It rained, no snow but big slushy droopy mushy plops that looked like they had been hurled out from the murky clouds by a vast muddy shaking dog. And it was cold. Wet and cold.
A wintry day. By afternoon I decided to throw down some extra straw and let the animals into the barn.
Sheila and the piggies have access to their barn bedrooms all the time because of their exemplary toilet habits so they just got extra straw. Sheila was quick to cuddle into her bed.
Mama brought her girls right into the center of the barn where it is the warmest, she had had enough of the rain. It was very cold rain with a mean wind. So I let her talk me into it, she has pigs on two sides but she does not mind pigs. Mama is a senior so she gets special treatment. It is like when you are travelling with a senior citizen so you all get to board early. So Mama brought all her daughters in with her.
Hairy MacLairy was in a field with access to the rat house for shelter. I cannot lock him inside in the barn, as you know he head buts, yes RAMS, gates and doors and walls until he literally breaks out.
Daisy refused to come in to the barn, point blank. Put her foot down with a delicate stomp. John had come home from work and wandered into the barn and the only time she ever sees him in the barn and calling her in too, there is a needle involved. She hates injections as you know and has the memory of an elephant. So she would not come in until he had gone.
She made sure that the coast was clear before she came into the barn. She was very spooked. But watching Queenie eat all the hay proved too much for her. She is a most unusual cow very clever for a bovine but when it comes to food she is a pig.
The Big Dog did not even come off the verandah yesterday. Too cold. He stayed under his blankets. I need to find him another coat. He wore last years one right out. He likes to have his head covered with the blanket, but with an eye exposed. This is how he likes to be wrapped up. He won’t come inside. He hates the inside. He is very old, at least 14 now I think, he was here with John before I came back from London seven years ago. So he is allowed to do whatever he likes too.
But inside the house the big room was warm as newly popped toast. Lamb chops were cooking on the woodstove, the stock from yesterdays chicken was simmering, after dinner I would put my little shiny pot of fresh raw milk, from down the road, on the stove – break in a few lumps of chocolate and add a nice tot of dark rum and sit down to look at my photographs of the day. The thing with cooking on the woodstove is that it is going to take some time, so I can relax and let it all go slow. Winter is coming.
I hope you all have a lovely day.
your friend on the farm,
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
92 responses to “Daisy puts her foot down”
Winter is coming, Celi. I’m wearing long pants to start the day and that’s a sure sign of Winter’s arrival if ever there was one. That stove of yours looks like it would really kick out the heat. Let’s hope it’s not over-worked this year. I’m off to the market. It’s a busy day today. Have a good morning and stay warm! 🙂
Once this stove is lit, like an irish fire, it does not go out again, except for the occassional clean it will run day and night.. I have brought out my clown pants now.. no point in being cold.. c
As long as you are warm! No one would recognize me when I am out moving snow! LOL Once back inside on go the pj bottoms in warm flannel! Toasty!
Winter is definitely coming, heated blanket and the fire on a night. Not yet quite time to light the wood burner but we did do it one day last week when it was raining, cold and miserable. Nothing as cheery as a lovely warm fire….. the last few days have been bright and sunny but it will not last more than a week then it shows cloud and rain….
Stay warm, stay dry, stay safe but above all stay happy.
Have a really great day
lovely lovely post as usual Celi…so good to know that some little creatures don’t have to shiver in the rain and icy wind like they do here so often.. I’m terribly impressed by how neat and clean it all is around your stove – my little wood burning stove is surrounded by baskets of pine cones and logs, with crumbs from them all over the place… and no Bo and kitten cuddled up beside it ?
Yesterday’s pics were even more touching than all the previous ones,
Thank you for all the smiles your posts provoke!
Oh it will turn into a mess soon enough, we just lit it yesterday so it is still clean. The moment we lit it the kitten went straight under it, the unit is so well insulated that it is a lovely warm spot as opposed to too hot, I made him a wee shoe box just off to the side yesterday evening which i am sure he will grow out of fairly quickly! c
Cecilia I have a question for you. We have a wood stove in our house that we just use to heat the main floor. Do you think I can cook on it? It gets hot enough to steam a pot of water to humidfy the house, but I never thought of cooking on it. What do you think?
