While life here is beautiful and peaceful, it does have it's drawbacks.  Yesterday afternoon I started feeling rather unwell.  I recognized the symptoms of a urinary tract infection (uti) so started drinking lots of water, herbal teas and apple cider vinegar.  I knew I had to go to Prince George the following day for a 1:30 appointment, and I also knew that I was the only one to tend the dogs and sheep.  The sheep can go a day without human intervention, but the dogs cannot.  As the day progressed I was feeling more poorly.  The pain in my back and left side was increasing.  I could not eat my supper, which is a real sign I am unwell!  Finally around 11:30 pm I called my friend Lois and told her I was on my way to the hospital as the pain was beyond tolerating.  She offered to drive me in but I knew she was on call (she's a veterinarian).  I did ask her to check on the dogs in the morning and let them out, if I was not back home in time.  I ended up spending the night in the hospital, on heavy duty antibiotics and a good pain killer and anti-inflamatory.  As I waited for the pharmacy to open I pondered the challenges we face living so remotely.  Of course, if Dennis had been home, he would have driven me in and driven me home after without having to spend the night in the hospital.  But, we do, on occasion, spend time apart due to one reason or another.  I do know that I could have called any one of my neighbours and they would have taken me in.  I was in pain, but not unable to drive, so I thought it was not worth waking people up.  One only wants to wake people up in the middle of the night for an extreme emergency. 

Life out here is not for the faint hearted.  While relying on friends and neighbours in an emergency is accepted and expected, one must be independent, strong hearted and level headed in the face of a crisis.

Another thing I learned from this event is that I need to be more prepared for an emergency as far as our dogs and sheep are concerned.  I still had the old labels on the dog food tubs so all the dogs ended up with the wrong food.  Not a big deal for one meal, but the old dogs are on a special, lower protein diet whereas the border collies are on a higher protein diet.  So I now have made and posted on the wall an emergency feeding list.  I have also properly labeled the dog food bins and the dishes. 

Ok, dogs are barking like mad down at the gate.  Time to get outside and deal with what's going on.

Sunday morning.  Drizzling rain but not too cold.  Cold enough to light the furnace though.  Dennis left yesterday for Nanika Lake where he will cook for Nanika Lake Outfitters for the week.  It is a great opportunity for him to get off the farm and to see some pristine country that few get in to see.

I will be chief cook and bottle washer here on the farm for the coming week.  6 dogs to feed, 8 ewes, 7 ram lambs and big Ben to feed and water too.  Not a huge task but it does force me to get up early.  The huge thing to get used to is that I have to make my own coffee and light the furnace each morning.  That is usually Dennis' task so I'm feeling rather hard done by today.  :)

Last night I made supper for one.  It was so nice to go out to the greenhouse and pick a cucumber, peppers, tomatoes and basil.

I also had a small chunk of sockeye salmon we caught so steamed that with some olive oil, butter, wine, Epicure's lemon dilly mix and Epicure's herbed garlic sea salt.  It was absolutely delicious!

 

We don't have running water up by the barn and the sheep corrals.  Our house and approximately 4 acres is severed from the rest of the farm by Colleymount Road.  We have some pens down here by the house which are used at various times for sheep, chickens, turkeys and dogs.  Right now one is occupied by Ben, our big ram, because he is just gettng too frisky if he is close to the ewes.  He still is rather love sick, creating a huge path along the fence line and calling constantly.  The other pen, accros from Ben, is occupied by Amigo.  Amigo is a Maremma livestock guardian dog (LGD) who belongs to our friends, Jim and Leah.  After Jim's stroke, Leah is spending most of her time in town, naturally.  Friends were coming by to feed the dog and cats but Amigo wasn't doing well.  He had lost weight and had terrible diarrhea.  I volunteered to pick him up, get him checked out at the vet, and see if we couldn't get him back to good health.  The food he was eating had corn as the first ingredient.  Most dogs are unable to digest corn.  Dogfood companies should not be allowed to even produce and sell this kind of dog food in Canada.  Anyway, poor Amigo was in rough shape so Leah was thankful that I would tend to his care for the time being.  She has enough to deal with right now and it gives her peace of mind knowing there is one less thing to worry about. 

Anyway, going back to the whole water thing.  So, until we can afford to put a water line in up to the barn and corrals, we obtained a tank that we can fill and take up to the barn area.  The idea was to fill it down by the house, then take it up on the tractor forks to the barn area and fill the water troughs from there.

