Navien I hate you

Yes yes, I know it is Pupdate day but I really don't feel like it. I will post the little monsters tomorrow, how about that? Today I would like to do a little bit of whining and stomping of my feet!

The kids and I had planned to go to Edmonton today as F has a Pro-D day. Well my hotwater heater had plans of its own. This is my Navien tankless hot water heater. Top of the line junk. Between the product itself and having it installed two years ago it cost us about $3250. For that price it should heat water, don't you think?

This morning I started my shower and waited and waited and waited for the hot water to come. Hmmm something not right here. Went downstairs to check it out- red flashing light and no temperature reading. So I took the cover off and then unplugged it, shut off the water, cleaned the sand filter. Nothing! NO. HOT. WATER! And how convenient that my husband who was supposed to be home tomorrow, is staying in China for an extra two weeks.

I called the plumber, he was probably screening his calls because he didn't answer and he hasn't returned my call. So instead of going to Edmonton, we shopped in town. But I can't leave the house without my shower, no sir. I boiled the kettle and bathed out of a soup pot. Yup, it was great. Just like camping in my own house. I so look forward to bathing the kids the same way tonight. *Insert foot stomping here*

Tropical Day

It's 'Tropical Day' at F's school today. I think it is in celebration of the '100th day of school.' I remember having 100th day when I was in elementary school. I made a picture with 100 white buttons one year and another year I made a picture with something else(my mom is giggling right now because she knows what it was but I'm not gonna tell! There's a bit of intrigue for your day!)

Anyway I went to the Dollarama to buy a flower lei but how convenient, they didn't have any so instead I bought a sprig of green orchids. Last night F and I made this adorable headband for her to wear with every article of pink clothing that she owns! She was tickled 'pink.' Oh, I'm so punny!

Hope it is 'tropical' where you are too!

Remembering Onyx

It was a year ago today that we lost our dog Onyx. She was a Jack Russell Terrier and its been said of that breed that they are 'a big dog in a little dog's body.' They just don't realize that they aren't big and menacing. She had taken to chasing vehicles. Cars and little dogs don't mix especially when the choice of vehicle to chase was diesel trucks.

The day we brought her home

Chasing bubbles on my mom's deck
At my Mother-in-Law's barn Eating dandelions
Snuggling with Zama
Fall 2009
Christmas 2009- our crazy family

Onyx was a great dog and we miss her. Things just aren't the same without her. xo

Sunset on Snow

I took these last night for my Friend K who has been 'whining' lately that I haven't taken enough snow pictures. XO

Dog House? Rabbit House? Which ever I guess...

I had to go up to the shed this afternoon to find my shovel- not my snow shovel, but my spade. I had some digging to do and a snow shovel just wasn't going to cut it. You see, when it's +7 here in January the snow starts to melt and it was running all over my sidewalks because my downspouts were in the 'up' position for the winter. I was going to have to dig out the snowbanks so I could lower my downspouts. Anyway, while I was up at the shed I noticed a scattering of rabbit poop by the shed door. Hmmm, odd, Basil the rabbit doesn't usually stray further than the hay bale for a snack. Then I noticed there was another scattering of poop by the door to the dog house. So I went to check it out. Luckily Basil was nowhere to be found otherwise me peering inside the dog house and startling her might have made for some terrific scratches on my face. There was rabbit poop all over the dogs' beds. So I guess when the dog house isn't being used by the dogs, someone else will move in and set up shop. I just hope there doesn't come a day when they both decide to use it at the same time. Basil has a bullseye on her when it comes to Zama and I know that if said dog ever got a hold of said rabbit, I would probably be making bunny fur slippers. ;)

"I'm the king of the castle..."

This post was going to be titled 'Playdate with the dogs' until I snuck outside to take pictures and S was chanting, "I'm the king of the castle, you're the dirty rascal," over and over again.



We are enjoying a lovely sunny morning here today. The air is crisp again which is nice because yesterday we experienced a high of 7 degrees! Don't get me wrong, it was delightful but when there is nearly two feet of snow on my roof and we have a warm day that makes things melt, it makes me wonder if I should be up there shoveling it off.

