Say What?

I have no opions of late. No great revulations or great discoveries.

I spend my days working, and when not at work I'm planning cub scout activities. And in the spare time i find i've been self teaching myself the guitar.

I'm mostly organized for the holidays. Just have to send out my holiday cards and a couple of packages.

So unltil i have something more to say enjoy listening to what a fox may say....

Lost and Found

I was lost, missing something in my life.

I found it when I started volunteering for my local scouting group.

I have been missing being involved in scouting for 11 years. But I'm back now.

My plan was to help with the cub scout group. Taking a back seat type role this year as the assistant leader, being the extra eyes and help with working with the youth. Well that plan failed. I along with the head leader have great enthusiasm and have developed a head team of sorts.

We work hard to provide an exciting and energetic program, keeping a group of 8-10 year olds busy and engaged can be tough at times.

One thing we've worked into our program is geocaching. The kids love it! Treasure hunting in this new high tech age!

I'm fired up and excited, maybe even more than the kids.

2 for 1 Wednesday

So its official, this year I will be a cub leader. Meetings start in two weeks with the kids. I'm excited to be back in scouting.

Two week ago I attended a fundraiser for our local animal shelter. For a donation you could get a professional photo taken with your pet. Unfortunately they didn't have a great turn out but I got some great pictures of the dogs (and me).

Me and the dogs, Finnegan, Lady & Molly

 

Finnegan, mutt(germand shepherd and australian shepherd) 7 minus 2 months yrs old

 Lady, Standard Silver Poodle, 7 3/4 yrs old

Molly, Border Collie, 14 3/4 yrs old

Molly, Border Collie, 14 3/4 yrs old

Death Becomes the Turkeys

Last Saturday was the end of the turkey's living life. They now will live out the remainder of their exsistance in our freezers until they are consumed.

My brother and dad and my brothers father -in-law were in charge of killing them and de-feathering and gutting. I and mom were in charge of packaging and grinding up 2 birds for ground turkey.

My brother and dad were surprised how strong the birds were. Well duh, these arent spring chickens we're dealing with. For the most part killing them went on without a hitch until the last bird, when Nick didn't quite have it killed by ringing its neck and when they chopped the head off....blood sprayed everywhere....but i guess one bird out of 10 isn't too bad???

Plucking is an area that needs improvement. We did the water dips and had a machine to take the feathers out easier but I found it messed up the skin too much and one bird even lost its skin -completely but mom took that bird and we ate it on Monday -tasted like turkey!  So if anyone has any tips on an easier plucking method I'm all ears.

Gutting went well too. Except dad isn't as tough as he says he is and was a little green when he decided to step in when Nick (my brother) took a break.

We also had the "help" of a couple young folk, Nick's in-laws were babysitting a 8 and 6 year old and they jumped right in to help and jumped from one thing to another. They were right into the whole process and was quite a learning adventure for them. They played with the guts separating the organs, playing with the leg tendons to make the foot open and close. Their parents thanked us for letting them help out saying its important to understand where our food comes from, which is something I agree with.

I forgot that raw meat smell was like when we were grinding them up in my kitchen...grinding went well with the help of my kitchen aid stand mixer with the meat grinder attachment. We did loose a tad bit of meat when mom used a wooden spoon and it got chewed up in the grinder...oops. And I only gagged one when I was trying to remove a blood cot from one of the bird's legs -one of my birds had been limping the last couple of days...I had to call one of the guys in to butcher the clot out.

All in all it was a sucessful turkey raising project. Our largest bird was 18 pounds and smallest 12 pounds, most averaged 16 pounds. And because of 3 birds dying and our start up costs the birds cost us $3.21 a pound. Next year we should be down around 2.20 a pound mark, which is a decent price for fresh turkeys around here.

Turkey Time

The turkeys die this saturday coming. They're nearly 16 weeks old, and its time before they get too big and wont fit in the freezer or worst in the roast pan. Its been an interesting venture being a back yard turkey farmer. Yes i still have my bird phobia, though its tiggered more by smaller flighty or unpredictable birds. Now that they dont jump at me i find the turkeys and i get along better. All in all i say I've had a pretty successful summer fattening them up, we haven't even killed them and mom is talking about next year. We shall see how the kill and butchering goes this weekend before we make any plans.

Future advice

I just read this article on Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ferrett-steinmetz/dear-daughter-i-hope-you-have-awesome-sex_b_3755185.html. It's basically a letter from a father to a daughter about life, growing up, discovering yourself, sex, and the hopes the father or any parent may have for their kids.