Unfortunately I did not get a picture of what happened next.  Dennis had the water tank on the tractor forks and was filling the tank.  While the tank was filling, suspended in the air, he went and had coffee.  The next time I looked, the back wheels of the tractor were in the air with the forks and tank on the ground.  Of course the small tractor could not lift the tank full of water, so he had to drain the water out until the wheels touched back on the ground.  It's a huge tank so even a foot of water depth is a lot of water, but there is no way we can haul that tank full of water up to the barn.  This winter I will investigate the cost of putting in running water up to the barn.

Since it is a slow news day here on Dogstar Farm, I thought I would pass on to those who are interested in this area, that now is the time to buy property on Francois Lake.  Prices are rock bottom.  There are a few places for sale on the north side, which is the preferred side for most, as you have the south exposure plus you don't have to take the ferry.  There is a place down the road from us that is on 78 acres.  The house is built on it's own peninsula in the lake.  It is a post and beam house, beautifully done, with a full unfinished, walk out, daylight basement.  It was meant to be a B&B but due to family difficulties the place is now up for sale.  The asking price is $395,000!!!!  If you are interested, go to MLS N210356 and see what you can get here for $395,000.  She is open to offers.  To me, it is the deal of the century.  Francois Lake seems to be ignored by the people of BC.  I'm not sure why.  I guess the trade off is climate vs crowds and crime.  Some people pay more than that for a summer home.  This place comes complete with 2 bay garage with suite above, huge diesel generator, and the potential for the most beautiful B&B ever.  No, I'm not getting commission.  I just think it is a steal for the right person.

Ok, time to tend to the animals.  Bye for now.
Here is a picture of the sunrise the other day:

 

Fences

Lately Dennis has been doing a lot of fencing.  Usually one fences in the spring as the ground is soft and wet and the posts drive in much easier.  However, it seems we are always racing against the winter clock with more fence projects than can ever be done in the spring.  The post pounder hydraulic pump gave it's last gasp this spring.  A good thing too as it was leaking hydraulic fluid with every pound.  After consulting with neighbour and equipment savvy Grant, we bought a hydraulic pump at Princess Auto in Prince George.  I forget what it pumps per whatever, but let's just say it's pretty darn big.  After a lot of welding and even bungie ties, the pump is on the tractor and the pounder is working better than it ever did.  So here is our happy fencer at work behind our new barn:

Ok, I should show you the barn too.  He has done an excellent job on this structure.  Complete with 2 8 ft wide sliding doors.  Pretty nifty!  Here is the back of the barn:

And here is the front.  Not finished yet, but looking mighty fine!

I wanted to take some pictures of the cute ram lambs.  They appear to be camera shy and would not let me photograph their faces!  So here you go:

 

Here are a few more pictures of Dennis and his post pounder.  He is putting in posts for  a small paddock for our neighbour down the road.

That's it for today.  I have a friend bringing us some parts from the feed store so we'll have some wine and cheese and get caught up.  She's staying for supper.  I made some chicken soup so that with some bagels and pie should do it.  Tomorrow I will tell you all about our new "guest."  He's a sweetheart!

 

Fertilizing forest plantations

The past week our peace has been assaulted by the drone of a helicopter going back and forth somehwere around the head of the lake.  We have also noticed a huge increase in truck traffic, particularly B-train hopper trucks.  We were concerned these were trucks hauling chemicals to the mine.  As we live in an ecologically sensitive area, ie. Francois Lake shoreline, we, the Colleymount Recreation Society, have contacted Huckleberry mine regarding the dangerous goods they were carrying along this road.  A few winters ago there was an accident where a truck tipped over and spilled it's chemicals into a waterway along the Morice-Owen road.  These chemicals, when combined with water, were deadly.  The resulting gas would instantly kill any living creature within a large area.  Concerned that these trucks were travelling the 56 km of very narrow, rough, winding road along Francois Lake, we contacted Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Transportation and Huckleberry Mine.  The end result was that the contractor responsible for hauling the chemicals to Huckleberry Mine would use the highway to Houston, then take the Morice Owen road up to the mine.  The Morice Owen is better than most highways, well maintained, wide  and radio controlled.  It was a satisfactory conclusion.

Back to our hopper trucks and helicopter.  Yesterday I found out that the helicopter is dropping fertilizer in forest plantations somewhere at the head of the lake, or there abouts.  We now assume the hopper trucks are carrying chemical fertilizer to a staging area where the helicopter is loading the bucket.  This causes me concern on many levels.  Firstly, why on earth do we need to drop fertilizer in an area that was harvested of it's trees?  Does not the natural decomposing of debris renew the soil?  Secondly, what is the long term effect of dropping chemicals into a cutblock that was pristine until the logging took place?  Further to this thought, what is the effect when the runoff carries the chemicals into the pristine water of Francois Lake?  What happens to the fish, the natural aquatic vegetation?  Thirdly, these newly fertilized areas are now no longer natural or "organic."  We, the local people, harvest wild berries and plants that grow in these areas.  These plants are no longer natural, but contaminated by chemical fertilizers.  For some people, this is no big deal.  They eat factory farmed food every day.  For us, it is a big deal.  We do not eat factory farmed food.  We work hard to eat naturally grown food and wild food.  We believe this is best for the planet and for our health. This is not meant to be an arguement in favour or against mass produced food vs small plot farming.  I only want to stress that we, as people who choose to forego the benefits of urban living, would like to ensure our area of the planet is left as natural as possible.  At any rate, what the heck?  Why do they need to drop tonnes of fertilizer on plantations?

