Look very, very closely at this photo ... is there something amiss?

Ah, yes, there appears to be some new staff on the West Wing team. Thanks to the photoshop talent of one Mrs. Janna Cylka, my husband is forever immortalized as part of his very favourite (pseudo-) political team. Other new additions to the White House team are our friends Steve and Janna Cylka. One of Kev's VERY favourite down-time things to do is to go and hang with Steve and Janna watching the now-cancelled show on DVD.

Endings and beginnings ...

Kevin is counting down the hours ... tomorrow is his VERY LAST DAY at New Life Girls' Home. Starting on Tuesday next week he will only have one job (other than his worship duties at church and seminary courses at Tyndale). Since he's been volunteering at the radio station for the past four years, AND doing worship duties, AND working full-time at New Life Girls' Home, AND doing foundational courses, AND doing occasional contract work with Eagle's Flight (to assist in the income department) this is a substantial reduction in his busy-ness :). He very much enjoyed his ongoing work with Eagle's Flight, however doing the morning show will make this impossible, at least for the near future.

Alison has completed her volunteer duties at the Main Branch of the County Library System. She has had a lot of fun doing it, and they would like to keep her however our schedule won't allow it during the school year. She was really encouraged by her superiors, who provided her with an official "Letter of Recommendation". It was extremely positive and she's feeling quite proud :). At the moment, her plans are to do some volunteering at a local veterinary clinic next summer, hoping that it will then morph into an after-school position once she's in high school.

And Wednesday I have to take a cull ewe and two ram lambs to "Uncle Ted's" (euphenism for the abbatoir) in Wellington. An ending for them, to be sure. And a beginning for me ... do I really have what it takes to raise our own food? Because this unpleasant task is part of the circle, and I'm really, really dreading it.

New link at top right of blog!

For those of you who are auditory learners, Calvary Chapel has an audio Bible that I've linked here. Give it a try! I've also placed a permanent link at the top right of my blog page.

Calvary Chapel (www.twft.com) Audio Bible

Oh! Oh! Guess what I can do on Blogger now!!!!

I have no idea when they added this technology; just wasn't paying attention to the toolbar contents. Do you recall the photo of Jasmine jumping over Alison a few posts back? Well, she was a jumper from lamb-hood, and Alison managed to catch her in action in this video fragment from April 17. Wait until the very end ... :) ...




Pardon the sheep ... they were so disgustingly muddy on this day. And I'm blown away by how much better the older sheep look after being spoiled at our place for 9 months :). They were in rough shape, with fleece breaks due to stress, and scrawny!

BTW, Jasmine is proof positive that sheep are far from stupid. She figured out quickly that if she jumped up on Latifah and rode her over to the fence, she could jump off the other side!

Day of Rest??? and "Welcome, Ricky!"

Happy Sunday to all! After a fun morning at church (VBS Roundup) it was home, bringing one of Claire's friends for the afternoon. BLT's for lunch, then a "simple" fence moving session which ended up taking a couple of hours. It had to be done today, however, because of the rain we've had; the ground is soft and it was relatively easy to push in the "step" electric fence posts. Our "bound-for-the-freezer" trio (Elizabeth, Souvlaki and Stew) had absolutely no pasture munchies left, and they had become very demanding ... the instant their hay was gone they would start hollering for more. The noise was getting old :).

Spent some time early this morning studying fleece colour genetics in sheep ... I tried to deduce the genotype of our four ewes and our probably herd sire this fall, in an effort to figure out what colour lambs we could expect in spring. Found an online photo of Kivu's sire; she is a DEAD RINGER for him, in particular in the area of fleece.

And here is our latest house addition ... in the spring, when Claire's elderly hamster was dying of cancer, the girls discussed what the next pet might be. Both girls agreed that they missed our budgies, and that they would share one. My family has always had budgies, and family folklore is chalk full of tales of bright birds who could recite addresses and phone numbers. I, too, had a budgie when I was unmarried (Jacob), then again when the children were young in NJ (Benny). When we left NJ friends kept Benny and his castle; when Benny was gone, they shipped it up to us in Canada. It arrived in approximately 100 pieces, and became landfill :(. So the girls spent part of our March trip to Burlington and Guelph strategizing the purchase of another bird cage. While in Burlington, the girls and I accompanied Mom to Myrt's house for coffee (another lifelong tradition!) and Myrt and Pat blessed them with a beautiful bird cage and stand. We brought it back with us, and it has been in storage, waiting for a future tenant.

