Chilly, wet night and update on Sam and Autumn

Well, it's a rainy, windy, chilly night here, down to 8 degrees so far, brrrr. Not cold enough to start the woodstove yet though! I want to thank you all for your kinds and uplifting comments for Sam and Autumn. They cheered me up greatly and I am truly blessed to have so many wonderful, kind blogger friends :) We had a rather rough week with Sam. He is still here with us, surprising, he doesn't want to give in! I did some internet research to see what I could possibly find and thought I would try some holistic remedies first. I know it could be anything with him being a senior dog and vets charge so very much.... I decided to try some turmeric mixed with water to help his tummy and it stopped the throwing up thanks goodness. Since he lost so much weight in just a week, I had a suspicion that he may have worms (eww) and the kind that are unseen, even vets have to use a microscope to see and diagnose. So with that in mind, I found that using DE ( dianthemicus (sp?) earth) food grade of course, is a non toxic way to get rid of them. You can use it for mites, worms, fleas etc. and it won't hurt humans or animals. I also started giving him Pedialite childrens replacement fluid to help with his electrolytes and give him back some strength. I was doing all this through a medicine syringe( without the needle) and I can tell you, that despite his weakness, he was not too happy with me prying his mouth open for any of this, lol. I am even spoon feeding him wet dog food. Today, he has been the most brightest that he has been all week, he is now drinking lots of water on his own and he even ate pepperoni eagerly. Last night was my son Noah's 13 th birthday, and we had pizza and chicken wings, and Sam actually sniffed the chicken wing with interest, so I cut the chicken up and he ate it! Noah was so worried that Sam would die on his birthday :( But he is happy now that Sam is still here with us. So, I now have Sam in cloth diapers( I knew I had kept them from when my kids were babies for a reason), and because Sam is still weak and can't get up in time to go out to the bathroom, I have put these on him and it is much easier to change them instead of cleaning up a massive mess of poop and pee, hehe, I don't know why it took me all week to come up with this idea, lol. I carry Sam upstairs at night and when I have a rest since he wants to be upstairs with me and climbing 13 steps is too hard for him right now...Can you tell I love my dogggy bunches?? :D
So this week has been busy...my oldest daughter turned 16 on Tuesday, and I took her 45 minutes away to get her G1 licence( that's the first written test), and we drove all that way just to find out she need another piece of identification with a picture and her signature. Ugh, what 16yr old has all this I.D. on them? We didn't have to have it when we took our drivers test. So now, I will have to take her back again since she had to have a form filled out by her principal at school stating that they have known her for 2 yrs and that they confirm who she is. What a pain, lol. Oh well, on her birthday, she took in a resume at our local Co-op country feed store, and they called her the next day for an interview! She is just waiting for them to call her back with news of a job, but it would be perfect for her, as she can take the school bus there after school and get picked up when they close and work Saturdays as well, and it's less than 10 mins away from home!! Keeping our fingers crossed that she gets the job :)
And now onto Autumn...I think she has found her home...here :) Although James was adamant about having no more pets, she is winning his heart over and she even sleeps with him... I told him tonight how our 5 yr old son Kaedyn had said to me one day..." you know mom, if we don't say anything to dad about keeping Autumn, maybe in awhile he won't notice that she is still here". I had to smile about that! She is such a sweetie, typical kitten getting into everything, but she is standing her ground with our older cats and letting them know that they are not going to boss her around. I'm just happy that we found her in time and that she has a warm, safe home and I love her when she cuddles up under my neck and purrs loudly while she sleeps.
Well, I guess I'd better go, hoping to once again catch upon everyone since I have not been able to all week. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by!!

Hugs and blessings, Trish

Autmun, our stray kitten and some goodies from Kristine over at APP :)

Towels that go so well with my kitchen!!
YUM! They smell wonderful!!

Meet Autumn, the stray kitten we found on the first day of "autumn", :)


It's Friday! Not sure the time has gone but the week has just flown by! Luckily we have had some summer like weather but today it's a little cool and rainy with spurts of sun poking through...sleepy weather! On the first day of autumn, we had a little stray kitten show up, she can't be more than 8 or 9 weeks old. Poor thing was hiding in the raspberry cane bushes but my daughter went in, prickles and all and rescued her. We named her Autumn , isn't she sweet? She was covered in dried dirt and oil(well that's what it smelt like), someone must have dropped her off around here and she found her way up to the house. This occurs just days after my kids begging for another kitten and my husband saying flat out "NO MORE PETS!!", so just imagine what he was thinking when he found out about this little sweetie, lol. Of course we are just taking care of her until we find her a good home, we already have 3 cats and one is pregnant :P For now, Autumn is staying in Alexis's room until she gets bigger and can manage escaping from our aussie shepperd dog Zoe who likes to terrorize the cats...

