Did Ya Miss Me ?

I'm back, again.  I am presently experiencing an aversion to my computer. Largely due to my only having dial up Internet.  I have had many people roll their eyes at me when I tell them I can't afford high speed, but honestly I just can't justify the cost.  I am then subjected to a long list of advantages to our having high speed, here are a few for example:
I could watch You Tube videos
shop on line
watch movie trailers
download music
do online banking
play word games on line
access more face book

and I would love to do some or all of those things but I don't NEED to...and so to spend a hundred dollars a month just for high speed Internet seems ridiculous.

as it is with dial up I can send an email as long as it doesn't include a picture
I can shop on line late at night when the web isn't so busy, I blog and that's about it... we google a lot, when we want to know something...but don't use the computer for much else while on dial up...I do use my computer a lot for office work and graphs...but it think I could live with out Internet.  I love to write letters....I could start writing letters again...

We had a good Christmas, went to Rs nephews Christmas eve for a family dinner and movie exchange, which was a hoot...stopped at our friends Vi and Raymonds later that evening for a cup of tea and I saved the day by finding the lost plug end on the tree lights,so they could light their tree lights on Christmas day.  Christmas day I got up early and put the bird in the oven,
while R watched the news on TV, my friend Phyllis called to invite us for an impromptu ham dinner, because she and her hubby were bored out of their skulls, so we just nibbled a bit of my fantastic dinner and drove to the lake in late afternoon to eat ham and coleslaw... we watched a really stupid movie "dinner for smucks"  it was so stupid it was funny.  groooooaaaaaannnnnn

Boxing day, I was desperate to go outside and move around a bit....after two days of doing nothing but sit and eat....I repaired a few more calf shelters and cut a few sheets of plywood into smaller pieces in preparation for the next days repairs.

Today we ran the cow herd through our new and improved cattle handling system to give them their booster shot for scour guard and dribble bug dope on their backs for lice and worms.  The wind picked up and howled all afternoon, making the +2 seem like   -15.  My hands were froze.  I carry the jug of dope on my back and squirt the liquid down their backs while R gives the shot in the neck.  It is very icy here and the cows were trying to be so careful not to slip yet be fast enough to try to escape our clutches, but we won...and they all got done. Tomorrow the herd bulls and yearling heifers will have their turn.

New years eve we will be staying home and having a Wii tournament with snacks.

Then we will start getting things ready for calving which starts January 20th officially. but we always have a few early ones.

My Red necked-ness is showing

Robt and I were shopping the other day, just groceries and such. We went early in the day to try and avoid the Christmas crazies, but it still wasn't early enough. We stood in line at Walmart for 45 minutes, no kidding. I personally would have put my shit down and walked out after 20 min. but Robt has the patience of a saint (that's why we're still married) and he stuck it out...I, in my ADHD mode, was flitting from the line up to the book isle, back to the line up, then over to women's wear, then housewares...I start talking in a stage whisper, how stupid it is that they don't open more registers, with my voice becoming louder as I conclude my diatribe.... Patience is not something I have in un-ending supply like some people. I mean, just how badly did we need that litre of egg nog and those sweat pants.

After Walmart ( I felt like I had aged a year or two while in that store) we headed over to Canadian Tire.... I bought some Xmas lights there a couple of weeks before and received a $20. gift card...no joking...my lights came to $37. and they gave me a gift card for 20 bucks back...now I know that that was just to lure me back to the store at which time I was suppose to spend another couple hundred dollars but I am not that person....We went there for a very specific thing....a hammer....yup, I get excited about the ultimate hammer like some women do Diamonds or shoes...or guys do about a muscle car or a 60 inch flat screen TV with surround sound.  Not just any hammer though...it is only the one I have drooled over for the past five years, ever since some one who shall remain nameless, but you'll all know who HE is...dropped my favorite old hammer down the well riser...never to be seen again....gonzo...adios and arrivaderchi...

They had this hammer and its litter mates locked up in a glass cabinet in the store...while the run of the mill cheap ones hung on open hooks on the wall....Robt had to round up a store clerk to open the cabinet while I gazed, mesmerized, my face pressed against the glass, staring at it.

I wasn't allowed to reach into the cabinet, I had to wait while the clerk placed the hammer in my open hands....it felt so good, like a missing limb had come home at last...the weight, and the feel of the shock absorbent grip in my hand felt like it had been made just for me. I swung it a few time, MY GOD, it was like it had angels wings, I swear I heard a choir singing....I stood it on the floor, head down and tapped the handle, it rocked like a babies cradle and didn't fall down, perfectly balanced, the handle stood perfectly perpendicular to the floor, a sight that made my eyes mist up with tears. The perfection of it was humbling to say the least.  I picked the hammer up and handed it back to the clerk, resigned to taking home one of the cheaper brands, since we are a bit cash strapped right now. (an understatement if I ever heard one). But then Robt said "where are you going?" and I replied " over hear to look at these hammer"
and he said " I thought this was the one you wanted?", "Oh, it is" I replied " if I was a lottery winner" and he looked at me weirdly and said " use your gift card".  I swear I went weak in the knees.. the vision of my ESTWING 22 oz Framing hammer hanging in that cabinet under lock and key wiped it completely from my mind.....I was so used to just looking through the glass and then walking away that I had forgotten all about it...MY BEAUTIFUL, LOVELY GIFT CARD......  The clerk walked the hammer up to the till at the front of the store and left it there for us to pick up when we were finished shopping...I rushed Robt through the shopping he had to do there and bought my hammer....she said the total of my purchase and I (I swear it was in slow motion) slowly drew  the gift card from my wallet and placed it on the counter. She picked it up and swiped it........and IT WAS TRUE  20 dollars off my purchase...no stings attached....yipeeeee....  I held the hammer all the way home from the city...and have anxiously waited for Robt, every day, who promises that we will go and nail some planks on the fence, but everyday his chore take him longer than he anticipated and I have yet to use my new hammer....I want him to take a picture of me using it for the first time....

I know in the picture it looks insignificant but when you hold it in your hand it feels like a part of your arm.... 

I AM SOOOOOOOOOOO LUCKY.... I have an ESTWING hammer....na na na-na na na

Ready, Set, GO !!!

