Mussels

I got mussels from the grocery store today :) They were $1.79 a pound (I'm not sure what the cost in Ontario, but it seems cheap to me!). I have actually never had mussels before, but I am very excited to give them a try. I found the recipe below on Pinterest. I am going to make it tomorrow. Hopefully it turns out ok!

The above recipe is suppose to be a traditional Nova Scotia dish. I'll let you know how it turns out!

What a Week

Well it's Thursday ... I have had a pretty crappy week.

For the last three days I have been feeling unwell, sort of flu-ish, but not quite the flu. I'm feeling slightly better today, but still not 100%.

I have just had a crap week, just one bad thing after another. Things breaking, rude people etc etc.

This week, I've had a ton and a half of rude emails, some of them were so rude they made me cry. I dealt with a horrible rude aggressive woman on Facebook who hated me because I "sell nude photos". She had me in tears too. What nasty people. I just don't understand why some people go out of their way to be mean to others. I just don't get it. Obviously, they never heard of the "if you don't have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all".

I wish I wasn't so sensitive :(

On a good note, I haven't lost any more hens since the weekend's loss. Whatever killed my sweet hen on Saturday seems to have moved on, thanks the Gods for that!

I've got an hour of offline work to do today and than I'm gonna eat some "special" cookies, make some art and forget the world. Sometimes its the best you can do

Have a great day all! Hugs and love!

The Good and the Bad

Happy weekend all!

My weekend has been both good and bad.

Friday, I officially announced that the Happy Hippie Haven was open for business as a pet rescue. Three hours later, I had someone in need contact me. At the time, they had two foundling kittens under four weeks old. Sadly, by the time they got here with the kittens, the one has already passed away.

So, this is Dingus.

Dingus is almost four weeks old. Sadly his mom and all his siblings died. He's a pretty healthy little guy and I guarantee he will live There will be no dying on my watch!! He's a fireball of a kitten and is ready to take on the world! He enjoyed spending some time outside yesterday. I watched him extra careful as he's so small, he's prey.

The bad of the weekend is that my very fav hen, Little Lennon was murdered. My poor little sweetheart was found beheaded and gutted in the woods near the house. My cat Mo has a serious puncture wound on his head from a tooth. He fought whatever killed Little Lennon. My heart is broken. I adored that sweet little hen so much. I could actually ride my bicycle with her in my arms. She followed me everywhere and can running the moment I called her name. She was the tamest gentlest hen I've ever had, and I only had her two months. The poor little sweetheart didn't even get a chance to lay an egg :(

We believe that the murderer was a stout or fisher (which are weasel type animals). It was not a fox or a larger predator as they would of carried away the dead body. My other two adult cats were not home yesterday (They were out and about adventuring). They returned home last night and this morning. The brother cats Mo and Jo will kill it if it comes back around today. The two of them took out a Fisher when we lived in Coe Hill, Ontario. (Fishers normally kill cats, but Mo and Jo are tamed wild cats and not cats to mess with, especially when they are together)

Here's a couple of other nice photos I took yesterday

This is Dexter. The kitten I took in two weeks ago. He's about 4 months old. He's on lock down in the house today as he could be killed by a stout/fisher.

Mama Muscovy duck spreading her wings, enjoying the pond.

And one more pic of Dingus. He's sitting on my son's feet :)

Hugs and love!

Helping and Caring

I think it's important to care. I think it's important to try to spread love and to try to help where we can. I think its important to do some "charity" work during the year.

I do my "charity" work in several ways; I do several free graphic design jobs during the year for charities and/or new small businesses; I usually throw an annual "Naughty Nymph Charity Party where we raise money for a sexual assault survivors center; and most important (at least in my books!) I run a pet rescue.

I love animals and it breaks my heart what they sometimes have to go through due to us humans. I have done pet rescue almost twenty years. Today, on social media, I publically announced that the "Happy Hippie Haven", the business I run, was officially open to accepting surrenders. Within four hours, I have my first rescue, a 3-4 week old kitten.

He's a cutie! His name is Skunk. He'll be available for adoption in about 5 weeks.

Happy Autumn Equinox!

It was the Autumn Equinox yesterday. Us Pagans also call it Mabon. The Autumn Equinox is when night and day are equal in length. It is the turning point from the light half of the year to the dark half of the year

At Mabon, us Pagans say good-bye to our main God (we call him many names, but this time of year he is most often called the Corn King or the Sun God). Our God dies with the harvest. He dies as the sun moves away from us. Happily he is reborn at Yule :)

We see the year as an ever ending circle of life and death. During the year we see our Gods born, age and die. Their lives correspond with the seasons, and their deaths bring about the harvest. They sacrifice for us to live.

So, happy Mabon friends! Happy Autumn Equinox! May your harvest be bountiful!

Wally, the Rooster

This is Walter or Wally. Wally is a Silkie Chickens.

Silkies are one of the gentlest breeds of chickens. Silkies are considered a "bantam' breed (which means they are small). male Silkies only weigh around 4 pounds. Silkies are obviously not meat bird, nor are they fantastic layers ( Silkie hens lay around 3-4 small eggs weekly). Silkies are pets, not livestock. Their gentle calm disposition makes them very popular with backyard chicken owners.

