Today was the kind of day we live for, and it's been some time since we've seen one. Certainly the first since I deployed, anyway. There was a feel of rain on the air for part of the day, but that never came to pass. What did occur, though, was an overcast but wonderfully warm day with bouts of sunshine from time to time, and moisture-laden air that was downright voluptuous feeling. *sigh* This is the life...surrounded by a sea of green far from the city.

We may have gotten a little "crazy with the cheeze whiz" with the tomatoes and may have to find homes for some of them if they all germinate! If this happens, we'll be putting out the call for any takers for some heritage variety tomato plants. The day being as absolutely glorious as it was saw us taking dawg for a long walk with our coffee, followed by getting the pallets stacked, winter tarps put away and the used hay from the coop being put in the compost pile. Excellent!

A word about lunch....I don't think the grocery stores will see us setting foot in them again for flour tortillas. Had we realized how dirt simple they are to make, not to mention how worlds-away better they are from store-bought (isn't everything??), I believe this would have taken place long ago.

The neighbouring sheep farm brought some levity with the sound of ewes' deep blats being answered in kind by the high-piched bleats of their lambs. In the distance we could see their hardworking border collies gamboling across the field, chasing after the farmer's 4x4. Walking past the sheep farm is part of our evening routine, and Tito never tires of it. We have reason to believe they may have unspayed females on residence...need I say more? lol It's been long enough we've been living here that we are no longer "new" to the neighbourhood, and folks from the area always wave as we're taking the pup for his walk, and sometimes they get a kick and laugh as they notice we're taking a walk with a glass of wine, as we sometimes do. Ah, it's the small things that make life enjoyable, isn't it? And we certainly wouldn't "get away with it" inside of city limits!

Evening's end brought a sunset to beat all, with the sight of our chooks tucking into their roost for the night and the scent of spruce smoke and the remnants of the other night's Cohibas coming from the firepit. This is early days for our homestead, but on days like this it's awfully difficult to ever picture ourselves ever wanting to live in the city again.

Hola!

A lazy Saturday morning, and a desire for something new, sparked the search for today's breakfast alternative; Huevos Rancheros. ..or at least our version of it. No tortillas on hand so we used the next best thing...tortilla chips!
I could go on describing the slowly sauteed salsa, spicy chilis, and organic tomatoes gently bubbling and filling the air with a southwestern aroma...or the sound of the fresh free range eggs as they nestled in to the pan of olive oil and spices...or even the rich textures and mexican flavours that bathed our pallettes as we ate...but, as they say, a picture is worth..

I love Saturday.

A glimpse through the construction fence..

Ever walked by a construction site and peeked in through (in the old days) a crack in the fence boards, or maybe a broken one? Nowadays they acutally have viewing portals, but the old way had a certain charm..like you were getting away with something, or maybe just seeing something no one else had.
Tonight was a bit like that in our lives here on the acreage. You see, like many, our goal is to get off the grid, out of the rat race, and settle in to our homestead. Tonight we saw through the fence boards and had a glimpse. We spent the evening with no care or worry for time, no thought to tomorrow's work, commuting, or bills. We spent the evening sipping wine (Yellow Tail if you're interested...) and hanging out with our 5 chickens.
The highlight of the evening came when Red, a young Partridge Chantecler pullet, decided that her roost on the daytime run was not high enough and attempted to launch herself on to Cindi's head!! Thinking Red was conducting a Top Gun style 'fly-by' Cindi ducked and the poor girl came in for a rough landing a few feet away...crashing and burning like Tom Cruise himself.
Not to be deterred, and using her Canadian roots as determination, she repeated the procedure several minutes later with me as I stood idly by...this time with the precision of an F-16 on the deck of a carrier (my head)...she landed the maneuver!! Then, pleased as punch, she proceeded to hunker down and roost as if I had a clutch of eggs up there (which Cindi will tell you is wrong.. my nest is empty!).
We laughed like school kids, Cindi took pictures, and we revelled in what is now...and what is to come a short stretch up the road.
A pretty wonderful glimpse.

We got chickens today. The roster (not rooster! heh..) is thus:

4 6-wk old Partridge Chanteclers (straight run, so not sure of the sex yet)
1 9-wk old Dark Brahma pullet
1 3-wk old Dark Brahma....cockerel?? apparently his feathers indicate this, though we can't be sure for a while yet..
and,
1 1-wk old Dark Brahma chick.

Birds are all in the spare bedroom. We are tired now. Pictures tomorrow.