DAISY

Well Thursday December 14th 2017 didn't go the way I thought it would.

Daisy had been having trouble going to the bathroom so I took her into the vet's on Tuesday.

After an x-ray it was determined that she had a tumour in her stomach and it should be removed.

We arrived Thursday morning at 8:30 for the operation.

The vet gave her a sedative and kindly let me hold her in a darkened room while it took effect,

The poor little mutt was scared and shaking like a leaf. I guess she knew how serious this was.

 I honestly thought that we would be going home together at noon.

The vet came and took Daisy from my arms and told me that she too was sure Daisy would be fine.

When I went back to the reception room to wait I was met by Carrie.

She had come to sit with me. I was glad to have her there with me.

After about 30 minutes the vet's assistant came out and asked me to follow her 

into the operating room. The Veterinarian wanted to talk to me.

I knew this wasn't good.

This tumour was very large. Obviously she has been living with it for a long time.

The vet was kind enough to show me how it had attached itself to her organs 

and wasn't abe to be removed.

The only humaine decision was to let her go and not let her suffer.

I'm so sorry that she had to go. She has been my best friend for so long.

Here Daisy and I got matching t-shirts from Sharon and Carrie on my last birthday.

THIS WEEK STARTED OUT VERY BUSY

My John Deere had a flat tire.Actually it was the valve stem.

 I had to have the one on the other side changed last year so this wasn't a surprise.

What was a surprise was that this idiot showed up at 3:45 to fix it and it gets dark here at 4:00.

 He didn't have a light so I went and got him my trouble light.

Ruth put a new bulb in it because the bulb was missing.

Typical short guy syndrem.

I asked if I could hold it for him. He said he was OK.

10 minutes later he is trying to hold the light , use the air wrench and put the bolts in.

I said "Here , Give me the light . I can hold it for you".

He said , You want the F'n light ,Take the F'n light F this ,F,F,F,

While he was banging it around for me he broke the lightbulb. 

UNBELIEVABLE.

I just took it and went inside . Got another bulb and Went out to the tractor , 

plugged it in and left. What a prick.

So I could see from the house when he finished and then I went back.

He apologized for his bad behaviour.

Writing this I'm still tempted to call his boss and complain.
I really didn't appreciate being talked to like this.
I'm not use to it. Don't plan on getting use to it.
Especially from someone I'm paying to help me out.
Thats the last time I call Fou--ain Tire.

Anyways , on a happier note , I had a great week.

I took Daisy to her old stomping grounds for a run by the beach.

I also spent Tuesday afternoon reassembling this tree house that Ruth and I disassembled 

On Sunday afternoon . She saw it in a yard that had a sold sign on the house. 

She thought it would be nice for Ellie and talked to the owners.

They said she could have it if she could take it down from the tree.

I wish I had taken pictures for that process.

Boy ,  Don't I look happy.

So it's all set up and ready for the Birthday Girl surprise.

She turned 6 years old on Wednesday.

 Wednesday morning I told her I thought I saw a deer in the yard.

She opened the door and screamed "I have a new house".

So cute.

Carrie had to come out to open the gate for her. Ellie was so excited.

All the Moir girls were very happy this morning.

I wish I had gotten a picture of Ruth. 

She was as excited about the house as Ellie was.

I love this kid. She is so dedicated to her two little one's.

Ellie got to stay home from school today.

She packed up a pillow case with her toys , Climbed up into her new house
and yelled back at us that she was moving out forever.

She also said "Call me when breakfast is ready.

 Back at the birthday celebrations, she lit her own candles.

She's such a cutie.

Success. She's going to be a world power when she grows up.

She also cut her chocolate train cake and served everyone.

When she cut her piece she said "It's my birthday. I get the biggest piece".

And she did.

PROGRESS ON THE BUILD

We have the footings all built and are waiting for concrete.

The logix blocks arrived on Wednesday afternoon which was exciting.

The delivery guys craned them into the centre of our build which we thought was great .

Downside was that the forms weren't levelled yet and they were in the way of the lazer.

 Carrie and I were out there in the dark on Thursday morning breaking the blocks out of their 

packages and carrying them out of the build and up the hill. Damn.

We had guys coming at 8:00 A.M. to lazer level the blocks.

We had the forms lazer levelled by 10:00 and the boom truck was there at 11:00.

'The concrete showed up about 20 minutes later.

This guy was a whiz on the nozzle.

He controlled the concrete flow like a pro.

It took about 20 minutes to drop 7 yards of concrete where it belonged.

Not a lot of waste.

He was filling up the last footing pad just as he ran out.

After they finished and left Carrie did the final trowling.

Friday morning she was out there banging the wooden forms off and getting ready 

to start building the walls.

Saturday morning we started building the walls.

My knee is wrecked so I am mostly just watching.

I've been like this for the better part of the week.

I'm glad that Carrie is such a hard and component worker.

This foundation is definitely overbuilt but that is better than under built.

Lots of steel here.

Buy lunch time Saturday we had a good start on the walls.

Everyone quit by 3:00 and the walls were half done.

 I got up Sunday morning to see snow everywhere.

We decided not to do anything today.

Just as well. I want to make a  change to the man door location so

 I need to get approval from the engineer before doing so.

I hope this doesn't tie us up for too long.

WE FINALLY GOT OUR BUILDING PERMIT

YUP. and YIPPEE.

Hard to believe but its true.

We're finally starting my new work shop and the carriage house for Carrie.

All the rebar and wood for the footings was delivered on Friday .

I was afraid that I was going to have to unload the truck old school.

I love how they did this.

I just stood back and watched.

Sharon flew in for her birthday .

I love this kid. I sure am lucky to have such two wonderful daughters.