I am keeping my self busy with lots of small projects. We are still finishing some work on the corrals when ever Robt. has spare time from feeding cows. which is a couple of hours every other day or so. The weather has been spectacular here since I got back and I have accomplished so much outside I have amazed even myself...hahahaha

The one day it was a bit on the cool side and Robt was having trouble with the cattle waterers freezing up (lack of winter ready maintenance but you didn't hear it from me wink wink ) I spent the whole day measuring our master bathroom and jotting it down on paper, we are in need of a serious renovation and Robt has wanted me to make up a plan with some proposed changes for a while now. So I have that in the works...to scale drawings showing several scenarios from major destruction to just a little tweaking. I taped it out on the floor for him since we both tend to be visual people and we both liked the in between version the best, where we add a wall or two and rearrange the vanity with a walk in shower.  Now we will file it away until the day we win the lottery and when we do, we'll be all set for demo...hahahaha

We also talked about blowing the roof off this house and adding a second floor.  A beautiful master bedroom suite with spa bathroom and a painting studio with quest bedroom . The view from up there would be even more spectacular than the one we have already.  Gotta start buying lottery tickets I guess.

I built a new rolling gate for Robt, where we sort the cattle so that he no longer has to stick a fence post in behind the cows ass, and have the smaller ones turn around in the alley and duck under the post and escape. Now he just rolls the new gate across on a cannonball runner system and the cows can turn around, flip upside down and turn themselves inside out they are not getting out again. hahahaha I can't wait to use it for the first time and see the consternation on their faces when they realize we've out smarted them....I know I am humanizing them but I swear to God they get their jollies off thinking of ways to screw with us...you can almost see the wheels turning.  In fact, some of the oldest cows (15-17 yrs old) have been here their whole lives and have come to know Robt and all his bad habits, which coincidentally work in their favour, especially when they don't want to be where we put them...because Robt has a habit of not chaining the gates after he goes through them...thinking that he will do it when he comes back, only Robt never does the same thing twice in a row....so when he comes back he will often go a different way and forget that he left that gate unlatched....so these old cows, and I've seen them with my own eyes on several occasion's, come up to a gate and give it a gentle nudge with the old noggin, to check and see if he chained it or not.  We have moved the cows out of the calving pen and out into a large paddock in front of the house  while we spread new bedding straw around for them to lay on for the night.  We have to do it with the cows out of the pen because they turn into a bunch of little kids when they get near a round bale and start jumping around, pushing it and generally trying to destroy it. The problem with that is they never push it in the direction we want it and never spread it on the bed pack but usually up against a fence somewhere or right next to the water trough. It can also be very dangerous while they are romping around with these bales, because they aren't paying attention to us and have kicked us and knocked us down, thus their removal while we work...but those old cows, they only want to stand out on the snow for so long and if we get delayed with the new bedding, they have come up and checked the gates, caught Robt at his bad habits and have filed back into the pen and wrecked the bales, so that when we do come to spread the straw there is nothing to spread and there is straw in places we didn't want straw, with the cows all laying there chewing their cud with blank looks on their faces...and I swear they won't look you in the eye, because nobody wants to take credit for the deed....

You can tell you've been on the farm too long, when you start having conspiracy theories about your cows.

I have started a new painting.  I am in the process of sewing some new table clothes, for those of you that know me, you know I can't stand table clothes that hang loose over the table so I make my own and I put elastic at the corners so that the table clothes hugs the table top like a fitted sheet.  I love them that way...I would love not to have to have a table cloth at all but Robt put his coffee cup down on the oak without a coaster and made a ring...I don't want more than that one, thus the cloths

I actually had a call from my son on Saturday.  He is not having a good year health wise and is still waiting to hear about some tests the doctor had done.  The phone call was going well until he dropped the hint about needing cash to take his wife to Edmonton for a follow up appointment with a doctor she saw in the summer.  I just ignored the request and kept talking about other things, he brought it up three times in an hour long conversation but I was strong and didn't offer to give him any. Besides, Robt and I are skinned...these big bank payments are taking some getting used to.  I got off the phone with him , feeling really bad that I played dumb and sad, that that might have been the only reason I even heard from him....When I mentioned that robt and I were just having a quiet Christmas dinner by our selves and that we would love it if he and Eleesha could join us, he back peddled, something about his being sick that day and yada yada yada.....what ever....more food for the freezer then...

I have a standing bowling score on Wii resort sports that will take Robt an eternity to beat...hahahahah  he only has to challenge me to table tennis to make himself feel better, because apparently I suck at table tennis.

Confrontational Awakening

Robert and I were taking our time waking up this morning, the radio playing, we lay, my head on his shoulder listening to today's weather report...ah, the romance of farm life...hahaha.... when I heard our favorite radio anchor announcing that the federal government had decided to eliminate the Canadian Wheat Board.  Now, forgive me if I'm wrong, but last time I checked we lived in a democratic country where we all had the right to vote, and I distinctly remember voting in a farmer/user based plebiscite this fall as a member of the Canadian Wheat Board and a farmer that has sold grain through the Wheat Board, to KEEP, the Board in place.  

The issue is the big corporate farms, that grow crop on thousands of acres of land, don't like being restricted as to where they can sell their grain here in Canada, the Wheat Board originated out of necessity, to help small farmers be able to sell their crop competitively  during the depression in the 30's.  It still is the best way for a small farmer like ourselves to market our couple thousand bushels of grain every year.  But the big, big grain farmers want to sell their grain on the open market. They have dreams of loading a B train (truck with two grain trailers) and hopping across the border to take advantage of the higher U.S. grain prices. They are just not looking far enough ahead...the Americans are notorious for slapping tariffs and outright border closures on any Canadian product that might prove to be competition for their own producers.  ie: soft wood lumber, and more recently, BSE and the beef industry. The American group, R-calf , pressured the American government into closing the Canada-US border to all Canadian beef for four long years, basically cutting our industry off at the knees and prices were in the toilet for eight years because of it. While the U.S. continued to ship its beef into Canada to be fed in our feedlots. Driving the price even lower by over supply.  Free trade is suppose to ensure that while the U.S enjoys having it's neighbours to the north to ship it's products to, we, in turn should enjoy the same pleasure. But they slap tariffs and fines and outright border closures on our products and tie the cases up for years in the court system, we CANADIANS obey the free trade laws and do nothing in retaliation, allowing them to continue selling their products here with no tariffs, fines or God forbid we close the border.

Anyway, Harper and his minions have vetoed the farmers vote which by the way was I think (don't quote me on this) 67% in favour of keeping the Canadian Wheat Board in place.  Yup, he basically spat in the face of democracy and over rode our vote,  there is a few months to appeal, since the decision has to go in front of the senate before becoming legislation, but we all know that the senate is stuffed with Harper cronies...all slobbering and salivating to fulfill his wishes.

So, as a small family farm,  WE THANK YOU, STEVE.
For pulling the rug out from under us and proving yet again that the people who grow the very food your children eat mean nothing to you. We have once again handed over any power we might have had as to our own fate to the politicians, who abuse their power and have cut the small farmer off at the knees, yet again. Thanks.

I have been stewing over this next discovery for a while now and decided I was never going to come up with a NICE way to talk about it.

