I'm Back

Wow - that was the longest break from blogging ever - for me at least! Its been a whirlwind couple of months, and the first thing I cut from my schedule was blogging....not sure why - I guess it could have been scrabulous or facebook....but no. Here we are, only 6 days from Christmas - its a beautiful day today - looking out the window it looks that way anyways! The trees are covered in hoarfrost causing a beautiful silvery Christmas scene everywhere you look - but if you step outside you will feel the chill of the damp -15 that is our high for the day and remember why you would like a remote car starter and why you like to park close to the door!



Over the last few months there have been a few highlights - a couple shopping trips - one with Trevor in mid November when we did most of our christmas shopping as well as applying for our passports (which we received a prompt 2 weeks later). We visited all the important places, like SIR/Cabelas, Value Village and the mall oh and of course a trip wouldn't be complete without going out to Cabrian Equipment (the Allis Chalmers wrecking yard on the far side of the city)...I stayed in the car as it was cold and windy and I think Trevor almost regretted going out there in that weather! It was a nice day together!

Later in November Julie, Velma, Jaime and I made a trip to Grand Forks, we took Liam along, and of course spent more time carrying him around then pushing him in the stroller - but it made a good shopping cart! I just looked at my credit card bill the other day though, I had forgotten that I used it for all my US shopping....no wonder I had s0me extra money sitting around - not any more! With the anticipation of Christmas in our new house and our first real holiday season together (last year we celebrated early and worked through Christmas and new years!) I wanted to do some decorating...$$$...I did fairly well considering, but it is just so easy to spend money! One of the first stores I saw in the mall was the music store/piano store....oooh, bad place for me to see, and when the rest of the group went into a clothing store across the way - I being not a clothing shopper thought this was the perfect oppourtunity to browse through some sheet music. I love new music- I got a few of my favorite contemporary country pieces- Whiskey Lullaby, Skin and one oldie but goody - Desperado. As I was looking I also found a reasonably priced book of classic country songs. The owner of the store invited me to try them out on one of the Grand Pianos....I can never pass up the opportunity to play on a piano like that! The store also had a variety of beautiful pictures and plaques with christian saying and verses on them - and I had been looking for something like that for the new house...$$$ by the time I left the store I had also picked up some guitar pics and my bill was alot higher then I had planned....oh, but it is MUSIC!
One of my planned stops was in the RCC western store to shop for Trevor - successful stop $$$...
Then, Bath and Body Works (or whatever its called), wow, 5 for $25 sale on now?? Sweet!!...$$$...
Cabelas...ohlala!! ...$$$...
Ah, Walmart super center....$$$... It was a good trip though - with some nice visiting along the way. The stop at the border to pay Duty was a bit saddening of course, and with the locals asleep in the back seat, Jaime and I managed to go a few miles out of our way by missing the main highway...oops! It was a beautiful day for travelling - sunny and clear and dry roads!

The next major highlight was the great moving extravaganza. The current tenants said they'd be out by the end of November, so we showed up at the house with a trailer load of stuff at about 11AM on December first. Let me first add a disclaimer saying it was a very bad time of the month....but yeah...
We arrived to find the house locked, appliances still in place and nobody around. I was ANGRY...they had already put us off for a month longer then they first said they would- and I wanted my house! Its a good thing I wasn't there alone or I might have broken something or...possibly somebody, once they finally showed up! I am slightly embarrassed by my behaviour as I was sullen, angry and sarcastic all morning. The offending party showed up a while later to get more stuff - they "just hadn't been able to get it all out in one day" well, ok whatever, but you're the ones that gave us the deadline... They didn't seem to care, and I was even more angered by that, add to it all that they weren't even moving their stuff all into their house - but some into a neighbours barn...which they could have done any time, but they still waited until November 30th to start....AGH.... it was not a good day!
Trevor and I went for a walk in the cold blowing snow, to check out the pasture fence, and when we came back we helped them load their stuff out of the garage so we could unload our stuff into the garage (the appliance and furniture we had bought). Then we went home. Angered by the frustration of never getting anything done, I decided to go on a baking frenzy - and by the end of the day I had made 10-12 dozen goodies, cookies, turtles, maple truffles, etc....finally - an accomplishment! it was somewhat of a relief.... Anyways, my lunch hour is over and I've already been writing this for two days....so I'll post this now....and the happy side later... Ciao

Closer to Normal

Its been about 2 weeks since I blogged and things are sort of getting back to a more normal routine...sort of. I'm afraid I wasn't very positive on the last post - but my mental picture is getting better thankfully! We are slowly settling into our temporary home, although I'm not certain I'll feel at home until I have my own kitchen again! The latest word on our house is that it should be available by the end of November, but I'm not getting any hopes up just yet - I'll believe it when we're moved in! I just hope that happens before Christmas, as I was REALLY looking forward to entertaining in my own house over the Christmas holidays!