 I was sorry that I was so busy during her visit but she spent a lot of time with Ruth.

I know they had a good time together and we all took time off for a nice Mexican lunch on Friday.

Sharon was late for the plane Saturday but wanted to run down into the hole to hug her sister goodby. 

It warms my heart seeing how much these two siblings love each other.

I got a little choked up when I had to say goodby to Sharon yesterday..

Carrie and I (mostly Carrie ) spent Saturday in the hole working with Cody Turner building the footings and tying rebar for the new place. 

We got it done in one day but were working in the dark for the last hour. 

I found the day a little tough. 

I had thrown my shoulder out somehow while stretching some fencing in the north pasture Thursday .

I am also thinking I have refracted my tibia that I broke in 2 places skiing in 2008.

I had refracted the breaks in 2012 on my motorcycle and this feels exactly the same.

I'm limping like one of those old Saskatchewan farmers.

The structural engineer came today (Sunday) and passed us. Now the Geotec has to come.

What a bunch of crap. After that the city inspector comes. Then we can pour the footings.

The old chains on my J. Deere are crap so I bought a new set.

They aren't as easy to install as I originally thought.

Hopefully I'll get it done tomorrow. That will be day 2 on the tractor scale.

THIS WEEK IS OFF TO A SLOW START

I was visiting my friends place this week to do some work to her chicken coup.

As soon as I opened the gate to the chicken pen I had 35 chickens rush me.

I had to laugh. 

It was raining out and when I went into the coup they all followed me in.

Wednesday morning is garbage day.

I hate dragging the cans up our hill so I've started to load them into the tractor bucket.

This makes a lot of sense to me.

I had a nice visit with Sharon yesterday on FaceTime.

She's coming to Kelowna tomorrow for a visit.

It's her Birthday. Yahoo. Party time.

WARM WEATHER MEANS OUTSIDE JOBS ON THE FARM

I needed someone to dig some holes and our tenant who was living on the property 

when we bought the farm says he likes digging holes.

Naturally I gave him a call and he was happy to help.

Not a job I want to do.

We got the holes dug on the first day and set the poles on the second.

I pay him well for what he is doing but also supply beer for him as he works.

I don't know how he can keep working like he does.

We'll string a new fence on Thursday.

Hopefully this will keep the deers out of the yard. 

They are becoming a problem.

While we were doing the new fence poles Carrie lit up the house and driveway.

THIS MADE US ALL LAUGH

Ruth took a pumpkin from her garden today and baked it in the oven for a few hours.

She planned on removing the meat to make a pumpkin pie for dinner .

She makes her pumpkin pie with coconut milk and lots of spices.

We all commented on how great it smelt while baking in the oven.

It looked good and tasted good but something was missing.

After we shared a slice she looked thru the glass doors and noticed the pumpkin outside cooling . 

It was supposed to be in the pie.

We sent the pie home with Brad and the kids but never told them there was no pumpkin in the pie.

It's a coconut milk and spice pie.

I wonder if they will notice.

THE WEEK OF NOVEMBER 6TH

Ruth has a friend who has a hoop greenhouse at the community garden 

which has to take down every winter because of the snow.

She is a contract nurse and had to go up to Alaska last week for a month. 

She never got the greenhouse down before leaving.

The snow came early so Ruth volunteered to drop it.

Ruth dropped it by herself and Carrie helped her roll up 

the 120 feet of greenhouse cover on Thursday.

I came along and helped Ruth drag the cover into her heated sea can.

Next job was for us to gather up all of her hoops and stack them in her covered shed.

Ruth's a pretty good friend to have. 

She would have lost the cover to this early snow otherwise.

And I love the fact that Ruth doesn't mind shovelling snow.

I don't remember last time I had to do the walk.

She won't let any of us walk on the sidewalks or deck until she has cleaned them off.

It's hard to tell from this picture but she has worn her shovel out.

We had to buy a new one yesterday.

We also had to go to 4 stores before she found a shovel she liked.

Daisy loves the snow.

We had major cold and a huge dump of snow this week.

It is quite beautiful.

Ruth and Ellie made the first snowman of the year.

Ellie dressed the snowman up to capture some Christmas spirit.

It was quite warm out this afternoon after a big wet snow dump so Carrie took Ellie 

tobogganing on the driveway for about 40 minutes.

They formed a layer of ice under the surface with all their tobogganing and 

made it impossible to get out of our yard.

Carrie slid down the driveway in her car and ended up sideways in the corner.

It took a bit of work to get her straightened out and parked at the bottom for the rest of the day.

I had to laugh. She was on her way out to buy Ruth a new shovel .

I don't usually post food pictures but felt compelled to post this.

We were at Costco Saturday morning looking for a new shovel .

and decided to buy ourselves breakfast.

Is this bad???  Hot dogs and fries for breakfast.

We did better for dinner.

I made my famous steak with wine sauce for dinner.

YUMM.

Not complete without mushrooms and onions.

Ruth has been after me for some time now to hang the yard tools on the old garage.

I put up the 1 x 4 and got her set up hanging the hooks.

She did a great job.

We had a tree fall down this week right beside the kids play area in the back 40.

There were 3 trees growing out of one stock and the base rotted out.

Luckily no one got hurt.

I decided to knock the other two trees down before they fell down.

Don't you hate when this happens.

I wasn't paying enough attention and my chainsaw bar got stuck in the tree when it started to lean.

I had to grab a hand saw to finish the job off and free my chain saw.

What a great day.

I love the smell of fresh air mixed with the smell of a working chain saw.

By the end of the day I had all three trees cut , bucked up and cleaned up.

I came into the house , sat down with a cold beer and decided that I was beat.

It was a good day.