Hope the sun is shining for you!

Pupdate Week 5

Only three more weeks to go until these darling little pups can move on to a new home. Does it sound like I'm counting down the days? Well, I am actually. Not because I don't love them because I do but I really would like my laundry room back for one and for two I am really really really tired of cleaning up poop!

So be happy that I cleaned the laundry room before I took the pictures!





I know, they are adorable aren't they? Makes you just want to keep them all, right? Wrong!

Happy Monday!

Quote of the Day

My son usually monopolizes my Quote of the Day but today, while feeding the animals after getting off the school bus, F said this:

"I sure am a farm girl! I've got hay in my boots and hay in my hair!"

Pupdate Week 4

I think that Zama is getting tired of being a mother.

Well guess what, sweetheart? You shouldn't have gone and gotten yourself knocked up!


So here we are at week 4. The pups have started eating some kibbles and are drinking water(much to Zama's relief I'm sure.) I moved them into my laundry room last week as the pool just wasn't cutting it any more.
75% of the time they actually manage to do their 'business' on the pee-pee pads which is great because it makes having to go in there to do my laundry a lot less messy. Of course I have to contend with nine playful puppies vying for my attention and a corner of my pant leg to chew on!


They are very sweet little babies and in a way I will be sad to see them go... but on the other hand I can't wait to get my laundry room back and get Zama outside where she can poop and pee all over the countryside for all I care! As long as it isn't in my house!

Someone told me...

...back in October that we were going to have an extremely cold winter with no snow*.

Hmmm that looks an awful lot like snow to me!



*These pictures were taken about three days ago. At this point we had over a foot. We've gotten at least six more inches since then and more is on the way!

A bullet dodged

As you know, my dog Zama had a litter of nine puppies three and a half weeks ago...

everything seemed to be going great. The puppies were growing, Zama seemed to have enough milk to feed them and other than her being quite skinny, I didn't see any problems.

Last Sunday, on the eve of the pups three week birthday Zama started acting weird. She seemed really exhausted and she started to stagger about. I was a bit worried but thought that she was just tired and needed to rest. I mean, nine puppies is a lot to take care of. Well, at about 9:30pm she started falling over and her front legs began twitching, her pupils were dilated filling almost her entire iris. She fell half way down the stairs and at that point I was in panic mode. Do I call the vet? Its 9:30 at night on a weekend! So I called my mom and told her what was going on. She said she would look it up in her holistic dog book and get back to me. She calls back and says, "I think she has Eclampsia." I asked what I was supposed to do and she told me what the book recommended for the treatment of Eclampsia in dogs- Calcium, lots and lots of calcium. I quickly whipped up a pound of ground beef, some yogurt, a bowl of homo milk and juiced some broccoli and fed it to her.

Afterwards I did my research on the internet and everything I read said this was an emergency, your dog needs to go to the vet NOW otherwise death was imminent. The food that I gave her seemed to help and the twitching in her limbs slowly started to subside. I think I caught it early enough because she was doing much better by the next morning. I went to town and loaded up on cottage cheese, hamburger, brown rice and bone meal(this contains the calcium, magnesium and phosphorus that she was needing) and I am happy to report that five days later she is doing great and even putting on a bit of weight.

As a matter of fact, she is doing so well that this is what she did to my kitchen yesterday.

You're welcome for bringing you back from the brink of death Zama!

I made butter!

On Tuesday night I got this brilliant idea(usually when I refer to something as a 'brilliant idea', it means something that went wrong... well in this case it went right!)to use up the half carton of whipping cream I had in the fridge and make butter. I have never done this before but I knew I didn't want to make whipping cream and use it as an excuse to have it on everything- coffee, ice cream, a spoon... so I looked it up on the internet and found a website that taught you how to make butter.

Here is how I did it!

Put the cream in your mixer(or if you want to be really resourceful you can shake it in a jar... I like the lazy way better) and let it stand for a bit to come up to room temperature.


Next turn your mixer on high and let it whip as if you were making whipped cream

After it goes passed the whipped cream stage it starts to turn into curds. At this point I turned down my mixer to about medium. The butter then starts to separate from the buttermilk.