Fast forward to yesterday and a trip to the grand opening of a new pet store in Belleville. They had lovely fancy budgies on for $10.00 (yikes) and they had arrived less than 24 hours before (essential for pet bird imprinting). So the girls brought home their much planned budgie quite spontaneously yesterday afternoon. With no further ado, meet Ricky! (Or Rikki, if he ends up with a brown cere :) ...)



Ricky will be living predominantly in Claire's bedroom, and Mom, this photo is for you to share with Myrt so she can see that the girls have put the cage to good use :).

The song "Degeneration" by the Quebecois Band Mes Aieux ("My Ancestors")

This is a powerful song, shown here with subtitles in English.

Degeneration


If anyone knows how to properly accent using Blogger, please let me know! The song title is a play on words, meaning both "the generations" and "degeneration".

French Lyrics:

Ton arrière-arrière-grand-père, il a défriché la terre
Ton arrière-grand-père, il a labouré la terre
Et pi ton grand-père a rentabilisé la terre
pis ton père, il l’a vendu pour devenir fonctionnaire

Et pi toé mon p’tit gars, tu sais pu c’que tu vas faire
Dans ton p’tit trois et d’mi ben trop cher, frète en hiver
Il te vient des envies de dev’nir propriétaire
Et tu rêves la nuit d’avoir ton petit lopin d’terre

Ton arrière-arrière-grand-mère, elle a eu quatorze enfants
ton arrière-grand-mère en a eu quasiment autant
Et pi ta grand-mère en a eu trois c’tait suffisant
pis ta mère en voulait pas, toi t’étais un accident

Et pi toé ma p’tite fille, tu changes de partenaires tout l’temps
Quand tu fais des conn’ries, tu t’en sauves en avortant
Mais y’a des matins, tu te réveilles en pleurant
Quand tu rêves la nuit d’une grande table entourées d’enfants

Ton arrière-arrière-grand-père, y’a vécu la grosse misère
Ton arrière-grand-père, il ramassait les cents noires
Et pi ton grand-père, miracle, y’est devenu millionnaire
Ton père en a hérité, il l’a tout mit dans ses réers

Et pi toé p’tite jeunesse tu doé ton cul au ministère
Pas moyen d’avoir un prêt dans une institution bancaire
Pour calmer tes envies de hold-uper la caissière
tu lis des livres qui parlent de simplicité volontaire

Tes arrières-arrières-grands-parents ils savaient comment fêter
Tes arrières-grands-parents ça swingnaient fort dans les veillées
Pis tes grands-parents ont connu l’époque yé-yé
Tes parents c’tait les discos c’est là qu’ils se sont rencontrés

Et pi toé mon ami qu’est-ce que tu fais de ta soirée
Éteins donc ta T.V. faut pas rester encabané
Heureusement que dans vie certaines choses refusent de changer
Enfiles tes plus beaux habits car nous allons ce soir danser

Approximate English translation: (I haven't checked this so please forgive me if it's bad ... Kev, what do you think?) Caution ... some language.

Your great-great grandfather cleared the earth
Your great-grandfather laboured on the earth
Your grandfather turned a profit from the earth
Then your father sold the earth to become a bureaucrat

Now you, my little man, you don’t know what to do
In your little 3 room apartment - too expensive and cold in the winter
You want something to call your own
And you dream at night of having your own little piece of earth.

Your great great grandmother, she had 14 kids
Your great grandmother had about as many
Then your grandmother had three, that was enough for her
Your mom didn’t want any, you were an accident

Now you, my little lady, change partners all the time
When you screw up you save yourself by aborting
But there are mornings you awake crying
When you dream in the night of a large table surrounded by little ones.

