Day Eighteen- Warm Weather

This time last year, the temperature was -1.3degrees celcius and there was snow on the ground (unfortunately). This morning, I did chores in sweatpants and a long sleeve shirt. No jacket, no gloves, no frozen water lines. So far, I have only had one morning that something has frozen and it was the little collection of water on top of the outside goat feeder.




Here is a short (well it's long and I wouldn't expect you to watch all of it) clip of goat bliss. Make sure you pay attention to the mouth action of this particular fellow. He is quite enjoying himself! There are some guest appearances at the end as well. A Roland McNugget, a Pipsqueak and another goat!

Day Seventeen- Neighbors

Sometimes when I'm driving home from school or work and there is no one else on the road, I feel like I really am living in the boondocks. Once you get on Lougheed Hwy in Mission and head out this way, you pass through a number of little towns. Dewdney, Deroche, Lake Errock, Aggassiz (among others) and end in Harrison Hot Springs. Although it feels this way sometimes, I am really surrounded by neighbors. If I wanted to see into Wayne & Lucy's windows, I probably could. The property next to me is vacant but the next two houses have horses and families and have all been really friendly. The new neighbors across from me though are super nice and helpful.
This is Dax. One of two dogs. Ironically, the other dogs name is Riley (which is my last name).

The husband is a framer and had this shed up in 2 days and had the tin up and the rest finished the next day. It is very cool- where the fenceline in the middle meets it, it is divided with a wall. There is a wall in the middle as well and then it is open totally on the other side for the field behind the fence. I'm not going to lie either, it is nice having a buffer on that side of the road from the mountain!

Day Sixteen- Damages

This is the result of the gate repair today. The posts and lungelines will come down on Saturday night or Sunday morning. While I realize it isn't the safest way to do it, I have to keep the horses away somehow!

This is what I found when I went outside the other morning. Not impressed!

The bent gate!

Sitting on an angle.

This tree snorfling was definitely a Tonka doing. I went outside the other day to find him with an orange nose. It took me a while to put two and two together as there is not much orange in the paddock.

To see this damage, you have to look at the fence and not Ty (although he is dangerously handsome). I think I did a pretty good job fixing it myself!

It's got a pretty funky warped thing going on!

Day Fifteen- Free Horse

I am so frustrated with my own horse I could send him off right now and not feel bad at all (you know I wouldn't but I think we have all had that feeling every once in a while). In the past three days, he has almost dumped me numeous times on the trail (his stallion attitude has returned with a vengeance) ripped his blanket, ripped Tonka's blanket (don't worry Sarah- I'll either repair it or buy him a nice new one), bent the gate to Wayne's property trying to get food from Wayne and ripped a hole in the fence. In his defense, I am not sure the latter was completely him, but Tonka doesn't usually cause trouble, so I can only imagine. Everything is fixed to a workable state. I am fairly handy- I couldn't build a cool loafing shed in 3 days like the neighbors have, but I can fix a fence with zap straps and wire snips.

On the plus side, it's sunny today! And I have some mucho exciting news that I cannot share yet as it is dependent on a couple things, but it involves me never having to move back home ever again!

Day Fourteen- Goat Van

Today I decided that I was going to gut to goat van. The wind blows all the rain in through the door and it was squishy and gross. The goats have Sarah convinced that they are going to keel over and die if they don't have heated water and alfalfa (but only the leaves and not the stems). However, I am suspicious of this theory. They seemed pretty keen to eat their new hay bedding as soon as it was spread out. Speaking of new bedding, have you ever seen goats with short legs try to walk through fluffy hay? It is pretty comical and if it wasn't raining I would have taken some pictures.

I am starting to suspect that the inside animals are plotting my death via too much dog hair. The girls seem to get up and wander down stairs at the same time and non-nonchalantly return upstairs at the same time, while Spike (the cat) converses with them. Spike likes to hear himself talking, and likes to eat (your food more than his) and likes to take up your bed. HEY! Maybe he isn't a cat at all, maybe he is a real man! Sarah, if you stop seeing facebook updates, call someone important! The animals may have taken over.

Day Twelve and Thirteen

This is Pipsqueak. She is really small.

This is Titan. He is really, really big.

And they are madly in love.

Every morning while I'm outside, she wanders into the paddock with her little tail in the air and prances around while Titan follows her (I am not sure it is following though- it may be chasing at a controlled speed). She flops onto her back and Titan stands over and watches her. It is quite the scene!