Silkie Chickens have black skin and bones, and blue earlobes. They also have five toes (instead of the normal four toes most chicken's have. The breed originated in China, but is now popular throughout most of the world.

I have never had a Silkie chicken before. They are not tough enough nor do they lay well enough for what i want. However, with a rooster, I wanted as gentle, calm and quiet as possible, so the Silkie was the perfect breed. Wally fits the bill perfectly :)

Truck and Rooster

Hi! Hope everyone had a great week!

My week was great! I got a lot accomplished. I had some new Pagan friends over on Thursday for a full moon Ritual and meditation, a got a new (used) pick-up truck, got a rooster, and got a shit load of work done.

The truck I purchased from a neighbour for only $400. It has some rust, needs a new rocker panel and has a front alignment issue. It's a "property" vehicle. I plan on getting or making a plow for it so I can use it to plow the driveway.

This is my new rooster! His name is Wally. He is a "Silkie" rooster. I've had chickens for seven years now, but this is my first rooster. I was very nervous about the noise and possible aggression issues; however, Silkies are the very gentlest breed of chicken and Wally is a pretty mellow guy. I don't think there will be aggression problems with him. He does crow in the morning, but out in the coop, I thankfully cannot hear him in the house :)

I'm taking the weekend off from dances. With it being such a busy week I'm feeling a little sick and run down today. Looking forward to a nice quiet weekend. 

Hugs and love!

Fur and Feather Babies

I love all my critters :) Yesterday, I took a pile of critter pics

This photo is of my smallest and friendliest hen, Little Lennon. Little Lennon is an Australorp cross. She came with the three Saxony ducks and the four other similar cross hens. She was just much smaller so needed special care

This pic is of my three Saxony ducks, Mikel, Martha and Merkel. 

This one is Peepers. She came from Ontario. She's a cross breed hen too. She's just about a year old.

This one is Stella. She is a Welsummer. She is about 3 years old. Stella also came from Ontario

The three back hens are Heckle, Jeckle and Hyde. They are about four months old and are Australorp crosses. They came with the Saxony ducks and Little Lennon. The black and white hen, Stephie,  at the back is a Silver laced Wyandotte. She is about four years old and comes from Ontario. Stephie and her sister Ruth are my two oldest hens.

This is Rollie, my oldest cat. He's about three years old.

This is dirty Girl. She's from Ontario and is about three years old. She's a cross breed hen/

This is Ruth and Stephie my two oldest hens. They are Silver Laced Wyandottes.

This is Little Lennon again with her sister Stalin.

This is Willow. She recently hurt her foot, so has been doing a lot of lock down time. She is an orpington cross. She is a Nova Scotia hen, about four months old.

Have a great day everyone! hugs and love!

Music

I'm a huge fan of music. I spend at least a couple of hours daily listening to music. I enjoy listening to a variety of music; rock, oldies, retro, rap, indie, folk, filk, hard rock, country ...

I thought today I would share with you all a bit of the music I have been enjoying lately ...

I love the band "Passenger", here is one of my fav song by them:

I'm also really enjoying Mumford and Sons:

I also love the Strumbellas

Hope you all have a great day! Hugs and love!

September 10th

Hi! Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Can you believe that it's almost the middle of September already! Wow! times goes fast!

 Things are going well around here. Willow, my hen with the bad leg, is doing much much better. She is almost back to walking normally. YAY!

 I put in a small dirt bath spot for my hens so they will hopefully stop having a dirt baths in my veggie garden. So far, so good! My hens don't eat the vegetables in my garden; they don't like raw veggies much. However, they like to have dirt baths and dig up some of my crops and make a big mess of things. I was going to take a photo of it for everyone to see, but sadly, the memory card for my camera keeps coming up with an error :( I'll have to get a new memory card next time I'm in New Glasgow. So, no camera for a couple of days :( What a bummer.

 Today is Saturday, but as I work seven days a week, the days of the week don't matter too much to me. I'm working away getting my normal daily online work done. My son and I are working away making wrapping paper today. You can see all our wrapping paper:

Wrapping Paper
by Patricia Cartwright

I hope you all have a great weekend! Hugs and love!

Happy Long Weekend

Happy labour Day Friends! Hope you all had a great long weekend!

I worked most of the weekend, but did take Saturday night off to hang with some friends. One of my very favorite Ontario friends stopped in with her new love (they stayed Saturday night and than headed off to tour PEI) and a couple from New Glasgow came down for a visit. It was great to see Jess and it is nice to be making new friends. :) We had a great fire saturday night, roasted up some marshmallows and hot dogs.

One of my hens, Willow hurt her leg on Friday. I had her on lock down all weekend, but it didn't seem to help much. She insisted on going out today and is still limping badly :( I think it may actually be broken. Not sure what to do about it as there is not a vet around here that sees hens. I'll have to do some serious googling today and see if I can brace it myself. I'll let you know how that works out.

So, here's a cute photo of my wee boys :)  They are sitting on a lawnchair waiting for the fire to get going

And of course the fire!