Skunks and Porcupines

Yep, that's poop ... I know how exciting. 

I didn't know what critter was responsible for said poop so took a pic to post on Facebook to ask (cause yes, many of my crazy friends would actually know such a thing)

I'm told it's probably skunk poop. It's interesting that it has some undigested berries in.

I am yet to actually see a skunk but logically I'm sure there are several on the property.

There is an awesome porcupine that has his home on the property. He's a big older fella (or lady! I didn't see balls! LOL)

Porcupines are awesome critters. They are so cute! I googled them this afternoon to learn a bit more about them. I admit I thought they could throw their quills, but that's actually a myth!

I'll try to get a pic of him, but no guarantees!

With fall coming the animals around here should increase, I'm excited! I'll try to get y'all lots of pics!

Hugs!

Mice

My new house has mice. Ok, that's not really surprising as pretty well any country home has mice; however, this one has mice in the walls and in the attic that scratch and chew all night, and are downright freaky!

I slept about two hours Friday night and about an hour Saturday night, Sunday I moved my bed (and bedroom stuff) to the bedroom at the other end of the house.

I have cats; I have three barn cats that are excellent mousers. However, they are more outside than inside. I've started keeping them inside as much as possible and they have killed a few mice, but they really cannot get to the ones in the walls.

My plan for today, is to try putting the best mouser in the attic for a few hours. Hopefully that will help take care of a bunch of the one up there. I'm thinking of doing it daily for a few weeks, maybe an hour or two each day. The biggest problem I see with this plan is the cat certainly won't eat them all, so will the attic (and the house) start to stink from decaying mouse bodies?

I admit I'm a girlie girl and freak out over mice. They give me the serious willies! Dirty disgusting little things they are! I know that is very un-Pagany of me. I love all of Mother Earth's children, I just don't want to share my house with many of them!

Before I moved here, I had a "friend" say I wouldn't need the barn cats cause there wouldn't be as many mice in the forest as there is in the farming community. Pffft! I told her she was very wrong and yep, I think this proves it. I lived in a 120 year old farm house before here and didn't have a 10th of the mice.

I'm sure my cats will do a good job getting rid of the mice, it's just going to take them a few months.

I hope you all have a great week! Hugs!

Public servant being investigated for writing and performing anti-Tory ‘Harperman’ song

If you know me, you know I am not a fan of Harper and his conservatives. This came up on my Facebook feed yesterday and I noticed it spread across the newsfeeds like wild fire.

The song is a hoot (and very true) and props to the awesome folks who put it together. They rock.

I'm sorry the guy who wrote it got into trouble and I'm sure the whole group of them have been labelled "terrorists" now. (cause you know, those little old ladies were awfully scary!)

Harper it is time for you to go! Everyone please vote this coming election and please don't vote Conservative! 

While getting the link for Harperman, I saw this song. Very powerful. I am shocked at how deeply Harper has hurt Canadians.

Piles of Wood

The wood is starting to pile up! I think I've got about 3-4 cords of it stacked for winter now. I even learned how to use the chainsaw today and cut a fair amount of it myself :)

There are two wood stands inside the house, so the first two pics of of them. As you can see one is filled to the top, the other still has more room.

The next two pics are of behind the house. There is a covered area (and I'll be hanging a tarp from the one side to help keep everything dry). The wood is mostly birch, with a bit of oak and maple. All the pine I sent down to the revel fire.

I'm told I need 10-15 cords of wood, so tomorrow, we will start dragging more dead fall (there are piles of previously cut trees) up to the house so it can get cut and added to the pile. We still got a month to go (I figure if we have all our wood by the end of September, we'll be doing great)

I hope you all had a fantastic Thursday! Hugs!

Winter Wood

As I have mentioned on several earlier blog posts, I am in the process of gathering/cutting/stacking wood for the wood stove for the winter. Last night I did some research of what wood is best for a wood stove and found out:

Hard wood burns longer than soft wood and is way better to use. Unfortunately, I only have a bit of hard wood (Maple and Oak). I do have a fair amount of birch here: Google says that birch is pretty good to use. 

I also have a lot of pine here, but Google says it's bad so it's all being sent down to the Revel fire area. Google said that Pine has more sap than other woods which can increase how often you have to clean the stove/chimney. Addition, Pine is said to have more cancerous stuff (in its smoke) and as it burns very hot it tends to spark a lot. 

I think so far I've got about a month of wood cut and stacked, only about 4 more month's worth to go :) LOL!

Have a great night! Hugs!

Summer Ends

Alas, all good things must come to an end; the end of summer draws near. The insect population has decreased by at least half. You can actually go for a walk without being bit!The temperatures are slowly dropping, the night is slowly growing, and death approaches. Mabon will be here soon and before we know it, it will be Samhain!

I'm excited for Autumn. I look forward to the changes in colour and the increase in wildlife. I am planning on getting some good photography done! I'm enjoying gathering wood and getting things prepared, though I do miss the joy of harvesting the garden. I look forward to doing it next year!

