Come From Away

Thirteen cords of wood!

So far I have finished blocking it all. Here’s an “aerial” photograph:

Here’s a movie of me working on it:
(Click to Play)

Silo?

Yup, silo.

Welcome to country living… Our current high speed internet tower is the silo at the Meerbur’s pig farm… The Meerburg’s went “belly up” about a year ago and now some one purchased their farm… The new owner wants to move the silo and we may lose our high speed tower…FUCK! Science damn it!

Every morning the radio wakes us up to crummy music, announcements and the usual idiotic radio announcer. . .

One of the ones today, had both K and I chuckling away:

The Chamber of Commerce of the Greater Charlottetown Area would like to welcome the law firms of Cox and Palmer to its membership…

They must have said “Cox ‘n Palmer” 5 times during the announcement. Silly, childish, but still funny. Later on I started thinking (always a dangerous action)… When we first moved here, we had to visit a lawyer to get some document notarised regarding something finalising the sale of our house back in MTL. The firm’s name would grow in its hilarity if he joined them as they would become, “Cox, Palmer and Ghiz!”

We decided to take a short “official” vacation. In the past we have tried to stay away from work when folks were visiting, or to free up some time to do fun things, but have never “closed” our web site or done anything to say, “Next week, we are on vacation.” So, for the first time in four years, we put up notices on our site and took a week off “officially.”

It rained…

After returning to our “week away,” which composed of much sitting in the house (cursing out the window) with four squirrely, quarrelsome kids, we returned to work. Due to our notices that we were closed and messages stating that items would take longer to ship, we received, perhaps, one or two orders less per day. i.e. There was a week’s worth of work waiting for us.

Halfway through the week, our internet hosting company had trouble with the server we are on and they took it half off-line so that they could do a disk scan. Again! Our site did not load and email was bouncing. If they had taken the damn server all the way off-line, or at least turned off some services we would have at least received some of our email (once it was working properly). . . When I called and politely asked what was happening and when they expected the issue resolved (I actually have a lot of sympathy for folks doing what they were doing — go figure), they were rude and unhelpful. Again!

I have spent the last two days moving 11 web sites, 15 databases, 50 email addresses, etc. to a new hosting company.

It’s raining…

Today about 4:30 PM (while working on the last site to move), I was startled to see a lot of sparks flying up from under a trailer that was being towed/dragged by outside my window. It seems that when you change a tire on your trailer, that you should re-torque the wheel nuts once you let it down off the jack. Duh! Apparently, if you don’t (like this good fellow didn’t), then all of the nuts fall off and then the tire comes off your trailer when you are proceeding down the highway at 100 clicks… Being the nice guy that I am, I foolishly offered to help. I tried to call Leon (our trusty local mechanic), but he is not usually at the shop on Saturdays, so we roll down to Cooper’s (a bastion of civilisation out here in the sticks). Of course they do not have what we need, but Leon lives just up the road and we bump into him while looking up his phone number at home, as we were about to call him… Unfortunately, he is on his way out to supper with his lovely wife and can’t get our new friend going. We follow him to his house where he quickly roots around in his garage (the one behind his house that everyone has, not his shop garage that only mechanics have) and finds a few bolts that “should work” and sends us off (sigh). We are now accompanied by his 14 year old son, who will let us into Leon’s garage (his shop garage that only mechanics have, not the one behind his house that everyone has) to grab some tools. The shop is blissfully, surprisingly, on our way back to our house and the broken down trailer. We are not sure if the bolts that Leon has given us will fit, because my new friend did not bother to bring one from the other side of the trailer (as I had suggested) to compare to others in the event that we could actually get some replacements… When we get back to our place, Daniel, Leon’s son, goes right to it and he manages to get three out of four of the bolts on and torqued well on… My friend, however thinks that the problem he had is because the rims on his ancient trailer are worn out and that the same issue will arise again if he does not change the rims… So right now, we have a couple camping in our driveway (knock, knock -> can we fill up our pitcher…. knock, knock -> can you spare some tea… knock, knock -> we need more water…. bathroom…). It’s not the end of the world, but I’d really rather not and there will probably be more tomorrow…

It’s still raining…

There’s a grass snake living under our garage that has the kids super excited. I sent B off with instructions to come back with photos.

