Yuk

The past two day were spent vaccinating the herd for preventative reasons, scour shots for the bred heifers and cows to protect the coming baby calves from diarrhea when they are born in Jan....and the few heifer calves and bulls we have for blackleg and other  viral diseases... and we treated everyone for lice and warbles....that's my job....I walk up and down the catwalk   with a 10 L jug of dope on my back and a hose and gun attached to that...and squirt the right amount of dope on each cows back....according to her body weight...which I have to eyeball and calculate....I also have to job of chasing the cattle up the alley way, but since we have such a nice system it is really not much trouble to do that...not like years ago....when if I got run over only once or twice it was considered a good day....no wonder I am in such rough shape in my middle age....hahahaha

Robert is up at the squeeze (a metal contraption that catches the cows and presses in on them to keep them still)  giving the shots and reading the tags...

I would prefer to do all this when the weather is warmer but due to management issues we seem to always get around to doing it after the nasty weather has set in...and so I freeze my ass off.    This is a shot of the cows yesterday after we let them back out into the field,  it was like a mass exodus to safety...hahahaha

the rest of last week I spent putting up the old Christmas tree....I even got really radical and pimped it up a bit by adding some green ornaments to the red and gold theme we had going before....I also put on some of my old ornaments from when my son was little...the little wooden soldiers and crystal wreaths.... it looks nice enough....next year I am thinking all green and white ornaments....hmmmmmm   better start bargain shopping.... Micheals here I come...

The presents are for decoration only, we are a none gift household...."everyday with you  is Christmas to me ", as Robert says....awwwwww

I know it is because he says shit like that, that people don't believe me when I say he can be an asshole sometimes....they think I am a hard hearted bitch....hahahah whatever....they don't have to live with him....hahahahahha

I am currently doing jigsaw puzzles....one of my few addictions...nothing else gets done when there is a puzzle on the coffee table...I can not tear myself away...even to eat...and take all my meals at the coffee table...Robert just rolls his eyes...but he has never been very good at them...I time myself...I  love the challenge...I'm a puzzle addict....I confess... there are worse things in life to be addicted to....  and Walmart has puzzles on sale for $3. each....whooo hooo going on Friday to stock up....by the way I only do jigsaws in December.....but when I was kid we did them all winter long....the whole family, it is one of the few memories I have of doing something together and having that camaraderie...maybe that's why I love them....and it is bad when we go to our friends and they have one out ...because I will work on it to the exclusion of visiting.....I am embarrassed to say....I shut everything else out and am in puzzle heaven.....hahahahaha  there is something I bet you didn't know about me....

Oh Bother

Well, we delivered more beef to loyal customers yesterday and had a very nice visit with my old friends Clarence and Phyllis.... I took some of my Christmas baking and they enjoyed it very much....butter tarts, Peanut butter confetti, naniamo bar, and Ritzy sqrs. Phyllis made us a lovely supper and between that and visiting with folks whom you've known most of your life and know they love you was a real treat for me....a chance to really relax and be ones self.
hahaha Robert was so relaxed he fell asleep....ahahahha

Today is just a day for me to get caught up with some things sitting on my desk, correspondence, bill paying, accounts and facebooking...hahahaha I did some laundry and tonight we have some other friends coming over for some card playing...

I was having a lot of trouble with my back the past week and it was keeping me from getting any quality sleep...so in desperation I dusted off the old yoga CD and tried that...hahahahah  I couldn't move for two days....ahahaha  and so have had to modify some of the moves because they are just physically impossible for me to achieve....my joints just don't bend that way any more...

I have had to come to the disappointing realization that I could never be a couch potato, even if I were inclined to that sort of slothery.... after two days of inactivity and TV watching...I ache all over and need to move ...be physical.

My computer is diseased....it has some serious issues that need to be resolved, so I am not on line that much....my computer guru thinks I have picked up that virus that has been going around for the past two weeks or so....and I am beginning to believe him....so my computer will have to go on a little holiday to his house....once he and his wife are over the flu bug ....nasty from the sounds of it....and I don't want to get it.....so I am limping along as best I can for now.... 

Tomorrow we are delivering some more beef near the city and will try to catch a movie while we are there..... Russel Crow here I come....

Robert has another eye appointment for the glaucoma test....he didn't take in the spring...dumby....   his dad went blind from glaucoma and apparently so did his grand father ....from what I gather from these old family letters dating back into the 1940's..... amazing the things you learn from someones junky old letters....but I intend to tell his optometrist.... now I am even madder for his not going back for the tests and not telling me about them...I would have made him go....