Your great great grandfather lived through incredible suffering
Your great grandfather collected used, dirty pennies
Then your grandfather became a millionaire
Your father inherited and put it into RRSPs

Now you, my little youth, owe your a$$ to the government
No way to get a loan from a financial institution
To alleviate your desire to hold up a bank
You read books about voluntary simplicity

Your great great grandparents knew how to celebrate
Your great grandparent dance the night away
Your grandparents lived through the rock and roll era
Your parents, it was discos, that’s where they met

Now you, my friend, what are you doing with your evening?
Turn off your TV, can’t stay locked inside
Happily, some things in life never change
Put on your best, we’re going out tonight dancing!

Prince Edward County 4H Sheep Club Achievement Day, 2007

Here are some photos of the day! Here is Claire with Kivu, having some fun. Kivu, who is a "typical" Shetland and tends to be slightly nervous and spooky, was an old pro on Sunday. I think we tired her out :).

Here is Claire under the watchful eye of Judge Margaret Kerr. Marg is a Suffolk sheep breeder in the county, who also breeds cattle, registered Norwegian Fjord Ponies and working Border Collies. She is one busy lady.


Here is Claire setting up Kivu in the line:


Kivu took 1st place in the fleece class. The judge's reasons for putting Kivu first were 1. squareness and excellent conformation, 2. quality and consistency of fleece from front to back, and 3. conditioning. Marg's individual comments were that Kivu was in perfect condition, and that her coat was lustrous.

Small aside: A big thing in 4H is giving "reasons"; the 4H members are all expected to be able to develop their judging abilities themselves, and to be able to intelligently give their top three reasons for the placement of each animal in the group. For the meat market and fleece classes, EACH competitor had to also judge the class with a prize going to the member who came closest to the judge's placement. It can be very difficult with a large group! Marg was great, and even allowed onlookers to judge and give reasons.

Alison's classes with Jasmine were even larger. Here is a closeup of her in her class:


And here is a shot of the whole class. Alison's lamb was the only lamb of woolly parentage; the rest of the lambs were Katahdin, with one Katahdin/Dorper cross. Since they are a dedicated meat breed we didn't think she'd do very well. Marg placed Jasmine 1st in the meat market class, later calling Jazzy the "finest ewe lamb she'd seen in quite a while". Her reasons were 1. squareness and length of carcass, 2. length and musculature of leg (think leg of lamb here) and 3. conditioning.

This photo shows half of the class only.

In addition to taking first place in the lamb classes, both girls took second place in their respective showmanship classes (Alison in Senior, Claire in Junior). We were incredibly proud of them; they have put in a lot of time with their lambs and it really showed.

After the show, our host farm did a big barbeque and we connected with others in the industry. We were thrilled that Linda Swaine, our mentor, was able to attend, but we were sorry that Bill Stearman (our generous Shetland shepherd) was not with us. Next year, the show will be a more traditional 4H event where the lambs will get auctioned off. Eek. Not sure how that will fly with the girls :).

Preparations for Achievement Day

Two completely different kinds of lambs, two methods of preparation. Kivu, the Shetland, is shown in full fleece. No trimming, and only gentle bathing allowed. Basically we added "Mane and Tail" shampoo into a bucket of lukewarm water, and gently dumped it all over her. Then, we rinsed her with 5 buckets of water poured over her. No disturbing of fleece, no massaging in of soap. It is very important that the lock structure of the fleece remain intact, so the judge can see the length of staple and crimpiness. We pressed towels on her, then blew her dry (medium) with no brushing. Here is Claire playing hair dresser:


Jasmine is our market lamb. She was fully sheared 2 weeks prior to the show. We used very warm water with her because we had to dissolve the lanolin, which was turning her slightly yellow in the cool weather that day. And she was scrubbed ... by sponge, face cloth and curry comb. And trimmed. And rinsed. And scrubbed again. Much more elbow grease involved here, but she came out snowy white! Below is the rinse cycle:


Further drying occurred on our front lawn, so they didn't go into their dusty pen and undo all the work. Jasmine amused herself by jumping over Alison.


