Taking a Break

Hi friends. I’ve decided to take a blogging break.

I’ve been cranking out three posts a week for a year and a half, and I’m feeling a bit, well, uninspired lately. I’ve been spotty on posting in the last couple months, and I apologize for that. It’s not that I don’t love blogging, it’s just that it’s started to feel like a bit of a chore or a job, and that’s the death knell for any hobby – when it starts to feel like work.

So a wee break is what I need. Probably a couple weeks; at most, a month. Just ’til some stories pop into my head again.

(You can still follow me on Pinterest, too. I’m a bit addicted, and pretty much pin every day! http://www.pinterest.com/dreambles)

That’s a Wrap!

The lady bees are still busy kicking the drones out of the hive.  We thought they had removed them all on that first day, but apparently it’s a bit of a longer process.  They even removed a drone larvae the other day – creepy white translucent half-grown bee – ewwww.

Even though they are still foraging a bit, and feeding a bit, it’s time to wrap the hive for winter.  Will and I made an insulating wrap from heavy black plastic and leftover insulation (thank you Alan!)  You basically tuck the insulation in the plastic and then fuse the plastic together using an iron and wax paper.  We wrapped the hive up after the bees had settled down for the night (we tried to do it earlier, but boy were they agitated).  The top of the hive also gets insulated, but we’re still feeding them for the winter, so it’ll have to wait until that’s done.

Here’s hoping they make it through their first winter with us (fingers crossed!)

This Weekend on the Homestead – The Final Harvest

So sad.  The garden is empty.  That means Winter is coming.

We pulled the last of the veggies out – carrots and beets – and then we let the girls go wild in the dirt.  Will gave it a once over with the rototiller, and now it’ll lie empty and dormant and sad until Spring.  Sigh.

But the harvest was delicious.  I doled out tiny carrots to the dogs all afternoon (for some reason, they think carrots are treats.  Go figure).

We roasted carrots and beets for supper (glazed with honey and balsamic vinegar – yum), and ate those with a grass-fed rib-eye steak done on the BBQ.  We’re trying a new meat supplier.  I was finding the meat to be tough and difficult to prepare with our old supplier.  I was prepared to have to change a bit for grass-fed beef, but we just weren’t getting quality meat.  This new supplier is awesome – plus I can buy pastured pork from them, too!  Hurrah!

Hope you had a fantastic weekend!

 

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A Bad Day

Tags

Animal, Dog, Leash, pet, Police station

Today smashed my illusions that pet sitting/dog walking is my dream job.

On my first dog walk of the day, a man exposed himself to me in the park.  I didn’t think to call 911, but I did go to the police station after work and report it.  It was all so icky and freaky.  At first I thought it was an accident, but then I realized he totally did it on purpose.  He ran past me, stopped, turned around and walked past me with his  . . . thing . . . sticking out of his pants.  His erect thing.  It wasn’t an accident.

On my last dog walk of the day, the dog was huge and uncontrollable.  I finally tired her out, or so I thought, in the last 20 minutes of the walk.  We were almost home when she saw a cat, and LUNGED for it.  I felt like a truck hit me.  I think it gave me whiplash.  My neck snapped back as she pulled me forward.  Then she proceeded to give chase to the cat, pulled me off my feet and dragging me on my butt across the neighbour’s lawn and almost under their porch.  I finally stopped her by using the handrail as a lever to pull her leash tight.  I don’t think I’ll walk her ever again.  At least, not without a pinch collar.  People, if you’re going to have big dogs you MUST train them to be obedient.  Otherwise, they are dangerous.  To themselves and to others.

So yeah, all in all, a bad day.  Guess it can’t get much worse, though, so that’s looking on the bright side, right?

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