Life Flies By

Spring has gone by, summer has flown by and is almost done and life goes on. It’s always busy here in the St Lawrence corridor and here on the smallholding. We have had 2 clutches laid and hatched out and a few losses due to predation but once again that is part of the life cycle.

We have had 1 hen go broody again and she has had a clutch of purebred eggs from our Chanteclers placed under her so hopes are that we will have sone new chicks that will expand our purebred strain.

Recently in the city of Brockville there was the Tall Ships festival which occurs every 2 years and brings many tall ships to the region.

Recently my longtime companion Fauve passed on and left yet another hole in my heart but we had recently adopted a young male, Artemus, who has become my hubby’s cat, so it has not been as drastic as I had feared. She had a wonderful 18.5 years and rests peacefully on the farm in the orchard which is slowly growing.

Artemus is an unflappable young cat who has adapted to Dolly with no issues and their friendship is growing, he has even learned the art of displacing her from her spots with a few scritches of his claws and Dolly, who has great respect of cats, gives it up as swiftly as possible! And Artemus shows no guilt- typical cat!

And with the cycle of life, our eldest is finally tying the knot with her partner of 8 years this coming weekend! And doing it her own way as is her way, it will be a small gathering of close family to celebrate their new beginning. Pictures will be up in the near future!

So as summer fades into Fall, it begins the new cycle. Many people dislike the change of seasons but I look at fall as the harvest season and the biggest season of change. It never ceases to amaze me how Fall puts many things to sleep for the winter in order to bring forth renewal in the Spring.

Life always marches on despite the fact many people wish it wouldn’t, in fact going to many measures to try to hide the changes time brings. I wish more people would slow down and embrace those changes and celebrate them.

Too many times I hear people complain about the weather, the cold, the snow all things I love to celebrate because each brings us new things from those occurances. So as sad as it is to see things pass us by and leave us, I celebrate the fact that each has had a presence in my life and the joy they have given me. For we are defined by our experiences and as such that which we expose ourselves to shall enrich our lives many times over.

Rainbows are a sign of hope and a promise of renewal and lately there have been a few in my life. And I glory in each one!

It has been a while since I ended my blog with a quote but one comes to mind from Ernest Hemingway, a writer of great renown but a Man I feel had many of his own demons, but I think this quote was a true portrait of why he wrote how he wrote.

Bless us all as time flies by….

‘There are events which are so great that if a writer has participated in them his obligation is to write truly rather than assume the presumption of altering them with invention.”

Ernest Hemingway

Coal Miner’s Daughter Loretta Lynn

Growing up my parents always had a lot of music around ,a lot of country; I’ll always remember watching the TV one night and seeing a woman in a bright yellow dress singing a country song with a voice that was just as unique as could be. It wasn’t until a few years later I learned that the woman was Loretta Lynn and that she was a country superstar that stood up for women’s rights, spoke her mind and put her life out there for everyone to see! When you’re a child you don’t realize how much the world changes around you but as you grow up and start reading on these things you realize how women like that became very central to equal rights! Loretta Lynn spoke what she saw, what she heard and what went on in her marriage and she was lauded and applauded for it. A few years back I decided I was going to finally find her book and read it ( Coal Miner’s Daughter ) I managed to actually get a copy that was autographed by her!

A few years later she was coming to our local area and performing in a small theater in Ithaca New York so I decided we are going to go see her. The the tickets were pretty reasonable and I was sitting seven rows back from the woman, the legend- that incredible voice! She came on stage, she did her Coal Miner’s Daughter opening song and then one of her band members brought a chair forward and she sat down and she explained why she had to sit. At the time she was touring with her two twin daughters Patty and Peggy and she had tripped over her granddaughter while on the bus, fell and broke a couple of ribs and yet this woman who at that point was in her seventies I think, was still performing for her fans!

It was one of the best evenings I’ve ever had, anytime someone in the audience yelled out “I love you Loretta” she yelled right back “I love you too honey”; living in New Jersey for a few years and encountering a few people there that were famous and having to deal with their horrible attitude towards their fans, I found Loretta Lynn and her graciousness to be a wonderful thing and at that show her daughters came out singing while she took a rest,announce that they were selling at their stand a 4 CD set of 50 years Loretta Lynn and you can guess who was the first person who basically whipped back there and got in line as fast as I could during the intermission!

I managed to score myself a copy of that CD set once again signed by Loretta; in her book she talks about how she stays around after every show so her fans can talk to her and she would sign things; well it was late and I was tired and we left. It was one of the things I regretted not doing, just staying to thank her for beautiful concert- I don’t go to concerts often I’ve actually only been to two in my life.