Just for the record, I am not angry, pissed or sad about it, just amused, and a bit aghast at the whole thing. It's silly really, and inconsequential in the whole scheme of things but still worth chatting about.  You might actually get a laugh  out of it...I know several people have...I am just resigned to it and after my initial surprise, wasn't at all surprised, if that makes sense to you.

Okay, you all probably know, from my whining about it a million times, that I grew up a bit of a needy kid....being the middle girl in the house I grew up in, meant that I was sometimes overlooked...being a Tom boy girl, didn't help and being shorter and bulkier than my twig thin sisters was a big problem.  Peg being the oldest got most of the new clothes, and she was a girls girl so there were ruffles, ribbons and embellishments galore.  When she out grew them they were suppose to pass to me, but much to my mothers chagrin, I was bustier and beefier than Peg and so the nice clothes bypassed me (much to my relief) and fit Pam instead.  But rather than just getting me some slightly bigger new clothing, I was subjected to the clothes shopping expeditions at the sally Ann (salvation army store). Oh, how I hated those days.  My first bra came from the sally Ann. I can still feel the mortifying heat in my cheeks as my mother held up a too large, yellowing cross your heart Playtex bra to my chest and said "turn around and look in the mirror" (yes they had a mirror in the thrift store, they must have got it from a CONKLIN SHOWS FUN HOUSE, it was the kind that made you look like a midget with no legs and a huge head...imagine my humiliation.  The ultimate shame came during grade four picture day at school, each class was called down to the gym for individual pictures and then group shots, and while in line for individual pictures I was sandwiched between two girls who were from the popular group with their skinny little legs in pantyhose and their flat chests covered in ruffles and lace. I was feeling some what good about myself because I was wearing what I thought was a pretty cool dress, multi-coloured with a mandarin collar and short sleeves, I had on knee socks and my sister Pegs heeled shoes, which I waited until she left for school before "BORROWING"  when one girl said to the other, something about a clowns dress and her sister had one just like it once before she joined weight watchers, the other girl giggled and then the first girl said my mom gave all her BIG clothes to our cousin except that one cause it had a stain on it, right there, and while she is saying this she points at my dress and what do you know, there was a stain there....both girls went dead quiet and I turned and left the line...when I looked back they were whispering to each other.  The teacher found me in the girls shower room...and drug me back to the end of the line...I have the group picture of that grade of school but I think I destroyed the individual one, because I knew where the stain was and I could see it even thought my mother swore you couldn't see it if you didn't know it was there.....

So I grew up with a very big issue about clothes from the thrift stores, and I know that now that is a big thing, people, even wealthy ones, shopping in thrift stores...but the stores have changed a lot since the sixties and early seventies...famous label clothing and bags are all the rage there...they weren't like that back then.  My moms favorite thing was the dollar bags...the store clerks would take a brown paper grocery bag, fill it with clothes for a certain gender  and age range and sell them for a dollar, so when you went in the door they were on a table to the right.... male/ adult    female/child   etc......
my mom would buy a few of these bags and we would have to wear the clothes all summer.  Once I was baby sitting a lot and saved my money I was buying a lot of my own clothes...jeans, T's and jackets.

But my issue with anything hand me down is still with me today and while I was recently at my nieces for a visit she and I looked through her mom's (pegs) photo albums and I saw some pictures I had never seen before or don't remember ever seeing.   There were some photo's of my first wedding in which peg was maid of honour and she and mother organised the dresses and flowers, I admit I wasn't a lot help in that department and I was only 18 and it was all happening so fast my head was still trying to catch up.....

A little further in the album I see for the first time pictures of Pegs first wedding. At first I just thought she looked lovely, and then I said hey, she had the same veil as me...so I flipped back to my picture and gasped....good god, I had a hand me down, second hand wedding.  While I was not wearing her actual dress, (which was store bought) my home made one was very similar in some ways...a high neck, nearly the same veil and her bridesmaids wore turquoise so did mine (peg and pam) her flowers were yellow and orange, so were the ones they chose for my wedding, plastic to boot. so whether it was deliberate or subconscious, I don't know but it is too freaky to be coincidence. take a look at the pictures..... she was married in 73/74 or there abouts and I was married in 77.

Enough said on that subject....curious thought, very curious.

I am back working outside on the corrals again. All  work halted while I was gone and I am now cracking the whip with a vengeance to have it done before we move the cows home from the field. Robt is having to chop holes in the ice of a ditch for them to find water and it is going to turn cold again so even that will be insufficient besides hard work. 

Our Christmas plans so far are to stay home and work. I will cook us a turkey dinner and freeze the left overs for calving time. But it will all be low key this year, no travelling I think and no pressure of being cheery for the neighbours so you don't ruin there Christmas. Maybe we will have a Wii tournament between Robt and I.  He is a competitive jerk sometimes but he cracks me up with his intensity.  hahahaha  Who knew quiet, mild mannered Robt would be so combative at bowling and table tennis. hahahaha

I'm Back

I'm back, I'm jacked, I'm better than ever....ahahaha Wow what a trip.  A great time was had by all, I believe, certainly by me. Jen and I reno'd A's bathroom, new floor tile painted the shower and pimped the whole place up with some kick ass accessories, even if I do say so myself. I mean who, as a teenager, ever had thier own  bathroom for christ's sake...give me a break. I had to share a bathroom with my parents, two sisters and brother, whom I swear went to school everyday with a dirty face because he always ran out of time before it was his turn. Poor Kelly.

Jen and I invited sister Leslie over for chinese take out one night and had a really nice visit with her, she is looking good and had some hilarious stories about her job at CIBC, and young drivers...hahahahah

I rented a car and we headed up island , stopping in Nanoose bay to visit friends of Jens, Guy and Donna. They are doing a stint at caretaking a heritage park, Moorecroft Park, it used to be a United Church bible camp but has recently been acquired by Nanaimo parks and rec. Guy took us on a short hike to the point and took some bird shots, he did a bit of bird whispering and we stood transfixed as dozens of little birds came fluttering down to the lower branches to investigate the source of the call. I asked him what call he was using and he said it was a combination of some small bird in distress along with an owl call, he said that the birds would come to get sight of the dangerous predator bird that is killing one of them. Like looky lou's at the scene of a bad accident.  hahahaha  We ate donna's awesome cinnamon buns and finished the drive up to Comox and caught the ferry across the strait to Powell River...

.I am not sure why I have such negative feelings about PR when I have never lived there, only ever just visited...but as an Albertan I feel hedged in and marooned, with only one way in or out and it is reliant on the weather to boot. Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate and do, the beauty of the place...everywhere you look is a beautiful scene, but I wouldn't live there if you bought me a mansion. Too isolated for me, perhaps if I were healthy and independantly wealthy I would find it a better fit.




