Blessed Samhain and Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! Blessed Samhain!

Today, we honor all those who have passed away during the last year, the last turning of the wheel. I have had such a bad year, but thankfully got off lucky this year death wise. This year I remember and honor two hens, Alice and Lennon, and four duck, Mikel, Fred, Shaggy and Scooby. Thankfully I lost no humans or furbabies this year (just featherbabies)

At Samhain, we also remember and tribute our ancestors. Today I remember my father who passed away 11 years ago, my Grandmother who passed away 15 years ago, and all my ancestors, grandfathers and grandmothers that I have never meant. Today, I honor them, and thank them, for without them I would not be.

Today, the veil between the worlds is thinnest. Today, the dead return to greet the living. Today, we remember and we honor those who have gone before.

Even if you are not Pagan, please take a moment to honor the sacredness of the day. It's not all about candy and commercialism, it's much deeper than that.

Hugs and love!

Ducks

Feeling blue? Gets some ducks! Always makes you feel better!

No, I didn't get any new ducks on the weekend. I getting them on Tuesday! "Deadpool" and his lady, two Muscovy ducks, a drake and a hen.

The white duck in the pic below is the female duck, her names is Nibs

 And this is Deadpool. He's a drake. He's will hopefully help keep all my girl ducks safer.

I get them Tuesday evening, so I'll try to post pics on Wednesday.

Hugs and love!

Sarcodosis Specalist

I went to see the Sarcodosis specialist at the New Glasgow hospital today ... boy, did that suck huge.

The Doctor told me that taking six Tylenol a day for the rest of my life (for the sarcodosis pain) was safer for my body than eating one marijuana cookie daily .. what a twit! Seriously, this Doctor knew absolutely NOTHING about medical marijuana; I'm OK with her knowing nothing, I'm pissed that she knew nothing and still felt like her opinion on the topic was valid, even after admitting that she had never researched it! Ridiculous! It you know nothing about something, than you should shut the hell up! Worst yet, there were medical marijuana pamphlets in her waiting room!  Why the hell is she advertising something she knows nothing about and obviously doesn't support?

So, after the Doctor floored me with her lack of knowledge on marijuana, she tells me to go get blood tests done (which I just had done 4 months ago, but ok lets do them again). she sends me to a closed blood clinic and she gave me the wrong blood work papers!

I took a pic of the blood work forms that were given to me ... ummmmm, that's NOT my name on the sheet! Not even close! (so, I'm assuming the guy whose sheets I have has mine).

So, the whole thing was a complete waste of my time and energy, not impressed. I won't be hurrying back to that Dr anytime soon. 

To top off my crappy day: I got mail from our wonderful government and I owe $250.00 from last year's income tax ...  seriously?! How the hell is that even possible? I was very sick for two months last year and couldn't even work, and was so broke I couldn't even afford my prescription meds! Craziness! I'm contacting some Government idiot on Monday and arguing about it,!

Cherry on top, one of my dearest friends told me her boyfriend sexually assaulted her five year old daughter! Oh my fucking GOD! I just want to rip the guys head off! What kind of sicko does that!!??

So, ya, seriously bad day. Thankfully its over!

Red Maple, Autumn Colours and a three Rail Fence

Hi! Hope everyone is having a great week!

I have been searching for Maple trees near the house (for early spring tapping). It's important to get them marked now (while they have leaves). There are not a huge amount of Maple trees on my property, most are Birch, but I managed to find a few.

The tree shown in the photo below is a red maple, also called a swamp maple or a water maple. Unlike a sugar maple, red Maple is a soft-wood. Thankfully red maple can still be tapped! It has pretty well the same sugar content as sugar Maple does 

(Photo below) the red leaves are from my tree, the green leaves are from Google. As you can see, they don't look exactly like traditional Maple leaves look.

This is a traditional maple leaf (From a tree in my yard)

This is a photo of my driveway this week. Not so much orange and red, lots of yellow. Birch leaves turn yellow, not red or orange, and as I have piles of Birch, Autumn here is more yellow than in Ontario. Still beautiful!

Yesterday's chore- a three rail fence to block off the side path from ATVers and dirt bikers.

I hope you all have a great day! I have an appointment with the Sarcodosis specialist this afternoon. I'm pretty well in constant pain so hopefully she'll be able to help! Fingers crossed!