I've save the words to hopefully recall upon and use in the future, when I need to pass on some advice or just express my hopes.

With Hope They Waited

Over 3 years ago now, a man was killed in a fire just north of my home town. With him lived alot of dogs, most were the unwanted pets of others that he would take in and care for. When news of his death hit the animal welfare rescues and groups, many volunteers banded together to help the now orphaned dogs.

The author of this book, Marilyn Dickie, was one of the kind hearted people that adopted one of the many dogs we rescued. Upon hearing about the journey these dogs have gone through she took it upon herself to compile a memoir of the rescue of the dogs from Mile 26.

I am delighted to have had the opportunity to house many of the rescues at my kennel as they were being transported to shelters across Ontario. Marilyn asked a couple of us "angels" to write a little something about our part in the events that unfolded; so I am also happy that I will be forever published in my four pages in this book.

If anyone would like a copy you can email withhopetheywaited@hotmail.com with your name, address, and number of copies you would like. Books are 20.00 each plus shipping. Payments can be made by cheque or e-transfer -which can be arranged once contact has been made with the mentioned email. 100% of the profits are being donated back to non-profit animal rescues in Ontario.

(disclaimer updated aug 18 2013: books by email are 20.00, I had posted that they we're 15.00 as that is what is quoted on the last page of the book on how to order more copies; Marilyn asked me to change this post to the "correct" price. I appologize for any confusion as I was just taking the info that was printed in the book.)

Truths

Thought it would be fun to post some truths.

1. I‘m not a fan of the dark. Especially if i‘m alone.

2. I hate living alone, yet I enjoy the quiet and freedom it gives me.

3. Birds freak me out. The turkeys are not helping me get over that fact.

4. I love living in the country.

5. I would have no problems living as a farmers wife. Cooking and feeding the family and farm hands. Early morning chores and gardening, etc...

6. I have no desires to have biological children. I would love and will either foster or adopt children within the next 5 years or so.

7. I am a great friend. Many of my friends I‘ve had since high school or before.

8. I am fiercely independent and have a hard time accepting help or asking for help.

Rehab

So another issue to my declining blog posts is that the manager at my store decided that it would be a good time to go to rehab. I don't have all the details but stress, drugs and a messy life are all to blame. Shes being moved from the local detox centre to some kind of centre -that will focus more on councelling and getting her life together. I wish her all the best at figuring things out.

I on the other hand have been cannon-pulted into the managers job on top of my regular grooming job. Holy! is what I say about that. I've been working 12 hr days trying to straighten out her mess and learn how our computer system works with inventory and invoices and whatnot. I enjoy the work but all I really want to do is groom. Time will tell if she comes back to work or not; she is lucky that the store owner is a tad forgiving in that respect and she has a job to come back to. If she returns I have a feeling that there will be some awkwardness between us employees and her. How do you build trust with a person who just left you out to dry???

Last Chance to RUN!

This past weekend I was honoured to be the dudette(maid) of honour at my best friend of 20+ years' wedding. She was the last of my high school friends other than myself to tie the knot.

This cutie pie is the groomsman's step daughter she is a barrel of fun and energy. We didn't have a rehersal so all we told her is that her job was to carry a sign and walk to where the groom was standing. The first thing she did when we put her on the porch to get ready is yell the grooms name to find out where he was. It was precious. Then as she got closer to groom and people could read her sign there was nothing but laughter -the groom didn't know she would have this sign it was a surprise from the bride. It was great to start the wedding off on a fun light note.

 

It was just a gorgeous day, hot hot hot and sunny.

This is a sneak peek of one of the pics the photographer took, she works with the bride and just completed her photography course at college.

 Another one of the sneak peek pictures.

 Making it good and legal and official.

 

 

 

This picture captures the bride and groom perfectly. This was taken the day of the wedding later in the evening. It was a laid back backyard bbq wedding complete with a smores bar. They had matching t-shirts (the black ones) that has Mario and Princess Peach with the words game over under and then their wedding date. The groom had to change into the zombie t-shirt after the whole wedding party and a few friends conspired to throw him in the pool.

 

I was glad to be part of festivities, it was a great wedding.



Royal Tour

A big thank you to Royal Canin and their educational trip/conference/tour! My tour to visit the Royal Canin factory and distribution centre was fantastic. Not to mention it was an all paid trip. They spared no expense. I got my own king suite at the hotel, vouchers to eat at the hotel's fancy restaurant, transportation costs covered, and after a day of learning more about their products we were treated to a wine tour and fantastic meal at Rockway Winery.