Its beginning to feel a lot like winter around here now, with every night reaching below zero and daytime highs staying closer to freezing every day! There has been a bit of snow fall, although not enough to really make the ground white yet! The winds continue to puff frigid air from the northwest at 30-60km/hr almost every day, but we must enjoy this while it lasts and remember how nice the fall was when we're stuck in the middle of -30 January!

Over the weekend I drove up to Saskatoon for the annual vet tech conference to get some continuing education hours. It was great trip - but it wore me out - I guess it all started on Thursday when I was up at 3:30 AM, worked 12 hours and didn't go to be until 11 pm. It was a cold day of exporting and a lot of driving that day, but thanks to my winter clothes(which made me look like a beast from a fairytale I'm sure!), and a thermos full of strawberry vanilla tea, I was warm all day! That evening I meant to finish packing for my trip, but Andrew came over with little Liam and I spent a couple of hours visiting and fussing over him instead!
I slept in on Friday morning and didn't get off on my journey until 11:30am. I stopped in Brandon for lunch at Tim Hortons and got very sick within an hour of eating...needless to say it was a bit of an uncomfortable trip from then on as my entire digestive system rebelled! I reached Saskatoon around 7pm but spent a further half hour getting lost and driving around the city before arriving at my hotel. After checking in and a quick shower to try and refresh myself, I headed down to the conference area to register and browse the trade show. Upon receiving my registration package, I was informed that all of the hands on sessions for the next day had been cancelled, thanks to a strike by the university employees. I was rather disappointed as this was one of the reasons I had travelled so far for the conference, but I decided to make the most of it! My room mate from college was to share a room with me at the conference as well and she arrived a little later in the evening and joined me in browsing the trade show. We picked up lots of information and free goodies from the different reps and got some good sales talks from them as well! Over the course of the evening I ran into a total of 6 of my college class mates, which was nice - its neat to see where different people have ended up. Lynz and I were joined by Janelle and Mark as we browsed the trade show and after the trade show had shut down and Mark had left, the three of us went up to our hotel room to visit. Lynz and I stayed up until 3:30am....just like being back in college!! Saturday we enjoyed many informative speakers, and a day sprinkled liberally with snacks, more browsing and more visiting. The culmination of the event was a nice banquet on Saturday evening with an awards ceremony which was to be followed by some entertainment - the entertainer however, did not arrive, so we were forced to seek our own entertainment - more visiting upstairs until after midnight! We said our good-byes to all of our other classmates and called it a night. Sunday morning dawned with snow...apparently - as there was still snow in the shadows by the time we were up and at-em around 10 or so. Lynz and I made our way to Montana's for brunch and said our goodbyes from there. The drive home was long - as I was tired, and somewhat bored with driving by this point!! Thankfully, I made it home by 9pm even after a few stops for refreshment and to break up the monotony of the road ahead of me! The Lord graciously kept all the deer in the ditches and me between them!
My lack of sleep caught up to me yesterday as I somewhat dragged through the afternoon at work. I was in bed by 10 last night and feel a lot better today!! I am glad to be home safe and sound, and was much encouraged by the good visits I had with my fellow classmates - I miss some of the friends I made at school, and wish I wasn't so far away from them all, but such is my life it seems - I'm far away from a good many of the people I care about - sometimes I wish we were back in the old days when people didn't move very far apart very often....but I guess this is life!

Oh, before I close, there's one other exciting piece of news, I saddled Riata for the first time on the Sunday before last. She did very well, didn't even seem to mind the saddle being there, although she sniffed it and the blanket curiously before I put them on. I even let the saddle almost fall off her a few times before I got the cinch tightened, and she didn't spook. I expected her to at least kick or buck once or twice when I started working her with the saddle on, but not even one little flip of the hoof! I just hope she is this well behaved when I go to ride her for the first time next summer!!
I'm posting this with the joys of high speed Internet as I wait for Julie at work - its kind of nice to have a chance to just sit down and type on a computer that actually responds properly!!