~ Carol in MI who is sort of looking forward to more fires.
Mine is not made for cooking on either, but anything you could do in a crock pot, cooks marvellously on top of my fireplace. I use those big cast iron pots with a heavy lid and cook all the stews, whole chickens, soups…all day.. all good winter fare. plus i can leave the house and go out into the yards and safely leave it cooking. Something I cannot do with the gas. You should try.. I even do scones and biscuits on mine! It feels very self sufficient! c
I keep wondering whether to slow cook on our ‘Beast’ during the winter. So far I’ve only heated soup during a power cut! I think that I need a heavier pot though.
Christine
Yay! I’m gonna do that this winter!!!
I was thinking of you while writing this, but in my morning fog I could not find your blog to send you a link to make sure you saw it.. I hope you can cook on yours, in the end if you have a hot plate on top, you can put a pot of soup up there.. today will be a beef stew for us, i had better get onto it!..as the more hours it can cook the better.. c
I just love this!!!! Sounds so romantic! I know efficient…but my mind always goes toward the romance of it all! My eldest daughter swears by cast iron. She takes loving care of all of hers! Cooks evenly and lasts forever. So I now own cast iron cookware, but with a enamel exterior! My favorite is my Dutch Oven…I use it all the time!
So the cows, sheep, pigs, old dog, Uncle Tom Cobley and all, are warm and comfortable but where are Boo and the Marmalade Cat?
They are fine, I will try for some shots in front of the fire today! yesterday was dark in the house with those heavy clouds… c
Beautiful post. All being well and as it should be. I like your SMART Cow 🙂 you know I adore them 🙂 Smart dogs too nothing wrong with snuggling under a blank when the nasty stuff rears it’s ugg;y face damn I hate old man winter though he does his best by making some days just picture perfect! Thankfully we will have our crews and cameras to get us through 🙂
love my wood stove! my husband and I are beginning to make our “nests” in front of ours as the days get cooler. I would also love to pick your brain about the chicken tractor. Was it big enough for your chickens? was it too heavy? what would you do different?
thanks, brenda
Oh good thinking Brenda, I should probably do a post on it. But very quickly, it was exactly the right size (10x8ft) for 10 weeks and not too heavy at all though a reasonable weight. I would do some things differently though, i will have a think.. c
That photo of Daisy peeking around the doorway is priceless! Animals have personality just like we do… she seems to be a very clever girl!!
When she was young she was a very naughty wee cow, turning light switchs on and off, opening barn doors (no more hooks now) and jumping fences, she would even jump the electric fence, we were vastly entertained by this clever wee cow, but thankfully she has quieted down a bit.. c
Lucky you. We are getting our first snow and still no heat.
Oh NO! You poor thing, wear all your clothes at once! This is why i am so grateful for the wood fire, no matter what we will be warm.. c
We had snow…wonder how it missed you???
nope all we had was some strange slushy stuff.. actually i would have liked a wee bit of snow.. thank you for the bee info.. c
You’re welcome!
That’s a good definition of slow food movement Miss C, something I should get round to trying, mind you after our deluge we have sun and warmth so the fire remains unlit…
I rain and then sun, that bodes well for the winter crops in your allottment! c
In the endless heat of summer I convinced myself that this year would be different; winter would be warm. But Mother Nature disagreed with me, and she outsmarted me once again…
YUP! Winter will be cold, hopefully we will get another one like last winter, that was not too bad .. morning ronnie.. c
Sigh what I wouldn’t give for a wood stove!I think there was one in the kitchen at some stage as there is yet another chimney on my roof. But whoever ‘modified’ my little kitchen blocked everything off an put down laminated wood floors. Which look nice, but I am all electric and the winter months, on my budget, means I wear all my clothes all the time LOL!
Speaking of surviving, I got a catalog from a friend yesterday, Lehman’s. OMG the things they have in there, everything you can thing of to survive. From wood stoves to cooking stoves to lamps, to garden implements, I could go on and on. I have marked several items I will save up for!