I am impressed with Royal Canin's "sales pitch" as well, its more of a we're going to inform you about what dogs and cats need in their food nutrition wise and de-bunk how pet food in general is advertised and sold and let you form your own opinions on what you promote to your customers. It was pretty similar to some of the topics that got covered when I took my grooming course.

I was impressed with the cleanliness of both the warehouse and factory. I was also very impressed with their systems of quality control. It was also interesting to hear the history of the company and hearing about their research facilities. And as an added bonus they're very environmentally friendly!

I'm not entirely convinced that my dogs should be eating their food, mainly because their price point is still quite high, but atleast I know why its a premium pet food now.

Wrathful Wednesday

A couple updates before getting to my main story.

Bird phobia is still in full swing. However the turkeys and I seem to have worked out a system of sorts. Not entirely sure how this is going to progress as they continue to get larger. I may be calling in a support team. I'm also down another bird, so 11 turkeys left.

Work has been busy. On top of my grooming I'm helping with some re-organization and the store is in desperate need of it. Plus the manager and I are trying to get it all done before Friday so it will be all set before we go to our conference and before she goes on holidays. We're getting close.

Now to my main story:

Back in May a local man was attack by a black bear. The bear allegedly attacked his livestock(chickens), his dog(killed it), then went after the man. The man suffered many laseration wounds to his head and shoulder. To me the story sounds fishy, there's something just not right about the whole situation. Here's an article in the Timmins Daily Press http://www.timminspress.com/2013/05/12/man-injured-in-bear-attack. The bear was suposedly killed by the MNR. There has been no coverage as to whether or not there was something "wrong" with the bear or if it was a freak accident/attck.

Since this attack the paranoia over bear potentially attacking at random has sky rocketed. I think people are insane. Sure we should be aware of bears and educate ourselves on bear safety but really having arms at the ready just incase a bear strolls through your yard. I keep going back to "they are more afraid of you than you are of them", make loud noise to scare them away, let the dogs bark at them, keep garbage inside, clean up bird feeders etc. bear safe common sense seems no need to apply these days. Sure maybe the re-instatement of the spring bear hunt may help keep the bear population at bay, but I also think that we can learn to better co-exsit with them. Don't want to co-exist move to down town Toronto (or other equally large city).

Into thin air

So I was working away today, grooming my heart out. There's not much to concentrate on while grooming so my mind tends to wander while I'm going through my steps to beautify dogs. I had 2 or 3 great ideas for blog posts. Now that I'm at home; nothing.  I am going to have to start jotting down my ideas when I have them instead of filing them into my mental space to retrieve at a later time.

So in the mean time....

The turkeys turned 4 weeks old on wednesday. I had ordered 12, got 13; one died last friday so I'm back down to 12. They arent as ugly as they were, theyre starting to get their adult feathers and look less like naked chickens. This weekend I'm going to be brave and let them out of their pen while I clean their shed, its not terribly dirty yet but I want to get into the habbit of letting them outside while I clean the shed and I think them exploring their pen should be fine, they're big enough not to escape through any holes in the fence.

This weekend I get to work again...I need the money soo its not too bad. And i have no life, plus I'll have 7 dogs at my house so a couple hour break saturday morning will be nice. I'm also on stand by for our new student if she runs into any trouble she can call me and I'll go to her rescue. Shes also kind of being thrown under the bus this weekend too. As the manager is out of town for a fishing derby and the student who usually works weekends has her prom and is apparently not capable of working the day after prom, nor even coming in on Saturday at 1 to work for 4 hours. Whatever happened to going to work hung over or still drunk? Kids these days...I do have full confidence in our new hire, she just needs a little more practice time and her confidence will improve as time goes on too.

I am looking forward to the 24th. Sam, the manager and I are headed off on a mini work vacation/conference. We're headed to the big city of Guelph to visit the Royal Canin pet food plant. The trip is entirely paid by Royal Canin, meals, hotel, gas money, plus once all the business seminars are done we get to go on a wine tour for dinner. We're only gone for 3 days but who can say no to an all expence paid (plus our wages) oppotunity to get away. Then on the 29th I'm on the road again for my aunts 65th birthday party, then home on the 30th for my friends parents anniversary party, then Canada Day festivities on the July 1. And then 8 days of work and I'm off to my best friends wedding.

Busy busy. And I should be tidying the house(house proofing for 7 large dogs and 1 small dog), and getting myself organized. Hopefully I won't loose too many more ideas for interesting blog posts.

