Echo weigh in

Echo is now 46.0 pounds as of April 30,2008.

New house construction

On Sunday afternoon I started construction of Echo's dog house. She is getting a house similar in size and design of Boo Boo & Mika's dog house. Using 2 x 2 lumber I make a frame assembly and then sheet it with 7/16" OSB board. The OSB board I am using comes from a local "RTM - Ready To Move" house manufacturer and the pieces came from their scrap bin. That is why there are numerous pieces. Then I use 1.5" foam to insulate the structure. The the opposite side is sheeted with the OSB board. Echo was supervising the whole works. I am now working on the walls this week.

Snowball fun!

With the recent dump of snow and now the melting; the snow was sticky and we made Echo a big snowball. She did play with it more than what is shown here but she knows when you take the camera out and she stops doing what you want a shot of.

April snow storm

Here is about 10 cm of fresh wet and blowing snow. The good thing is that it all came down in about 12 hours and is already melting.

Out the office window

The view from the office window. Take a close look at the second photo. Notice anything different?

General House Pictures

People have asked to see some general pictures of our house. Although they are from before we bought the house they are better as the yard is in green.

Echo: Update

Here is a little update on Echo. She has and continues to grow like a weed. Last Tuesday she weighed in at 40.7 pounds. I'd expect to see about 43-44 pounds tonight when we do the weekly weigh in.

Wood working of a different kind

I spent the better part of this evening splitting up the popular tree I took down on the weekend. Out of this tree will will yield just over 1/3 of a chord. A chord of wood is 4 feet high by 4 feet wide by 8 feet long. I estimate I'll need about 3 chords for the winter heating season. I'm one-ninth of the way to done!

Back Yard - Spring 2008

Here is a panoramic video of our back yard. The grass is starting to green up and the trees are starting to bud.

Dana the happy Hutterite

Dana is monkey see...monkey do. She saw that the Hutterite colony has all of their laundry outside on a clothesline. So, I installed Dana's new 75 foot long clothesline.

Echo - Just being herself!

Echo at her finest! Dana calls the second picture her "lady like" pose.

My new unexpected friend

Well, it is official...I'm gonna die of lime disease! Not really but good for a laugh. Manitoba has wood ticks and we didn't think they were out just yet but I guess they are. Because I was outside in the long grass cutting trees down yesterday I had made a new friend. Upon going to bed and doing a tick inspection (I saw some crawling around while cutting wood) I found my new friend just under my waist band of my boxer shorts. Being that I had a new friend I figured I'd party hardy with him and go drinking. Well I guess he couldn't hold his alcohol and decided to release from me a die. Not much of a party animal I guess??? We also have to check Echo every night for ticks now too.

Echo the self bathing dog!

Echo loves bathes. The first Malamute I've ever known to love water and the bathtub. She has now taken it upon herself to climb into the bath tub and turn the water on. Her bathing results are not quite there but I appreciate the clean feet she gave herself.

The tub after the dogs self-bath.

The paw print on the bath mat.

The quest for FREE heat

In the quest for free heat I am on the hunt for free firewood. The neighbour had two trees that blew over in a wind storm. One was an old dead Elm and the other was a live Popular tree. Yesterday I took my chainsaw and tractor (with my new dump cart) and went over and cut up the Elm and half the Popular. Pretty hard work in the 20 some Celsius temperatures while Edmonton was enjoying a blizzard snow storm! I also had a present from the great Manitoba outdoors which you'll see in the next posting.

The new lawn tractor with dump cart. The old dead Elm that blew over.

The trailer loaded up. This is the second and last load from this tree.

The tree is gone and the site cleaned up.

The Popular tree is mostly delimbed here. It was getting very hot out and I had enough for the day.

Garden seedlings transplanted

After about 2 hours of playing with dirt, styrofoam cups and gentle handling of the seedlings our tomatoe plants are now growing in bigger containers. Hopefully the next time is outside in the garden in about a month and a bit.

Rototilling the easy way!

Why struggle with the back breaking walk behind rototillers where you are jerked and bounced around. Borrow the neighbours 5 foot wide tractor tiller. 30 minutes and your done!

Vegatable Garden 2008

A picture of our tomato and pepper seedlings. The tomotoes have been transplanted the other day and I will post another picture of them soon.

First Blog Entry

Hello everyone, This is the first test of our new blog. This blog is a reflection of our new life in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba on our 17 acre property with our new puppy Echo.