Spa Day for the Princess

Bending down and combing Brooklyn for an hour every second day was kind of hard on the back, so I decided to take her to a doggie groomer for a bath, blow dry, and trim, with emphasis on removing the heavy undercoat that Retrievers get.. Note the long belly hair and excess leg hair. Nope, I did not opt for the wax job. :-}

Before

The next three photos are the after shots. She looks a lot better and hopefully, a lot cooler.

It will be a shame to take her over to the park and swim her.

 Her coat is just like silk at the moment.

 Happy dog!

OK, OK, It is Pretty

The short term memory loss must have kicked in as I don't remember all the details of snow blowing 400 feet of driveway and 2500 square feet of deck. Nor do I remember the 2 1/2 hours of exercise, much.
(If you believe that, I heard of a pretty good bridge for sale cheap).

It warmed up from the -28C (-18F) to -10C (14F) today so I decided to find the snow shoes in a packed and stacked garage.

Besides, Brooklyn needed some exercise. Boots elected to stay inside on the bed.

 This is the backside of a deer going by the deck

 50+ cm (20 inches) of snow so far and it is only November 23!

 Do I have to break trail, Boss?

 Yep, we'll get some weight off you somehow!

 Never follow a tired dog!

 Can't a person have some privacy? Really!

 The young fawns of this year are already belly dragging. Not a good sign!

 Homeward bound, on the trail.

 The shoes are 50+ years old, and still going strong.

Yep, I guess it is pretty!

Killing Time

All the packing is done that can be done before the move away from the Acreage. I took the opportunity to take the dogs for a walk and got a bonus.

 There was so much sniffing going on, Boots may have strained his nose. :-}

 Brooklyn decided to stay mostly on the road

 This was the bonus. A cow and a calf moose got up and crossed the road.

 I tried to circle them to get some closer pictures, but Boots saw them.

The temperature got up to +7C  (45F) which made it pretty sloppy walking. A freezing rain storm came through in the night and made the roads treacherous. Ah, life in Alberta! If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes.

Wordless Wednesday

Brooklyn

Almost the last swim of the year

Follow up to "I Said I wouldn't...But"

It's amazing the difference that a summer will make. This was the pile cleaned up this spring.

This is the same pile on Sept 25. By spring it will be even further broken down and ready to go to work in the garden.

Just to show that some things are prettier than a precompost and compost pile. Here is Brooklyn still trying to catch ducks. She swam across several times trying to get one.

 Boots was late getting up this morning. He spent a lot of time last night keeping the coyotes at bay.

SWAMP DOG 2

So much for the water being too cold, and the ducks being uncatchable!

 The chase is on again!

 You can see how the trees are turning to their fall colours.

 Gonna get da duck, gonna get da duck!

 Needless to say, no ducks were hurt in this photo session.

Update

The hope that Elaine would be home this weekend kind of diminished. It turns out that she is reacting badly to the Parkinson's medication , Cinnamex. This leaves her very nauseous. To compound it, her thyroid count was way off. She is staying under house arrest in the hospital for another two weeks.

The weather here has turned back to rain and cool, more like the typical fall days, with a high of 14C (57F) and a low around +2C (36F).

Either Brooklyn has realized that she can't catch ducks or the water is getting too cold. After all, she grew up as a city gal. Anyway, this is possibly the last swimming picture of the year.

I have been reading blogs, but not commenting very much and not posting as much as I would like, but there seems to be a shortage of time in the day.

Just in Time!

Yesterday, I listened to the weather forecast and decided to pick these. The forecast was for a severe frost warning!

 It only got to -1C (30F), but it was enough to wilt off the pole beans.

 It also got the bush beans.

 I figured that Brooklyn might not want to swim. This was a bad assumption. The ducks were enjoying the warmth of the sun on shore, but not for long.

 Around and around she went, trying to catch one of those pesky ducks.

Still in hot pursuit.

 The muskrat was not involved in the chase.

 Nor were these ducks that were hiding in the weeds.

 The ducks are getting very close to flight. There have also been several large flocks of Sand Hill Cranes way up high "V" ing their way south.

It would appear that fall is upon us!

