Farm Sitting

Farm Sitting

As seen from the road

Thank goodness that our friends, John & Dianne are away in Europe for the winter! Why? Because they were unable to be in two places at once!! (See their amazing blog here:
  20 Years From Now)

Normally, they look after the farm whenever our friends, John & Doug, go away for a vacation. So, they asked us if we would do the honours - to which we readily agreed! John and Mark have been friends for over 30 years, and we reconnected with them back in 1993.

Located just 20 minutes east of Peterborough, Ontario, the original farmhouse dates from 1872. The barn was built 4 years earlier.

From the back

Just a decade ago, the guys had a flock of sheep and lambs, together with goats and a llama. Doug is also an artist and, when they renovated the old house, the front room was converted into a studio to display his work. (More on this on a later blog). John and Doug also keep an amazing garden with countless heirloom roses as well as other beautiful flowers and shrubs, backed by a pond. The vegetable garden provides organic produce along with an herbal garden and an orchard out the front. The gardens have been featured in magazines and have been part of garden tours as well.

Julie & Brynn love to hang out with us!

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Doug's Art Studio

Jessie and Alice

Now, there is a horse (Jessie), a donkey (Alice), numerous ducks, geese, roosters, hens, and guinea fowl - not to mention the cats in the barn. We are also thrilled to be looking after their two Australian Shepherd dogs - Julie and her son, Brynn. (Brynn is the larger of the two).

Our two charges!

We're so lucky to have been in the right place at the right time as we now have two wonderful weeks where I return to my roots and Mark discovers the joys of feeding the animals as part of the daily chores.

The snow is quite deep in places and Mark discovered that we can't snowshoe if the dogs are with us as they step on the backs of the shoes preventing further advance!!

The inside of the house is really lovely, with a mixture of lovingly preserved architecture housing the furniture that is straight out of a children's book I remember reading when I was younger.

We love the kitchen as it reminds us of our time on the Holland Marsh. The wood-burning cookstove provides heating for the dining room, as well as the kitchen - and makes it our favourite place to be on a cold winter's day!

Country Kitchen table!

The bathroom is something else!! Heated floors, a jetted bathtub, and a huge shower cubicle make it a pleasurable experience just to be there! The vistas seen from every window (including the one in the bathroom) show the expanse of the 100 acres that belong to the farm.

Having knocked the wall down between two adjacent rooms, there is an expansive bedroom which is better than a first-class hotel suite! And to think that we get to stay here for two whole weeks - it still blows my mind.

Cozy library area, next to the dining room

Another favourite place of ours is the library, with its two comfy chairs - ideal for reading, doing puzzles - or just for snoozing!  Oh, the luxury of it all!

It's so much fun doing something completely different and living a dream while the owners are away on vacation. Fresh farm eggs, organic veggies, and a freezer stocked with different good-quality meats promise to be a real treat that will punctuate our daily protein shakes very nicely!!

Maybe there's more to this house-sitting business that deserves a closer look!

I wonder if this is still in working order?

 

The Art Gallery

Doug sells his work all over Canada and the U.S.

Pictures shared publicly with permission. 

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Also, here's a slide show of our home on the Holland Marsh (1997 - 2004)

Farm Sitting - The Chores

Farm Sitting - The Chores

After just a few days of farm sitting, we've already grown in appreciation for all those who run farms on an ongoing basis. Just doing something for a couple of weeks doesn't equal walking in the shoes of those who do this for a living - but it sure does give some insights. 

We are thoroughly enjoying the jobs we do every morning and evening here on the farm, and it's a good feeling to be out among the animals and tending to their needs. It's a new experience to be guided by the sunrise as to when to get up and get going. The novelty has not yet worn off - and maybe it won't as we're only here for two short weeks. 

Jessie is pleased to see Mark! She knows it's breakfast time!

It's wonderful to be greeted with hee-haws from Alice, the Donkey, and the nicker of Jessie, the horse. Not to mention the cacophony in the barn produced by the guinea fowl, hens, peacocks, roosters, ducks, and geese - to name just a few! Mark reminds me of Dr. Dolittle as he talks to the animals, letting them know that it's breakfast time or dinner time!