I look forward to winter too, though I am a little nervous about getting enough work to keep me from getting too bored. Right now, I'm getting work (dances) pretty good, but come winter, I'm not so sure. I could make enough to cover the bills with my online work, but it'd be tight. I guess we'll see come winter. I am looking forward to the beauty of winter, the solitude of winter, the books I'll get read and the art I'll get done! This year's November-November goals; Illustrate and help right, and publish FAERIE ABCS; Make a Faerie Colouring book; Write a book about raising chickens; illustrate/help write/publish a book of poem for children.

I am actually celebrating a bit tonight. Today, I finish writing the last of the dog breeds for my dog breeds book!

Last November, I took on 3 projects: to illustrate and publish my ABC Animals book (got the done); write my Memoirs of an Exotic Dancer and get it published (It's being edited at the moment): and write a book with all the different dog breed and get it published (I wrote the last dog breed today!.)

Have a good night! I'm off to research firewood to use in woodstoves (which wood is best etc) ... can you guess what tomorrow's blog post will be about? :)

Gathering Wood for Winter

My home has a wood stove. I'm really looking forward to not freezing this winter! I also have propane heat so if the wood stove doesn't quite cut it, I'm all good.

I'm told that I will need about 15 cords of wood to make it through the winter comfortably.

There is tons of cut down trees and dead fall in the forest in front of the house. Way more than 15 cords worth! My plan is to drag it all up to the house, and then cut and stack it all.

I made a path down to the area where all the cut trees are. It made it easier to drag it up

There are so many cut trees just waiting to be cleaned up!

My son Travis working hard bring deadfall and cut branches up to the house

                                                   Our pile of wood thus far

We also put a window in the chicken coop today, I would of loved a bigger window for it, but it was the best I could do for now. At least it's some light for them!

 
We also put what steel with had on the coop to make it harder for predators to chew through

My First Children's Book

Animal ABCs

By Written and Illustrated by: Patricia Cartwright

Paperback, 27 Pages 

Preview

Price: $16.75

Ships in 3-5 business days.

"Alligators, Antelopes and Grey Apes too. Anteaters eating ants, what a thing to do!" Animal ABCs is a fun way to teach young children their ABCs and help them learn to identify many different animals from around the world. With it's fun, colorful pictures and easy to read rhyming text, Animal ABCs is sure to be a favorite that your child will want to read over and over again. Written for my son Travis and inspired by the Muses, Animal ABCs is sure to delight all young animal lovers!

Buy is in paperback on LuLu: http://www.lulu.com/shop/written-and-illustrated-by-patricia-cartwright/animal-abcs/paperback/product-22169601.html

Buy on Kindle for $2.99: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VXVTHAY

Thanks!

Good Bye Digital Antenna

Well, my awesome digital antenna doesn't work in Coe Hill. What a bummer. When I lived in farming country outside of Sarnia, I got about 30 channels with it. Here, not a thing :( I was told the only way a digital antenna works here if it's on a 100 foot pole.

Damn, there goes my free TV

So, that leaves me with downloading all the shows I want to watch, streaming all the shows I want to watch or getting Shaw Direct TV.

My internet has a 50GB cap, so downloading and streaming are not great cause 50 GB goes fast. my internet is also a little slow, so steaming can be tough. Shaw Direct is $40 a month.I really like to keep my bills as low as possible so not a big fan of getting cable hooked up, but I do like to watch the news and some sports which I really cannot download (and not sure where I stream it)

I haven't decided what I am going to do yet.

I loved my awesome digital antenna. I paid $60 for it, it worked fantastic and for 4 years, I got to watch basic TV with no bills. I would highly recommend a digital antenna to anyone (not living in a forest!) who is trying to keep their bills low.

Hugs!

Almost a Month

This Friday it will be a month since I moved to Coe Hill. So far, so good.

The solar/generator thing is generally working well. I was having a hard time working on art without the TV (Two hours a day is not near enough to get art done! You don't even feel like starting :( Blah) I know, you are going to say "I can work on art without TV", but seriously, no I cannot! Art is flowing and nonthinking, I NEED something for my list making thinking brain to do so my creative brain can be free to do it's thing. If list making thinking brain doesn't have something to do, it gets bored, and yep, no art gets done. Talking works also, but only if I'm not paramount in the conversation; i can listen, but not engage much. Engaging distracts my whole brain too much ad I get nothing done! So, I started running the generator 4 - 5 hours a day, which is allowing me to get some art done. I think at the moment, I am spending about $30-$35 a week on gas for the generator plus another $6 in oil, so yep, that pretty well killed any "off-grid" discount. However, at least I don't have the nasty old hydro company sending me nasty overpriced bills, which is a huge stress relief, and at least when it storms, I know I'll still have hydro.

A month in, I'm not sure how I feel about the whole 'off-grid" thing. There are some pros and cons. it would certainly be better suited for someone who was gone to work all day, not someone who works from home. However, it certainly could be worse and in general has worked ok.

The critters are doing well. So far (knock wood!) we haven't lost any hens or cats. They all seem to be enjoying the new environment a lot.

