Our Newest Addition

When You Are Not Looking You Get Exactly What You Need

That was the case for us about 3 weeks ago. Ed was looking over a local pet page on Facebook and saw a post looking for a home for a 7 month old pup. While we have seen many pups available over the years we were not really looking for another dog at this time. We have the amazing Tono who, although he is 11, is still a puppy at heart. We knew that we would eventually get another dog and would like to time it so that the new dog could be trained by Tono. We also knew that another dog in our small home would be difficult. This time for whatever reason Ed decided to make a comment on the post. He did not say he was interested in the dog but just asked about the breed. This pup was 50% Great Pyrenees, 25% Akbash and 25% Anatolian Shepherd. These were breeds we were familiar with from our research in looking at what type of dog we would get for our property before we were offered Tono. These three breeds are all livestock guard dogs which is exactly what we would be interested in for our next dog. The owner asked if we would like to meet the pup. Well that was it... We traveled the 60 minutes and went to meet him. After 2 hours of visiting (we brought Tono along to make sure everyone would get along) Jax (his original name was Jack but we are SOA fans so the slight change made him ours) was in our truck for the trip home.

I wish I could say it was all smooth sailing from there but things were a bit hairy for the first few days. You see we were told that Jax was from a farm litter. He was apparently not being allowed to eat by the alpha dog at the farm. This meant that he was quite hungry and began to eat the lambs. One of the ways to deal with this is to tie a bit of the animal they are eating around the neck of the offending dog. The dog is annoyed and will, apparently, stop the behaviour. The farm where he was from did not choose that method and were not effective in changing the behaviour. They were going to put him down. The wonderful woman we got Jax from had already added his brother Miller to their farm. When she found out what was happening she asked for Jax to try to locate him to a new home. That's where we stepped in. She had him for a little over a week and was able to bond with him however he was still very skittish around others and in particular men. We thought that given our initial visit we could provide Jax with a home where he could flourish. I was able to get Jax to bond and listen to me easily but he would not go near Ed. During the first two days Jax attacked Tono on three occasions. The third time we found Jax broke the skin on Tono's neck quite severely. We were having second thoughts about keeping this pup. We did some research and found that we could show Jax that Tono was in charge by being sure he saw that Tono was fed first. That seemed to do the trick as Jax is now following Tono's lead completely. We were comfortable that the two dogs were going to get along and we were right. They even managed to corner a skunk and kill it. Now that was a fun wake up call at 5am! Thankfully neither dog seemed to get sprayed but our truck was rather ripe for a few days.

The House That Jax Had Built

Since Jax is accustom to being outdoors we realized he needed a shelter and got busy constructing him a place out of the elements. We had saved a discarded building from the dump some time ago. We thought it may have been a rabbit hutch but regardless felt we could make use of it and this was the perfect time. 

 We went to work removing all the chicken wire and the wood that was not needed. The next step was to cut it in half.






Then it was time to add the insulation. We still had the sheets of insulation which initially were for the house build but after going flying around the property during the storm a couple of months back many were damaged. We gathered up all the pieces and this appeared the perfect time to put some of it to use. 

We did each half individually and then put them together. We found our homemade wagon a perfect location for completing the job.

With both sides together we put a tin ridge cap over the roof to cover the seam and keep the elements securely out. Now it was all ready to be moved to it's final location for Jax's inspection.



We have been trying to coax the ever skittish Jax into his house. It appears the idea of new is just a little bit much for the pup. We found that by placing treats in the house he has gone in and out on one occasion. We are not really too concerned as Tono also took some coaxing to begin to use his dog house.

To add another bit of drama to our pup's adjustment he managed to pull out of his collar and will have nothing to do with any attempts to replace it around his neck. This is unfortunate as he was scheduled to be neutured last week. We have rescheduled that for another 2 weeks down the road and hope that we will be able to get a collar and a leash on him comfortably by that time.

In the meantime Jax has taken to sitting atop the sand pile to look over his domain. This is the reason we chose the location we did for his house.

Who wouldn't fall in love with this beautiful creature?

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Sunflower Sprouts - They're For The Birds

Our Chickens Favourite Treat 

We currently have 8 layer hens. A combination of the the original Red Sexlinks we purchased in 2015 and the Frey's Special Dual Purpose Hens saved from last year. While they are free range within a large electric fence enclosure (we don't feel comfortable enough with the wildlife to let them completely loose and quite honestly we also don't want to tempt our dog Tono) we like to supplement the wilds they have to feed upon. 

Last year we would occasionally put some of the black sunflower seeds under a wire box and allow them to sprout. When we removed the box the chickens loved it. This year we decided to make it a production. 

We have seven boxes lined up. 

Each day one is flipped and the chickens have a feast. 

They devour the patch quite quickly. 

You would never know there was anything growing there when they are finished

The ground is then covered again with seeds. The box is replaced and the seeds watered as needed. And the process goes down the line.

We use the same black sunflower seeds that we use in our bird feeders. It is purchased by the 50 pound bag making it a very inexpensive healthy treat for our flock.

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Snow and Sunshine

How Excited Can You Get For Sun?

It's been an interesting winter. We started out in November with a sunless month. December was slightly better and then January improved a bit more and now that we've hit February this first week has been great! The snow and temps have been higher than average with us even getting above freezing in January. Not nice, thanks Mother Nature.

Today we woke to the biggest snowfall we've had this year and the best part was the sunshine that we have to show it all off. Tricia loves the fresh snow out here in the bush. Before the plow went by she took some pics of the beauty of it all.

We don't get traffic to make the roads messy. 

We don't get sand or salt on our road which is nice on Tono's paws.

 The build up of the snow looks so picturesque

Our snowblower decided to give up a week or so ago and we had to find and order the parts and they came in just before the snow. Ed wasn't much of a mechanic before we came up here but his skills have improved out of necessity. He fixed the snowblower yesterday and will be getting to clearing his path to the outhouse quickly. Nothing says you've got work to do like trudging through the snow to get to the outhouse. And yes he uses it even when it's -30 as it was this morning.

You can see Ed has his work cut out for him in getting his outhouse path cleared.

Our solar set up is running great. We did have to use the generator during those bleak weeks. Every two or three days required us to run the generator to charge the batteries. Once again as necessity is the mother of invention Ed was getting tired of pulling that cord on the generator to get it started. Somedays it took the better part of half an hour and then once it got really cold... well let's just say it wasn't pretty to watch. Now, after watching some videos he has a drill and socket to start the genny. It can still take some time when it's cold but 5 minutes compared to 1/2 an hour makes him happy to have put that together. Now we have to watch the panels to be sure the snow is removed so we can get all the benefits the sun has to give. 

This new setup has meant we can do so much more than last year.

If you don't know us personally you wouldn't know that Tricia put old 'Goldy' (the 2000 Mazda B4000 4X4 pickup truck we bought to come up here) into the ditch (and if you have never been in the north a ditch is 4-6 feet deep up here) on January 3rd. No major injuries, in fact she has just started some physio this week as the aches and pains started up last week. So we spent some time looking for a new vehicle. We are now the proud owners of a 2008 Dodge Ram. Never would have 'picked' a red truck but when you live in the bush in a not so densely populated area you have to take what's available. It's much bigger than the Mazda and Tricia is taking her time getting used to driving it.

 And here it is! 

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