THE Rock on Klahanie Beach one of my favorite spots




klahanie beach, Powell River



We spent four event filled days there visiting Pam, Peg and the families. Pams grand babies are awesome, both so smart and talented. Maggie is a great hostess and she and Pam put on a magnificent spread for two nights in a row, with live entertainment in the form of the family playing Wii games...what a hoot. We played a board game as well one night and it was very revealing how alike our family thinks...the answers being all very similar. That was hilarious.
It was time to leave the mainland and we were a bit nervous about making the ferry since the winds were up and there were white caps on the water...we made it on, but it was a rocky ride and Jen got soaked when she stepped outside to take pictures...her hair was a sticky stiff mess of salt water afterwards. 

The only dark spot on the up island trip was the drive back...it tooks so long that the last leg of the trip was  in the dark and I don't drive so well in the dark with the road wet with rain and no lines due to construction....the lower Malahat highway was a test of nerves for me but we prevailed and I didn't realize how tense and stressed I was until we reached Jen and I had to let go of the steering wheel and get out of the car...my fingers were in a death grip on the wheel and when I crawled out of the low car my knees wanted to give out they were so shakey...hahahaha what a baby....

We kept the car another day and a half and the day after getting back from PR was the best day of my trip as far as I am concerned...Jen and I went shopping in the am. and then drove down to the ocean and walked along the cliffs,




Me on Dallas Rd on the cliffs




Mid day sun off the Pacific, Dallas Rd

 visited Ross Bay cemetery

This tree seemed lit up from within it was so brilliant



Jen made me climb this awesome pine tree, I won't show you the ones of me getting to this spot but I was about 10 ft off the ground here.



and then drove to esquimalt to visit Robt. sister,




Me in front of sister in laws house

 who provided us with a lovely tea and petit fours, amid her jumble of antique furniture and curios.  I could spend all day exploring her house, my interest was definitely peaked.

The temp that day was +12 with a clear sunny sky and light breeze, there was a kite flying competition on the point and I had a glorious time...I hated having to give up the car..Next time I am renting one for my whole trip.

Jen and I played competitive Wii and laughed ourselves silly, we painted her kitchen and set up some new shelves, the place looked awesome when I left.
I had a super great time with her and Ay. I love visiting them so much, it feels like home to me. But I missed Robt  terribly and talked to him every day and there were times when I got a bit homesick for him, okay it was all the time but I distracted myself with lots of activities. 

Jen and I saw a movie at UVic about the forgotten cave of dreams, it was awesome....a must see.   We attended a 40 th birthday party at a posh pub downtown, it was interesting...until some loser walked by the gift table, grabbed a bag and headed for the mens room....one of the guests raced after him and confronted him in the mens and demanded the bag back...we left while this was happening so I am not sure if they called the police or not but what balls would you have to have to pull something like that. This was a very posh, and hoity pub/restaurant (Bards & Bankers)

Any way I am back and will be posting more regularly so keep coming back.

Hey, Hey

Surprise, I'm still alive !!!!  Yay !!! 

I feel like I was run over by a whole contingent of Libian rebels in there sawed off toyota pickups with truck bed bazooka guns, but no matter how bad I feel, I bet Gadafi felt worse when they plucked him out of that drainage culvert. Man, what a nasty way to go, death at the hands of the very people you screwed over for forty years.... just reward I say.

Well the day is finally here, all the work ends today...not the stress, that I take with me, plus a bit more since I always worry about Robt. when I am gone. But nothing is more humbling than to worry and fret about things while you are gone, or someone, only to realize when you get back that they never missed a beat and unlike in your worst dreams the world did not fall to pieces while you were gone...huh, funny how that is.  Although the stressing I am doing prior to my trip feels like the well being of the entire world rests on my shoulders.    Yup, I am one of those control freaks...go figure.

So the work for me ends at the end of today and I get tomorrow morning to throw a few things in a suitcase and drive to the airport. Where am I going you ask, well not anywhere nearly exotic enough to suit me...unfortunately none of my family live anywhere exotic or touristy....and I have to go see family so the island is calling.   It will be great.  I always enjoy my visits to Jen.  It just seems anti-climactic after all the tension and pressure of the past month and a half.  But the crop is off and in the bins, the corrals are 90% rebuilt, the rest to be finished on my return. 

Gotta go outside now to nail a few planks on and put chain on some of the new gates. Robt wants to run a group of cattle through the new system this afternoon, so no rest for the wicked. Just go, go, go....see when I get back.

Kramer from Seinfeld

How many of you remember Kramer fromt he sitcom Seinfeld. His spikey hair do and spastic body movements....today I'm Kramer....

I can't even put into words how stressed I feel. Compounded this year by the summer weather we had delaying the earlier work and it now bottle necking with the fall work that is hanging over our heads. Put that together with going into debt to the tune of $160,000.  a world financial crisis, fluctuating cattle prices and a procrastinating husband and my own inability to handle this kind of stress anymore and it is makes a recipe for disaster.

We got the hay crop all done but not hauled in, a cow unexpectedly gave birth to a baby calf out in the pasture...she isn't suppose to calf until late January but has a full term calf...so Roberts game of "what she doesn't know won't hurt her" came back to bite him in the ass since the evidence of his royal screw up was laying there in the field. hahaaha so he confessed that after that cow had aborted a calf in Dec....he thought it would be okay to house her with a couple of the bulls to save himself the work of setting her up in a pen of her own...his window of opportunity to do that was three weeks, after the first three weeks with no calf sucking she had the potential to come into heat again...and apparently she did....IDIOT....his excuse is that he didn't think she'd been in there long enough...but this is the same guy who on a day we are to go to the city says he has an hour of chores to do before we can leave....doesn't come back to the house for three hours.   

Any way the calves are getting shipped on Tuesday and we just got the corrals jimmy rigged for the time being to be able to RFID tag them before they go and get a weight. We will have to take it all apart again and reconfigure it, the panels we bought are pretty floppy with a 16 ft gate attached so we are going to cement post in the ground to hang the gates on in instead, it seemed like a good idea at the time but not so much in reallity.

In the mean time it is freezing here every night and I need to get my spuds dug up and carrots and tend my beds and so on and so on.  Argh......

Man Oh Man

This time of year is always crazy around here.... We are still working or rather were, working on rebuilding the corrals in time for the day we will ship our calves to market and get our ONCE a year pay cheque. 