On Tuesday after checking the mailbox, I found a surprise...and no bills! lol. I couldn't wait to open it, it was from Kristine over at APP magazine. She sent me a Random Act Of Kindness package, how sweet of her to think of me! Inside the box were 3 prim dishtowels and a prim dish cloth, and a very nice package of potpourri bowl fillers...yum, do they ever smell nice and just in time for my autumn decorations! I have to find a special place to put my dish towels, they are too nice to use! I can honestly say, this surprise brightened my week as it has been wishy washy to say the least. Thank you so much Kristine for thinking of me and cheering me up :)
Okay for the wishy wash stuff, I've had to go into the highschool and deal with my daughters principal...not a fun thing to do at all! Ugh, they way they run the school it's no wonder kids want to drop out and I can't get my girl outta there soon enough! Next week she turns 16 and than she can transfer to a school where she will actually get help for the subjects that she is having a rough time in without being made to feel intimidated and stupid... And now for the next thing...our 10 yr old beagle Sam has not been eating and is getting weak, I think he is sadly on his way off to a better place soon. He is my baby, I picked him out from The Peterborough Humane Society 7 years ago, and he has always snuggled in my bed when it's cold, howled when I come home and wagged his tailed so happily..He's just not the same now, he still follows me from room to room, and lies down by my feet, but he's not even stealing food like he always does..So I am bracing myself for the inevitable :( Okay I am about to cry just thinking of it...
Well, I must get some lunch and go snuggle with my Sam, hope you are having a wonderful Friday,

Take care!
Hugs, Trish

Auction finds....

Thermometer for $1
My no sew make do burlap curtains....

Wooden crates...need ideas what to do with them, lol
Large crock on the far left $6
Crock jug for $1 and large flour sieve for $2

Well, it's Monday again, where is the time going? It's the middle of September and fall will be officially here in just a few days! I like fall, but the way time has being going by so quickly, I don't like what is just around the corner after... I shudder at the thought of it...
This weekend I went to another auction. I tried to get hubby to come with me but he told me to go on my own :P Luckily my 8 yr old daughter Brynn wanted to come and we had fun but it was alot of standing and our feet and backs were getting sore! I did score some nice things and only spent about $28 dollars total... The jug crock was covered in black/brown gooey oil substance and nobody wanted it so I grabbed it for a dollar...with a little elbow grease it came out fairly clean even though it has some faint cracks on the sides, I don't mind. The huge crock has a bigger crack in it but I just turn it around so you can't see it. I was happy to win the flour sieve, I have been wanting one for awhile now!
About a month ago, I went into our local Co-op feed store and found some burlap sacks for $2.99 each and decided to try and make some curtains with them. Since I don't sew very well, I carefully picked the seams out and than placed rusty safety pins on them and hung them up with jute twine. I think they turned out quite well :) I want to do the same for our living room windows, but the sacks are not long enough, so I have to figure out how to attach the sacks together to make them longer but not have them look goofy, lol. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know!!
Well, I think I'm going to go curl up in bed, it's a rainy night and I have the sniffles and we are holding off on starting the woodstove up, it's been quite chilly here at night! Hope everyone had a fabulous day!!
Hugs, Trish

New piggy pictures and my drysink redo :)

hmm, what can we find in here?
What are you looking at?
Meet Petunia and Petals....oops, just discovered it's Porky, lol :D





Good morning!! The sun is shining, it's a little cool today, fall is definitley on it's way. Before we know it, it will be time to start up the woodstove to stay cozy warm at night. Which reminds me that I need to cleanup the woodstove room and paint it before we start using the woodstove. So much to do and not enough time! Today is the first day this week that I am on my own, My daughter Alexis was sick on Monday with a sore throat and swollen glands, and it wasn't Kaedyn's day to go to school, than Tuesday Rhys was home sick, than yesterday Alexis mussed the bus and I had a flat tire and couldn't drive her school, so I had 3 kids home...and I got nothing done, lol. Today, I don't know what I am going to do, putter around and clean and maybe try some crafting, or just sit outside and enjoy the animals and sunshine :) As you can see, my husband completed the pigpen last night so we tested it out this morning and the piggies love it! They are already trying to dig in the dirt around where the post were put in, lol, so I have to keep a close eye on them. I need to get myself a pair of farmers coveralls because every time I go in to feed them, they come running at me and get me with their dirty noses and my clothes don't look so great, lol. I love having the pigs, they are like dogs, coming up for a pet and following me wherever I go in the pen. I don't know how it will be when they get up to 250 lbs though, it could be interesting to say the least. Well, I thought I would pop in and say hello and hope you are having a lovely Thursday! I will be on later tonight when it's quiet to check in on everyone!

