Houses, houses, houses

I have lived in the house I bought in 1999 for seven years. It's a cool house with character, but it is not well set-up for dogs. It's quite large, with the bedrooms upstairs and living area downstairs. There is no mud-room and the laundry-room is cramped. My dogs would have to come straight from outdoors into the dining room, muddly paws and everything. I am hoping to move from into a smaller, better laid out house.

Luckily, my parents are good at seeing potential and they urged me to look at this particular house. Since it was so crazy cheap. I can probably make around 100% profit on selling it.

Here is my old house:

And here is the one I have an offer on right now:

Body sock

Body sock
Originally uploaded by junomidge.

Midge was spayed last Wednesday, but she decided the stitches needed to come out a bit earlier than they should. So I had to get one stitch replaced on Saturday and then they fitted her with this cone. She was still trying to chew, so I then made her a body sock to ensure the wound is covered. Needless to say she hates life right now.

Chloe is a swimmer

trailer 038
Originally uploaded by junomidge.

Took Chloe and the pup to the trout farm this weekend. Chloe has decided she would like to be a black lab instead of a Shepherd.

Day at Macoah

Juno surveying his domain:

Asha looking at the dogs down below:

We'd like to come in now:

Live at ACME Foods

Saturday I went with Leann and Kelley to see our old singing friend, Lindsey Martell. He did an acoustic set at ACME foods in Nanaimo. It was really nice, with some other nice scenery as well!

After the sets at ACME foods, we zipped back to the Rod and Gun to catch the last set of Hummer - a pop rock band that is doing quite well for themselves. Things have changed quite a bit in the Nanaimo scene. Kelley and I used to spend a lot of time at the Queens, but the crowd has changed a lot, and the bouncers (gasp!) don't know us anymore.

Yeah, I'm getting old.

Dog days outside, nice weather finally

Took Asha for a picnic:



Then we tried out the lake. Mom went in, so Asha figured heck, it's easy:

Until she hit the drop-off:

Wet ears make them droopy:

Quadra Trip Pictures

Quadra Island, here I come!

So, work is sending me to Quadra Island for four days. How nice is that?! I will be staying at a lodge on the beach, and attending a cultural safety in nursing conference. I am not sure if I will take my dog, but it would be nice I guess to take her for walks on the beach.

Other than that things have been pretty normal at home. I have had some ups and downs with the pups. I found homes for all but two, but had to put one to sleep on Friday. She had some birth defects that the vet and I finally decided were extensive enough to warrant this route. It was one of the hardest things I have had to do, and I have not been sleeping well since.

I have been working on the house and yard as much as possible in the awful weather we have been having. And I came home yesterday to find a brand new section of fence where the trees destroyed it last Fall. I guess the neighbour pushed up the start date of May that she had discussed with me. It is so nice to let the dogs out without wondering if they will stay in the yard or force through the flimsy chicken wire I had strung.

This is a view of the pups and fence yesterday:

My cat loves my dog

They can walk! Sort of.....

Chloe woke me up this morning at 7am, by letting me know that she REALLY needed to go outside. I got up to let her out, and noticed that the pups were really motivated and moving around. Grabbing the camera, I managed to catch a shot of a couple of them walking. They are so uncoordinated, but they are trying so hard!

It was actually nice to be up early, so I made an effort with my outfit, and let the truck warm up and de-ice while I got stuff ready. I even had enough time to drop by Tim Hortons for coffee and a bagel on the way to work. Of course, I went to bed at 8:30 last night and read til 9:45. That's a lot better than staying up til midnight and taking a Neo-citran to make me crash out. I haven't been feeling so great the last few days, so I hope this early night will help.

My aunt called me last night to ask about a game I play online, World of Warcraft. It would be funny if she started to play, as both my Dad and my brother play the game with me. I also managed to get the floor cleaned and as Molly Moppins advised, mopped with a terry cloth towel. It looks really nice.

Happy New Year!

Hello from the land of the eternally tired. Even after two weeks of Chloe looking after her pups, I still awake at the smallest squeak from downstairs. Yesterday I was headed to bed when one pup started screaming. I went to check and she was laying on it with her elbow fully across it's poor little stomach. I had to manually lift her up to get it out! I swear she'd leave her baby on the bus if she were a human.

They are doing great, roly-poly and attempting to stand on their back legs. They use their back paws to scratch themselves in a very clumsy and uncoordinated way. If you scratch under their collars, they wave their back legs in the air. Their eyes are opening, but it's a slow process.

I'm back to work after two weeks off and there are lots of emails to catch up on. I have conference calls booked, and lunch meetings to organize, catering and all.

We seem to be in the middle of yet another storm. I lost a good portion of my back fence when my neighbours two trees fell, one on her house and porch. I feel really bad for her, but it makes things really difficult to have a roaming dog with three yards to explore. I never know if she has found an open gate.

Boxing Day Excitement

Boxing Day came around with visits from all sorts of folks. First came my aunt Kathy, Holly and Abigail, then came my parents oldest friends, Charlotte and Ted. Chloe became quite agitated around 2pm, and we figured she was going into labour. By 8pm, no pups and she was grunting with contractions. I called the vet office and was advised to give it one more hour. At 9, no sign of pups and the vet asked me to bring her in. After 2 hours of waiting at the vet office, we decided to do a caesarean section at 11:30pm. By midnight there were 9 squirmy, screamy pups.

