Everything that could have gone wrong has, amazingly we still had fun

It was a last minute decision to go to the Warren race. Marley had about 80km of running in her paws from the previous week so I couldn't expect too much. Luckily I didn't...the whole weekend has seemed to be a disaster trap.

Friday was a rush to pack up and get last minute chores done. I loaded the car in the morning with the intent to not forget anything. Believe it or not on the previous weekend during the skijor camp I managed to leave one morning forgetting my dog behind. Marley was not going to let that happen again. She had made her mind, where the skis were was where the dog was going to be. At 11 am the skis went in the car, the dog followed. Impossible to get her out before depart. We left in a rush at 2:15. The house was a mess, worst than a mess. To bad... Mark was away and not supposed to get back before Monday, I had plenty time to clean up at my return.

We traveled with Susie and Oden, an other friendly skijor team. We shared a hotel room and drove up together. I made it at Susie's home at about 3:30 and we left downtown at about 4pm, just in time for traffic. 20 minutes down the highway, Susie realized she had forgotten her dog food. Turn around and go for a bit of extra city driving, the best...
Lot of laughs and giggles along the way, all and all we had a nice drive until a police officer decided I was driving a little to fast....arrgg. Apparently I was going 104km/h in a 70 zone. Honestly we were quite busy chatting and I couldn't say I wasn't driving that fast but the speed sign must of been very well hidden because even on the return (in day light) I never found it. Oh well, pay the fine and let it go...

We got up fairly tired on Saturday morning. The dogs had barked a lot during the night, lot of movement and unusual sound outside. First step of the day, pick up our bibs. We got to Warren to late for the bib draw on Friday evening, but were expecting it and both had specified we were not going to be there for the draw but had received a confirmation that we were going to be included. Well, we hadn't....so we were placed at the end of the starts...I was a bit ticked but I not difficult so go for it....

The morning was very very cold, too cold.... Staying warm was the big challenge on Saturday morning, the whole pre-race time is a little confused in my mind. I think things were confused in general. I 'm not sure what happend, where or when was the misunderstanding but Susie and I showed up late at the starting line....confusion and more confusion, our start was given 7 minutes late, Susie first and me after. I cougth up on Susie pretty fast, Oden was dilly dallying and waiting for Marley in hope of some playing. Not seeing other dogs ahead is not as motivating for him. We ran half the race together with me ahead and Oden following. Sparing details, about 100m from the arrival, Oden ran into my legs and we all four went to the ground in a humiliating rumble...yes it was close enough to the crowed to be annouced by the announcer...great, at least we've put on a good show. There are things that are better being laughed at.

Crossing the finnish line was a bit of a releif. The run had been difficult, the cold made it hard. At -26C and the wind chill of speeds over 20 km/h, it's cold. Ritgh from the start, I felt my eyes ice up, my lungs close up and my ears freezing. The condensation threw my nose was quickly clogging my nostrels as it was forming ice. About two km in the race, I started getting better with the cold. I routiningly whipped my eyes and blew the plugs out of my nose, I was starting to catch my breath and my ears stopped bothering me.

After the race I hung out around the finnish line for a few minuts, awsering some peolpes questions and posing with Marley for pictures. The saturday race haden't been very successuful, started late, not very fast and ended by a crash. I did think anything could make it worst and wouldn't let it upset me. What else could go wrong now? A curious look from Susie, she staired at me and : Murielle! Your ear is iced up! My hands reachs to my ear. It's rock hard...so is the other one...I had just been telling Susie, before the run how I froze my ears when I was fifteen and would never let that happen again...arrrrggggg. I handed Marley to Susie and ran to the arena, run for warmth. Frozen ears are scary and painful. It's not any easier the second time around.

Back to the hotel there was a message from Mark, saying he was back home....oh no....the mess!!! I felt so little, the house was a disaster, as I left it, and he was there. Guilty, I plead guilty your honor...

This is starting to make it a long not so captivating story, I should try to make the rest of it a little shorter. To end Saturday, nothing else bad happened. We had a very enjoyable evening with all the skijorers getting together in our room for pizza and to complain about the cold. We had been a few to get frostbite.