Here are some photo's of Jen's visit and around the farm.

Kim, Jen's sister came for a visit while Jen was here. See farming is in our blood.

the boys looking for that darned squirrel

the moose Jen and I saw while driving on the land, he passed right in front of the truck but it took a few seconds to get the camera's out...by then he was a ways away.

the old hen house....I think it is quaintly rustic...I might even paint a picture of it.

Robert being cheesy for the camera...

Getting ready to brave the frigid weather, -30 and we were going for supper to the casino to celebrate Roberts birthday....now that's Canadians for ya.

I know I say this a Lot

But, Oh My God..... on sunday R and I braved the frigid weather and drove into the city...to visit with his cousin, who had invited us to talk about genealogy...she had a few questions for me and the carrot she dangled in my face was her grandmothers box of old family letters and photo's, so how could I resist.  As it turned out it was worth the effort and the minor frost bite....hahahah

I was allowed to cherry pick through the box and bring home all the very best letters and photo's.  I scanned them all today and now they are forever in my computer and soon to be on disk....hahahaha I can return the originals to her next week....wooooo hooooo.... just so you know, some of these letters date back to 1878.... and forward....the best ones are from her condiscending, pompous brother who remained in New York and worked for Metropolitan life insurance....boy was he full of himself....and wasn't shy about doling out advice about raising kids when he wasn't married or a father...ahahaha typical..

This cousins Grandmother was sister to R's grandfather so there is all kinds of family info in them....

I especially love the letters that her future husband wrote to her while she was taking nurses training in Red Deer in 1900.  He missed her dreadfully.


Now begins the laborious job of entering all the data into my genealogy program and charts and then taking it to office depot and getting copies made.

I knew I would get sucked back into the whole genie addiction thing...sigh.....it could be a long winter.

OH MY GOD !!!!!

Holy crap.....we have to move the cows home today.....and it is -27......too freaking cold to be outside...never mind riding a quad, with the wind freezing your face solid....brrrrrrr.... one of the things that irritates the hell out of me...is that two weeks ago I mentioned to R about bringing the cows home before the weather got bad....but oh nooooooooooo.... they can still pick at the grass......so now in the past two days we have had a foot of snow....and it is - 27.....the snow has stopped but it cleared and the thermometer dropped.....great...... the only good thing about the snow is that the Xmas lights look prettier at night....

I had planned in the back of my mind to get back to my painting...it has been since early June that I held a brush.....But now, R's cousin has called and wants me to do some more genealogy for her and she has spoken to a professor at the U of A about my books and that prof. would like to speak with me....something to do with some project the Univ. is doing about early pioneer women of Alberta....apparently she read my work and wants to speak to me....

I had done a ton of work on that branch of R's family this spring and swore after 3 months...that I was done working on it...and not going to do anymore projects like that.....and here we are... R has volunteered me to do this new one and I am very angry...and yes....I am acting like a petulant little child being forced to clean its room..... I don't want to do it...and you can't make me...but he can....he just has to look at me with that disappointed look in his eyes...like I have really hurt him because I am not the person he thought I was......fuck...how the hell can you ignore that.... so I will do it.....BUT I WON'T ENJOY IT AND THEN THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE LAST TIME...~!!!!!!!!!!!!

But it could take months ....genealogy is like an addiction...it sucks you in...and before you are even aware months and months have gone by...
I will be forced to kiss some one's ass to get access to ancestry.com since I let my membership lapse....damn....I will have to decide who among the old genie club is the lesser of evils and will gloat the least....bugger it.... I hate kissing ass.  

You have to eat sleep and breath genie...until it is all you think about ....it is the only way to keep it all straight in your head and be able to remember dates and names....  the frustrating thing is I have one whole side of my family I have yet to put into book form.....because of time constraints....and yet here I am doing another (the 5th) book on a branch of the Makepeace family....

So I was informed yesterday morning that we have a date on Sunday afternoon to meet with his cousin...and go through the old letters and photo's she has and make an outline of what she would like to appear in the book.....the ironic part is that the work I did this spring was about this branch of the family but she did not disclose the fact that she had all this lovely family heirloom material until after I had the book completed....I was angry and frustrated...and told them then that if the chose to add the new found material to the book they should just purchase a bigger binder and add the pages themselves......but apparently they heard me about as good as R did....  NO BODY LISTENS TO ME.....  

I JUST WANT TO PAINT....not do genie....

To The Happy People of the World

Go f' yourselves. 

Try as I might, I just cannot seem to attain a lasting happiness....to me it is like some oft spoke of land of fairy. Glittering light, twinkling chimes, laughter, giggles and warm fuzzy feelings.