Friends.


Prince Edward County 4H Achievement Day is now completed as I post this on Sunday night, but my news and photos from the event will have to wait until tomorrow!

Busy, busy!

Working for me, Kev working two jobs, 4H Sheep Club achievement day coming up on Sunday, changes at church ... whew, I'm just tired thinking about it. Or perhaps it's the fact that I've been waking at 4:30 a.m.?

Leaving you with a photograph I took last weekend at a friend's home; momma and papa mourning dove decided to move into a condo/hanging planter to raise their young 'uns. Very sweet :).

For those of you who read "Reader's Digest"

and may have noticed the following article in the June, 2007 edition:


I now present to you the (infamous) Buddha Dog (far right of the photograph below).
The really great thing about this restaurant is that it is a model for the new generation of slow food/100 mile diet. For those of you who have never heard of the 100 mile diet, a quick summary is that we as consumers will eat most healthily if we eat only those things grown within 100 miles of where we live and work. Everything that is served at this restaurant is 100% made/grown in Prince Edward County. Behind the counter, the entire wall has been painted with chalkboard paint, and there is a huge map of the County drawn on it, with all the contributors to the restaurant marked.

You can look at the map and know which abbatoir prepared the dogs, which farm prepared each of the gourmet sauces, (and where the ingredients were grown!), where the lemonade or cider was produced, and where the salad produce was grown.

They are also a very community-minded company, raising many charity dollars each year by sponsoring a hot-dog eating contest on Canada Day. They have been huge supporters to the work our youth pastor has been doing in bringing a skate park to Picton.

Way to go, Buddha Dog :).

Alison's Volunteer Job at the Library this summer

I snuck a camera in to the Picton (Main Branch) Library this week to catch Alison busy at work. They're pretty thrilled with her work; she works fast and always ends up with nothing to do by the end of her three hour long stint.




She also prepares summer programs, assists the children participating in the programs, helps out in the book sale room, and whatever else they need done. As homeschoolers up until now, the library has been central to our week and we know the staff well :). Here is the outside of our beautiful old library. There are smaller branches in some of the outlying communities, but this is the main one.

Fishers and cougars and porcupines , oh my!

Yes, we in the county have head a steadily increasing population of two of these nasty animals. When Kev and I moved here this neighbourhood was overrun with feral cats. Although considered a problem for the county, for the farmers they did help keep the rodent population down. However, the increasing fisher population has decimated the feral cat population (and we're seeing less rabbits as well) and the rodents are having a party. Either the fishers don't appreciate mice, or the mice are leaving the forest and moving on to our lawns to be safe. So indirectly, it was this animal that has required us to adopt two mousers.

I've seen 3 fishers since moving here. One slipping across the road near midnight as I was driving home from a meeting ... I thought it was a wolverine since I'd never heard of fishers before, and the shadows made it look larger than it was. The little round ears are so different. Then once out walking the dog, I saw two in a neighbour's field early in the morning. The creepy thing about them? When we got close enough to startle them, rather than slipping away as would any reasonable wild animal, both (in different areas of the field) sat up and looked more closely at us, then started coming our way! We left. Quickly. If a barking 72 pound border collie isn't enough to scare them, nothing is. Last week a fisher made it into the local news after attacking two small pet dogs, and then the owner when she tried to rescue the dogs. She was cut up quite badly. And in the last couple of weeks, New Life Girls' Home had to have the MNR come out and live trap two fishers.

One postive about fishers in the county? Because of the way they prey on animals, they are the only known predators of porcupines. I'll spare the gory details. The county doesn't have porcupines (save the for the road kill one that several years ago was "planted" on a county road to play a joke on council and Quinte conservation), but they will now likely never gain a foothold here.

This excerpt is from www.borealforest.com

Martes pennanti
Fisher

Description

Distinguishing Features - Overall colouration, thick, lustrous fur, varying from dark brown to black; random whitish to cream coloured patches on chest. In winter, colouration tends to be darker. Legs, short; claws, semi-retractable.