Here are a couple of movies of Mark doing the morning chores! Have your sound turned up!!

                                 MORNING CHORES    and  MORNING CHORES CONTINUED 

Alan feeding Alice

The ice has to be broken up to make room for more water

During the winter, one challenge is in the provision of water as temperatures are consistently below freezing. Very often, water containers have to be attacked with a sledge hammer to break the ice so that fresh, clean water can be added! 

Here are a couple more movies:     WATER       WATER - BREAKING ICE

It crossed my mind that, if you work on a farm, you have to be committed to the work and show up in all weathers - rain or shine, snow, hail, freezing rain, balmy and humid summer days, or full blizzards. The animals still have to be fed and watered, straw to be changed, stalls to muck out. And - no matter how the farmer is feeling, (s)he still has to do the same, day after day. Imagine, you're in bed in the morning after not sleeping very well - you may be suffering from flu, food poisoning, fatigue, or some other debilitating condition. However, the animals will still be waiting for their breakfast - and the farmer has to get out of bed and carry on! 

My dad worked on a dairy farm and milked the cows twice a day, clearing out the stalls, washing the equipment, preparing feed, and looking after the cows while giving birth. I remember him going in every single day, without fail - even when he was thick with a cold. I would hear him out in the fields in the early mornings calling the cows names to encourage them to come in for their morning milking. It was only later in life that I began to realize just how hard he had worked for most of his life. 

Mark collects some scratch-feed which is stored on the upper floor of the barn

Delightful 'Frizzle' bantams

Alan, mucking the stalls

Collecting the eggs!

The next time we stroll down the food aisles in the grocery store, let's give a thought to all those whose hard work helped to fill those shelves and send a mental thank you to all farmers for their commitment, dedication, and sheer hard work!

The Oscars - Our Annual Tradition!

The Oscars - Our Annual Tradition!

Every year, since we've been together, Mark and I make a point to get to see the Best Picture nominees for the Academy Awards. If we can, we also endeavour to watch the Best Actor and Actress nominees, too.

We make a point to combine a visit to our two nearest major cities so that we can include a visit to one of the movie theatres. Sudbury is just two hours, fifteen minutes to the east, and Sault Ste. Marie (our preference) is two hours and thirty minutes away to the west.

We love both drives through the rocky terrain, punctuated by lakes and surrounded by trees, with the occasional small town or hamlet on the way - especially on the route to the Soo. We have also been able to visit theatres in the Greater Toronto Area to see those movies which weren't on general release. 

As always, we are flummoxed at how comparisons can possibly be made between all the movies nominated. It's like comparing apples with oranges and we are often betwixt and between with our own choices. In the end, it's a matter of opinion - and the actual results are precisely that - a majority vote by those who have that option.

For us, this year, it was a tight decision between The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything, with the latter being our final choice. 

The Enigma Machine

For those of you who have not yet seen either, The Imitation Game is based upon a true story of Alan Turing, who headed up a team to break the Enigma Code created by the Nazis in the 2nd World War, and which threatened to be the downfall of Britain. Through his ingenuity, the code was cracked and experts believe that the war was shortened by at least 2 years because of it - not to mention the millions of lives that were saved. Unfortunately, he died in 1954, just 16 days before his 42nd birthday.

Eddie Redmayne with Stephen Hawkin

The Theory of Everything is the story of Stephen Hawking - a man with a brilliant mind who was diagnosed with A.L.S. (Lou Gehrig's Disease) when he was still a young graduate. He is still alive today, and his story of how he has overcome his challenges to live an amazing life with a stunning career is truly inspirational. Eddie Redmayne's portrayal of Hawking is nothing short of brilliant, and you would be hard pressed to believe that he was not suffering from the disease, himself.