SLOOOOOW

Well, I guess this will be a short update, since it has taken me over half an hour just to get to this page from the time I sat down at the computer....I miss my high speed already!!!

As you may have assumed, we have moved out of our house, we are currently living with my in-laws for an undetermined amount of the future.... It has been a stressful couple of weeks since I last posted, finding out that the current tenants of our future house would not be out by the end of October like the said they would be was the first in a string of events that has caused me a lot of frustration and uneeded anger. I have had a needlessly short temper and just have not been myself the last couple of weeks. All this turmoil has played havoc on my emotions - I haven't struggled like this for over 5 years! I know that God has all things under control but I haven't been trusting him as much as I should have been. I'm working on this now - like usual, after I'm already down in the dumps I realize what I need to do different rather then just doing the right things all the time.
I was busy at work and with other commitments and didn't get any packing done until late last week. It started with a 17 hour day at work two saturday's ago, coupled with a dog to train 2-3 nights a week for 3 weeks and weekly bible study, etc... So, we ended up doing most of the packing on Saturday and we had help to move the piano, furniture and all the boxes we had packed up to that point on Sunday afternoon. I was thankful for Trevor's help in the packing as he was probably much more efficient then I was - we both felt like we were getting a cold, and I being short tempered and exhausted was not doing much to help the situation. We both had Monday and Tuesday off so by getting the bulk of the move over with on Sunday, we were able to concentrate on finishing up the packing on monday and cleaning on tuesday - last night trevor went for the last load of misc stuff and we called it DONE. I've never been more glad to be done with something....except we're not really done - since we can't get into the house, all of our belongings with exception of the piano (which is in the living room of our future house) and the things we need every day; are in the garage of the future house... We packed up our necessities and our animals (Cootie the kitten and Sneef the dog) and moved out to my in-laws for the time being. This hasn't been the end of my stress as we're all fighting off a bad cold bug. I have had some trouble sleeping since we got here, but last night I was able to sleep well for once. I hope that continues since I am very tired and I need to get some sleep to help me get back into a proper frame of mind. Also on that note, I'm trying to get back onto my healthy eating thing that I was on during the summer (although you couldn't tell by looking at me that I had changed anything :( and I'm trying to get up the courage to get a gym membership to get more exercise, as that always helps me sleep and clears my head a bit - not to mention my figure needs it.
All in all, I guess its all working together for good - as God promised it would. Why can I not believe that better? It would save me and the people around me a lot of frustration if I could!

I guess I could sum this up by saying there's been too much goin on in my life lately to bother sitting down to blog - and I'm not sure how often I'll be blogging from now on thanks to slow speed internet!

Pinky Runs!! and other news

Yes, as the title says, the object of our most frequent disagreement (not major - mostly just joking disagreements now) is now running! After numerous -- read expensive -- set backs and four onths of work, it finally drove out of the shop this weekend for the first time! Here are a couple pics!

In other news this weekend, Julie and I both worked yesterday - exporting cattle up north, so it was about a 17 hour day! I'm really tired, but I'm not sure if I'll take tomorrow off or not. Our moving plans - or lack thereof have been foiled - as the current tenants - despite telling us a month ago that they'd be out by the end of October have now told us they won't be and don't know when they'll be out. We have to be out by the 27th, and already have appliances coming for the 20th...so we will have to pack everything up and store it in the garage and live at my in-laws for an undetermined amount of time - it makes me somewhat frusterated and upset because its hard enough to move when you both work full time, but now I'm going to have to move twice, which means twice the time off work... argggh - I wish we could just make some plans and stick to them for once!!

We had our thanksgiving dinner today - since Julie just came home on Tuesday and we wanted to include her in it! It was nice - and we really do have alot to be thankful for - family, friends, food, shelter, the list is endless really! I know I shouldn't be grouchy about such a simple setback, since its not like we'll be out on the street - I must be thankful for the things we DO have! I have a picture of Carson and Conner when they were over for dinner today- cuddling with Wyatt!

On Tuesday, Trevor and I took the day off and with Evan and Andrew's help we collected and sorted the cows, had them preg checked and put RFID tags in all of the animals in preparation for shipping them on the 20th. We only had one open cow out of 21 so that was a blessing!

