, clean the yard, sort some junk out. After, it was update online, then get outside and work on cleaning things up and getting ready.  We STILL have tons of work to do before I am totally happy but we got to get it rolling now. Unfortunately with the flooding still going on most people are NOT out shopping for yard sales. We did not do much in business but I did get a chance to chat with some of the locals. On the plus side the yard is starting to look like someone lives here and cares about the place. You wouldn't recognize it from a year ago when we first arrived.  

From this ....

To this!

When we arrived it looked like this

Now it looks like this,
(picture taken for Yard Sale)

Last things I tried to get a picture of the Killdeer babies, but the little buggers run too quick. The parents are not doing the broken wing dance anymore cause the kids are motoring way too fast. So I attempted to shoot a bit of a video with the ol camera (the batteries died before I got much good footage, so this is it!) Sorry about the quality but I am walking along with a camera in one hand with the zoom maxed out trying to get a bit of footage of baby birds running away from us. It is not a handicam or video cam of any sort.

Also the first of the Browneyed Suzies and the Tigerlillies are popping up everywhere.  So are butterflies.

Brown Eyed Suzie

Tigerlilly 

Bear print (my hand shown for size) on the road by our house.

Wild Flowers 

Last words: Please comment, Message me, Facebook or twitter me, Email me or send me smoke signals. But please let me know if you want to see the inverted cow posted more frequently (twice a month) or keep it at one post a month. Also Please feel free to share, comment or explore the site. Thanks =o)  (it just makes me feel better when I know someone is reading the stuff I post online.) 

Time now for C[_] (coffee)! 

May, Water issues Continued.

May started off, as it usually does, exactly as April ended. WET!

They want me to drink, bathe and cook with this?!

But the fun didn't end there, after the first rain/snow fall the well became contaminated. The ground water is too saturated and all the crap from my flooded septic field and the annoying cow pasture behind us are overwhelming the well and the bad water is seeping in. We now have YELLOW water coming from the taps.

Phone calls and emails are flying and the disaster flood relief services might be able to look at it someday maybe. Till then have a glass on us!

On the flip side the thunderstorms and rainshowers did fill the rainwater barrel again so I at least have rainwater to wash in. I assembled sort of a still using an old pressure cooker, some hose, some tubing, and a instant-on hot water tank. It gives me "drinkable" water. The costs of buying bottled water for the dishes and coffee is far too much. At least the rainwater is clear.


The Yard Sale 

It used to read: "Repent the end is near"
But there was no money in that . 

We figured with the massive amount of garbage we have on the yard still, plus the stuff from former tenant,  parents,  and roommates,  we could make a penny or two selling some of it off.

Weekend one, We setup and scrambled to get the stuff from the sheds. We rewashed dishes that the squirrels and mice got into all winter long. unpacked  bags of old clothes, and stuff from goodness knows when. I spent all week cleaning up the yard, and moving some Trailer axles and plywood off the yard to make it look presentable.

Ready to hit the highway!

Saturday went well, considering that I had no advertising, I had one sign on the highway and one sign on the road, we had a dozen people here. Marianne wants to yard sell with prices from the 1970s where it is quarters and a buck. I tried to tell her a buck or two is today, what a quarter or two was back in the 70s. She still sold a box full of stuff for 4 bucks  NOT the 10 I had said the first three times. I am not angry just frustrated, Yes I want to get rid of the junk on the yard but we need to make a profit too.  I told her I am going to put a big sign up, "The asking price is $1,000,000 or best offer."

Sunday got canceled more because of the road flooding out by the "light" shower we had following the yard sale. Minor thunderstorm that knocked out the phone, the computers and the power. added about 4 to 6 inches of rain in spots on the yard and refilled the rain barrel for us. It was also Mothers day, so I  was in a particular mood that day. The forecast called for more rain all day but we didn't have anything, just some light clouds. Darn forecasters ruin my day! I should send them a bill!

Things got worse for allot of people in May

Tanner, came by our place late on the 10th, and was hungry. We called the Boy and told him. This was not unusual for the dog to come over, because the boy spent allot of time here during the winter. It was raining, still, and I figured the dog wanted to crash out in our shed, like he has done before. They said they would come and get him the next day, I got worried in the afternoon cause he had not eaten so I brought him out some leftover stew. Tanner cleaned the bowl out in a few minutes and came back for another helping. I figured he was out of food at home and the boy's dad was just drunk or something. His mom went to check on what was up.

When the ambulance showed up here, lost, I figured something bad had happened. I knew something bad was going on when the cops and the fire guy went booting it down our old back road like they were being chased by Satin himself. The Boy's dad died sometime between the 10th and 11th.

Man's Heart will fail him due to the troubles of the world.

