A while ago I blogged about Angel. Angel is a Rottweiler cross that belongs to D, a friend of ours.
D loves Angel but circumstances have made it necessary for D to look for work out of town.
He was in turmoil over Angel and asked if it came down to having to go with out her would we be willing to look after her for him.
We agreed. The next couple of month D went back and forth between finding a job where she could go with him to leaving her with us.
An out of town camp job came along and Angel was able to go. I breathed a sigh if relief and forgot about it.
About 3 weeks ago D phoned to say a fantastic opportunity had come up for him but it would mean leaving Angel.

We/I now have a 1 year old large Rotti cross that is WORK.
She is still such a puppy and wants to play all the time. My 2 hounds are older and laid back, they are seldom interested in playing with her, fortunately they are very tolerant of her!

D will be working 28 days in and 8 days out, He will come get Angel on his out days.

Picture is Angel trying to share Sam's couch. Sam not too impressed with the intrusion!

Ooops. Looks like slide show didn't work. Here are some of the pictures I was trying to show!

I only read 4 blogs on a regular basis, one is from the states, one in England, one in France and the other Vancouver Canada.
I didn't choose these for the international flair, its just worked out that these are blogs that interest me.

In the last little while, Rita, from France and I have made contact and chatted on MSN using a webcam.
I think we were both like a couple of kids as we coordinated through the time difference and made arrangements to talk online.
Of course it was full make up and hair. I don't know about Rita but for me, when I webcam to friends and family in England I am some times still in my PJ's. (our morning is their evening)
Next time I will show her the 'real' me..lol
Anyway, Yesterday Pat from Vancouver and I made email contact.
Pat puts some great slide show pictures on her blog and she has tried to explain to me how to do it for my own blog. I have tried to sort it out and did manage to get one of the pix on my blog but when I clicked it to start the slide show it went to the whole album and not the slides that I wanted to show on the blog.
This is a job for friend Sharon! So some time in the near future I hope to have some slides to add to my blog.

I have managed to hit but not kill two of the mink with the pellet gun. Unfortunately there is not enough power in the gun to kill them. A friend is going to lend me a .22.
All the ducklings are dead as are the chicks. The only survivor is one tiny bantam chick who managed to escape from the nursery pen when the mink got in there.
I have put it and the blind rabbit in a cage together and it is so cute to see 'Titch' (the banty) snuggling up to the rabbit to stay warm.
A friend has loaned me a second trap and I am hopeful that I will eventually catch and kill the mink.

Jolene is such a little character. She has figured out that if she climbs onto the manger she is able to get onto the rabbit hutch and then onto the roof of the goat house. She can reach the leaves from the maple tree from there and is having quite the feast.



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I am very distraught right now. The mink of course is the cause.
I thought I was over crying over the death of of my critters but yesterday proved that to be wrong.
It got into the pen where Little Red and Ginger lived with a black rabbit. Red and Ginger were my two lovely bantam chickens.
It killed them and it looks like it tried to kill the rabbit. Poor thing is a terrible mess.
All the damage is to his head and face. He has lost the sight in both eyes so you can probably imagine the kind of damage that has been done to him. I will spare you the details.

I have the trap set but so far no luck.

Pat, a fellow blogger came up with a few good suggestions.
Contact one of the local Indian bands and see if they will come and set traps.
Contact the SPCA and see if they can help.
Get a Marmara guard dog.

We have a high powered pellet gun. I will be outside as much as I can today. The gun will be with me.
Sorry if I sound a bit melodramatic over this but it really is tough trying to cope with it. I may not blog for a while as I can't imagine you want to hear about the death, one by one, of my animal each day.

The mink are back.
I was watching the critters from the window Sunday, late afternoon.
One of the ducklings was swimming at the edge of the pond.
I didn't even see the mink coming. In seconds it was on the duckling, killing it instantly.
Rob and I rushed outside knowing it was too late to do anything.
As we were standing there, still in shock, the dam thing poked its nose out from under the board walk

One of the other ducklings that was standing beside my feet started squawking, I bent to pick it up but its foot seemed caught between the boards. The retched mink had a hold of it from underneath and was not going to let go. I had to stamp my feet on the boards before it finally relinquished its hold on the poor little thing.
If that wasn't bad enough, the evil animal poked its head out from under the walk, still with yellow down from the ducking in its mouth and stared at me as if it was weighing its odds against still going for the duckling or not. (The duckling was unharmed)

Since Saturday we have lost 5 ducklings, both of our frizzle Cochin chicks, one Isa Brown chick and the chicken flock looks smaller than usual to me.
I have the trap set but it seems too smart to get caught in it.
I can lock everyone up at night but this thing is coming during the day. It won't stop until it kills all our fowl, or unless we can kill it first.
I was talking to a friend on the weekend and she is giving up her hobby farm. She said the predators have won.

Post Script: In the short time it took me to shower and write this post 3 more duckling are missing!

I am a beginner knitter. (Again)
As a kid, I watched my mum and her mum knit all kinds of things. I don't remember having a sweater that wasn't knitted by my mum. She also knitted all my dads sweaters.
You would think knitting would come naturally to me but it never has.
Mum tried several time to teach me. I thought being left handed was part of the problem.
Over the years I have tried many times to get the hang of knitting. Many of my friends have been prolific knitters and all have tried to teach me, I have made some basic things that often look like something a child might make!
About 20 years ago I paid good money to have knitting lessons. I made myself a very basic sweater. It is probably the only thing that has turned out 'Not too bad'

When I got hooked on hand spinning a couple of years ago, I knew it was time to start the knitting quest again.
With my own yarn that I had sorted, carded, spun and dyed from a raw fleece, I started knitting my self a vest.
The back was all but completed when I realized it was about 2 sizes too small. I adjusted the pattern and started again. After much perseverance and several restarts the vest was finished.
It had taken me a year and a half to complete it and it was too big!!!!
I have started again and the back is done. I am now on the first front panel and I am hopeful this will become the finished article, If not it will be undone yet again because I WILL complete this project and will wear it with pride!
Wish me luck...

I took my camera outside with me today and got a few pictures on my way to the creek.


It is quite lovely and always cool, even on the hottest of days it is easy to stay cool just by going down to the creek.



















I also got a few shots of some of the feathered critters

It looks like our summer has finally arrived.
The weather is great at last.

The ducks and chickens are loving the sunshine and enjoy basking in it when ever they can.

The ducklings are old enough now to come out of the nursery each morning. After a little encouragement from me they soon found the pond and now go in and out of it at will. They head back to the nursery each evening to the warmth of the heat lamp that they still need.

Jolene is growing well, her conformation looks good and her coat is very soft. It will be interesting to see how it is when she is older and how well it will spin.


We have had so much rain in the last couple of months that I thought the creek would stay fast flowing and high for longer than usual. However, it is slow running, shallow and safe for my boys to swim in. (my boys being Brandon and Colin our grandsons)

They love to come over for visits and spend most of their time in the water. If they are not in it they are scouring the
banks looking for frogs, snakes or lizards.