In the mean time we started cutting second cut about four days ago and just finished it up yesterday...we ended up cutting nearly two hundred acres. For the most part it is pretty good..should run about 2 bales to the acre...and considering this is the first second cut crop we have had to do in over 7 years we think it's awesome.   hahahaha 

I have been busy in my spare time, reading the manual for the new tractor, learning how to navigate the command centre computer on board. I have tweaked it now to Robert's desired settings and it should be good unless he pushes too many wrong buttons like earlier and I have to do re-do it. hahahaha He admits to being a dummy when it comes to technology stuff.  After doing that all day yesterday, I came inside at 8 pm to grab a quick bite to eat and watch some TV...and  drum roll please , the remote control would not start either the TV or the Satellite receiver.  Oh God, is it too much to ask for just one thing to go the way I want, I just want to watch some god damned TV....I complained out loud.  hahhaha to thin air... and had to sit down and read the manual for the remote control and re-program it to work...so that it was working in time to tape my Tuesday night show. It was 9:30 by the time I ate supper...a bowl of beef soup and one bun. 

Today I was sure would go better....but not so...I started the day by having to fill out a government form to do with farm income and government subsidies. It took an hour and it has to be in before Sept 30....nothing like leaving it to the end.  But there is little incentive to do it earlier since they just send a letter afterward telling you you did not qualify...but yet you still have to fill out the forms.

Well today we may be able to bale some of the 60 acres of green feed we have cut.  If the cloud dissipates by noon.  Otherwise we may  make a flying trip into local town for fuel and milk.

So don't despair, I am still alive and well, in spite of a few close calls...of which I will tell you next time. I have to go and put some sort of meat on the stove for Roberts lunch...he announced this morning that he was officially tired of casseroles and sandwiches....ungrateful bugger that he is..hahahahaha never mind that I was sick of eating that stuff too....so I think maybe oven roasted chicken pieces with seasoned baby potatoes and corn on the cob....yup sounds good to me.....

It froze here two nights in row now so I pulled everything from the garden and the garage is taken over with pails of tomatoes and cobs of corn and pumpkins.

A Momentous few Days

The past few days have been ones of momentous occasions. First,it was my son Robs 34 th birthday today,



Rob and his Dad while we were camping with my Mom and Dad at Babine Lake, BC


 I called him and actually got to talk to him in person rather than going straight to voicemail. That was a very nice surprise. Then they finally delivered our new tractor....better a month and a half late than not at all.
It was dropped off late Tuesday afternoon.

I never got a chance to see inside until after dark, but the next morning early I slipped outside with our order sheet to make sure everything was good to go....and the first thing I see when I open the door was that it had the instructors seat still in it.....

JD in their wisdom mount a small uncomfortable and very intrusive fold up "bitch" seat just inside the door for a mechanic or instructor to sit on while diagnosing a problem with the tractor or giving the new owner a tutorial on his new machine.  A person going into or out of the tractor always bangs their legs on it and we specifically requested that it be removed before they deliver it....it's still in there.... and we didn't get the exact seat we were told we would get...apparently that seat is only sold in the larger series of tractor...so we got the best seat available in this series....

 I know it seems like we are being picky but for $ 120,000.oo  one should be able to expect to get what you ordered... so they are going to send someone out to remove the bitch seat, and they are giving us a gift card for a few other minor things that were not put on the tractor that we paid for and Robert will be getting a leather jacket (not really his style but it's included)

  The salesman that was suppose to come the next morning didn't show up and so in a moment of spite we threw some clean cloths on, jumped in our air conditioned truck and drove to Drayton Valley to look at some pipe free standing panels that some guy builds down there and then took the scenic route back to Whitecourt, had supper at the casino and No we didn't gamble... stopped for tea at my friend Sherry's place to wish her a happy BD.  and then home...today, we got up nice and early and headed outside to work while it was still cool. It has been near 30 everyday for four days...yeesh I hate it when it gets so hot.  We are tearing down some of the old rotten corrals that we built 18 years ago and Robert fired up the old CAT to level the rutted ground, then late this afternoon we augered the holes to plant two new 10 ft poles and cemented them in place to be able to mount our 16 ft gates on them and not have them move like the last posts did. Two down, 20 some to go.  hahahaha  I took the new tractor for a drive up the road and tooled around an old bale yard to get the hang of it...I read the manual during lunch and thanks to my photographic memory I can now tutor Robrt. hahahaha

I took some pictures of the place this morning while waiting for the JD guy to come. Enjoy.




The Fake Window Project, completed





Red Poppies




red and Lavender Poppies



More Poppies, one could be forgiven for thinking I was going into the opium trade,  how do you think I'm going to make tractor payments ?

A DAY straight out of HELL

Ha !!! Robert and I just lived through a day from hell. It could take us a week to recuperate. 

I have to go for eye tests every fall because of one of the bad drugs I am on. it can build up in the layers of your retina a cause blindness...so every day I have to stare at this grid they have provided me for use at home and chart any changes in my vision...ie: blurriness, warping, blind spots etc... and I actually rarely remember to do this...and the test I am made to do yearly are a pain in the ass but so is  going blind so I keep going... even if I were to stop taking this medication today I would have to go for these tests for the next five years, that is how long the drug stays in your body.  Yikes !!!!!

So they, the masters of the retinal universe, have changed my appointment date three times throughout the year, so often in fact, that I nearly forgot to go...originally I had the appointment to take into consideration that we live two hours out of the city and have to travel and eat...so it was made for the afternoon...the five tests they do have taken up to four hours...the tests themselves don't take that long but the waits in between are mind boggling. But I digress....  with the changing appointment dates the time issue was lost along the wayside and when I finally got an official letter about the final appointment date...it was for Sept 1 at 10 am... which means for us to drive two hours and have possible traffic delays (ask Sue about the Edmonton traffic delays hahahaha) and to be able to have breakfast, shower, do my hair etc....we had to be up on or before 6 am.... Now for most people this wouldn't be a problem but I have trouble sleeping, aches and pains and Robert's snoring are bad enough but add to that a hundred calves bellowing outside for their mommies all night and needless to say I was a sorry sight come 6 am....I had about 5 hours of decent sleep...by 10 am I needed a Nap... big time....

