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.
Splendor
December 27, 2011
December 15, 2011
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 AM SOOOOOOOOOOO LUCKY.... I have an ESTWING hammer....na na na-na na na
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....
December 11, 2011
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.
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.
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