I catch rare glimpses of it, I imagine I can feel it, like the fluttery feeling of a butterfly's wing on my cheek, but then, no....not quite...but close, so very close....

Close enough to keep me yearning...

Misery, I protect my misery, like a child in my care, it comforts me, it is familiar, like an old sweater of my dads, I cling to it, I feel it...but I know it well....why reach for the unknown, when the familiar is here, easy and accessible...empty but mine.  Just once I would feel the sensation...of happiness, contentment, just once, then could I find it again upon will. Cling to it and no other feeling. Fill myself full of it, and share it...gift it to loved ones...

But no, it is not meant for me, whether deserving or not I will yearn from afar for what others sometimes find...

I have post Jen Depression

Wow, what a whirl wind visit that was....but good in every way....It was so lovely to see Jen after a couple of years... We cracked each other up and I think she liked my kittens...ahahahahaha It is funny to see that someone in the family has inherited my moms penchant for taking a gazillion pictures of the same thing, in this case kittens... but unlike granny she did get some awesome shots.

the first full day of her visit we chilled out in the house and got caught up on the news...after lunch we went on a nature drive/walk...the first thing we saw was a young white tail buck deer...he was bit a shy but we did get a few photo's, then as we were driving slowly through an old trail in the bush a huge bull moose jumped the barbed wire fence and crossed the trail right in front of us...only about 10 yards away...he stopped after crossing the trail and looked at us...and then went into the trees a ways but stopped again for a few seconds to glance back...we managed to get a couple of photo's of him..he had an impressive set of antlers and was in very good shape, no ticks yet.  We continued up to the northern edge of our land and walked down into a ravine to view the beaver dam and houses... we have that all fenced off to preserve his little eco system...but the scoundrel has cut down nearly all the trees and has the water backed up quite a ways...it was very interesting even thought we didn't see the beaver in person....the water is iced over and I was able to walk across the beaver dam...we saw elk and deer droppings along the trails there as well.  

It was great that there has been no snow yet, and we were able to walk around the farm quite comfortably. 

The second day of Jen's visit we were up quite early and on the road, with Robert driving...we were heading to a small town east of Olds, Alberta, famous for the dead gopher museum...something they have in abundance there is gophers and one of the old townsfolk had the idea to taxidermy the gophers h killed and dress them up in clothing and set them into little scenes depicting local events and happenings as well as lifestyle of the locals in Torrington.
It was kinda cheesy but at the same time, morbidly curious. 
When we first arrived in Torrington, which consists of a post office, diner and pub, along with about 20 houses and a farm fertilizer company and curling arena, we stopped at the diner for a bite of lunch.  The  diner was occupied by a half dozen locals and when we entered all heads swung our way and we were given the once over....it was kind of funny, in a small town kind of way. The older lady waiting on the tables flirted big time with Robert until he reached over and held my hand....hahahahaha she got the message after that...weird place.... We had made an appointment to view the museum since it was closed at the end of Sept.  and when we arrived there the older lady who met us gave us a brief but horribly annoying run down of what we would be seeing....I actually hoped she wouldn't give us her running commentary throughout the whole visit, and she didn't. luckily for us, some other people who just randomly stopped to visit the museum and found that we had made the appointment to have it opened, took advantage of that fact and came inside as well, they distracted her by buying some of the tacky souvenirs....and we were able to view the displays by ourselves....We all took lots of pictures, and I felt a bit like a group of Japanese tourists...the flashes were going off so often...hahahaha
After supper in Red Deer, we headed home and arrived there around 10 pm. that was very long day.

The next day, Saturday. Jen's sister Kim and her man Rob from Jasper came for a visit and stayed over night...so we had a house full....it was a great time...Jen and I had made a big meal and we all gorged ourselves...then played a board game and looked through  the photo albums.  sunday morning saw us all up for a big breakfast and then Jen Rob and Kim went for a nature walk to stretch their legs and afterwards Kim and Rob headed back and Jen and I basically crashed for the rest of the day...well at least I did...Sundays are always a draggy day for me after the kemo shot. 

Jen Robert and I watched a movie that night and on Monday morning Jen got her stuff together to head home that afternoon....

So I got to spend a bit of quality time with my favorite niece...it was lovely, next time I hope to have her visit longer...this was a spur of the moment visit but it was great... I worried that if she did come for longer she would be bored...but I have since thought of tons of things we could do, so I made a list and will keep it handy for the next time.