I didn't get much rest Saturday nitgh, I tried to make a pellow out of my down jacket but even that wasen't soft enough to avoid my ears hurting. I hesitated about racing Sunday.

We showed up on time and were ready in advance for Sunday's race, no way I was going to be late again......the race got delayed....and delayed again. The run was rather uneventful. Marley ran very well for the first half and slowed down. I can't blame her, she had over 80 km over running in her paws for the past week and was ligit for her to run out of endurance. Susie coutgh up her minute on me but did manage to convince Oden to leave Marley behind. We ran again the rest of the race together.

We left Warren at about 2 o'clock and had a smooth non-eventful drive home. More giggles and more laughs, a long drive is much nicer in good company. Neverless, I was looking forward to get back to Mark and Mack. When I arrived home, the house was spotless and a nice meal was waiting for me. I got called Dumbo all evening but coming from Mark it can only make me smile.

To conclude with a couple mishaps, Susie found out on Monday that she had forgotten her phone charger at the motel. Not such a big deal, as the friendly motel owner offered to mail it back to her. The most upsetting part of the race, and I know I shouldn't let it bother me, but it does, are the posted results. The 7 minutes of our late start has been corrected on Suise's and an other runners time but not on mine. It does bother me as the posted times makes Marley appear as really slow on that first race, 7 minutes added to 22 minutes is a lot. I don't need to win, but I take pride in our results. These don't look so good, mostly a week before going to the world championship. I have been trying to get it changed but without succes.

The least I can say is that I will remember this weekend and that Susie and I will have stories for the upcoming week in Daaquam.

Full screen slideshow

Pretty Brittany - La belle Bretagne

Pictures say it all. I could try to praise some more Brittanies beauties but that would be endless. Plus, I already do it enough, I am probably getting annoying to those who know me.
Can I show you though? Enjoy the pictures...



Full screen slide show


And the fun Brittany

We certainly didn't have time to get bored. Meals only would of been enough to keep us entertained. We spent most of our spare time (read: not eating) walking along the sea, foot fishing clams, shrimps, oysters...collecting blackberries (and eating them too). We did enjoy some motionless moments laying in the sunshine on the beach, on the rocks, along coastal trails.
Two weeks is not long but we did get to see a few friends and family, if only we had had just a bit more time.



Full screen slide show

The storm that shreaded my garden - La tempete qui a detruit mon potager

Wednesday was a tough day for my garden, the challenge was such that only part of it will make it through. I sighted the storm about half an hour before it hit. The lightening strikes were stunning , as much by there intensity than frequency. I saw the storm approach as if it was stepping up to South Mountain on long skinny bright legs. I sat on the pool ladder as long as I could, watching the monster run towards us, when the strikes reached the back of the field I made it into the house rather fast. Taking pictures of the lightening was much harder than I expected and I was lucky enough to get a few good shots. From the number of pictures I took, I figure that I watched between 50 and 70 strikes. Marley calmly sat by my side watching the show. Thunder and fireworks is probably the only thing that doesn't scare the silly dog.
Next came the hail! I had never seen hail like that, ice cubes were dropping from the sky. I'd believe the gods were having a party and a rather tipsy one dropped its icy drink on us.

My garden did not appreciate but to be fair I should say the neighboring farmers field suffered a lot too.

Moon eclipse

What a wonderful show. Only one complaint to the organizers, why not have this happen on a warm summer night. It was way too cold. Apart from the temperature, the weather did spoil us though with a very clear sky (and one more opportunity to play with my camera).
For the event we pushed back our bed time and went for a late dog walk. Happy Marley. The strangest of the eclipse, and I'm not sure it's noticeable in the city, it's how a bright full moon evening slowly fades into a rather dark night.

Legend say we should see an old man on the moon, I see a rottweiler.

A January week in South Mountain

We finally finished the employee review in the chicken coop. A total of 36 birds have been promoted to the freezer the remaining chickens have officially received there permanent status as laying hens. One rooster has been mandated the hard duty of harem master. The lucky bird was named Curry as a reminder of his precarious status. Among the survivors a lucky bared rock rooster, disguised as a high egg production hen, has slipped threw the nets mesh. The weaselly rooster, now known as Rocky, will be kept in an unknown position as the chick union does not allow freezer promotion before the next employee review. Rocky has been quiet convincing as a capable breeder.