I'm enjoying the property a lot, I love all the trees, wildlife and solitude. The hardest thing for me to adjust to is the amount of people that have been here over the last month. In the last month,there has been friends here about a week and a half. I'm simply not use to all the people and find it a bit overwhelming. For me that's basically a year's worth of visitors in a month! It takes time to adjust. The dogs are also having a hard time adjusting to all the visitors. I'm pretty set in my ways and really like my space; hopefully as time goes on I'll adjust.

Work wise things are going fairly well. Getting dances is not quite as easy as it was in Wyoming, but I'm still getting enough. My online work was suffering a lot, but with the increase in TV that seems to be improving.

All in all, I'm enjoying the adventure thus far. Not sure if I like it as much as where I was living, time will tell.

Hugs!
Trish

Day17

It's been 17 days since I moved to Coe Hill. So far, so good. The land is of course gorgeous and I generally enjoy the outside work. In general, the weather has been fantastic

The hens seem to have adjusted  to their new home and I found quite the stash of eggs outside near the house. So far (knock wood), I haven't lost any of the hens. It's interesting that their behavior has changed slightly; they are quieter and stay in a flock more; they keep under the trees unless there are humans outside; their diet consists of about 75% meat; and the fight less among themselves. .

The cats' behavior has also changed slightly. Rollie the oldest, use to beat up Mo all the time. Not anymore. Now the three cats hang together and I haven't heard a cat fight once since we moved in.

The dogs' behavior is almost normal other than my Chihuahua. He's been extra noisy, high strung and moppy. He is a real mama's boy and very set in his ways, I think the change in routine and the fact that I'm out of the house so much is really upsetting him. All the dogs are suffering from farts, ill bellies and the runs. I had to change their dog food as I cannot readily get their normal brand here and I think the well water may be messing up their system.

The internet is working well here, and the solar/generator is working pretty good. I'm starting to stock pile wood for the woodstove for winter.

All in all, 17 days in, I'm doing good. Hugs!

Stephie, Ruth and Stella just "henning"around

The main road down to the fest/camping area

One of the camping area

Generator, Lawnmower and Weedwackers

We finally got the generator problems figured out; it ran three hours straight last night no problem at all. After reading the manual from front to back, and doing some additional googling, we were able to figure out what the problems were. We made three major mistakes:

1. We put regular gas in it; it takes premium unleaded gas, not regular.
2. We let the oil get low; oil needs to be topped off every other day (checked daily)
3. The air filter needs to be cleaned/replaced regularly.

Once we did all that, it fired up and ran perfectly. Lesson learned.

I managed to get a gas lawnmower and two gas weedwackers. They have been a huge help with getting camping spots cleared. However, it is driving me a little nuts that the two weedwackers also need special oil and of course Premium unleaded gas. I am beginning to feel like I need my own oil field to keep up with all this damn gas!

This is one of our major camping spots. It looks pretty nice all cleaned up; it was full of 3-5 foot tall weeds.

Getting Things Done and Generator Problems

I've been super busy the last few days, clearing camping sites, clearing parking space, gathering dead fall and cleaning up the land. I have about 10 days till my annual Naughty Nymph Charity Party so have a pile of things to get done.

Everything has been going well with the solar energy, but the generator has been giving me problems. I completely changed the oil in it, but sadly it still keeps shutting down after about 30 minutes of use. Fortunately the solar energy has been pulling in enough energy to keep the basics (computers, lights etc) going. Not sure what is wrong with the generator, I have someone coming to look at it tomorrow.

I got myself a sturdy gas lawn mower today.It's a huge help in getting the camping areas and parking space ready. The grass doesn't grow very quick here so at least I won't have to cut it much. Tomorrow morning I have a gas weedwacker coming (in exchange for some dances). I love barter! :)

The fur and feather babies are all doing well. The dogs of course love it here, and the cats are enjoying it. There was a mouse in the house last night, so I'm going to keep a cat inside for a ouple of nights to make sure there are not more of the little buggers. I am a total girlie girl when it comes to mice! The hens are also loving it here, but are still not laying. I thought they might be laying in the woods, but I haven't heard the typical egg laying noises.

All in all, things are going well and of course I'm loving it. Hugs!

Some pics of the inside of my new house :)

Parking, Generator and Faeries

Things are going well here in Coe Hill. I've been working hard getting the last of the house unpacked and organized and getting all the outside stuff done. I got a large area cleared along the driveway for a parking lot; it should fit 20-30 cars no problem. I also got the Faerie area all set up,which was a huge amount a fun!

The Faerie area in a small path that opens up into a small clearing and then you can follow the path back out to the main road again. I decorated it with all the Faerie stuff I had and over the years others will add to it.

Unfortunately, the last couple of days hasn't been perfect, I've been having some generator problems; it keeps cutting out after about 30-45 minutes. I called Terry the previous home owner and he told me the problem was it was low on oil, so I topped it off, but sadly that did not help :( I'll have to call him back today and see if we can figure out the issue. Thankfully the solar panels have been producing enough to keep my son and mine computers going, so the lack of generator has been no real hardship. However, it's important we get it figured out, can't have generator problems come wintertime!