My first was Kenny Rogers with my then fiance and then Loretta Lynn many many years later I don’t enjoy big huge crowds or paying a lot of money for a few hours of entertainment but I gladly paid that to see Loretta Lynn!

As a baker I think one of the most funny stories about Loretta was how when her future husband bid for a pie the privilege of walking her home in their small Backwoods country town and how she mistakenly used salt instead of sugar and he literally could not eat a pie he paid about $5 for so in honor of that Loretta Lynn chocolate pie I’m going to create a recipe similar to what she might have made and call it Loretta Lynn’s chocolate pie.

I wouldn’t recommend baking it or eating it because I know it would probably taste like that first mouthful at Doolittle Lynn tasted that very first night he walked her home

Loretta Lynn’s chocolate pie

1 unbaked pie shell

1 cup salt

1 cup butter

3 ounces chocolate squares(melt with butter)

1 cup milk

Combine and cook til set. Let cool. Auction off at pie sale to get a new beau! Let new beau walk ya home!

Yum Yum Baked Goods

I must confess—-I LOVE TO BAKE!!! And the hardest part of all is being married to a diabetic, I don’t have an outlet to feed so I have been doing a pop up market to raise money to donate some of the proceeds to my local thrift store, Deja Vu, in Cardinal.

I love Amish cookery as well as Heritage recipes (some of my cookbooks are over 100 years old!) and the best thing about old recipes is the use of fundamental ingredients; no cake mixes or prepared canned goods to be seen!

Another thing I have noticed about traditional recipes is the way they are more filling! You feel satisfied with less rather than compelled to eat more. And since everything is made from basic ingredients there are no hidden fillers of unknown origin!

And soon I will be teaching a new generation to cook as a young local girl asked her Dad who can teach her to bake and he immediately thought of me and asked me if she can hangout and learn. I love teaching my skills whether it is dog grooming or cookery!

Its a beautiful day, Summer has arrived but we seem to have missed a normal Spring. We had so much rain and cool temps and now we have almost summer temps.

Happy Weekend!!

New Year Let’s Renew

So back at the end of 2018 we had a hot water pipe burst in the second Living Room. Glad I tune into the strange sounds and it woke me up before it became a total catastrophe!

However it been several months of waiting to get several estimates by contractors and then the settlement for repairs. Then the wait for work to begin…glad I am a patient person at times. Never take the only estimate and make sure you get referrals on the work of the company! And since I am a buy local type I was happy to give the work to someone who lives right in my township!

So now rhe ripout has begun. And since we will have the ability to really see what is up in the ceiling we will be doing

Time Flies

It never ceases to amaze me how time can disappear while you are standing around watching life’s changes. It never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to say I’ll start writing my blog regularly then months go by. Years fly by the faster as you age I have found; no longer do we have the endless summers of our youth instead we try hopelessly to keep up and wonder instead where it has gone.

An endless path we travel thru life with an open sky before us and it never ceases to amaze me that we live in such a wonderful world. Since I last blogged much has happened, I have retired after 34 years of pet grooming, my youngest child moved out on her own; despite having disabilities she is thriving in a town environment where she can do things for herself by herself.

My cousin who was living with us has moved to Nova Scotia and brought his own property to homestead and has just had his first group of Partridge Chanteclers hatch!

I sent him this to try to determine which sexes he had, I found it helped with my clutches. Hopefully he will do it in his scientific mathematical way and keep excellent track and try to see if even colour at hatching might be sex related. It should be interesting to see what goes.

Every Christmas our local Tourist attraction, Upper Canada Village, lights up the Colonial era village with thousands of lights. It’s an enjoyable evening stroll and dogs on leashes are welcome. We have taken Dolly on these outdoor encounters and been quite well behaved, although she expects every child of the size of our grandson to be him!

Time flies by and with time comes loss. My first major loss of the year was my first Chantie Roo who passed from one day to the next with no signs of distress. I do have a newer Roo and hope to have some good Chantie clutches this year.

He was a pretty boy and I do have a sweet halfbreed in his son, who free ranges the mixed breed flock. I might use him to breed to some new pures to improve the genetic diversity in my bloodlines.

This year my Fauve will be turning 18, the oldest living cat anyone has had in the family. Her buddy Yowler moved out with his mom my youngest daughter so she still thinks he lives here and calls to him at mealtimes since they used to eat together. Poor old lady!

Been working on renewing some of the rooms; it amazes me how many people will paint a house interior in white to sell it making it lose any ties to historical identity.

Waiting also to get an insurance check to be able to fix damage in our living room and half bath that occurred from a busted hot water pipe. Life never stops throwing surprises at you when you least expect it!