Size -
Male: .84 - 1.05 m (2.8 - 3.5 ft)
Female: .75 - .93 m (2.5 - 3.1 ft)

Habitat

Throughout Northwestern Ontario, preferring mature coniferous forests with heavy overhead canopy near water; stays clear of open areas.

Diet

Primarily a carnivore. The fisher is one of the few animals that will kill a porcupine. It will also eat anything else it can overwhelm; rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, birds, insects, reptiles, fish, crayfish and carrion; some berries, seeds and tips of ferns.

Notes

The fisher is a wide-ranging, year round hunter, preferring to venture out at night. Because it has few natural enemies, the fisher population has remained stable. A female will produce one litter of 2 - 3 offspring a year.

*****

And if fishers aren't bad enough, in the last few weeks, there have been two cougar sightings at far-flung ends of the county. One near East Lake and one up at Rednersville Road. Rampant rumour is that the cougars have been released by the MNR to control fishers. However, this indeed is just a rumour; cougars likely predate humans in this area. In fact, local Loyalist historical fiction and oral history are rife with accounts of cougar attacks. So it could very well be that our hidden population is escalating.

Preparing for winter (in 30 degree heat!)

We are organized this year, and have four cords of wood arriving in August. The first two have already been delivered, and Iain and I started stacking this morning. Kev and I looked at the measly pile of wood after it arrived, and Kev commented "That sure doesn't look like two cords of wood!". But let me tell you, this morning it is "loaves-and-fishes" wood out there; no matter how much we stack, the pile seems to remain the same! Here is Iain on the pile after stacking part of it. Our neighbours run an annual flower business; you can see their greenhouses out behind him.


Our organization was not self-motivated; our regular wood guy Jamie gave me the same price per cord of wood as I paid last year, as long as I ordered it before peak season. Last year we were stacking in January ... not fun! This is good, since we'll be all stacked before the kids get busy with school.

This year I learned how to pillar the wood at the ends of each stack. This will make the wood more stable. Here's a photo of Iain stacking, showing the pillars we put up first.


We love using wood heat here. When we purchased our little wood stove, we envisioned it heating the family room only, however because of the open floor plan and the way the stairs from the lower level lead upstairs, we can heat all living areas in the house adequately. We tend to set our furnace for 16 C. The furnace generally doesn't come on at all until January, then only by about 4 in the morning for a couple of hours. Only in a real cold snap does it come on during the day. Last year we used only about 1/3 of a tank of oil, plus somewhere around 3.5 cords of wood. And oh, the smell of that first fire :) .... mmmmmm. We can hardly wait!

One of my favourites songs ...

which Kevin played on UCB this morning :).

Here are the lyrics: (Lona, you'll love this song: If you go to www.debbiezepick.com, and click on "Music", then on her first album, you can hear an excerpt. I'm sure you will identify!!)

Rain Upon the Roof
©2003 Zepick Music
I am a farmer, I watch the sky
For those things that bring new life I so rely
There is no hay, there is no grain
Without the warmth, without the sun, without the rain
There are the seasons, when I confess
That I believe that you've forgotten how to bless
The sky is empty, the land is bare
And though I cry to you, it seems that you don't care

Chorus:
But you are God and I am not
You know the reasons and you do not need my words to know the seasons
Though I do not understand, I know you're not aloof
As I listen for the rain upon the roof

I am a farmer so weak and frail
Tossed about as much by doubt as wind and hail
All through the night, all through the year
You bring the harvest of my soul, peace to my fear
I am a farmer, it is my call
And I live to plant in spring, harvest in fall
But in between, I'm on my knees
Father bless the work of these hands, if you please

Chorus

The first time I heard this song I was driving the kids to swimming lessons in Belleville. It had been raining for DAYS after a prolonged dry spell and I was in a "thin" place about the dichotomy between my passions and dreams and my reality (at the time), and sensitive to some of the challenges my rural County friends were facing. Farming is just. tough. work. This song came on and within a minute I was a wreck. Debbie has a lovely voice; she lives just outside of Calgary, Alberta. They are/were a homeschool family (I believe her two children are graduated or close to) and she was raised on a farm.

