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.