Life has a tendency to march all over your back when you are bending over to admire the flowers and knocking you over with its determination to march onward. Many do not welcome it but I for one am always surprised by what it brings, it might be what you expect but it is Life!

In the words of Frank Herbert

“Without new experiences, something inside us sleeps,

The sleeper must awaken”

Blessings

Many times people do not look to the positive but to the negative first. We are told to count our blessings but rarely do people do so..maybe because the word blessing is so closely connected to religion and religion sems to be a bad word nowadays.

Having worked through a brain injury that kept me from my business and eventually wiped out my savings while I healed, I always tell people who are being negative that things could always be worse! Such as when it rains, it could be snow!

When the hurdles of life are overwhelming and even the smallest task is monumental and you count sucess as just getting out of bed and dressed you learn to look for the sunshine and not the rain. And that is exactly what I did daily- looked for the sunrise or sunset and basked in that beauty.

Not many people who meet me know that I suffered a brain injury that radically altered my life. It atered not only myself but my entire family. It changed me but it also made me a person who was a lot stronger in some ways.

I underwent not just a brain injury but other injuries to my back, my neck and left hand. It changed my personality to some degree and it radically altered my emotional control and my ability to express myself.

But I was lucky..I lived. Not everyone who has a closed brain injury does. In 2009 ab actress I admired for her film roles sustained a head injury while skiing; Natasha Richardson’s death shocked the world and I counted my blessing that I survived despite doctors who refused to believe anything was wrong with me.

I have counted many blessings since July 2000. I lived. I fought to find out what was wrong. I had a client who knew what was wrong. I got properly diagnosed 5 months after the MVA. I found a groomer who could run my business. I realized I could still groom. I sold my bsusiness so I could heal. I had a friend who helped me restore belief in myself. I raised a puppy who ended up bringing me thru the hell of PTSD. I began grooming profesionally again. I opened a new business. I had a grandson. I sold my business and moved back to my homeland. I bought a smallholding to restore. I began making new friends.

I have many blessings. And with these blessings I am finding a new community in my small village. People who truly care about each other. People who do for each other because they believe in Community.

That is what Blessings are all about! As I walk thru the Journey that is my life I do count my blessings….because at one point in my life I almost lost what life is and I appreciate them all the more.

So those of you who may not know it I count you as many Blessings and I am thankful you have stepped into my Journey!!

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Anyone who knows Ray Bradbury knows about Something Wicked This Way Comes, the tale of the battle between good and evil. I rarely think of this tale but when I do it’s with a sense of foreboding which tends to be accurate but not always in the sense one expects.

After the Loss of Henrietta and her foster pullet, I shored up the coop in the area I was quite sure the intruder came in. And for several days I have been greeted by the 3 survivors. Alas, the determination of a creature is vast and today as I stepped into the old milkhouse my heart sank; we had been visited again and this time it ripped open the wire to get in. Pretty sure this is a Coon we are dealing with and not a cat as I thought it might be. Feathers of a distinct type littered the floor and my heart grew heavy as they could only be Willard’s.

I have only 1 left of the milkhouse flock and that is the young Roo so I have moved him into the Bar building and put him into the chicken bus to protect him, I thought about putting him down mercifully but a Roo that can survive 2 visits by a determined predator might have a good future as a free range roo.

I feel I have failed these critters in my care, it is a hazard of keeping farm animals but 2 were gifted to me and their loss I feel more than any others. Henrietta was a plucky little girl and Wilard was a comical strange bird; not only with his frizzled feathers but his gentlemanly ways of trying to woo the girls constantly backing up and bowing. I had recently begun to suspect he might have sight issues but now I shall never know.

So why the Something Wicked reference? It popped into my head late last night and it keeps repeating savagely in coordination with thoughts of ED-19. Is it a warning or a confirmation- I know not, yet to me ED-19 and Willard are linked and his passing feels to me tied in some way to the whole ED-19 fiasco. We bought a defunct farm property in 2013 in the hopes of rebuilding it for ourselves and bringing several new businesses to the area. We were unaware that there was a dump property nearby that had never been utilized and is scheduled to be sold now to a mega dump creator, a use it was NOT intended for!

What I do know is that the MOE has called for a pre hearing to gather the winds that be in advance of the tribunal which is to be scheduled at a later date. And I know not if the winds foretell good or evil and I cannot get the tale out of my mind. Is the lost soul of Willard trying to get through to me? All I know is this felling came over me last night and it keeps bouncing around my head.

Something Wicked This Way Comes….Monday March 12, 10 am @ Brockville Courrhoise