Here is typical young rhode island red hen and Curry, the official rooster.



Out of the chicken coop the week has been quite calm and usual. Everybody's daily highlight being Marley's happy walk. Parents, don't worry this is not a tipsy Mark. This is Mark and Marley in the motion of a fun "go get the ball" game. On the thread of dog walks, we dropped by the farm last night and had an improvised class and demonstration on artificial insemination of cows. Mark was offered to "arm" a cow, but declined. As for what that means...lets just say it involves a long glove that covers well up to the shoulder. A future photo (still featuring Mark) may illustrate this better.

Yes, this poor puppy has to pay her keep.

New improvement on the homestead, we traded in the old sleigh for a newly made lite aluminum kick sled. I originally welded up the sled to hopefully enter a "one dog" sledding race next weekend, but it turned out to be somewhat useful as a winter dog powered wheel barrow.
I'm still hopping to run on the race Sunday....to be followed...

If it's dirty...I wash it - Si c'est sale... je le lave

That's a wash tub. Wash tubs are meant to be used to wash dirty things.

Ca, c'est un lavoir. Dans un lavoir on lave les choses qui sont sales.

If I have two very dirty ducks I shall wash them .
Si j'ai deux Canard sales, je les laverais.

In the winter, the flock is limited to the coop in which the chickens tend to roost up on the perches and the ducks hang out bellow, resulting on the ducks getting pooped on by the chiken. Boo and coco where quite upset about being so messy...

L'hiver, les oiseaux sont limites au poulailler ou les poules se perche sur les perchoirs et les canard restent dessous. Le resultat est que les canards se font chier dessus par les poules. Boo et Coco sont quelque peu boulverses par leur etat.

Yes even Marley is a little grossed out...
Oui, meme Marley est un peu degoutee...

Here's a duck in the wash tub.
Voila un canard dans le lavoir.

Coco wasn't so happy about being moved around, but as soon as I dropped her in a bath of warm water she had nothing to complain about anymore... I'd almost swear I saw the duck smile.

Coco n'etait pas trop contente d'etre transportee, mais aussitot deposee dans le bain d'eau tiede, elle n'avait plus aucune raison pour se plaindre... Je parierai presque que j'ai vu le canard sourire.

Coco was pretty cool about getting all that crap scrubbed off and very cooperative. I found out bathing a duck is nothing like bathing any other animal...brush here, brush there...yes! more water...ouuu... a bit of power wash, that's good, we liiike that. No worry about getting water in its face, it loooves it. More I scrubbed her feathers more coco helped out, it was clear she was to take full advantage of a warm water.

Coco a ete plutot cool quand au nettoyage, elle s'est meme montree tres cooperative. Ja'i decouvert que donner un bain a un canard n'avait rien a voir avec baigner tout autre animal....frotte ici, gratte par la....oui! Plus d'eau...ouuuu...un peu de carcher, c'est bon, on aime ca. Pas de probleme avec de l'eau dans la figure, le canard adore ca. Plus on frotte, plus le canard aide, c'eatit clair que Coco allait prendre avantage de l'eau tiede.

At the end I have a very clean and happy duck.

Et finallement, un canard propre et heureux.

Here's a very yucky Boo ready for a bleach...
I know, no bleach or detergent for duvet...what about the tumble drying?

Voila un Boo degoutant pres pour un bon lessivage....
Je sais, pas d'eau de javel ni de lessive pour le duvet....mais le duvet ne doit-il pas etre seche a la machine?

I was expecting a little more struggling this guy. He has been raised very close to the house and people but he is a strong male with the temperament that involves.
Boo proved me wrong, just like Coco the warm water bath soothed him. He was all into getting clean. Scrub under a wing... Boo will happily hold it up. Little rub here, little rub there, lets scrub it all. When it was all done the big fellow laid down in the warm water and made himself at ease, making me feel guilty about taking out of the tub.