On Friday night we went to a concert - Comhaltas was in town on a North America tour - they were great musicians! I could have enjoyed the concert with out the male singer's songs, and it would have been better if I could have been able to hear the MC's jokes and introductions!! It was a nice concert though!

On holiday monday - thanksgiving day, Velma and I finished processing apples into fruit leather and applesauce and did some other work in the kitchen all day! On saturday of the long weekend I worked in the morning and then Trevor and I went to Winkler and ended up buying all new appliances from Sears. We went with all Kenmore appliances, and we got a really good sale price on almost every appliance. We kind of splurged on the stove - its a smooth top/self clean with two expandable burners and a warming plate. We got a front load washer and dryer - the smaller model - 3.1 CFt but I am looking forward to the high efficiency side of it! We got a basic 18CuFt fridge and a middle of the line dishwasher - that is the appliance I am most looking forward to I think!!

Last weekend we moved the cows - here are some pictures --

Other then that, life keeps plugging away :)

Changes are a comin'

Well, I guess its about time I blogged about the events of the past week, as they are quite important to our future.
Last Sunday morning on our way to meeting I realized there was a note under our windshield wiper. We stopped and I pulled it off, it was notepaper from our realestate agent - it said "I need to show the house Monday morning". Now, why he didn't call us, I'm really not sure, but such is life. After we got home from meeting, the real estate agent stopped by and asked if he could show the house in the late afternoon so that the interested party could get back to the city that night. We agreed, and I started lunch on the stove and got busy cleaning - the house wasn't too messy, but since these people were very interested I wanted it to look extra nice. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door - it was the interested party - they wanted to know if they could see the house later in the afternoon (the real estate agent hadn't talked to them yet) They also said they wanted to see it earlier then we had arranged with the real estate agent - so we called him and set it up for 3:30. a few minutes later the phone rang. One of our friends wanted to come visit and see his cows etc. So we invited them for supper and over the course of a couple phone calls, I agreed to make roast beef dinner and meet them at my sister-in-law's so we could all have supper together. So - with Trevor's help I got supper in the oven, lunch finished on the stove and the house all vaccumed and dusted, etc. and cleared the cobwebs from the basement. They came to see the house at the appointed time, and by 4:30 the real estate agent was back with an offer for our full listing price, even the possesion date was good for us, so we signed - SOLD!
I was very excited that we had finally sold, as it is just another piece of the puzzle coming together for us to move out of town and establish a place of our own. The place that we are renting will be available in the later part of october sometime, and we have to be out by the 27th. Hopefully we can just pull up with the horse trailer, load everything in and make one big trip. We sold the appliances with the house, so now we're looking at buying new or newer appliaces for our new house. If anyone has suggestions of good appliances or ones to stay away from - please comment, this is going to be a fairly large purchase so I'd like to do my homework. We also are going to need some living room furniture, etc - but some things I will be able to get from dad's excess furniture eventually....hopefully. I'm pretty excited about having more room, but I'm going to miss my well laid out kitchen and all its cupboards...although the house is bigger, the kitchen storage is lacking majorly! The bedrooms are small, but it will be alright I think :) The other thing I just realized is that this house only has bathrooms in the basement and the upstairs - none on the main floor - bummer. I guess we can't be picky right now though.
The rest of this week was fairly quiet, we actually spent quite a bit of time at home together which was nice. It was a busy week at work, which wore me out and caused me to be somewhat emotional, but I guess that is part of being a woman! Sometimes it frusterates me though! Last night we went out to the house we are going to rent to take some measurements and look over some things. The current tenants also gave us a few pointers on things to beware of - like insulating the pump house so it doesn't freeze in the winter, not to drink the water (the well is in the barnyard under the barn pretty well, so you can imagine why the water is not drinkable....) etc etc. Its a place with lots of potential, but it also needs lots of work and work=money.... :S I think we'll be looking for another place to buy...but I guess time will tell.
This week our local fabric store was having a huge clearance - so I spent my whole lunch hour in there on friday and bought lots of flannel and fleece and denim - for baby stuff, pajama pants, vests and other stuff. I also got about 15 or 20 patterns - at 80% off...so I've got lots of projects now :D I'm pretty excited!
Today we slept in, I made and omelete for breakfast, and then we did a little bit of running around in town before going out to the farm. I visited with velma for a bit, ate some lunch and then headed for Jaime and Liam's baby shower. It was a nice afternoon of visiting. I had made a bunting bag type thing for Liam's carseat. It is denim on the outside and has John Deere flannel on the inside. I hope it works out for them. I forgot to take a picture of it, so I'll have to take a picture when she uses it someday. Tonight we ate supper with velma and then came home- but on the way home Trevor got a service call, so he had to be gone for about an hour or so. I guess I'll update again when something exciting happens :)

Rain

I figured I'd try to update a little more often to avoid marathon posts like the last couple have been. This week has been fairly un-eventful. I took the day off yesterday to take Trevor to get his wisdom teeth out. I dropped him off at 8:20, but none of the places I wanted to shop at were open yet, so I went to Tim's for breakfast and did crossword puzzles for a while! After 9, I went back uptown, but many places were still closed. Fabricland was open though, so I went there and browsed for a bit, I needed some snaps for a project and I had lots of other ideas, but before I could even get anywhere, my cell phone rang and Trevor was done his procedure. I went back to the clinic and sat with him while he woke up from the general anesthetic, I filled his prescriptions, paid the bill (ouch - I'm glad we have insurance!!) and then walked him to the car. He said he was feeling alright, and since we were already there I needed to pick up a few things in town. He was very patient as I went back to the fabric store to try to finish my shopping (they ended up not having anything I needed). He also rested in the car while I finished my shopping at wal-mart, where they did have the things I needed! I picked up fabric and a pattern for a baby project - which will be revealed at a later time!
We finally headed for home, and got there around noon. I cleaned up the house a bit, paid a few bills, worked on some CE hours, did some laundry, pre-shrunk my fabric and started on my sewing project. In the middle of the afternoon I made Trevor some tapioca pudding (his favorite) and in the evening I made some soup and took a break from my project to watch a movie with Trev. I had wanted to finish my project, but it just got too late and I had to pack it up and go to bed. I had forgotten how confusing patterns can be sometimes - the next time I make this item it will be a lot easier!!
Trevor didn't sleep very well last night, and consequently neither did I, but oh well, I'm not dragging too much today - I'm sure I feel better then he does! Hopefully he'll be doing alright when I get home tonight. I guess I should get back to work - my lunch is over now!

Fall work

So in the two weeks since we've been back from Alberta - there has been a lot to do. Not that we have gotten it all done by any stretch of the imagination, but we're working at it! On Thursday evening after work, we headed out to the farm to haul bales. I jumped in the 4020 (my favorite JD tractor) and Trevor took the Case 930 down the hill - once we were in the field, we switched tractors so I was pulling the bale wagon with the case and Trev was loading it with the JD. Trev loaded two bales, and as he drove away from the wagon to get the next bale, I noticed he only had one of the two prongs on the bale fork. I tried to get his attention, but he drove up to the third bale, stabbed it, lifted, and of course the bale fell off, not to be discouraged, he backed up and took another run at it - whoops, the bale fell off again...still not convinced, he backed up a third time and stabbed the poor bale.... after it fell off this time, he tilted the forks up and realized he had only half is spear... By this time I had nearly killed myself laughing and wished that I had had a camera with video capabilities! I jumped off my tractor and tried to pull the broken spear out of the inside of the last bale he had loaded. It turns out that Andrew had cut the welds on the spear in order to straighten it, and had not had a chance to weld it back on yet....I had a good laugh, but I'm not sure Trevor is remembering it as fondly as I!
Last Friday we were all at Andrew and Jamie's place for supper. Her mom is visiting and invited us all to enjoy chicken stew with all the fixings. We had a nice visit and wished Julie farewell - as she left for a month in Europe on Sunday. I enjoyed visiting my little nephew - its amazing how quickly they change when they're little people! On saturday, Trevor and I spent the morning cleaning up and packing some things in the house - trying to make it more appealing for the next (but so far non-existant) prospective buyer. It looks much nicer now, with less "stuff" around, but I have already kicked myself for packing a few of the items. We found out this week that the current tenants of the house we plan to move into will be out by the end of October. Meaning we will be moving in at that time, hopefully. Of course my mind is going crazy with all the possibities and ideas for the new house - and every appliance sale flyer is sticking out at me (since we will need to replace our apartment sized fridge and stove when we move!) - but I'm trying to convince myself not to get too excited! We still aren't sure what we will do if we can't sell or rent out the house....but it will all come together in good time I'm sure.
Anyways, getting back to Saturday - in the afternoon we went out to the farm, I went traipsing around trying to locate the horses in the pasture, but they avoided me somehow - so Sneef and I just had a nice long walk through the forest in the crisp fall air. Later, I ran down the hill to the valley to where Trevor was levelling the bale yard with his crawler - he let me run it to back blade the levelled ground, and drive it up to the yard - what a feeling of power :P After that, we returned to the field to undergo bale picking take two - this was much more sucessful, we hauled 6 loads of bales before dark. There was only one mishap - when Trevor took the tractor and trailer full of bales up the hill to the yard, he lost three bales about half way up the hill. I had left the JD at the bale yard, picked up the truck and was on my way up the hill when I came across three round bales blocking my pathway. So back down the hill I went - got the tractor, removed the road blocks and made my way up the hill! Velma had just cooked up some tasty soup with fresh veggies from the garden - a perfect way to end the day!
Sunday afternoon we enjoyed lunch at Andrew and Jaime's, then headed off to sort out two cull cows and our 5 grass steers from the herd. With the 7 head successfully sorted and one other calf treated for foot rot - we turned the cows out on another pasture. It was a quick and easy sort for the most part - Andrew even hijacked Trevor's horse and rode for a bit - I'd never seen him on a horse before! Guthrie acted up a bit in all the excitement, but I guess a person can't get too uptight about that.
On Monday night Trevor took the steers and cows to Brandon for the auction on Tuesday and I made some lasagnas - partly just to warm up the house! It has been a cold week, freezing a few nights and not getting very warm during the day - but they say this weekend will reach 27C again!! The rest of this week has been somewhat uneventful, with some work on Pinky the distractor, and a bit of clean-up around here. I have been fairly tired all week - the chiropractor says I'm fighting some sort of nasty virus - he suspects West Nile, but said there's no point in getting tested unless the symptoms get worse.
We got our cheque for the cows/grass calves today - not as much as we had hoped for, but pretty much what I had expected. We only made about $300 on our summer project - 5 grass steers. But when you consider that we didn't put much labour into them, $300 is alright I guess. The cull cows sold for about $300 each, which isn't anything spectacular, but its better then nothing I suppose! The joys of farming - if only there wasn't a money component, it would be so much more fun!!

