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.
Splendor
September 21, 2011
September 8, 2011
A Momentous few Days
The past few days have been ones of momentous occasions. First,it was my son Robs 34 th birthday today,
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.
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| 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.
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....
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.
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| The Fake Window Project, completed |
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| Red Poppies |
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| red and Lavender Poppies |
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| 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 ? |
September 2, 2011
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.
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.
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