Je m'attendais a un peu plus de bataille avec ce bonhomme. Il a ete eleve pres de la maison et des gens, mais Boo est un gros male avec le caracter que ca implique.
Il m'a prouve que j'avais tord de m'inquieter, comme Coco, l'eau chaude l'a garde calme. Il etait partant pour un bon nettoyage. Frotte sous l'aile...Boo sera heureux de la tenir en l'air. Frotti par si, frotti par la, grattons toute la crasse. Quand il a ete tout propre, le gros canard s'est installe a l'aise dans son bain chaud me culpabilisant de devoir l'en sortir.

A few final touch ups and the result is two very happy clean ducks. Bonus for the two birds, I didn't want to put them back out wet so they got to spend the rest of the day in the house. Don't worry, they barely poop in the winter and those two are very calm peaceful ducks. Boo and Coco found a cozy spot in the sun shine and laid in the warmth all day until I brought them back to the coop. I hope they didn't expect to move into the house....they seemed ready to do so.

Quelques dernieres touches et le resultat est deux beaux canards propres et heureux. Bonus pour les deux oiseaux, je ne voulais pas les renvoyer dehors mouiller, ils ont donc passe le reste de la journee dans la maison. Pas d'inquietude, les canard ne chient pas autant en hiver et ces deux la sont des canards tranquilles et paisibles. Ils se sont trouve un bon petit coin au soleil et s'y sont installes pour la journee jusqu'a ce que je vienne les chercher pour les ramener au poullailler. J'espere qu'ils n'avaient pas prevu demenager dans la maison....ils ne semblaient pas contre.

I thought I may have had to fight a bit with the birds, but no, I never had them so easy to handle. The truth is that the duck wash did less of a mess than washing the dog.

J'avais cru que ca aurait ete plus de bataille de laver les canards, mais non. Ils n'ont jamais ete aussi dociles. Finallement ca ete moins de bordelle de laver les canard que de laver le chien.

Who needs parrots when ducks do just as good?
Qui a besoin de perroquet quand il y a les canards?

Disclaimer: There was no favoritism. I would of happily washed Stumpy and Daphnee if there was any chance they would of behaved like the young folks. Unfortunately, I can guaranty a disaster if I tried.

Notice: Il n'y a pas eu de favoritisme. J'aurais ete heureuse de laver Stumpy et Daphnee s'ils y avait une chance qu'ils se comporte aussi bien que les deux plus jeunes. Malheureusement, je peux guarantir un desastre si j'essayais.

How can a dumb mistake can make a day get bloody.

What did I do? Well this takes a little bit of an explanation on the situation. Marley is a spoiled Puppy (we know that), she is fed on a diet based on fresh meat, so I have pounds and pounds of meat specially bought for the dog. It usually comes in big 20 lbs frozen packs, but last time it came all fresh and I had to freeze it myself. I didn't think much of it a t the time, what hassle could that cause? Of the 180 lbs, I cut and packaged 80 lbs of the meat in daily rations containers. The rest of the bagged meat got efficiently packed in the bottom of the freezer. I felt I did a good job, it used less space than I expected, it stored nice and snug.

Yesterday morning, I was going to take a twenty pound bag or two out to cut and package it in daily portions, as I usually do.
Oh no...how did I not think of this, it is one of those stupid mistake that one only does once in a life time. At least, I know I will never have this happen to me again.

The whole bottom third of my freezer was one big solid block of frozen meat...nice and snug. None of it was going to come out easy. The freezer is outside, the temperature is bellow zero, none of this may thaw on its own any time soon (at least that was a good news for all the rest of the freezer content). After enough pulling and prying (which lead me nowhere) I had a marvelous idea. I was going to boil some water to pour it on the meat, the water was going to make it's way between the packages thawing the bonds and everything was going to come out easy, maybe with a little bit of prying help. Funny that laps between the magic solution picture and reality...want to know what really happened? Maybe I should keep this as story to tell around a bottle of wine or I'll make it short here.