We hit grid lock on the out skirts of the city, thank you Anthony Henday Drive....it will be great when it is finished but in the meantime...what a shamozzle.

then when we arrived at the building the small inadequate parking lot is completely fenced off for resurfacing and we had to park three blocks away and walk back...Robert practically ran and dragged me along with him...I was having bad allergy issues after working the cattle over three days in a row and my eyes were all swollen and itchy and watery and my sinuses were blocked...I had a gravelly, growly voice and felt like crap...(Allergic to my way of making a living...hahahaha how ironic)  When we got to the building on foot this time we had to go three quarters of the way around to find an alternative door way, we entered through some mini-pharmacy and wove our way back to the corner where the stairs were...up the stairs and we were there...all that hurrying only to wait for an hour before being taken in....grrrrrrrr by this time my ankle issues were showing themselves and it was throbbing like crazy... and I was limping quite markedly.. the first test was the field test...put a pirates eye patch on stair into this white cone with your chin and forehead touching the machine, don't move and try to keep blinking to a minimum...hah... that just makes me blink more.... they give you a clicker and you are to stare straight ahead and click the clicker when ever you see a blinking light appear...but don't look around, just stare at the light in the centre of the cone... it takes about 15 minutes per eye...then they get you to read an eye chart , then put the drops in your eyes  to dilate your pupils and another drop to numb the eye ball so that they can push at it with a pressure gauge to check for glaucoma..they take you to a different waiting room and tell you to sit...you can't read cause your eyes are all blurry now...so you sit there blinking and staring at the other people like an owl....after about 30 minutes my name was called and I was taken down another hall way to a small room where they took pictures of my eye ball...another machine in which you stare into the lens, with your chin and forehead on the machine, don't blink and stare at a green light then she flashes a bright light and blinds you...when your eye finally focuses again everything is awash in a deep purple light. then they do the same to the other eye...back in the waiting room... and its about 11:30 by now...there are 33 other people in the chairs around me. I waited there for 10 minutes and she called me again and took me to another room with a colour photo machine which takes pictures of the retina...and then puts them into 3D on the computer screen...that test took about 20 minutes she then took me back to the waiting room again and said to wait for them to call my name... I waited and waited...noon hour came and went...Poor Robert is waiting in the original waiting room with nothing to eat...I had my bag and at least had a granola bar...by this time I was fingering the glucose tablets Sue gave me for low blood sugar and was on the verge of using them...I didn't have my monitor but hadn't eaten since 6:30 am and my hands and knees were getting shaky...never a good sign for me... I took Robert his granola bar, I had eaten mine at 11:30. when they finally called my name I was taken to a different room and told to wait for Dr. Greve...surprisingly I waited only about 10 minutes and in he came...he examined my eyes through the big optometrists machine wrote a few things in my file and that was it, he walked out...I saw him for less than 5 minutes...I rushed out of there and grabbed Robert, I practically ran the three blocks to the truck because I was worried I would pass out...I took a couple of tablets...and Robert took us to Timmies... for chili and a bun.

This is the first time I have had these tests done at the doctors office...usually I had to go to the Royal Alex eye clinic in the hospital and there is a cafeteria and gift shop to buy snacks in...so now I know that next year I am packing a bloody lunch...sandwich and fruit...and that Robert is coming with me to the other waiting room...so he can eat too.  All in all we got there at 9:45 am and were back at the truck at 2:30 pm....this doctor's appointments are always like that though...we always figure three to four hours... but this is the first time I have had one since I became diabetic and was taking meds for it.  It certainly makes the long waits more interesting.... and this is year four...

We were both so tired after that that we really didn't want to do any shopping.  We had to go to costco to fill Roberts prescription, Walmart so Robert could get filters and oil and then we had Chinese food  and went home earlier than normal for us.  We fell into bed and I didn't wake up until 8 am...this morning, Robert was up and outside a bit earlier than me.

Oh ya...Thursday (yesterday) we woke up to frost...0* it was here...some of the garden stuff got touched...but not badly...  it is cool and windy here today with  the odd cloud burst of rain... a good for staying inside and catching up on some inside stuff.

Listen !

Can you hear that ? The ever so slow grinding, grating, erosion of my middle age.  Huh... today is one of those days where I am unwillingly forced to view my somewhat static life through the eyes of a younger, more energetic, hell or high water person in my life. Mainly my hair stylist.

I know what you're thinking... she goes to a stylist....for that hair do....hahahahha  Yes I do, but I pretty much hold her at gun point to not do any of the cutting edge stuff she likes and just give me a basic utilitarian hair cut...after all, where do I go that I need to look cutting edge.   There are some days when I even forget to run a brush through my hair until bed time...yikes !!!!

Today Amy, my stylist, was chattering away about her family moving to the big house on their dairy farm since she and her hubby and small children are out growing the small bungalow they currently live in, her in-laws will be placing a new modular home on a different parcel of land. So she is filled with the designing bug, and she has quite a flare for it....her little hair studio is fixed up so nice, kind of a down home cottage feel with hand made quilts, that she made with her mom, and folk art and such about the place. very cosey...we were talking about base boards today...how much she dislikes store bought trim boards...and wanted to salvage old barn board for trim wood....but I pointed out the draw backs to that...the rough wood being hard to clean...with kids especially... so I suggested a 1 x 6 inch spruce board...with a piece of 1/4 round on top giving the base board a nice rounded top....very victorian...with deep baseboards...  she loved the idea...and wrote it down...but it was while she was telling me all the different things she wants to do to the place that I was struck by how stagnant my life has become. WHAT WAS I LOOKING FORWARD TO.  not much, sadly.   Oh well there is one thing I am looking forward to....snow...yes that's right...snow...because once it snows I don't have to do any more field work, gardening or lawn care....That makes me sound so lazy.... and I suppose in a way I have become lazy.  If lazy means that working so hard makes me hurt in places I didn't know I could hurt. I ache from head to toe...and in some spots it feels like I was hit by a truck...a big truck.

The new diabetic med I am on is expensive but seems to be working. That's good. I feel better about the numbers now...before it seemed like I was trying so hard to eat all the right things only to have the numbers be out of whack..now they are where I would expect them to be...so bravo Dr. Jamal.

We had a short but very nice visit with Sue last week, she brought a box of peaches....hmmmmmm they were delicious... I canned some and we are still enjoying one on our cereal each morning.  I can only eat a half a one though since it sends my sugar level through the roof.  I must say that Sue looked fabulous.... and she seems really happy, so I am very glad... I am mentally making plans to visit her and enjoy the resort like atmosphere of her new digs.

We finally got our new satellite receiver hooked up and not a moment too soon...both Robert and I were having withdrawal from TV.  There is only one glitch...the new receiver will not send the signal to the other TV's in the house like the old one did....so Robert can't watch News in bed at night... I rather like that...but him, not so much....hahahaa so we will be buying an RF modulator so that the other TV's will get a signal as well.  Seems like Shaw wants you to have a different receiver for each TV at $6.00 per receiver per month...plus the main one...

Yesterday I helped Robert bring three calves home from pasture that were missed the day before when we weaned...then made lunch, picked a 2 gallon pail of green beans, and Ice cream pail of peas, a pail of carrots and a 3 gallon pail of ripe tomatoes...as well as dug one hill of potatoes for supper..then I snapped the beans and shelled the peas...blanched and froze them...I skinned and froze the tomatoes...and canned the box of peaches Sue had brought. I then made egg salad for todays lunch and collapsed on the couch at 10 pm to watch a bit of news before bed. Today already I have been for a hair cut, and we are going to wean a small group of cows with heifer calves. 25 calves to bring home along with one bull.  We weaned on Sunday the bigger bunch of calves...boy was it hot out that day...we hauled 7  loads home in the stock trailer and then had lunch and went back out to run them all over the scale for a weaning weight. I also want to mow my lawn today but it looks like it wants to rain so I may not get around to that. 