Other movies we liked were: Whiplash, American Sniper, Selma, Still Alice, Gone Girl, Boyhood, The Judge, and Foxcatcher.  Wow - when listed like that, we sure have seen a lot of movies over the last couple of months. Everyone tells us that we should also have seen Into the Woods - but that's something left for the near future!

We thought Julianne Moore's portrayal of a woman undergoing early onset of Alzheimer's Disease was heart-rending and so sensitively handled. We'd love to see her come away with the Best Actress Award for her role in 'Still Alice'. 

Ellen's famous 'selfie' from last year!  Twitter was overloaded!

Of course, we are also intrigued to see what Neil Patrick Harris, this year's host, will do to beat the famous selfie that Ellen pulled off last year! 




Whatever happens, it will be a fun evening - and one that we look forward to every year. 

Winterlude et al - Ottawa

Winterlude et al - Ottawa - February 4th, 2015

Coming from a British background, I still find myself in awe of the fact that the low temperatures here in Ontario can sustain ice sculptures for long periods of time. Due to this fact, we were able to enjoy a brief visit to Winterlude in Ottawa, before traveling on to our friends in Kingston.

Several years ago, we had seen some artists actually making sculptures out of ice blocks on the main street in Collingwood and we stayed for nearly an hour as we watched the discernible shapes emerge out of the ice block. It was fascinating to see what was in the sculptors mind being gradually revealed. Here, at Confederation Park in Ottawa, we were in awe of the creations that were before us.

Fairy Magic - Peru

The continual light snowfall did not deter us from enjoying the sights created by these artists and the fascination of how so much detail was captured in the exhibits by the sculptors that came from all over the world to participate in the event.

Joie de Vivre - U.S.A.

Mystery at the Bottom of the Sea - Japan 

Winter's Essence - Canada

Games in the Sky - Mexico

Crazy Juggler - France

Fairy on the Ice - Japan

Illusion - Malaysia

Some of the sculptures were larger than life and - although partly covered in newly-fallen snow - were clear enough to make out very easily.











It was neat to see how even the posts supporting the railings were made out of ice blocks.








Of course, with us, there is the inevitable humour as a photo-op becomes available!

Not sure what this was, as there was no obvious sign around. Apparently, it is lit up at night. As it was during the day in the middle of the week, some of the larger sculptures were covered, and we've added a night-time experience of the event to our bucket list for another year.






After we'd had our fill of wonder for the day, we left Confederation Park and took a short walk along the Rideau Canal. Being a working day, and with weather conditions that precluded a large volume of tourists, we had the canal almost to ourselves.

Stepping out on to the canal still gives me a thrill.I had not done this since 1992, when I discovered, for the first time, that I could actually walk on water (something that we Brits find intriguing, if not a little scary). I also discovered just how cold it could be here in Canada. On that evening, the first time around, the temperature had dropped to a chilling -42 degrees Celsius, with the wind-chill factor. I also discovered the taste of my first BeaverTails Pastry which I was able to use to warm my hands while consuming it with slow relish!

Parliament Buildings - with the Peace Tower in the centre

From the canal, you are able to see some splendid views of the Parliament Buildings and the Chateau Laurier - of course, it would have been even more splendid had it not been snowing at the time!!

Chateau Laurier

We wanted to visit the War Memorial out of respect for Nathan Cirillo, who was standing on guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier when he was senselessly shot last October. The memorial stands as a reminder of how much we owe so many who gave their lives in the many wars so that we may enjoy the freedoms and privileges of Canadian Citizenship.

A trip to Downtown Ottawa without visiting the Parliamentary Building is unthinkable! With its magnificent Peace Tower and the eternal flame, representing all the Provinces and Territories of our great country, it calls out to us all to remind us of the responsibility to pass on the flame of peace and human liberty to future generations 

East Block

A final nod to our Winterlude experience came in the form of an unexpected sculpture outside a street building. Mark couldn't resist... and I dutifully obliged! Ever the patriot!!

We love our Capital City! Proud to be Canadian!  

#happyfitandfree      #travelguys    #winterludeottawa

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