Yesterday we went across the lake to see the sunset.  It was too smokey for any kind of sunset, plus the clouds were rolling in. 

The above picture is the view looking west.  Usually lighter than looking east but a system is moving in bringing much needed rain. 

This is the sky looking east.  We had a fire, took some burgers along and just stopped thinking about working and farm problems. 

That is a nifty grill we got from Country Wide Sports.  It drives into the ground and swivels to where you want it.  It is a perfect size for the two of us and comes in a nice carrying case so stays in the boat.  The camp chairs were also purchased from Country Wide Sports.  They are ideal for our boat trips as they come complete with table and beer/wine glass holder. 

We enjoyed our stay on a different beach, looking at the same scenery from a different perspective.  We stayed until dark, then doused the fire and headed for home.  We have solar lights on the beach right where we land the boat.  As there are no neighbours around we need some kind of light to let us know where we are on the lake. 

Leaving comments should be easy now.

Leaving comments here should be easier now.  I have managed, I hope, to turn off the spam blocking device.  Provided I don't get a lot of spam on here, I will leave it as is.  Let me know if things are easier or not.  Thanks!

It's been some more crazy kind of days around here.  Still very warm and very smokey.  Here is the sunrise this morning.  Sorry about the spots on the picture.  It appears the lens on my camera has been scratched.  I would like a new one because I have to change the computer settings every time I want to downloaad pictures.

You can see how smokey it is.  It is supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow, but that has been forecasted before with no results.  We'll see.

Grant finally got his water working.  He ended up buying a new jet pump, bleaching all the lines and buying a new filter system.  Unfortunately he ended up falling out of his small boat while trying to straighten his line with the pike pole.  He dropped the pole, the pole started to sink so as he lunged for the pole the boat tipped him into the lake.  He did get the pole but the boat kept running.  It circled around him then headed for the shore.  Mary had to swim out into the lake to get the boat.  I wish I had been there with the camera!

Yesterday Dennis, Grant and another neighbour Steve worked on setting our pump upright in the lake.  The pump sits on a tripod, with the intake sitting on the high point of the tripod.  The tripod is to keep the intake out of the mud.  Wave action and spring ice movement can move the pipe line and topple the pump.  We need to fix it permanently with some weights on the bottom of the tripod, but at this point I am happy to just have the thing upright in the lake.  It took several tries as the weight of the pump continually turned the whole thing over when they dropped it into the water.  Steve figured out some kind of knot that he could un-do by yanking on it, so they tied the rope on, and with Dennis on the pike pole and Steve on the rope and Grant operating our boat, they managed to get the pump on the bottom of the lake in the upright position.  Yay!  No more clogged filters!  They have to remove the rope since the ice in the spring will grab it and take the pump who knows where. 

The pump now sits right on the edge of the drop off in about 15 feet of water.  That is excellent as the lake is at it's lowest right now. 

We had to move Ben down to the house area because he was just getting too friendly with the ewes.  He is such a good sheep, although you don't want to ever turn your back on him, that we can just let him wander the yard.  The dogs must be either in the house or in the kennel because the border collies will just want to work him and Ben will be curious about the old dogs and could hurt them.  Rhaq is not pleased that Ben has come too close.  You can see that Ben isn't concerned in the least:

Ben really likes Dennis.  If Dennis calls him he actually calls back to Dennis.  Pretty funny.  I think Ben will be a permanent resident with us.

My project for today is to finish the foundation for the generator.  This has been a whole summer project but now I finally have the dirt to fill in the dip.  That dip fills with ice and snow then in the spring the water seeps down the foundation wall into the basement.  I figure if I fill in the dip with dirt, then place a solid foundation on top, then the generator, and then cover the generator with a roof, it should solve the drainage problem.  I am determined to get the foundation finished today!

Last night after the pump was sorted, Grant and Mary came and picked us up in their boat.  We went down the lake about 20 km to Noralee Resort for supper.  It was a great boat ride.  The air was so warm that we were in t-shirts!  A nice way to end the day in good company and good scenery.  Ok, I'm off to work!