Thursday, January 31, 2008

RIP Collar #25,013

Yep. Another one hit the dust. The little black termite puppy... who is now 16 months old and not such a puppy... ate ANOTHER blasted collar - this time while I was RIGHT THERE. She was sitting in the back seat of the car with La! Little imp didn't even have the good grace to look ashamed either!

*sigh*

That makes at least $245 in collars she's killed beteween her own collars she's destroyed and the others. X_X

Monday, January 21, 2008

A few snaps of the babies today

While we were watching the cows (in yesterdays post) I also finally got a chance to get pictures of the calves. There are five of them, between a few days and a week or so old, very tiny little guys so they're usually well hidden in the tall grass. However Noir was out with me and they were all very curious about him so I managed to snap a few shots before they realized I was there and moved away. *G*

New babies are cute

both in black and white and in colour...

but this is my favorite one! ;-)

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Scenes from the day

Since I posted the other day about La and Hope playing near the dam, I really kicked myself for not having the camera on hand! However, seeing as how Hope and La both like to play and both have endless energy to burn, I was able to get some decent shots from today! ;-)

"Oh-tay Hopie, now GEDDIT! Oh YAY! *claps* YAY!!! YAY!!! YAY!!!"

"Hopie DWOP it! GOO GURL!!!"

"I trow it in da waddah! You sploosh and geddit oh-tay?"

This is after, just walking back to the house and he looked cute so I snapped. :-)

This one the tree in the chooks pen, just starting to bloom. I love the little buds just popping their heads out and the slightly orangey-red of the flowers against the silver-green of the leaves.

And a shot of cows just before they dropped their calves. I just liked the way they looked all sleek and glossy in the sunshine.

Friday, January 11, 2008

La's Identity Crisis

Crisis #1
Being something of a photobug, we have lots of pictures of La. Whenever we flip through them, which he enjoys doing, I'll ask him, "La, do you know who that is? It's you!"

Today he spotted a photograph of himself in the livingroom. He broke into the biggest grin and exclaimed in delight, "Oh mummy, it's bubba Yu!"

Oh dear... apparently instead of understanding I was saying it was him, he figures it's a bubba named Yu! (In La-land, bubba applies to any child from infant to about 10 years old btw, so these photos are recent enough they are recognizably him.) Now that he's figured this out, he's fetching me photos of himself from around the house, pointing at them, even obsessing over the ones on my keychain with "Yu" on it!

Crisis #2
We've known for awhile now that La pretty much considers himself a dog and particularly he figures he's Hope's sibling. He prefers dog biscuits to anzac biscuits. He considers their dry food to be simply delicious and it has to be locked up otherwise he'll get into it. He howls like Hope. He pants like Hope. He has a habit of helping himself to a drink from the dogs bowl if you're not watching him. He fetches tennis balls and sticks alike and not in his hands either. I'm sure you can guess how a game of "tuggy" goes. He prefers to eat his meals from a bowl doggy-style (face first iow).

However today may have just proved it's really going just a wee bit far... when I let Cade out to potty La trotted out right with him, stood next to him, squatted down in an aproximation of Cade's stance (Cade is neutered so instead of lifting his leg he squats), pretended to wee while Cade did. Then, when Cade was done and stood up, La did as well. And while Cade did the hind-leg kicking in the grass, so did La.

That just CAN'T be good... lol

Sunday, January 06, 2008

First of all let me apologise to anyone I am dreadfully late in replying to e-mails for. There are a lot of you... wow... um 36 actually... at least half of which I'm over 2 weeks late on... and a fair number of those where it's more like a month. Eep! Not good!

In other news our lovely little raised garden beds are about ready to be replanted in some of the areas. We've finished the last of the sugarsnap peas which have given us an absolutely bumper crop and are about drawing near to the close of the broad beans which did a decent job for how late they were planted. The tomatos are just starting to ripen and the biggest challenge is that La has discovered a favorite variety - the Sweetbite Tom Thumbs, which are tiny tomatos no bigger than your thumbnail that he eats straight off the vine the second they're ripe... and we have to convince him to wait until they ARE ripe to pluck! He loves them and several times a day we hear begging for "may-to?" I think this variety is going to have several bushes put in next time so that supply can meet demand!

I think I need to read up more on pasture improvement though. Ours is too compacted and probably needs to be gone over in autumn maybe. I actually think most of the rear of the property and parts of the front need it.

The chook front is coming along slowly. This heat was awful... It is
really late in the season to even try I know but so disappointing to have lost so many opportunities due to lack of incubator/broodies. :-( On the other hand, after this batch the season is definitely well and truely over so we'll just focus on setting up more sheds, runs and getting the incubator and some more adult stock so that next season it's full throttle ahead. It doesn't hurt that La absolutely ADORES them too... here he is with Tiger. (She's a Silkie X with possibly pekin, jap and/or sebright depending on whom you ask and one of my broodies!)

We are also very close to getting our fence put in FINALLY! Woot! We've waited for about 4 months for them to be able to do it! I also think I've finally found a gardener I like to help us rejuvinate the front.

But mostly I think it's gorgeous to have a 2 year old. He is such a friggin' adorable little person. I love glomping hugs. I love the little voice piping up, "I help, mum!" while helping me unload the dishwasher and discussing the important intricacies of the world when you're two. (This chiefly revolves around the dogs, chooks, cows, sheep, water, trees, Charlie and Lola, yogurt, going outside and vehicles of all sorts.) I love the kisses which I get about 10,000 times a day. I love watching him and Hope play together... she's either his sister or he's her littermate the way they horse around! He's so interested in everything around him and figuring out how it all works as well, mimicing and helping are two very big parts of our lives at the moment. Here he is today "helping" dada "make a chookie ninighs" (aka nestbox for the broodies) which involves, "make pretties (writing) on bawds (boards) so dwill (drill) goes BRRRRMMM in a nail!" (Well, screw really but let's not split hairs...)

And "make noise with dada on nails!" (IOW hitting the hammer on random bits of wood near where he's laid a nail to mimic. He's pretty determined to put the nails (screws) where he's drawn the "mark" (aka doodles...) and is very pleased with himself after "making a noise" and claps his hands together, "Oh YAY!" Inbetween these important jobs he was the self appointed tool holder and screw hander outer and all around go-fer! And will ya look at that - the kid didn't even realize the only green article of clothing was his shoes until AFTER!

These are pretty "rustic" style but the wood is 100% recycled from our scrap pile and the only cost to making them has been for the screws as the nails we pulled from them were too rusty and bent to be reused. It's actually really nice cedar wood, just a bit weathered and with some slight warping from years of exposure.

Friday, January 04, 2008

The other day we brought Hope along to play with La as the beach allows dogs off leash in the early mornings and on-leash in the late afternoon.

La of course insisted on walking her, "Mine! MY Hopie!" Luckily she's well behaved about not making him splat. ;-) (Argh, I so need a fill flash!)

Of course if she's his dog, he's her bubba... when he tumbled and fell into the water (which he was less than amused by) Miss Hope was close on hand to ensure he was okay.

Bunny sailing the HMS Lala on a ribbon. Aw, postcard moment! *g*

Digging in the sand was a big attraction...

and 'natch he's dressed as a watermelon and has green scoops!

I'm not usually a big fan of pictures of myself (who is) but I really liked this one Nic snapped of Hope running next to me on a sandbar as the tide was coming in.

And of course, what two year old little boys are best at* in the world - glomping mum with a great big hug. (*Besides creating chaos of course.)