Hugs and love!

Rail Fence

Hi! Hope everyone is having a great week! Here's some fun stuff I've been doing lately!

My son and I put up a rail fence. I have never put up a rail fence before, but it was pretty easy. I watched a YouTube video. :) It took us about two and a half hours to put up the fence. We have piles and piles and piles of dead fall and downed trees so it took a bit to dig through all the wood to find what we needed.

The fence didn't cost me a penny and was made with very minimal tools. I pushed on the fence and it didn't fall over; I'm not sure how it will stand up to a big storm, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

To make the fence you need:

Wood "Y" pieces (where the branch breaks into two, making a "Y"). We used seven on our fence.

Straight sturdy yet bendable wood branches about two-three feet long. These are to make the "X" that goes over the bottom rail and the top rail rests on. We used 14 (seven "X")

Long thick branches or trees for rails. We used four that were 10-15 feet each.

1. Point the ends on all the Ys and Xs

2. Carefully hammer the Y branches into the ground. These are to set your bottom rail on. Put one in the ground every couple of feet.

3. Put the bottom rail/tree/branch on the Ys. The YS will lift the bottom rail slightly off the ground. 

3. Hammer into the ground the two-three feet long branches so they make a X over the bottom rail. Make one "X" every couple of feet.

4.  Place the top rail/branch/tree on the center of the "X"s. The top rail/branch holds down the X which holds down the bottom rail.

I hope that made sense!

The fence is obviously not to stop the critters! :)

Hurricane Matthew

Good morning Friends!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a nice Thanksgiving. I don''t celebrate Thanksgiving, but had a nice quiet weekend .. until yesterday. Hooo boy! Yesterday was quite the day!

We got hit with the tail end of hurricane Matthew yesterday. I had no internet from about 8am-2pm, and than had no power from 10:54pm-5:30am yesterday/today.

We got about 120mm of rain yesterday, plus 70-100km winds. Storm wise I've seen way bigger, but rain wise, holy cow Nova Scotia! WOW! That was a LOT of rain! Very cool!

Kappa Cove, the pond near the house, totally overflowed. The whole end of Piskie Point is submerged. I almost lost my cement bench to the pond, but thankfully my son moved it in time. The baby ducks had to be rescued and carried to the coop, but the adult ducks spent the day/night on the pond. One of my hens almost fell in the swelling pond, but thankfully I was able to grab her up before she drowned.

There was a pile of trees knocked down last night. We had to remove four trees from across the driveway this morning. I'm sure there are piles of downed trees throughout the forest.

I took a few pics of Kappa Cove yesterday:

Hugs and love! 

Sad

Good morning friends,

I had intended to post about Birch polypores this morning, but I've had such a crappy morning, I'm just not up to it. I'll post about them tomorrow. Sadly, when I got up today, I found my beloved saxony drake Mikel floating dead in the pnd. What a horrible heartbreaking way to start the day :( I have no idea what happened.

Mikel was by far my favorite duck. My heart is just broken. I lost my favorite hen two weeks ago, now I lose my favorite duck :(

That's my sweet Mikel in the front. Goddess bless him and keep him safe. Rest in peace friend.

October

Good-bye September! Welcome October!

I hope everyone had an excellent weekend!

My weekend was quiet. I had some plans for the weekend, but unfortunately ended up not feeling the best so took it easy over the weekend instead. I worked on some art and got some housework done. I did make the mussel soup on Saturday; it turned out very good. I will definitely try some more mussel recipes!

Today, is sort of dreary, rainy and windy. I had planned on doing an outdoor photoshoot today, but alas the weather is not working with me. I guess I'll have to put it off till tomorrow. Maybe I'll get an indoor photoshoot done today instead.

All the critters are doing well. Whatever killed my sweet hen last weekend has thankfully not returned. Wally, my new rooster is fitting in well, and the tiny 4 week old rescue kitten is doing extremely wonderful.

I have a fairly quiet week planned. Got some yard work and cleaning to get done, and I have a Pan Tribute planned for Saturday night.

Yesterday, I purchased tickets for the Witches' Ball in Halifax for the end of the month, so I need to figure out a costume. I'm going with a couple of new friends from New Glasgow.It's a good opportunity to meet some of the other Pagans here in Nova Scotia.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Hugs and love!!