Chloe had a hard time with the anaesthetic, and was groggy and spastic for a few hours. I put the pups on her to nurse as often as possible, but as she regained consciousness I realized she wasn't going to accept the pups. By 5:45am, I was a complete mess and I called Holly to get some advice. She told me to have someone hold Chloe's head while I put the pups on her. They needed Mom's milk. I had to run the pups tummies to get them to pee. Kirsten and Shane woke up and helped me, and we rotated on puppy patrol for the rest of the day. By 7pm at night I was dead tired so Shane told me to go sleep and he and Kirsten would watch the pups. About 1/2 hour later he came up to tell me that Chloe was licking the pups. At nine when I came back downstairs, Chloe was being a good Mom, cleaning the pups and allowing them to nurse. She has gradually grown to be quite responsible with them, although she does get a bit sketchy when something startles her.

Today, a bit over a week later, I am still a bit tired because I get up in the night if one starts yowling. Sometimes they get onto the wrong side of her and can't figure out how to go around.

Progress

My new job has been both exciting and slow at the same time. I really believe it is an important concept.. culturally safe nursing practice in our First Nation communities. But, it's been looked at before, and I uncovered a complete manual which has already been completed. This leaves me wondering whether I should reinvent the wheel or work on the previous information.

A pile of meetings and information sharing sessions have been put off until the new year, which also leaves me in a hurry-up-and-wait kind of situation. What can I do to look busy at work when I know that January is going to be crazy, crazy busy?

We had snow like there was no tomorrow. I went to Ukee for a day and a half, and ended up stuck there. I tried coming back to Port on Thursday, and hit some black ice, sliding about 100 feet and barely missing 2 semi-trucks. So I went back to Ukee and stayed a few more days. I got some stuff done at my Mom's gallery, including some framing she was behind on.

Tonight I move my horse to her new home, and at 1:30 I get my dog's ultrasound done to check for puppies.

Could it be more wet?

It’s been a while.

I got my flu shot and then got a cold! When do they come up with cold shots?

I attended a CBT board meeting with the intention of joining as an alternate. Something interesting to put on my resume etc. etc. I have always had an interest in Canada’s Parks and the environment in general. The Clayoquot UNESCO Biosphere’s focus is on conservation AND sustainability, which is a pretty cool concept I think. I grew up in the communities of Ucluelet and Tofino, and while it would be great to maintain a pristine ecology, it’s easy to see that soon everyone would starve. My father has always worked in forestry, and in order to bring home a salary, he had to plan the chopping down of trees. These meetings take place monthly, so it appears that more travel is in my future.

We survived a nasty storm and series of rainy (understatement) weeks. I haven’t been able to visit my horse, and my dogs are quite ready to escape the house. Juno has been living with my parents, and seems to prefer living in Barkley Sound. Chloe hasn’t shown any signs of being pregnant, but it’s early yet and we’ll look at doing an ultrasound next week. My brother took a cool picture of Juno which I’ll upload.

RAIN RAIN RAIN AGAIN!

This is our local river. It would be more impressive if I had a before and after view.. (= But believe me, this is HIGH!









This is our boat launch. The tide at 12 noon was 12.5 feet, added to the crazy volume of water down the river and someone could drive their boat into the parking lot without the help of a boat trailer.

Wings over the Vancouver Island Coast

Seems that I am getting all my flying time in over a two week stretch. I was in Ahousaht two weeks ago, and we flew back out after boating in. Our boat lost a propellor half-way there which was a frightening experience in itself. The flight back was easy and fast, I think we landed within 10 minutes of takeoff.

Last week we flew to Hesquiaht, and that wasn't so fast and fun. The weather was coming in, and by the time we flew out we were 40' above the waves. The trees were taller than we were flying, and I even saw a whale come up and blow.

Wednesday is the kicker. We are flying in a cessna to Kyuquot from Gold River. It's a 45 minute flight, in November.... Here's hoping for a nice day. It's fun to visit these communities, and I love flying, but I do get nervous when the winds and fog pick up.

Ciao!

Tacia and the clinic.

We did a clinic Sunday morning with Marion Weisskopff. Tacia of course was a complete sweetheart, as she only demonstrates her stubborness when no-one is looking but me. I did learn a lot however, including a new way to lead her properly so that she doesn't crowd me and she has room to make mistakes in. I forgot my camera, but Shawna took a few pics, so I'll post them when they are mailed to me. The rest of the day was really cool, as I watched Marion work with 7 more horses and riders.

Sony, the wild thing.

When Sony is in the mood for love, he wants to be near anyone, even Midge... but Midge doesn't return the regard much. When Sony is in the mood for ripping around and tearing things up, he usually hits me at 60k, claws first, as I come unsuspecting around a corner.

My new job - Nursing Practicum Coordinator

Nursing Practicum Coordinator

Position Summary

Work with applicable departments in all aspects of planning and development of the Practicum and Preceptorship curriculum and training. The program objectives will be met by the end of the project. The position will start immediately and run until December 14, 2007.

Specific Responsibilities

To develop and coordinate committees for the project
To compile information for the development of a curriculum and training package
To develop practicum training for nurses
To provide training for nurses
To assist in the provision of student placements
Perform other duties and responsibilities as necessary in the performance of the position

My horse has a Dad...

...and here he is: