Turtles, Turtles Every Where Turtles!

Well these are not goats but they are baby snapping turtles that were born on the shores of the Galloping Goat Gallery.

We have a mother snapping turtle that comes every June to climb the hill surrounding our house and lay eggs all over our lawn in front of picture window. This turtle is huge, bigger than a dinner plate and fairly scary looking so we don't bother her while she goes about her business. This year about a week ago we noticed there were holes torn up all over the front lawn. Little round sections as if someone was digging all over the place in small sections. No egg shells anywhere to give us any clues but as I was walking from the barn to the house I saw one tiny turtle just plodding along. These guys are about the size of a looney. I went and got Tim and then we started wandering around with our eyes peeled on the ground. We found about 8 of these guys all over our property, going every which way and obviously no idea where the water was. We put them into the bottom of the wheelbarrow and took them to the river shore. We plopped them into the grasses on the shore and left them to do what turtles are supposed to do.

We stepped gingerly for a few days with hopes that the turtles all made their way to the water. It's funny how you like these guys when they are cute little babies but when they are adults they are kind of creepy and a bit evil! We saw a baby swan get eaten by a turtle and they will take a full sized Canadian goose down as well. I think next time I might not be so helpful getting these guys to the river. We did find another area of lawn holes from another nest of turtles so just on our property alone there must have been more than 60 small holes dug up so that means 60 or so turtles heading to the river. I sure hope they don't all make it or there won't be much else living on the river with these guys taking down anything they can get their jaws on!!

Labour Day SALE!!!

We are cleaning up and clearing some stuff out so that means it's time for a SALE!!

50% off Christmas items,

50% off bits for the kitchen, like wine charms, pate knives, dip bowls and such.

25% to 45% off some of our garden statuary

and more!!!

Still Shopping and More to Come!!

I got to go to Montreal to the Gift show there. My girlfriend Charlene is expanding her store that is in Deseronto into a gift store so she came with me and we also brought our guys along. Not always the smartest idea to bring men on a serious shopping trip but they actually did well without too much hovering or reminders of "are you on a shopping frenzy or is this something we really need?" What kind of a question is that??

I shopped for the store for 2 days and the last day I shopped for myself and for once picked up some treats just for me! I of course did get the kids there token souvenirs and Tim found a really nice jacket. The clothes I saw in all the shops were amazing and all had a funky style to them that I love!! I don't clothes shop much, since everything is all so boring and the same. Montreal is so the opposite it rocks!! I'm doing the trip more often, the prices were even reasonable and the ladies in the shops were helpful and really nice. My french unfortunately is so old and rusty that it is pretty much useless to me. I hate that when I went backpacking back in my early twenties I could actually manage to converse and understand french when I was in France but now, forget it.

Anyway I did find some new artists and wholesalers and have a fairly decent amount of things I asked to have delivered ASAP so hopefully over the next week it will start arriving. I'm probably crazy to fill up the barn at this point with the season slowing down but I have a feeling there are going to be alot of visitors this fall coming to see the fabulous foliage colours. Plus lots of people will be looking for Christmas gifts and such. I found some really cool and funky new metal wall art that I'm going to put in the upstairs of the barn and on the outside as well. This company had some really neat pieces and good prices.

Also we will be at the Milford Fair again this year and it's always a really fun day. It's on Saturday September 19th with a parade at the beginning and lots of fun activities for the kids and lots of local vendors with fun things to check out. It's a real old fashioned country fair with contests for everything from the best cake, cookies or muffins to best knitted hat (which I won 1st prize for last year! - I've never won 1st prize for anything before!!), lego sculpture to best photograph. Everyone puts things into the competition, including all the kids so everyone has fun getting ribbons.

On the fall agenda is the Scarecrow Festival Fundraiser as well. It is happening on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, unless we get rained out. I need to find volunteers to help me pull this off this year. It's not that much to set up but more people make a big difference to making it run smoothly and easily. We need donations of hats and clothes so email or phone me to drop off any donations. We actually ran out of pants last year and had to run to town once and then when they were gone I raided my husbands trunk of his old jeans that are fitting a bit too snuggly for more donations! Any loud coloured shirts, scarves, paints or overalls would be welcome.

Almost time to open so that's it for now! See you in the barn!