Digital camera in hand, she happily set off and returned with a treasure trove of pictures and stories of how the snake scared one of her chickens… <giggle> <giggle> <giggle> <happy> <happy>

Here are some of the photos (”Oh ya, I took a few of the chickens too… And one of the pig”)

Pengu and old boot

What was that? I think it was a snake!

Avalanche Junior

Portobello, of course

Some henny with a bare patch on her back. I’ll let you figure out how this happens. Hint: count the number of roosters in the pictures….

Rocky (1/2 barred rock rooster)

Pepper (another hand raised -by B- rooster)

One of the young peahens in the process of raising her tail

Quilty

Snake! finally

Peak!

Snake

Hello!

Beach:
We went to the beach today for only the second time this year. It was wonderful. Panting’s Beach is nice and sandy. We went down and explored the big rocks where there are always tons of crabs, hermit crabs, snails and sometimes seals (although no seals today).

There was a moment when D realised that he was surrounded by “Pinchy Crabs” and had a little cry, but I ran in and whisked him away from the horrible brutes. He was immediately happy again.

There was a couple with two young boys who walked up our way and were trying to take a family picture on the beautiful red rocks. I offered to take the picture as they were having trouble balancing the camera and we talked for a few minutes. There is something about the local folks around here. At one glance, I can usually predict if someone is from here or not. They were not.

On the walk across the beach to go home, we passed a family from Quebec. The type that give Quebecers a bad name. She was smoking on the beach in a tiny bikini. Strangely her skin was not the colour and texture of old leather (Maybe in a few years. We all need goals!). He was huge, fat, poutine filled walrus, but, thankfully, he had left his speed-o at home. Right as I came up beside them, they decided that it would be a good time to make out. The chorus of lip smacking and ooo ummms was na-a-sty!

Bugs:
The bugs are worse than ever this year. It’s difficult to be outside on most days. The kids will not be deterred, however, and they all have bug bites that have been itched into open wounds. B has solved her issue with the itchy bug bites on her legs…. Band-aids!

(Keep in mind you can not see the ones on the back of her legs)

Peacock:
Well, we are down to one last peacock. Pride, our big beautiful boy, who was here when we moved in, was mowed down in front of our house last Friday. The person did not stop or even slow down. The whole family was sitting on the couch watching a movie together and having a nice evening together. The movie was nearing the end and the kids were going to be “off to bed” soon when I heard this horrible “CLACK” sort of noise… I turned and saw a champagne coloured SUV fly buy and the peacock roll to a stop. He was a completely intact bag of crushed bones and limpness… All of his tail feathers let go on impact and we scooped them up in a big handful. It’s a bit morbid, but we figured that we might as well keep them. They are all in the garage waiting to be sorted through to make sure there is no carnage on the ends of them and he was summarily scooped into the bottom of our compost bin (hopefully, we won’t get into any trouble for putting a whole animal in there).

So we are down to the last peacock. Pride’s son. B calls him “Glory.” Hopefully, he does not start to taunt the road as he grows older. He has a very unimpressive tail, but has immediately recognised that he is the top bird and has taken over the nightly crying out when he spots danger and peahen courting. He takes this latter very seriously and tries his very best to show off his limit assets to the girls. B says she wants to hatch their eggs, but we are not keen on having another bunch of females. We have six already. B has one that she is working on taming and it eats out of her hand now. The hen will snatch some food and run a safe distance away to eat and then return for more…

The Van:
Our 1998 Caravan died… Well, it was dying and we were starting to look for a new vehicle. It had just reached the age when we were no longer willing to put any money into it, then the transmission cracked… We were stranded here with an ancient truck that could only carry three of us. Not one car was available to rent on the entire island and no baby-sitters were available. We mentioned this to our friends who were visiting and they offered us their van. Normally, I would have said, “No, it’s too much trouble for you, ” etc, but we were stuck. We borrowed their van, packed four kids into it with strict instructions about how the day was going to go and headed out to buy a new one. We went to four dealerships, the bank, the insurance company and then back to the first place we started at. The same day, we returned our friend’s van to her in town and drove home in our 2007 Chevy Uplander with 43, 000Km (26, 700 Miles) on it. So far, so good (it’s been two weeks now).