Busy-ness

It has been a long time since I posted - and so much has happened, I'm not sure if I can remember to tell everyone all the news that has happened since my last post.
First of all - the most exciting news!! As most of you know, Jaime gave birth to Liam Nathaniel AT 10:44 AM on August 29. He was born by C-Section and weighed 6lb 6oz and measured 20 inches long. Mother and baby came through the procedure beautifully! Julie and I heard the news in the late morning and went to visit him after work that night! We met Grandma Velma and Andrew there and after visiting we went out for supper together with Darren and Melinda and their boys. It was a day of joy! Julie and I also visited Jaime and Liam at noon the next day since I was leaving Friday for my trip to Alberta. I have long looked forward to being an Auntie and it has been fun so far :)
Thursday evening was spent packing and getting food ready for the trip to Alberta the following day. Friday was slow at work, so I left at 3:30 and made it home in time to get everything ready and shower by the time Trevor came home - we packed the car and set out. We reached Regina around 11:30pm and visited with Harriet for a while before crashing for a good - but short, night's sleep. We were on our way by 8:30 after a nice breakfast. Along the way we stopped a few times - first for fuel in Davidson, then in North Battleford at a tack store - where we picked up a couple things. A little later along the way we stopped for fuel again just outside of Sherwood park, and stopped to get some last minute items in Fort Saskatchewan. We arrived at Angel's Valley Retreat center - the place my dad had rented for the weekend get-together around 7:30pm. We were greeted by Amy, Robbie, Becky and Lance. Amy made us some sandwiches for supper and we got settled in - it was a beautiful spot, with the freeman river running near by and lovely grounds with a forest surrounding on all sides. We played a friendly game of horseshoes - a game at which I suck supremely!! Later in the evening, Dad and Diane and both of Diane's kids showed up after attending a family wedding earlier in the day. So the whole family was together - except for Jody and Nate and Casey - but it was pretty good- its pretty hard to get us ALL together these days when we live so far apart and lead such different lives! Saturday evening ended with a cake celebrating Rob's graduation and lots of visiting.
On Sunday morning, Amy and Natalie and I got up and made breakfast. We fried bacon, made scrambled eggs, potato pie, pancakes and all the fixings. The facility was beautiful, with a full commercial kitchen, a job to cook in! I think I want a commercial kitchen in my house!!!! There was ample space to work in, a steam table to keep things warm, 5 sinks, a great grill, 3 ovens and 8 burners on the cook top, all of which was topped by a big exhaust fan! After a leisurely breakfast the boys did the dishes and we all got together in the little chapel for some singing and bible reading and prayer, it was a nice time! We spent the rest of the day playing games, relaxing, visiting, hiking, riding bikes, playing music and of course snacking on all the goodies that we had brought along! Sunday evening we had steak - Lance was the master BBQ chef and the rest of us pitched in to make a salad, baked potatoes and grilled carrots. MMM - fresh garden carrots grilled with butter, celery salt and dill - yummy!! More horseshoes and board games came next, then I brought out cheesecake with lemon topping, and later us "kids" played charades until midnight or so - it was a blast. We used the Apples to Apples cards to give us ideas of what to act out - it was a great way to get to know Danny, Dayna and Natalie (my new step-siblings) all a little better! On Monday morning we had a late brunch around 11 of breakfast strata that Amy had thrown together