New dog residence at The Slipper

Someone might do the odd oil painting in there if it's okay with the dogs that are coming over. We are starting a dog team for the Iditarod race in Alaska. There's a new race for dogs that like to walk instead of run. It's called the Iditaslob. We've registered for that first. It's for training only.

A Beautiful Day on the Veld

We took a hike this week out in the sunshine. It was warm and just what we needed to put us in tune. There was a frog named Carl who joined us for a while. The time passes quickly at The Pipe and Slipper.....

The Villager 2017 August by Villager Community News - issuu

Here's an article about the Washago Water Tower painting by John LeBarr
https://issuu.com/villagercommunitynews/docs/thevillager-august2017


Sent from LeBarrs iPad

Easter Egg Hunt 2018

On the way to Ukulele Hill to find some eggs. Oh yes, they are chocolate.

North Simcoe Life-April-May2018

My peacock story made it into a cool magazine. Yahoo.
http://www.northsimcoe.life/online_edition/april2018/mobile/index.html#p=1


Sent from LeBarrs iPad

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Happy Easter from The Pipe and Slipper

We are saving up to get a fine pair of giraffes.

We need to organize a barn raising event for....The first giraffes in Washago. We'll also need....Some large sweaters and britches. Looking for volunteers to pick up giraffe patties during Canada Day parade.

The Incredible Tale of the Peacock and the Train! Believe it or Not.

A good read.

Last spring we got these two beautiful peacocks.  A real pair of love birds. 

One sunny day the peacocks were stepping around and picking up seeds under the clothesline.  I came out on the porch and started hanging up laundry.  I guess it spooked these two and they flew off into the bush.  The bush around the farm is a dangerous place.  Many a chicken, rabbit or squirrel has lost their life unexpectedly as they doddled around in the trees.  

We searched for the peacocks for a few hours but only the male turned up.  We chased him back to the barn.  We just thought the female,  Penelope, had been snatched up by a fox or raccoon.  Peacocks can fly but they tend to run along on the ground if something is chasing them.  This would have made her an easy dinner for a wild critter.

We’ll skip ahead six months to late October.  We were watching the male Peacock, David, one afternoon.  He seemed lethargic and sedentary.  Every little while he’d peck Merle the turkey on the head or knock a chicken off the roost.  Not a happy guy.

We decided to find him a new mate.

Nelly checked kijiji and the first thing she saw was... Free female peacock available to good home.  Mactier.

Mactier is 96km from our house.  We called and a lady told us that 13 other people had responded to the add.  They all said they were coming to pick up the peacock.  We told her that we’d be there in an hour.  Up the road we went with a cage and some birdseed in the car.

We followed directions she had given us and came to a cottage on the lake just north of Mactier.  A man met us as we got out of the car.  He told us that him and his wife were headed to Florida for the winter and had to get rid of this peacock that had been there all summer.  He said his sons worked for CN Rail and had found the peacock stuck on the front of a train at the rail yard in Mactier.  They had brought it back to the cottage, where it spent the summer.

We put the peacock in the car and took it home.  I took the peacock to the barn.  It hopped out of the cage and up on to the perch where our former peacock sat.  David the male was beside her in a flash.  It was his mate that had vanished six months previously.  They were happy as clams.  Lovebirds I should say.

To summarize... Our bird had gotten spooked and flew across the highway to the train tracks. She was hit by a train and became stuck in the grill at Washago.  The train traveled to Mactier, where it stopped in the yard almost 100kms from Washago.  The boys took the peacock out of the grill and back to the cottage.  This is where we picked it up after finding it instantly on kijiji.

More Tales from The Pipe and Slipper.....

Clean, well scrubbed puppies.

More Tales from The Pipe and Slipper....

Friends drop over to see Thunder and the puppies

Everyone loves a puppy. Freshly scrubbed in the kitchen sink.

More New Life At the Farm

Balto on the left, Little Bob on the right. One month old. Born Dec 1st 2017. Two of four.

New girl at The Slipper

It's been between -20 to -30 these past 5 days. That didn't stop this healthy looking girl from stopping in for some cracked corn at about 9:am yesterday. Today we put some hay out. She can share with the rabbits. More Tales from The Pipe and Slipper....

The rabbits were on high alert when this guy in the black coat came to visit.

There were actually two bears. The dogs chased them away but the were back an hour later
looking in the sliding door and climbing a tree beside the front porch.

New Guest at The Slipper

Nelly found this little orphan in the driveway. Took us a while to figure out what to feed him. He's a banana and grape guy. His name is Cecil Muffuraw and he also likes a good nap.

My friend returns