You look out at yer property and seein’ yer happy pig sleepin’ ‘nder yer ol’ truck brings a tear to yer eye. <sniff>

This is the view from our kitchen windows.

The clouds cry with us (B mostly) this morning. Nero died last night of unknown causes. He had been “happy” and eating all day yesterday.

Sadly, we awoke to a dead baby crow.

Bean was fixed yesterday…

One our way back from picking her up, We saw a bird in the middle of the road. I moved to the side slightly to make sure that we did not roll over it. I figured it was dead, but wasn’t keen on smushing it flat… As we passed over it, we could see that it was not flat (as one would expect) and it look quite normal. It seemed to be just sitting in the road… B said that she thought she saw it move, so. . .

We turned around and I ran across the “highway” to scoop it up. When I reached down, it opened its eyes and checked me out… It was super hot on the blacktop and the poor thing was clearly suffering, so I scooped it up. It seemed fairly intact, and there was no scary mess underneath it. I figured it was a black bird that had been hit by a car and expected that it would die from internal injuries on the way home.

We arrived home with sleepy, ouchy Bean and a little black bird in hand and quickly got both of them settled. Bean slept in here crate and birdy was in a cage in the cool basement. After some research by B, she figured out that it is not a black bird as they apparently always have yellow beaks. A little bit of further searching shows us that we have a fledgling crow on our hands. He has perked up a great deal today and we have been playing momma bird by prying its beak open and cramming tiny pieces of chicken down its throat. The kids have decided that Nero (”black” in Italian) is an acceptable name for him and he will be referred to as such from now on.

Apparently, we will have to feed Nero every half an hour during daylight hours (sigh). It’s been a fun day already of running up and down the stairs to the basement. The good (?) side of all this is that if Nero survives we will have a pet crow on our hands. They are supposed to be incredibly smart and live to 17 years on average. If only we can tame him to sit on our shoulders and play fetch with a stick. . .

Our house becomes more like a visit to the circus every day!

As soon as the grass greens up, the horses start to lean on our wooden fence to try and reach the grass on the other side. Strangely, if you crush 1400+ pounds of horse flesh on a fence, it leans over and the occasional board splinters or falls off. This leads to much early morning grumbling and trudging around with cordless drill, crowbar, hammer, nails, screws, large boards and fence ban-aids (small pieces of wood that I put over where the boards meet to strengthen up where the nails are) to correct the problem.

Over the week-end, K worked on attaching electric fence holders onto the inside of our fence and running a wire around the inside of the paddock. I hooked up the charger today and the fence is definitely working… I know, I tested it (with my hand, not my tongue as suggested in the manual). I’ve been expectantly watching in the hopes of seeing the horses discover that the fence is on. No luck yet.

On Saturday, I was annoyingly trying to get a part for our Sears Craftsman rider mower. Sears doesn’t stock it, of course and the incredibly unhelpful people working there were very busy watching TV in the electronics department. As it turns out, I did manage to get new blades for the mower, but it also needs a new drive belt. Once again, Sears does not have the correct part in stock and the same TV watchers were there. They told me that they could not tell me which belt I needed even though I had the mower part, etc. with me, making no effort to stop watching TV all the while… I picked up what seemed like the correct part, but it did not fit. The mower still worked well enough to cut the lawn, but it was incredibly annoying as there is a thin spot on the belt and it causes the thing to vibrate. As a coupe-de-gras of my day, it started to rain when I was almost finished and was working on the last tiny bit of lawn. I decided to try to get right up next to the edge of the ditch and the mower slipped on the wet grass and bumped off the edge. It summarily tossed me off into the ditch. I turn to watch the mower skip a bit in my direction and I quickly scurried away. I had visions of the thing rolling over on top of me… Thankfully, it just settled down (it stops running when no one is sitting on the seat). I pushed it off the edge, mowed the last strip and ran inside to escape the rain. Sunday dawned with sore muscles and cramps from my three/four foot fall. We had a late breakfast and went to the beach with Bean and Molly…