Feeling Broke and Jaded

I don't often shop at our local grocery store because the prices are outrageous. I look for their sales or just go their for fruits and vegies and cheese.

Tonight I decided I wanted to get some "good" meat, a steak, for a dinner this week, and I was craving something sweet.  40 bucks and 5 items later I leave the store!

My haul was a T-Bone steak that was on "quick sale" cuz it will be soon past its freshness date and even then it was nearly 13.00, 2L of Chocolate Milk -I very rarely buy milk let alone drink it but every 3 or 4 months I'll have a craving for chocolate milk which I usually fill with a lunch or dinner at subway, but I splurged tonight and spent 5.05 on milk. I got some jalepeno poppers at a price of 4.99 for 8 poppers, a case of Presidents Choice ginger ale, which was on sale, and after tasting it doesnt compare to Canada Dry(remember when I case of pop was 24!). And to fill my sweet tooth some President Choice Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookies, also on sale.

I am most upset at the cookies. I buy cookies less often than I do milk. Usually I bake my own. So when I open the bag theres only 18 cookies in it?!?! WTF? 18 cookies?!?! I was expecting atleast 24. Shame on you Mr. Wheston. Needless to say I'll go back to baking my own sweets.

Plea to all Parents...and a Thank you to mine.

Parents you are not doing your kids justice by waiting on them hand and foot.

My most recent eye opening to this fact is that at work we have 2 co-op students working with us...One student clearly has chores to do at home, she is very good at cleaning up after herself, even knows how to clean and do laundry.  The other student had a huge learning curve. She had never done laundry, washed floors, and clearly has someone that picks up after her at home. Both are very nice polite, pleasant girls to work with, and I'll be sad to see them end their term with us.

Back to my topic, parents please fight with your kids to clean their own rooms, do the dishes, wash and fold their own laundry, sweep and wash the floors, shovel the driveway, cook meals for the family, cut the lawn, dust, feed the pets, clean the bathroom. They will thank you when they are older.

So thanks mom and dad for making me do some chores. Learning some of those basic life skills truly help shape people into well rounded independant individuals.

Turkey Time!

 

 

It's turkey raising time at my house. I was expecting 12 ugly 3week old large white turkeys and got 13, never fails you almost always get an unexpected guest for dinner (at least this one will I'll get to eat ;) ). Hopefully they make it through the next couple of days and we'll be good to go; the reason I say that is the next couple of nights its suposed to get pretty chilly at night, mind you not the below zero temps they were calling for a couple days ago. 

 

And here's hoping I can get over my bird phobia and get these guys to 15-20 lbs. 

busy not so busy...

So I've been busy, in the sense that I just haven't taken the time to blog about anything...

Last weekend was our local Sportsman/Trade Show. It was a very long weekend sitting at the arena all weekend. However my co-workers great idea of giving fish away was a huge success. For a dollar you got 3 tries to throw a ball in a cup, if you got it you got a fish. We must have given away 50 or so fish. Friday night we even ran out of goldfish and had to "steal" extra fish from the store on Saturday. We also held a fundraising draw for the local animal shelter, for every dollar donated you got a ballot to enter to win a 35 dollar gift card, we raised about 50 dollars for the animal shelter. It was a great weekend of PR but I'm glad its over until next year.

This week is busy busy. My birthday on Thursday so dinner and dessert at moms. Friday I'm going to Timmins with Mom and Dad to see the new Star Trek movie, I just invited dad but mom invited herself to come along too guess she's going to treat us both for our birthdays. Then Saturday I'm off to Ottawa to throw a surprise bachelorette party for my BFF! She thinks I'm coming down to celebrate my bday with her haha wrong! It should be a fun weekend. Then I'm back home on Tuesday in time for supper at the parents for dads birthday.

We're also planning and finalizing things for my turkey raising project...Nick and Dad are building the turkey house this weekend while I'm away.

And things are in the works for me to get back into scouting as a cub scout leader. I'm excited. I've missed volunteering and especailly being involved in scouting. It's going to be very hard for me not to jump in with both feet and get uber involved like I was before, but I want to take thing easy at first and see how things have changed in the last ten years.

Hope everyone is enjoying their spring.