Hugs, Trish

Piggies,chicks and flowers...

A few flowers from my garden in which I do not have a green thumb!
Baby chicks were scared of the camera, lol
Piggies dirty from rooting through the shed :)

Our newest farm critters, back to school and annual Durham Central Fair!

Good Saturday evening everyone!!
Well, school has started back and everyone is enjoying greatly (me too!), just my daughter who is in gr 11 is not so happy, she's having a few problems and I am frustrated with her school!
Anyhow, with back to school, comes with it our annual Durham Central Fair which opened on Thursday. It was cheapie night so we took the kids, you all know how much it can cost taking 4 kids to the fair right? Well we all got in for $10, kids 13 and under got in free and it was 2 for the price of 1 for adults and parking was free thanks to Tim Hortons for sponsoring the Fair!! The rides were 1 ticket each ($2 a ticket, but considering on any other night the tickets are like $3 each and each ride takes 2 - 3 tickets), so we actually did pretty good. I feel so old knowing that I cannot go on those wicked rides that the kids go on these days, seeing as when I was younger I could handle them, lol, now I just get queasy looking at the kids on the Ring of Fire, and The tomahawk and The Salt and pepper Shaker and the Zipper...makes me want to throw up just watching,, hehe. We made it back home by 9:30 and the kids went straight to be and slept all through the night. The next day was for all the local schools to gather at the fairgrounds and compete in the Farmers Olympics consisting of the manure throw ( with bean bags :D), the tractor pull( riding a tricycle and pulling a square bale of hay), the round hay bale push( where 2 kids had to push a large round bale of hay a certain distance under a certain amount of time), tug of wars and many other events! There was also floats from each school that paraded down the main street in Orono to the fairgrounds, lots of agricultural tours where students got to learn all about farming and making butter and cooking and raising animal etc. All in all, the kids had an awesome time and once again returned home happy but pooped! Nothing says Fall like the tradition of The Fair!!
So the Sunday before we had gone to Lindsay area to pick out some cute little piggies to raise for meat ( sorry kids, don't get too used to them, lol) So we now have Petunia and Petals( yes they are girls). They don't stink like I thought they would and now that they know who's feeding them ( me, lol), they come right up to the front of the shed and snort and look at their food dish and look at me than snort again as if to say " come on feed us we're starving" My hubby has been working so much he hasn't gotten around to making a pen yet and this weekend he is working the Oshawa RibFest, so it's just another task being put off, what else is new!!
A few weeks ago we got a surprise from one of hens that we had thought went missing. We heard some chirping going on inside one of our portable garages, so we took a peek, and low and behold, under our Speckles was some really cute chicks. She had 6 but 3 of them did not make it :( I had to put them in a pet crate in the chicken coop til they get bigger. I'm trying to load some pictures of our piggies and chicks so hopefully it will work!
That's it for now, hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend!!
Hugs, Trish

My apopogies for not being around...

Happy Friday everyone!! I haven't been around blogland much lately, not that I haven't tried, but my internet really sucks lately and every time I go on to read a blog or post a comment I get server cannot be found etc... really ticks me off! I am actually surprised that it is working right now!! It's a long weekend, labour day weekend for us and the kids go back to school on Tuesday!! They are eager to go back and I think I will let a little sigh of relief as well even though I love having them around :) I'm not even going to try and post pics today cause I know it won't work, lol. I have had a trying week, lol. I almost broke my toe when my foot got tangled up in the livingroom chair cover Monday night and the carpet runner slipped under me... you should have heard the thunderous thud! Hubby thought I broke my leg, hehe, but I just ended up bruising my middle toe very badly and it was very painful, along with the huge bruises on my knees...looks like someone beat me, lol. Than this morning when I went out to meet the neighbor who was knocking at our door, I tripped on the same foot, my shoe flew off and I cut the bottom of my foot on the concrete porch. I was so embarassed :( So I am once again hobbling around the house. It looks like it's going to be a busy weekend for us, last minute back to school shopping and hubby wants to buy a couple of pigs to raise for meat, some one has some for sale so we have to build a pen etc. And in between I am going to try and catch up on everyone's updates on their blogs :)
So that's about it for me right now. Hope everyone has had a wonderful week and enjoy your weekend!!

Many hugs, Trish