I have an appointment in the city on thursday for an eye test...one of the drugs I am taking can build up in the layers of the retina and cause you to go blind...so they check every six months for signs of that happening...so far I have been lucky...

Well I should go and fire up the barbecue, I guess I will throw a couple of hot dogs on and give Robert one of his favorite lunches...hot dogs with grilled onions... and beans on toast...it must be a british thing...

Yikes

Holy shit, on Saturday night just after we got home from the field and a day of baling hay, a storm rolled in, we had just gotten into bed and were watching the news when the lightening started...we shut off the TV and Satelite.  When bam, a blue flash and boom right outside our bedroom window....one of the 40 ft pine and tamarak trees along the east side of our house was struck by lightening....there were more than a 8 strikes very very close to our house....it shook the house so much that the next morning I had to go around and straighten all the pictures hanging on the walls. They were all really out of kilter. No damage to the house, thank god...but the tree lost a lot of bark...it was shredded right off one side of the tree, into thin little strips like spaghetti...and scattered far and wide over the yard. I found some of it as far away as a hundred feet, Robert thinks most of the debris is still on the roof of the house or in the rain gutter.  We think the strike just grazed the tree on its way downward to the ground....time will tell whether the tree suffered enough damage to die...lightening is wierd, in that it can appear to have suffered little damage but then next year, will not be alive...  this row of trees is exactly 12 feet from the house. 





sizzled right down the side



shredded bark

The power was off for most of the night...and we sustained a little damage due to hail all from the same storm.  Lucky us...no really, that same storm, by the time it travelled 30 miles...dumped more than two inches of rain and very bad hail on the town of Barrhead....businesses downtown were flooded from the deluge...and some guys crops were totally wiped out...

Besides the damage to the tree we lost our satelite receiver....they are super sensitive to lightening and I guess this strike was just too close...so we are waiting for Shaw to send us a new one....which means a whole week with out any TV....and no highspeed internet to watch our shows on....whaaaaaaaa

I rely very heavily on TV for entertainment and company....it's gonna be a long week.....day one seems to be dragging on forever....and of course we are not working due to the rain...so I have bags of time to kill.....Romance novels here I come.  Yipee....

Holey Moley

We are getting about three good days in a row and then more rain, lucky us...Robert is starting to pull, his already sparse hair, out.
But we are slowly whittling away at the work. If the weather holds its current pattern we could be done baling by late Sunday. That would be bloody awesome.

Yesterday, the John Deere dealer brought a potential buyer out to our farm to view the borrowed tractor...the one they lent us until our new one comes. I have fallen in equipment love with this loaner tractor.  It is ten years old and I adore it....so much so, that I was embarrassingly petulant yesterday....I wanted  to pull a rabbit out of a hat and have some miracle  happen that would enable us to purchase it too, along with the new one...but I am fresh out of Rabbits at this time, so sad.  It looks like the guy really liked the tractor...and if he buys it, John Deere will have to bring us a second loaner until ours is here.

I picked a ton of veggies from the garden yesterday...new potatoes, carrots, beans, a basket of tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and 2 gallons of peas...we ate a bit of spaghetti and a load of veggies for dinner...

I cannot not believe how late in the season it is already. it seems like summer just got here but already the leaves are turning and I see autumn plants blooming along the road.  sigh......    soon the snow will be back...less work mind you but we are stuck at home looking after cattle then...Oh well, the price i pay for marrying another farmer...

My latest painting is nearly finished.. I think it turned out awesome, keep your eyes peeled for a photo soon. I just need two more good days to work on it and voila` .

No Surprise

It is no Surprise to me that the novelty of the new equipment has wore off and I am tired of cutting and baling hay.  I have noticed a direct correlation with the purchase of this new, ridiculously expensive equipment and the hours of labour I am required to do. 

Now, I am not a lazy person, anyone who knows me and has seen my yard and house knows that I do not shirk work...but a certain someone in my life seems to have decided that since the Doctors have not labeled my illness with a specific name, that I am not that sick...so I can pull my weight again...

Robert greasing the machine I will be running that day.

On any given day, I can be required to run four or five different pieces of equipment, a typical day can encompass 8 -10 hrs of driving tractor, broken only by the time it takes me to run to the house and make lunch and supper and take it back to the field.

I feel guilty if I complain...but by the end of this last week I was so exhausted I felt like crying...it got to the point where I was praying it would storm so that I could have a day off.  I am determined not to whine to him about it...he must be aware of how much he is requiring of me...and doesn't care...I mean what else can I think.... two years ago he wouldn't let me do a damned thing but read and paint pictures... Now I have no time for either...it's like I was never sick...I only wish my body felt the same way.

small but perfectly formed

Last week we finally took the plunge and bought our first barbecue...we have been tire kicking for a few years...and finally found just what we were looking for....it took me 3 hours to put it together but we ate the best hot dogs ever that night off the barbie....

My garden is producing ripe tomatoes now like crazy and I am picking a head of cabbage this morning for cole slaw.  We ate new potatoes yesterday for the first time...hmmmmmmmm were they good along with oven baked chicken breast and a little dish I like to call my fresh corn hash, which is just fresh stir fried zucchini, onion and baby carrots with kerneled corn and fresh tomatoes, it is very very good.

I finished painting my fake windows, and now am just waiting for a bit of spare time so that Robert can help me mount them on the garage wall. I think they are going to look pretty good. At least them leaning on the wall and my viewing them from the end of the drive way, makes me think they will.



poor kitty, his leg all chewed up

 Our little cat "TROUBLE" is being bullied by a black female barn cat.  His legs are all chewed up from her biting him and Robert has hinted that perhaps she needs to be reminded of her near death experience of last month...in which I came this close to shooting her for killing the kittens of another barn cat. Honestly I do not know what is the matter with her...but all the progeny from that old black and white tom cat are unnaturally mean and cruel to other cats. She is the last one remaining...but if Rob has anything to say about it, not for long.

Big Doctors appointment tomorrow...Rheumatologist in the city.

I am excitedly waiting for a visit from my sister this month...it will be so lovely to see her.  And happy to report that Jen is well, after her surgery.

