HERDING CATS


Getting ready for winter has been accelerated by a departure for London this coming Saturday.
Lloyd picked up the remaining Frankensteer from a neighbour's corral and the fields are empty (except for turds that Emma chews on) More difficult was our round of cat depopulation. We have been catching screaming, scratching kittens that the grandkids played with this summer. We sent 2 home with a mother and little girl, 2 to Lloyd's barn, 2 under Colin's trailer, 2 to Heaven Can Wait (plus a $200 donation for spaying) and 2 to the Parkers in Bragg Creek who supply us with spruce trees from their lovely property. They wanted ONE kitten for their dog to play with and luckily Emma has been carrying kittens in her mouth. After a great lunch we left Parkers with 2 bags of manure, a half lamb and 2 kittens and 10 spruce trees in our car. One kitten was already playing with the dog and one still lodged under their bed. (Has since come out for food.) As I had been bitten through my glove by it that morning I stayed away from it. And finally we took one of 2 mother cats to be spayed. Hopefully she is not killed by coyotes as was Goldie 3 weeks after being spayed). I blame my expenses on cat loving Rod in Darfur as he made a fuss when I used to drown kittens. Yesterday we planted the new trees in our wind brake as light rain fell. We worked like crazy (chest pains!) and later took one last drive into the empty fields. As Linda picked some blue flowers that always persist this late, Emma checked out gopher holes and coyote scat. We noted shrubs and trees along the coulee turning yellow/orange and concurred with our Dr, Adam, we do live in Nirvana. Last night Linda brought in 12 more ears of corn for a feast, along with goulash made from one of Lloyd's normal steers.
Now to pack our 2 carry on bags and get to the airport by Sat 6 PM for a flight my kids often take to direct to London . Sunday we arrive by coach at the home of Uganda friends the Thomases in Plymouth to plan a week long trip with them through their native Wales to England's Lakes country. Then we go on our own into Scotland, our destination the Isle of Harris from whence sailed the MacKillops of Cape Breton.
Wish I knew more Gaelic.
On a sad note, our friend Linda's son was killed in Afghanistan this week. When I saw her last week she was dropping branches at recycling before going to a non violence communication course. We dedicated a spruce tree facing SW towards the coulee as Nathan's tree.

GATHERING UP

Today the Frankensteers left on 2 cattleliners. Has been tense the past few weeks as we searched the coulee for the 2 missing. Turns out they had been put back in our field by neighbour, Mr. Hawk. It is always a big event when the cattle are gathered up and loaded onto trucks for the journey back to High River. In this case the steers go to the feedlot to be weighed and Lloyd will be paid by the pounds they gained while here. I put my remaining 8 lambs into Lloyd's stock trailer to be dropped at the High River Auction Mart for a sale tomorrow. Apparently lamb prices are quite high now so I'm on the lamb!
Now Linda and I can get back to the garden harvest. Most of our potatoes are down the well pit and we have been brining in beans, zucchini and beets to make spaghetti sauce and borscht which we eat and put into the freezer.
Many jobs to do, water trees again before freeze up, wash windows, fence deer out of trees, cut wood for the stove, etc. Hard life. I hate it!

BRINGING IN THE SHEEP (SIC)

Labour Day 07. Lambs have been growing since they arrived last spring. Two died of cold weather and 2 were snatched by cougars. I drove to High River to get Lloyd's truck and trailer. He had gone combining peas but left the unit set to go. When I got back home Linda had all the lambs (she thought) in the barnyard but a quick count revealed 5 missing. Nice try guys, I said as I chased them out of the old pig barn. We got the 8 biggest lambs loaded and ear tagged them. The Cdn government, in its wisdom (sic), insists any sheep shipped have a pink tag. I don't mind paying the $1.30 each, it's the pointless cruelty of stabbing them when no record is taken of this process. One could pull tags out of a dead animals and reuse them. This money grab on pretext of making us safe (sic) from mad cow disease (sick) is similar to planting a tree to off set carbon cost of an air flight. Leaving the barnyard, I noted all mothers grazing except for one ewe answering her son's bleating from the trailer. I have ewes grieve after the loss of a lamb at birth but seldom at this point. Linda and I drove to High River and with her directions (bad), I back into the unloading chute at the meat processing plant in the middle of High River. I shoved the terrified lambs into a pig smelling pen next to 4 horned steers (that's 4 steers with horns). I recalled meeting a sheep farmer named Stump here and hearing him assure his lambs they were going to a better place. (He should've been a minister.) We drove to Lloyd's, arriving as he came from the field in a big grain truck. Being Labour Day, the farmer was on his own while his son and nephew were off partying elsewhere. He had to combine peas, fill his truck and then unload it. (Must've been the same for Dad when I was home to help him). Lloyd made us tea and told us of his recent fishing trip to BC with son and nephew. He promised the Frankensteers would leave this week. We arrived home to find the ewes and steers still grazing in the last light of the day.
Today I smelled crab apples on the wood stove as I came into the kitchen . I took Linda a coffee in bed and anticipated the beginning of her jelly making. I will add sheep manure and rototill the garden since spuds have been dug and stored down the well pit. Once again I note our green ash trees yellowing and hear myself mutter, "Give me another summer, please!"