Introducing Ruby Tuesday

Ruby Tuesday (pictured below) is 10 weeks old, 10 pounds and able bring an entire farm to a halt.  Oh I know that one day she will be working side by side with me, effortlessly moving our small herd of cows from one pasture to another but, for now, life appears to be circulating around a small princess whose greatest weapon is where she places her poop.

) Peeing outside on the entire 6 ½ acres available to her?  No problem! She’s got that down.  On some level she knows she needs to “do number two” out there too and obliges occasionally.  But that would be relinquishing the solid comfort of depositing a small cluster of her finest on the soft farmhouse carpet.  I naively had assumed that she would not poop where she sleeps or eats and that is true but no matter how many places in the house we feed her and watch her sleep she finds another where she has done neither of these activities.  After walking up and down in the rain she would pee, prance and play then upon getting back in, look around her surreptitiously and run upstairs to poop on the landing, or in the back closet.  I fought back by closing off rooms (luckily a house that is 105 years old has a lot of doors).  So this this morning I rose ready to take back my life – I was galvanized!  When she awoke at 4:30 I was up and out with her faster than the speed of Calvin (our Great Dane) who subsequently wandered down to investigate.  Undeterred by the lack of little turd production – I quickly dressed and had coffee, shut the door to the upstairs to foil my small genius. I thought optimistically that I would have breakfast, feed the dogs to encourage general digestive activity and go out for a half hour play in the pasture (at which time I was sure the desired emission would occur) and then return, dry my hair for once, look like I was in control, wash the dishes, fold the laundry and head out to fix the hoop house like a grown up farmer while my dogs slept peacefully by the fire. Maybe I would return and make home made dog treats like Martha Stewart. 

Well after 40 minutes of muddy rainy cold pasture play (and no poop) I gamely headed in thinking I would regroup and move on.  The dogs obligingly lay down in an idyllic fashion by the fire – maybe today would be the first day of….and then I saw them…two femininely placed little bundles, cunningly disguised by the dining room carpet pattern.  I marched into the kitchen, grabbed two bags, a paper towel and the special $40 dollar “dog accident” cleaner, knocked a wine glass off the counter (an indicator of how I cope at the end of the puppy days) which smashed into splinters across the kitchen floor.  I closed off the kitchen area, ran to the dining room, cleaned up the offending piles, found a third. I fiercely closed off the dining room doors, stopping to water the plants in there so they wouldn’t be forgotten, paused to remove my underwear from Ruby’s mouth, cleaned the entire kitchen floor to ensure there was no glass and glanced at the clock which informed me the morning was gone.  Ruby 3  Farm 0.  But now she’s looking at me with those eyes and bestowing me with those sweet puppy kisses and my heart melts as usual.   Oh well – tomorrow is another day, your royal canine highness…

 

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Thanksgiving?

It's Canadian Thanksgiving.  In the last two months we have had record wildfires in BC forcing thousands from their homes, multiple brutal tropical storms have robbed people of the very land around them , their families,  their homes, their lives. Our American neighbours are reeling from the wounds both literal and psychological of the worst mass shooting in the history of that country. And their are bullies threatening us with nuclear weapons on the global school playground. I had lunch with a friend who told me her daughter had been in a terrible bicycle accident.  And as if a gloomy sort of cherry on top was required, our roadside farm stand was robbed last week.  For the second time.  This time the thieves couldn't open the bolted locked box so they pried it up and took the whole thing.

Thanksgiving?

We have had personal connections with those in the thick of some of those disasters. A dear friend in the North Thompson has taken in people who have been evacuated and 15 horses.  In the middle of this she has taken the time to text me pictures of some of the horses and their babies and ask me how I am doing.  My cousin in Houston, whose husband is not well and recovering from a major lung transplant and whose mother is frail, has been opening her home to some of the victims of Harvey. And almost daily she continues her regular facebook posts of beautiful photography and inpiring quotes.

On Saturday at our local farmers market, our friends in the community sought us out to express concern over our theft, offer help with the stand and just give us a hug. And then we went back to our tables in the warm autumn sunshine and sold our produce as we do every week. Our local antique dealer located and gave me a steel 17 pound strong box to replace the other one- at cost, with no profit to them. In fact I think they took a loss.  I went by to thank them, stopping for a moment to pet their huge leonberger "puppy" as I always do when I go to their store.

My friend with the badly injured daughter dried her tears and we turned to our usual talk about delicious recipes (we share a love of good food) and asked after my family.

It seems like when things are very bad, when we are on uncharted territory, we seem to turn to the life preserver of the ordinary, the usual, the familiar little homespun things.  And after we catch our breath we kick like hell for shore and we, well, continue.  Real heroism is sometimes just pressing on. And managing to find pleasure in something usual; a chat about the weather, a bite of delicious fresh tomato,  the look the dog gives you when you pet him in just the right spot. And just for a moment, the small ordinary good seems to overcome even the extraordinarily bad.

Thanksgiving? Absolutely. For the people we love and who love us back and for the incredible enduring human spirit of just ... continuing. 

Hmmm- Think I'll pop out to the honour stand this morning and attach the new lock box.

Chris

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.  Have a look at our gift of gratitude under our recipe tag. its our new recipe for roasted tomatoes. Enjoy!