Happy Birthday to Kev!

Kev doesn't often get time to relax on his favourite piece of furniture, so in celebration of the day, here he is napping. On the upper deck is one of our two borrowed mousers, Buster. Buster is the laziest cat we've ever met and I don't imagine he'll ever actually catch a mouse, but he makes a fun photo.

Happy 39th, Kev!

4H Lambs revisited and Anne of Green Gables update

Here is Jasmine. She's half Texel, quarter Rideau Arcott, quarter Rambouillet (approximately) and she's 4 months old in this photo. This is Alison's lamb, and I caught her mid-baa :).


Here is Kivu at 3.5 months. She is Claire's 4H lamb, and is a purebred and soon-to-be-registered Shetland.



We just went out this morning and shifted the fences to take in a lovely lush weedy area. The weed in question is actually trefoil, a forage crop, and we're happy to see it on our property because it's basically sheep-candy :). Sheep are natural forbers which means they LOVE weeds, not grass. They are the ultimate natural weeding machine. Weeds don't have a chance, and the pasture is fertilized at the same time, naturally :).

The girls heard back last night; they are in the community and school parts of Anne of Green Gables. The director was thrilled that they had danced and been in the chorus of Jesus Christ Superstar and wanted to include them. We are still debating, however; wondering whether starting at a new school and having a crazy rehearsal schedule will be too much for September and October. Pros? The choreographer and dance coach is fabulous and it will be great experience. I'm thankful they didn't try out for a major character.

Kev's First Official Day at UCB

Here are some of the official photos taken on Kev's first day!

Photo 1: Kev in "The Booth"! A visual for anyone listening in to The UCB Morning Show :). (Although don't expect the grin at 5:30 a.m., and realistically there should be a large double-double in view somewhere as well!)

Photo 2: Kev and Dana Rogalski, his co-host for the Morning Show starting in September. Kev and Dana have great sympatico and have co-hosted together previously, though Kev has only volunteered in the past. Dana is an incredibly neat lady; very involved in world missions and she also has a CD out.

Photo 3: This is a pretty symbolic photograph. Here is Al Baker, who has been with UCB Belleville since it's inception four years ago, and has been the morning show host for quite some time, passing "the phones" to Kev. Al is to many considered to be the "voice of Quinte" since prior to UCB, he was radio announcer of CJBQ, Belleville. He leaves big shoes to fill :). On the right is the CEO of UCB James Hunt. Interesting bit of trivia ... Kevin actually knows James from his (Kev's) Eagle's Flight days. James was originally from England, and was working with a company that distributed Eagle's Flight and Covey products. He was over in the U.S. and attending the same A.S.T.D. (American Society for Training and Development) conference that Kev was. Kev was beyond happy when he was introduced to the new CEO and found out it was James.

These photos celebrate Kevin's first day as host of "The UCB Morning Show"; however his first official 9-to-5 day will be September 1. He can hardly wait!

Congrats, Kev! And congratulations also to Bob Roffell, who will be succeeding Kevin as the new Executive Director of New Life Girls' Home in Consecon, ON.

Danger: Corn Fields

For 27 hours this past week, a five-year old boy was missing in the Wellington area of Prince Edward County. Police and OPP from the entire Quinte region, as well as search and rescue units from local bases were involved in the search.

He and his family had been playing hide and seek in a corn field, and he just. got. lost.

I recall at camp once doing just the same thing in a corn field with a bunch of kids. In amongst the corn stalks there is a complete absence of points of reference. Every direction is the same.

Thank goodness, this little boy was found, and despite high temperatures and lack of water for 27 hours, he was just fine. Our local radio stations joyfully spread the news of a happy ending, for a change.

Do you think, as he lay there alone, he was conscious of how MASSIVE the effort to find him really was? Did he lie there in faith that he would be found? That it would be just a matter of time? Or was he reaching the end of his rope quickly, accompanied by fear and doubt?

Are we conscious, day to day, of just how MASSIVE the effort that God expends, to find us? Do we trust that He will? Or do we sabotage His every effort? Do we doubt? And in doubting, do we push Him away?