Clio O'Gorman | A Dog Named Christmas

Clio O'Gorman | A Dog Named Christmas

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Zombie and Kitty Cat

This year, the kids made their own Hallowe'en costumes, for which I was very proud. We didn't have to buy a thing. Aidan saw the Zombieland movie with Uncy a few weeks ago, so he wanted to be a Zombie. I helped him choose old clothes that didn't fit him anymore which wasn't hard because he has stretched out and grown out of most of his things this past summer. He needed to rip them and make them dirty, so he used his clothes to play tug of war with Emerson (10 month Bernese Mountain dog puppy). To add the dirt, he also poured a glass of water on the ground where they were playing together. Instant Zombie clothes for school. Because he was worried about the dress code at school he didn't rip the pants, but when he got home from school, he also ripped the pants and added the fake blood to shirt. Brianna used the face paint kit to make his face look scary and streaky. With Aidan's incredible acting skills he pulled the whole thing off eerily. I noticed in the picture that his shirt had been buttoned up improperly and commended him on how that made it look even better...but he said he hadn't done that on purpose.

Brianna wanted to be a Cat this year. Last March, she was in a figure skating show called "Broadway on Ice" and she was in the Cats finale as one of the brightly coloured cats. I had made her a fluffy white tail, ears, arm and leg cuffs. She re-used those and put them on different clothes. She added her own expertly painted nose and whiskers and fancy eye make-up and she was done. Here she is striking a sassy kitty cat pose. Living in the country, especially where we do means that we sadly don't get any trick or treaters. Luckily they have good friends that invite them over to their neighbourhoods, so they enjoyed their Hallowe'en very much.

First Snow

Aidan and Brianna were thrilled to see the first snow fall of the year. It snowed in the morning, but didn't really stay on the ground, then it turned to rain, and then as the kids returned home from school and night began to fall, the rain turned back into snow...big fluffy flakes of snow. Brianna shrieked when she saw the snow staying on the ground, and went riffling through the bins of winter clothing to play outside. She grabbed Aidan and Emerson to join in the fun of snowball fights. They came in soaking wet, with rosy cheeks and had a hot chocolate to warm up. Clio was not interested at all in the snow.

Twist mystery solved!

Twist, my yearling ram, got out several times again in the following days. I'd get out in the morning and he'd come running at me from the driveway. Armed with hammer, fence staples and new wire, I set out to the back of their enclosure and started to put an extra wire along the top of the fence, about another foot higher to increase the fence height. I got a short side done before I moved to the back. I went and inspected the place that was loose in the fencing attached to a tree. I secured the fence as best I could with fence staples when I noticed white wool stuck to the fence near the bottom. A clue!? The rams were at the fence line watching what I was doing, getting pet through the fence. Then, right in front of my eyes, Twist crouched down on his knees and stuck his big horned head under the fence. It was tighter than it had been previously, so he had to pause there, while I in shock, grabbed his horns and shoved him back under the fence. With the fence loose near the tree and the lower ground in that area, Twist had discovered that he could crawl underneath the fence to get at the world outside. Since there wasn't anything else I could do to secure the fence, I found an old fallen spruce tree nearby and broke all the branches off with my foot which left spiky ends. I pulled the trunk to line up with the lower part of the fence and shoved it securely against the fence. If Twist tried again, he would have a barrier with sharp points to deter him...and for over a week, this has worked like a charm...Score 1 for the farmer!