Giving back in Scouting

I took the first steps to get back involved in scouting. Our local scouting groups are looking for new leaders. And I've missed scouting ALOT! It's been one of those voids in my life, I knew it was there and tried to fill it with other volunteer work but it wasn't cutting it. It's been just over ten years since the "incident" (which I'm not going to rehash, in the interest of moving forward) I'm not entirely sure my parents will be pleased with my decision with regards to the "incident" but I like to think that by getting involved again I could possibly help and prevent anyone else from having to go through a similar incident. Scouting also teaches and promotes a number of skills that I think all young people should be exposed to: adaptability, being reliable, responsible, accountable, independance, team work, leadership, survival skills, gets kids away from the tv and video games along with many other good things. Some of my favorite memories are those that involved scouting. How could I not let other kids enjoy in some of those good times of their own; Its like giving back.



(my reinvolvement with scouting should hopefully give me a couple bonus points when I get the ball rolling on fostering/adoption; which also reminds me that I saw a poster up town looking for foster families I should find it again and get the contact numbers)

Snips and Snails

What are little boys made of?

What are little boys made of?

Snips and Snails and puppy dog tails,

That's what little boys are made of.

 

 

This weekend I'm travelling to a city 4 hours away to go to a cousin's baby shower. Sam is my third cousin I believe (her grandmother and my mother are sisters). Recently, a month ago,  another one of my cousins had her baby shower in town, I however decided not to attend -I have a HUGE famaily with more cousins than I can possibly know so even though I probably shoudn't claim to have favorites I do. I used to babysit Sam and her younger brother and sister. My first memory of Sam is her sitting at my grandparents house (the house I now own) at the kitchen table in front of the window, with her long dark hair with bangs and a huge toothless smile. Sam is going to make a great mother, albeit she is young at only 20, but her parents were also young and have done a fairly decent job at raising their kids. Sam and her boyfriend Andrew have also been dating for the last 3 years and living on their own the past 2 years. So its kind of exciting to be having a new baby cousin. Oh and the most exciting part is Sam's baby due date is my birthday =) I'm hopeful that I'll have a cousin to share the great day of May 16 with. Another cousin is also expecting in July, and her shower is next weekend and though I would have loved to travel 6 hours to the shower its not in the cards but I'll be sending her a gift once her and hubby settle into their new home in New Brunswick. I'm on a DIY kick and I made personalized onsies for each.

 

 

What are little girls made of?

What are little girls made of?

Sugar and spice and all things nice,

That's what little girls are made of.

 

 

Sam is having a boy. My other cousin a girl. It was kind of nice getting to make onesies for each gender. My mom knit the cutest outfit for Sams baby too, its a camo coloured vest with a poor boy hat and she bought pants and a shirt to go with it. So cute. If I remember I will try and get a picture. To go with the onsies I made I am also going to be getting each one of my favorite books as a child. I havent quite decided which books to get, I had so many favorites that I still have today -top contenders are a book by Robert Munsch or something by Dr. Seuess but another of my absolute favorite childrens book was one called Harold and the Purple Crayon, where the boy Harold uses his imagination and his purple crayon and goes on an adventure, then again I could find a book of nursery rhymes. I think my choices will ome to me when I get to a Chapters book store Saturday before the shower.  

 

 





Tell me something i didnt know....

Arm diagnosis is tendonitis. Advice stop using is so much. Sure no prob ha! For now i get a fancy brace to wear when im working/grooming/doing every day things i need to get done to survive. I can continue with yoga as its not too hard of the joints and tendons and such. Over the counter creams and drugs for now, then possibly prescribed creams and meds and cortizone shots, then if that fails surgery that may not fix it.

While at the docs they wanted to update my file.

I hate going to the docs and rarely go unless im in extreme pain. And i have a high tolerance for pain and usually end up puking from the pain before taking drugs or seeing a doc.

I also have different views on how medicine is generally abused these days. People arent meant to go on living for ever, yet as a society we strive to find cures for all sorts of diseases, cancers and ailements. I get thats diseases, cancers and other ailements are tough to understand and cope with and thats the main reason for searching for cures. But by finding cures were also encouraging the over population of our planet and are killing ourselves in the long run anyways. With all the medical advancements we have in this day and age its no wonder we see so many natural disaters; its just mother nature‘s way of cleaning house because as a species we dont apreciate that things come to an end, the circle of life. But i supose thats a topic for another post...

Back to my medical file. They made sure i was to date on vacinations. And i went for blood work to check my imune system and get titre checks for some of the immunizations ive had. Were also going to check for parasites within my system -working with animals puts me in a higher risk zone and im not entirely looking forward to collecting the samples for that one. Plus there was a number of other routine tests i should get done to establish baselines and all that bull poop. Chances are I wont be going for those tests.

And after all that, my 3 week wait for the appointment to be told to stop using my arm, all info i had researched online.

Please tell me something I didn‘t know!