Quite a Week!

For me, Wednesday and Thursday are a bit of a blur.

I decided about noon on Wednesday to go for a horse ride. I took Alpine out because she was next in line for a ride. she was very compliant in the paddock, so I started to ride her around the Acreage. No problems. The second time up the driveway at a fast trot, she ducked her head and bucked! I had no time to get my weight back, so departed the horse on the second buck. Normally, I can ride through this, but not this time. I went over the handle bars about 8 feet up, and landed flat on my back.

The Cause

The next thing I remember  is Brooklyn licking my face and head butting me to get up. I looked for Alpine and saw her up near the house walking back to the corral.

The Heroine

I managed to get to my knees just in time to see Elaine leaving the house to catch Alpine.

This was the first time that I didn't want to get back up on the horse, or should I say, couldn't?

I managed to get up the hill, un saddle her and get her back into the yard with Biz. I put the tack away then went in to lay down for a bit. My back was pretty badly bruised and I had a few cuts on the inside of my arm. I was dizzy and Elaine decided that I was going to the hospital.

They took X-rays which showed nothing broken as far as they could see. However I was in a lot of pain so they shipped me over to Hinton for a CAT scan, thinking that I may have damaged liver, kidneys or?  It turns out every thing was OK except for a partially deflated lung, which they said would recover by itself.

The new resident at the hospital gave me a real going over for not wearing a helmet. She was not too receptive to the fact that I did not hit my head, but managed to tuck it.

They gave me a couple of pills, anti inflammatory and pain which made things bearable.

Thursday after noon they released me to go home.

Now, Elaine has been suffering from the onset of Parkinson's disease which has severely limited her mobility and ability to eat or drink. The medicines that they have prescribed so far have given minimal relief so far. Friday morning they stuck her in the hospital to try and get to the bottom of things. This was not quite an overlap, but close.

The ex patient (me) is now the one doing the visiting.

All in all, quite a week!

Summer Progresses

Five loads of hay have been hauled. Seven more to go in September when a couple of brothers do their second cut and bale some squares. They also deliver!

 The hay storage now has 115 bales in it. I should be able to pack 120 in the other side. The balance will go on skids in front and under tarp. For the life of me, I can't figure out why hay producers just lay the bottom course of a pile on the ground! It causes the bales to wick moisture up, and in short time the bottom course is good only for cows, maybe. Companies here can't get rid of their skids and they make an ideal platform to get the hay off the ground. The skids are also free!

 The horses have now been moved back to the upper pasture. Hopefully, I will get 3 to 4 weeks out of the field, and several back in the lower before the snow comes.

 This sweet little 102 pound darling looks pretty good before brushing.

 She looks much the same after brushing, except for the pile of hair in front of her. I get this much off every second day, and haven't got down to dog yet.

In this part of the country we get to miss quite a few summers, but never get the chance to miss a winter. Perhaps Brooklyn knows that this will likely be a cold winter. She is sure hanging onto the insulation. The general opinion around the coffee shop, you know, the Good Old Boys club, is that with the crappy summer, we will likely have a crappy winter. Don't you just love optimism?

The old timers are starting to nod when I come in, so maybe I am about to be assimilated. Now that is a scary thought! I am way to young to be an official member!

The raspberries are done! Family and friends picked about 30 pounds and the remaining 20 pounds or so got knocked off in a heavy rain and hail storm.

First Snowshoe of the Year

These are Ojibwa shoes that are about 45 years old. They are still going strong, although some of the babiche is getting a little thin. They have many, many miles on them from locations such as Kenora, Iroquois Falls, Thunder Bay and Whitecourt. In fact, they will likely outlast me. I was tempted to get a set of aluminum shoes, but decided that the natural quiet of wood and hide is preferable.

Brooklyn far enjoys the packed trail rather than being a snowplow. She is kind of built to push snow, with narrow shoulders and a wide butt.

 Come on boss! hurry up! I need to go back for a power nap.

 This is noon again and this is about the brightest it gets at this time of year. It's tough to get good photos when the lighting is flat.

 I thought I saw a squirrel! How come he stays on top and I sink? It's not fair!