I can't end this with out telling you that I finally heard from my son...for those of you who are out of the loop, I hadn't heard from his since last November when he came to borrow $400. for a job safety course... and then a few days later came by to get a box of Beef from us. Both visits I told him about his cousin Jen coming to visit and her sister Kim from Jasper coming for one day and that I was making a big dinner and wanted him to come so he could see his cousins, whom he hadn't seen for 13 years. He said sure he would come...but on the day...he never showed up, I must have phoned 20 times but he never returned my calls....ever...for nine whole months...and then last week he calls...to tell me that he was going to the hospital for a laproscopy for a suspected stomach ulcer and had had to take so much time off work being sick that he didn't know how he was going to pay his  mortgage payment this month.

To say I was disappointed would be an understatement, but no really, because I am beyond that at this point where he is concerned...sadly it no more than what I expected.  The only time he ever contacts me is when his life is in crisis.  this time he didn't come right out and ask for me to make his payment, but it was more than hinted at.  I even had Robert listen to the message in case I was being paranoid...but no, it was definitely a holding his hand out, message.

I called back, had to leave a voice mail of course, that is what I always have to do....99% of the time he never returns my calls...and then out of the blue, he wants money... so I left a message, saying I was sorry he hadn't been feeling well, and of course I was concerned as to what the doctors would find..could he please keep me informed...and then hung up....I chose to not mention the mortgage payment dilemma...

He called back a couple of days later while I was outside, Robert talked with him on the phone...but we had discussed the mortgage payment thing and decided we were going to ignore the hint. So that is what we did...and since then we have not heard a word from him.... I have left messages asking him about what the doctors said..but he hasn't answered back, of course.

Oh Please !

I mean really people...what are  you thinking...

How many of you really think the USA is going to default on their loans.  Oh right...... they are just being diva's.... make the world remember just how important our little old country is....(said with a southern drawl)  But I predict the writing is on the wall for Barack Obama....sadly...I don't think he will get a second term as president...and God knows I hope I am wrong...because I think he is terrific...and given a presidency without a total market crash and wars to hell will have it...I think  he would have done a fantastic job for the country.  But much to every ones chagrin, he is not a miracle worker.

On the subject of Norway, well what can one say....there should be a special law, internationally, for the perpetrators of mass murder ...instant death penalty...by the most heinous, painful, humiliating method...no pleading insanity, only the most rudimentary judicial course and then bam....so it's that or a life imprisonment in solitaire in a Turkish prison where the accommodations are less than rustic...no Tv, no prisoner rights, nothing but basic food, a pail to crap in and four gray walls, with the occasional gang rape thrown in for good behavior....  Sounds pretty blood thirsty, but Christ I don't know about the rest of you but I am tired of hearing about shit like that happening...

Take for instance the young Burnaby woman viciously attacked by her axe yielding husband...God damn it but shit like that makes me furious....certain cultures that move to Canada to have  a better life and get away, supposedly, from all the violence and blood shed in their native countries and what do they do, but bring all the same shit and horror here... WE USED TO HAVE A FAIRLY PEACEFUL, UNEVENTFUL Country, until about 20 years ago...and it just kind of snuck up on us this violence, gang killings, honour killings and shit....bombings, violent protests, and mob mentality, where the hell did that come from....

We all know where it comes from, but it wouldn't be Politically correct to say it... I sometimes am driven to wishing that they would all go back where they come from and take the crime with them. THERE, I SAID IT OUT LOUD. so sue me...

Well, in a complete turnabout, summer is in full swing...haying is progressing as best it can between rain showers... I feel like I have spent a lifetime in the cab of this new tractor...since it is easier to drive, Robert feels I can put in a lot more time now.....

I am working on a lovely painting of a photo a friend of Jens took of a Blue Heron on a beaver house....and Robert is saying it is my best yet....we'll see, there's still time for me to fuck it up...hahahaha  But it amazes me how the time flies when I start painting...I get into the zone, my mind goes blank of all worries and I am not kidding but my blood sugar goes way down....I love to paint and could do it all day, everyday...too bad I can't make a living at it...I would have an argument for not farming any more...hahahahaha

Well gotta go, I'm making a pot of brown rice in my new rice cooker and a chicken zucchini stir fry...zucchini, baby carrots, onion, snap peas, and corn stir fried with chicken breast and a light sesame sauce hmmmmm just made myself hungry...  Have a great day all.

Oh ya, had this storm go over yesterday with the most vivid rainbow afterwards showing so many violets bands...

Blah, Blah, Blah

Sunday today and I am feeling pretty lazy.  I spent the whole of yesterday, pouring rain outside, baking up a storm while the weather was cool. Managed to bake three different cakes x 2 of each...a sourcream walnut coffee cake, a really nice pumpkin bar with cream cheese icing and a to die for scrumpscous upside down apricot cake , all from the splenda cook book. after they were all on the counter cooling I put together two big pots of Beef and black bean soup....one of our all time fav's.... with homegrown tomatoes, celery, onion and four kinds of beans, black beans, kidney beans, lima beans and white beans. This soup is full of fibre and yummy goodness. I freeze all the cakes and the soup so that we have quick good food when we come in from the field.  Besides the cake and the gallons of soup, I made baked spaghetti with meat sauce for supper and there was enough left over for three more meals for us both...so we froze that as well...

Today I made a roast chicken with sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes and broccoli, baked apple yams  and beets.  We will eat that again tomorrow and then I make up a few TV dinners for the freezer and turn the rest into thick hearty chicken soup.....hmmmmmmm

I got my hair cut on thursday...quite short...and for now I am wearing it all spikey looking...it is a nice change from the past few years hair cut I have been sporting...I liked that one very much but felt I needed a small change for the hot summer...hahahahaha  My friends looked at me on friday like I had lost my mind....but hey, it's just hair..it grows back...

the weather today is fairly warm at 24 and windy...if it holds in this pattern we will be baling more hay in the next couple of days. grrrrr

I got the tin on my little shed project with R's help and I t hink  it looks great. now I just need to install my wooden dowel rods and I can hang up all my garden hoses and such....no more having to lug them all the way back to the far garden shed...no small feat with my gimpy ankle. My fake windows are the last project to tackle and I will get to them in a day or so...it has been so humid that I wasn't able to paint the final coat...

I just ordered three kick ass beach towels from general mills cereal offer....last month the offer on the box of cereal was a free frozen yogurt or ice cream worth $5.00... so we tried some great walnut caramel brownie frozen yogurt...hmmmmm it was delicious, so we redeemed the rest of our coupons and now have a years supply of frozen yogurt...which is half the fat of ice cream..I love freebies...and it's healthy...gotta love that.

Thoughts go out to Jen, surgery tomorrow and I will be thinking of her all day.

Gotta go warm up some soup for supper..maybe homemade biscuits  with cheddar cheese in them....hmmmm   i'm all about food the past few days.

Too bad about amy winehouse. 

new Photos



me, of course



my favorite planter



my favorite man



my new shed



A cool perspective



Ruby King (hen and chicks)