I ended bent over the freezer for about 8 hours, chipping frozen meat out of it. My only wish (other for this bloody mess to instantly thaw) was for no one to shows up.
Here's the picture. Me, my head in the freezer, working away, in one hand a butchers knife in the other an ice ax. I'm chipping meat out of a bath of blood I created by pouring hot water in the freezer, I'm covered with it.
The scene: the "normal" freezer content is spread all over the summer kitchen. In the freezer, a 100lbs of meat, one bloody mess, to the right of it is a mount of meat chippings. By my side a bucket of dark red water that I'm using to empty the now freezing liquid by a new load of hot water. In the front yard the dog is happily chewing on a frozen block of meat it had the initiative to take care of. I'm going threw phases of laughter soon followed be tears. I could hear myself telling a visitor: don't worry Mark is OK, he's at work.

I have contemplated taking a picture of this but voted unanimously against it. I honestly didn't find it too funny yesterday. At least a silver linings to the story, it has given me the opportunity to defrost and clean the freezer.

Qu'est-ce que j'ai fait? Bien, ca va pendre une explication du contexte. Marley est un chien gate (ca on le sait), sa diete est composee entre autre de viande fraiche, j'ai donc des kilos et des kilos de viande achetee specialement pour le chien. Les paquets viennent generalement congeles en sac de 20 kilos, mais le dernier lots etait frais et a congeler moi-meme. Je n'ai pas pense que ce pouvait etre un probleme. Des 90 kilos, j'ai tout de suite coupe et emballe en portion journalieres 40 kilos. Pour ce qui est du reste de la viande, j'ai entasser les paquets dans le fond du congelateur. J'etait plutot contente de mon empactage, j'ai minimaliser l'espace utilise, bien tasse carre.

Hier matin, j'allais sortir un ou deux sacs de 10 kilos de viande a decouper et emballer en portions comme je fais regulierement.
Oh non...comment n'ai-je pas pense a ca, c'est le genre de betise que l'on ne fait qu'une fois dans une vie. Au moins je sais que je ne le referrais pas.

Le fond de mon congelateur n'etait qu'un bloc solide de viande congeler...bien tasse carre. Ca n'allait pas etre facile a sortir. Le congelateur est dehors et la temperature sous zero, impossible que ca fonde tout seul bientot (la bonne nouvelle c'est que le reste du contenu du congelateur ne risquait pas de fondre non-plus). Apres avoir assez tire et joue du levier (sans resulats) j'ai eu une idee brillante. J'allais bouillir de l'eau pour la verser sur le bloc de viande, l'eau ferait son chemin entre les paquets et faire fondre les liens de glace. Tout allait sortir facilement, peut-etre avec un petit peu de levier sans plus. Amusant cette difference entre l'image de la solution miracle et la realite.....vous voulez savoir comment ca c'est vraiment passe? Peut-etre que je devrais garder cette histoire pour la raconter avec un verre de vin ou je peux la resumer.

Je me suis retrouvee penchee sur mon congelateur pendant 8 heures a ciseler de la viande congele. Mon seul souhait (autre que de voir le bloc fondre miraculeusement) etait que personne ne se pointe chez moi.
Voila l'image. Moi, ma tete dans le congelateur, je me debat avec mon bloc de glace, dans une main un couteau de boucher, dans l'autre un piolet a glace. Je cisele la viande dans le bain de sang que j'ai cree un versant de l'eau chaude dans le congelateur, j'en suis couverte.
La scene: le contenu “normal” du congelateur est etalle derriere moi. Dans le congelateur, 50 kilos de viande et de sang. A ma droite un mont de ciselures de viande. A cote, un sceau dont je me sert pour changer l'eau froide, rempli d'un liquide rouge fonce. Dans la court avant la chienne se delecte d'un bloc de viande gele dont elle a eu l'initiative de me debarrasser. Je passe par des phases de rire suivi par quelques larmes de desespoir. Je pouvais m'entendre dire a un visiteur inoportun: Ne vous inquietez pas, Mark va bien il est au travail.

J'ai pense prendre une photo de la scene mais ai vote, a l'unanimite, contre. Je ne trouvais pas ma situation tres drole hier. Au moins il y a un bon cote a l'histoire: ca m'aura donne une chance de degivrer et nettoyer mon congelateur.