Question – how are the soaps doing?
One set is cured and in the bathrooms, I will have to find some nice tissue to wrap some for gifts .. and I am hoping today to make a set with no scents in it at all for my daughter who has excema and very sensitive skin. I love lehmans, we get their catalogue too and think about things.. I find with the wood stove that only heats the big room means I tend not to work in the other rooms much at all (i.e.bedrooms) as they are all unheated. Thats fine though…c
Good morning, c. It seems an all too brief summer to me. I’d like to think that’s because I was so busy but I fear it’s related to growing old and time flying and yaddah yaddha. Clever Daisy. You have very clever animals, c.
No NO!! Not old at all, it was a short summer, actually ours was as we had a very long spring.. c
And we had snow in April. But today I’m feeling old. And cold. My hands ache.
Your hands are tired Misky.. c
I’m afraid that the diminishing light is playing with my head.
Don’t be afraid, it will come back.. have you planted your garlic yet?
I planted wall flowers instead. The slugs have eaten most of them. Maybe I should have planted the garlic after all.
Big Dog just stole my heart.
Poor old fella had rolled off his big sheepskin bed this morning and was cast like a sheep, unable to get up, very very slowly so as not to elicit a growl, I pulled him out and rolled him over so he could get up onto his long legs, all he wants is his little walk down to the creek, then he is happy.. now he is back wrapped up and sleeping.. c
You are so lucky to have had him for so many years. Poor stiff guh…sigh…we took our Ladylou to the vets once a month for accupuncture treatments. She was like a new dog! Didn’t want to medicate her and cause other problems. I know…I am a crazy lady when it comes to my pups and kitties…sigh…but I would eat peanut butter sandwiches if it came down to it! 🙂 So glad Kevin only barks about it once in a while!
guy! oopsie…stiff fingers this morning! Bad typist!
Celi I put glucosamine tablets into the raw food I make for my cats. It helps with stiff arthritiky joints. I’m pretty sure it would help the old dog too. Just pull a few apart and stir the powder into his biscuits…
I need to check out your posts about diatomaceous earth – dosage for cat food (I can’t give my littlest cat flea or worm treatment due to her kidney failure)
Yeppers! They have this in chew treat form that goes by weight. I gave this to Maisy for her joints too. Got mine at the vets. She loved them! 🙂
You can rub mint leaves between their shoulder blades to repel fleas! This is recommended by Paws Rescue. It shouldn’t hurt your kitty with the kidney failure. Check with your vet to make sure due to kidney failure. I am not sure about that. It is worth a call to see if it is okay. Fleas are a misery! Poor little thing…sigh…
Thanks Mere 🙂
You are most welcome. I hate to use anything on my furbabies that chem companies push. If I can avoid it. (((hugs)))
I was at the cabin the other day, and although I was in the sunshine, (as opposed to the Lower Mainland fog), the sun didn’t crest the mountains till noon-ish. Pretty soon it won’t crest at all and the valley will be a frozen winter wonderland. I started the wood stove to get the chill out and boiled the tea kettle on top. It’s amazing how much better stuff tastes when you have to wait a bit longer for it. 🙂
There is something neandertholy deeply satisfying about heating water on a fire.. that cabin must be frigid in the winter.. will you close it up again soon?.. c
Well, not completely. We shut off the water and drain the pipes so they won’t crack and put some antifreeze in the toilet bowl, but it’s lovely to go there in the winter and have a skate on the lake. And besides, there’s a perfectly good outhouse and loads of firewood. 🙂
Ah, that sounds quite lovely, going up to the lake for a skate, not that I have ever skated but it does have a festive sound to it.. c
It’s nice for me because I used to figure skate competitively for about a million years, and so the freedom and grace I felt then comes back to me when I’m on skates. Robert does his best starfish gliding across the ice on his back impression and we have so much fun.
I would be with Robert. And how glorious you must be to watch out there, I would love to be on the side of the lake with a camera and some low winter light, that would be a wonderful series. c