Risky, Puss and Dexter enjoying a taste of buttermilk

Next you have to wash your butter to remove any remaining buttermilk. You do this by adding cold water to your butter and running the mixer. You may need to do this several times until the water is really clean.

Next you press your butter. I was a little unsure of this step so I just kept pressing it until I didn't see any more water in it. I left my butter unsalted but you can add salt at this point or any other flavorings you might want. Voila! Butter! Wrap it up and put it in the fridge or freezer.
Now, obviously it would be no more economical to make butter from cream unless you have your own cow... which I do but firstly she hasn't had a calf yet so no milk, and secondly when that time comes I doubt Chocolate or Vanilla will be inclined to let me anywhere near their teats. Something tells me I'd have a hoof print in the middle of my forehead. I will try when the time comes and don't you worry, you'll be the first to hear of the experience!

Quote of the Day

"What is this dinner? It stinks!"

Although at the time I couldn't help laughing from the sheer surprise of his comment, I find it less than funny. I am at a bit of a loss with how to deal with my son's growing rudeness. I know what my parents' reaction would have been had I said this at the dinner table- to bed with nothing. Unfortunately, not even this seems to work. He goes to bed without dinner more times a week than he eats his food.

If you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them!

"Look Mom! This still fits!"

We were cleaning out S's closet last night and everything was still sitting in the hall this morning. He got this sweater on all by himself(although it is on backwards)! Really shows off his muscles, don't you think? ;)

Pupdate Week 3

The puppies are three weeks old today! I can't believe how quickly they grow! They are walking and playing with one another as well as escaping from their puppy pool!


Someone is trying to escape!

You can really see how big they have gotten in relation to their mama! Of course this guy is the biggest of the litter.

Juicing is fun!

I have been meaning to do a post about my new juicer but just haven't seemed to get around to it until now! My parents sent us some money for Christmas and rather than piddle it away and wonder where it went later, we decided to buy ourselves a juicer! I researched juicers like crazy trying to find the best one for what we needed and our budget.

Ta Da! The Omega 8003!This juicer does it all! It juices fruit, vegetables and even wheatgrass and greens which is something that a lot of juicers can't do! Plus it grinds whole wheat berries which I tried out today and made cookies with the whole grain flour!

The kids love the juice and S was a big helper this morning, putting in the fruits and veggies and using the plunger to push it all down.

I apologize for the Labatt glass but it seems that all the glasses in our cupboard are beer related. Now I know what you're thinking upon seeing the color of this juice. Yuck! Well if my kids will drink it, you know it has to taste good! It is like drinking a cup of coffee. It gives you an instant lift! This concoction is orange, apple, grapefruit, pineapple, carrot and spinach.
And the pulp that you see is wonderful on salad, in cookies(the kids love them!), muffins, spaghetti sauce; the possibilities are endless!

Bottoms up!

Quote of the Day

Last night I made a ginger chicken dish with Quinoa. I have never made Quinoa before as my kids aren't big on things they can't pronounce. Anyway, it was delicious but when I set it down in front of the kids they poked at it and pushed it around on their plates for a bit before 'you-know-who' looked at me and said, "it looks like ant eyeballs." Typical boy. He did eat it in the end though. Maybe food needs to resemble bugs for him to eat it?

Pupdate Week 2

Dexter doesn't look terribly impressed with being surrounded by giant puppies. I'm pretty sure they outweigh him by this point! Just wait until they are big enough to play! Then he will be in some serious trouble!

The puppies are two weeks old now and growing fast! I don't know what I'm going to do with them when they are able to jump out of their pool! I guess I'd better come up with a solution quickly!

New Years' resolutions

Ahhh the first day of a new year. Everything seems a bit fresher doesn't it? I took down my tree this morning and packed away all the decorations until next Christmas. I expected to feel sad that it was all over but I'm not. We had a lovely holiday but its time to move on.

I haven't made any resolutions this year other than setting goals for health, happiness and prosperity. I think that pretty much covers it.

My daughter F is going to try to keep her room more tidy and in doing that she put a sign on her door to remind the dogs of her goal. I hope they get the memo!