Day Eleven

Four steps to ensure that two lazy horses get the exercise they need:

• Turn them out in the pasture and leave the gate to the paddock open.
  
• Make sure one (who happens to be white) stands along the fence line so that he can see the property across the street. The other one must be at the end of the pasture, eating non-nonchalantly.
• Watch as the neighbors SIX (I lied yesterday) horses come galloping into the field beside the road.
• This is when the exercise required will be excused.
  

In case you were wondering, everyone survived. There was just a little running involved. Tonka was more of an excited trot up to the fence, Justin galloped around like no one's business (which isn't surprising, because he thinks he is still a stallion).

The boys checkin them out.

Justin is protecting hay and watching the neighbors. He is a multi-tasker.

Goats eye view.

It's raining again today, and they are actually calling for a break in it today and hopefully tomorrow sometime. I complain about the rain alot, but I actually like it more than I like the summer. I would rather layer up to stay warm than have to strip down to stay cool! Doing things in the rain motivates me to do them fast so that I can get out of it quicker.

Day Ten

Do you see three bums?

We finally have new neighbors! Two or so weeks ago, five beef cows arrived across the street in the field. Rumor around the 'hood was that there were horses coming, but the owner had 6 or 7 and needed to sell some before he moved them down from Chase. Yesterday while I was at school, three (I think- there may be another one hiding) horses showed up! When I got home, Tonka and Justin were in the corner underneath the trees watching the excitement.

Titan says Hello.

It is always sunny in the morning, which lulls you into a false sense of security. It rained twenty minutes later.

The snow line is slowly moving down the mountain, although it varies a lot depending on the weather that day.

Day Nine

Is it bad that I'm blogging from psychology class?

Last night, The Twilight Saga: New Moon was released at 10pm. There was no way I was missing that, so I fed everyone dinner early and headed out to join the line at 5:30 (and I wasn't even at the front of the line)!

There is not much new at Farcical Farm, besides the fact that when I got home last night at 1, it WASN'T raining! How nice is that? Too bad I couldn't enjoy it. I also noticed that Tonka is picking up Justin's bad habits. Justin knows these are bad, so doesn't do them when he knows he is in disciplining distance, whereas Tonka tries to get away with it. It is interesting to see Tonka's old man attitude come out!

Since there is nothing new, I thought I would formally introduce myself. As many of you know, my name is Tess and I am 19 years old. I have lived in Abbotsford my whole live, and LOVE the Fraser Valley. I have been riding since I was 8 and Justin is my third horse(I will go into more detail on him in a bit). I have competed in pretty much every discipline and have been in 4H since I was 11 or 12.

I am in my second-ish (don't ask, it's complicated) year of University majoring in History to become an Elementary School teacher (I want to teach Kindergarten).

I think that is all for now. Please do the sun dance for me!

Day Eight

More rain. Rain, rain, rain. I don't think it is ever going to stop. I am surprised at how well the property is holding up with all of the wetness. Being from the Fraser Valley, I am used to the mud but there is not much here (which I can thank David and Sarah for...their planning and use of crusher dust seems to have saved everything). I can no longer count on my fingers the number of times I have nearly ended up on my rear end in the goat paddock though. It is awfully slippery where the goats have made a path and when darkness falls at 3:00 (as it did yesterday with the storm), avoiding those spots are pretty hard.

This morning when I went to feed the horses, all the hay had been eaten, which is surprising as they had a bale and a half at least between the two feeders and the hay nets in the shelter. I soon found though, that they had ripped the zap straps on the top of the new feeder and had a 'hay day' with it. I'm so glad that was easily fixable.

On the plus side, I haven't had to fill water buckets or have a shower lately- the rain seems to be taking care of that just fine.

Day Seven

Today marks a week I have been at Farcical Farms, and what a week it has been. Four of those days (including tonight) have been under both rain and wind warnings, with snow last night. Everything is surviving fairly well, except for the chairs on the back porch which tried to commit chairicide by throwing themselves off it.

I got out for a ride today, down the road towards the woods and then back past the property and towards Lougheed Hwy. The dog, Titan, misses Justin more than Tonka (the other horse) does. He whined, cried and barked the whole time we were gone. I managed to get the horses out into the field for an hour or so, during which the dog had run of the paddock and the field. He dug a hole in the old manure pile, and came back with quite the brown nose!