( I don't know the exact place of this passage, and have had a dickens of a time trying to find it. So I am sorry if I don't have the verse numbers here for the quote, I think God will forgive me though, even if you all cannot.) =o)

The ambulance people came back later with food for the dog. They told us that the boy's dad was dead. The boy and his mom are, needless to say, complete emotional wrecks. Marianne called the boy the next day and we offered to sit the dog for however long was needed. She then went over to there place with another pot of stew, (not the stuff we fed the dog but a fresh pot). She told them we are at their disposal.

Tanner dog After getting out of the dog run. 

I got to make a dog run, which I later discovered that a adolescent Collie can get out of. I set up a shed with a nice bed, and food and clean water. We also cooked up some soup bones that the folks gave us, and Tanner chewed them down as fast as I could serve them up. We now have a happy, albeit somewhat lonely puppy on our hands.

I also had an opportunity to have my faith in people reaffirmed; after the funeral and internment Bill's relatives were over at Kyle's farm seeing how they would divvy up the assets.

The poor kid just lost his dad, the will said it all goes to the boy, and the vultures are trying to get in on the kill before the corpse is even cold! I wanted to take the whole lot out into the brush and have a 'hunting accident'! It makes my stomach turn just writing about it, let alone seeing it in action.

Other things happening, the floods are effecting allot of people all over the province. 

This was Yahoo's take on the flooding
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/manitoba-ranchers-move-cattle-floodwaters-rise-151017726.html

This was the take from Global Winnipeg on the flooding threatening to wash out people in Cottage country by the lake If the video plays for you. Their website doesn't always like me and my poky computer.
http://www.globalwinnipeg.com/video/index.html?releasePID=GBZ8s6bR1kgH_qZH56fH2FJZaq_rzkqF

Everyday there are more stories and I could fill this post with nothing but flood links.  But I won't.

We have had the army, and everyone else getting in on the act helping to sandbag wherever they can. I am on a waiting list if they need me.

As time went by the Government finally repaired the intentional breach in the dikes. They set up 'programs' to compensate the farmers, we were able to have the well tested for free,(which I can afford) and we are currently able to use the water as long as it is boiled for 2 minutes first. At least it is no longer YELLOW!

Ontario has flooding, Alberta has wildfires, and Flooding! The States have been hit by tornadoes, floods, and all sorts of fun.

May 21st 

The world was supposed to end. Since I am still here writing this and you here reading it, Guess what, they oopsed!  The world never ended, and we still have to get work done.

Wild Life

The Hustle and Bustle speed of things here

As you may have guessed I love it out here because of the abundance of life.

Pete, unfortunately decided to abandon the nest for some reason and the 3 eggs were destroyed by hail. We tried to save one that was not broken or full of holes, but I think the frost got to it. Pete has been visiting the yard, but now just for forage.

This fellow was applying
for the Job of tape measure

It is a little frog stone grey in color, He sat here for 4 days.

On the other side, the sparrows were fighting over who got the nest from last year. Since they were dive-bombing me and potentially injuring other people at the Yard Sale, I knocked down last years nest. They decided to move and rebuild another nest over the bedroom window.

Beaver from the swamp across the road.
Just to annoy Kyle I am thinking of calling him Justin!

Grass fire number one.

I have little blackbirds happilly eating things that I turned up in the garden or while mowing and burning the yard. The wet weather allowed me a couple of safe burns in some trouble spots from last year.

The little yellow guys are back again too!

Marianne has vowed to kill, on site, any dumb cow that goes and destroys her roses this year. I guess I need to fix the gate so it works, soon!


Last words

All in all life is slowly returning to normal. I am working about 14 hours a day on fixing the place up. Trying to come up with the startup capital to make this a working and profitable little farm. Kyle is starting to figure out how to best turn his farm into something workable, as of this writing he has 4 tractors, 3 trucks and a couple of other vehicles on the farm and none of them work. I will probably be helping him resurrect some of them this summer. The bill collectors and other vultures want something that we do not have and are unwilling to listen to reason.

I think it was a bill collector who returned to his original state!

I will be adding a page on here in the next little while detailing the house in Calgary and the life we left behind, and how people have been winning my love and adoration.

While tilling my garden patch I did actually make a little profit, I found a US 5 cent piece from 1891. It makes my mind run rampant thinking of ways it could have come to be there.

When it was minted it would be worth about a days wages for unskilled work, now it is worth about a cup of coffee. The coin and camera do not like each other so I was unable to get any usable pictures to post. So you just have to come see it in person.

Finally.

All worn out after a day of  helping me work outside.

Oh look now it is RAINING again!

An intense low pressure system will move across Southern Manitoba today bringing a total of 50 to 60 mm of rain to parts of Western and Central Manitoba. The rain will begin to taper off from the west in the evening.