I  had seen my son twice the week before Jens visit and he seemed interested in coming over while Jen and Kim were here....but never did show up, or phone to say why, or just talk with them....so I am a bit embarrassed and disappointed with him and Robert is just plain angry, mostly because he knows how much I had hoped he would come. Oh, well, it is what it is.

Jen did some tweaking on my computer and I have to say, I like it much better...with the exception of a couple of things and those are easily changed....thanks Jen.

Oh ya, I almost forgot...after dropping Jen off at the airport...we headed home and stopped along the way to grab some fish and chips..at  Joey's only....as I was putting my bag under the seat I rammed my baby finger into the seat mechanism and dislocated it...I made Robert vomit...when I howled..and grabbed my finger he swore and came around to my side of the truck and grabbed my hand, thinking I had cut it....but when he saw my baby finger bent backwards at the first joint from the finger nail...he turned green and vomited, just barely missing me....lucky for him is all I can say....I was howling and jumping up and down....he wanted to rush me to emerg.  but I have had this kind of thing happen before and told him to just grab the end and pull on it....he blanched and didn't want to do it...I had to swear at him and threaten....and voila...we got it back the right way...but boy did it hurt... it is all swollen up and black and blue today...but it just aches a bit...I have it sticking out to the side while I type...like taking tea with the queen...ahahahahah

The Count Down BEgins

Oh, I can count the sleeps on one hand now..... until my visitor arrives....ahahahha that sounds like something my mother would have said about my period...hahahahahah

but I am having an actual visitor...and am so looking forward to it... I hope to convince her to stay forever....hahahahahaha and bribes are not out of the question....

I caught a cold after the bull sale we went to....and after a week of the fuzzy head syndrome R now has it....hahahaha well, it isn't like I tried to warn him...but he insisted on kissing me and making me prepare his food even though I was germ infested....funny thing when guys get sick...it's like they are dying....from a head cold...hahahhha god he walks around like the life force has been sucked out of him and here I was just a week or so ago, swathing grain while in agonizing pain with shingles on my head....hahahahaha and they say women are the weaker sex..... must have been a man who thought that line up....

We went show home browsing yesterday with friends....it was our first time but they have done it often....we first saw a house worth 829,000.oo and I hated everything about it...it was horrible...then a 2.1 million dollar home on a postage stamp lot...and I didn't like much about it either to ostentatious...and full of it's self...and small bedrooms...and cheap finishes....like plastic tub surrounds and lights...
the third one was 2.3 million...and there was more I like about it but still...there were too many types of wood, crown moulding was different in each room...there were too many stairs...and the bar in the basement was ridiculously huge...who even uses a bar anymore.... so all in all, it made me appreciate the simplicity and clean style of my house as I wouldn't have traded for any of those...so there ya go... once question answered

I made 6 dozen butter tarts today...and tomorrow, bread and nanaimo bar...oh baby I'm on a roll.

Lord Take Me Now !!!

Quick, I have to write as fast as I can before telus cuts me off again... yes, it's true I am still having internet problems... I changed my whole phone plan over to try to avoid the problem but then the wiped my account clean and forgot to put telus anti virus back on...so I could not access the net without anti virus...I did that once a while ago and got virus's... so my computer made a road trip to Ray's and we let some tech guy from telus have control of my computer over the high speed and phone...it was actually pretty awesome...and they found the problem and after only 20 minutes on high speed all the problems were taken care of ....the hard part was, bringing the computer home to a dial connection....about the same comparison to staying at the hilton and then a roadside motel....ugh....Ray, updated windows for me and all my other software as well...so today when I plug it all back in....holy crap what a mess.....the pictures were so crappy I could count the pixels...and the font so small I couldn't read it...I will have to totally go through it all and re set all my prefs.   

So I was just getting over a case of shingles when I began getting a scratchy throat and voila a full blown head cold....for the past week.... I lied and said I was fine just so I could get my flu shot....which for a change went off without a hitch.... I have now given R the head cold....yes our house is just the loveliest place to be right now...both of us sleep deprived, stressed and sick...

we are heading to the city tomorrow with friends to view a 2.8 million dollar show home...just for fun...see how the other half lives...I guess.

I put up my Xmas lights this week in spite of being sick...and they look lovely...I wait until after remembrance day out of respect and then I turn them on...my tree goes up around R's birthday...but maybe this year a bit sooner just to cheer the house up a bit...
I baled hay today..yes that's NOv 5th and I baled hay....just a bit but weird just the same...

So I hope that I have all the telus bullshit behind me now and can enjoy my internet connection for the winter...but time will tell...stay tuned for the ongoing saga...

Just a few more sleep until my favorite niece is here.....yipeeeeeeee