and leftover pancakes. I then went to make a couple pies as I had planned to do earlier, only to find out that my frozen peach pie filling had gone rotten somewhere along the way! So I improvised and used frozen raspberries that we had brought to make one pie and chocolate pie/pudding for another pie! It was all delicious. We shared many of our meals with the staff, etc who were staying at the retreat, and they also contributed a beautiful chocolate/raspberry cake to the desert counter. Many of us went for a hike in the afternoon, along the Freeman river, and then we went back to the camp and had a great afternoon of visiting with the whole Kile family - friends of the whole family from years ago and dad's cousin Keith and his wife. We played more horse shoes, visited a lot, enjoyed Philly Steak sandwiches and later hot dogs and hamburgers along with dessert and a cake for dad and Diane's wedding - we even convinced them to do the traditional face stuffing with the cake! We finished off the evening with visiting around the camp fire and roasting marshmallows. After all the company had gone home, knowing this was our last night together, we didn't want to miss out on any chance to have fun together, so we again played charades (this time with pictionary cards) until well into the night! Tuesday started at around 5:30- Trev and I packed up and headed back home - we stopped for breakfast in fort Saskatchewan, then at the bank in Vermilion so I could talk to them about student loan stuff. Later we stopped at Wal-Mart in Lloyd and then at Grandma Light's place in Regina for a few minutes. We got home around 1:30 AM and crashed.
I'm out of time on my lunch hour now, so I'll have to continue later...but that was my September Long weekend fun :) I'll add pictures when I get home!

Summer Harvest

Its been a busy couple of weeks since my last post. My weekends have been full of canning and freezing food. Shortly after our return from Regina, I picked beans and peas and shelled/cut them, blanched them and froze them. I ended up with 8 bags of beans, and 3 bags of peas. I also pickled some beans in a dill brine for dilled beans. Last week peaches were on sale by the case, so both Velma and I bought a case. Velma, Jamie and I got together last Saturday afternoon and made peach pie fillings, I froze 3 fillings and canned 5 wide mouth masons of peach/apple pie filling. We also made a couple pies for the next day's farewell BBQ potluck dinner for Alex at Andrew and Jamie's place. One pie I made as kind of a combo of saskatoons, strawberries and apples. The other pie was peach with a strudel topping. Yum Yum! Yesterday I spent the day doing more canning - I made zucchini pickles, lemon zucchini butter and apple butter. I also made supper for Velma, Julie, Trevor and I after the others got home from work. After supper, Trevor and I needed to go and check the cows, so Velma bottled up my apple butter for me. Later (actually too much later!) we went over to Andrew and Jamie's with Julie and watched "Broken Bridges" It was a decent movie actually.

This afternoon when we got out to the farm after meeting, the cows were up at the water hole, so Trevor went down and closed the gate below to keep them contained, then we went and had lunch and relaxed for a bit, later we saddled up the horses and gathered the cows into the barnyard so we could sort out the bulls. Its been 65 days since we put the bulls out, so its time to cut off the calving season! We separated the bulls out and put CCIA RFID tags in them (the Canadian cattle identification association's radio frequency Identification tags which are mandatory on all cattle being moved from their home farm) The plan is to take the bulls to the auction mart on Tuesday evening for the Wednesday sale. Since we plan to sell the cows sometime before calving, there's no point in keeping the bulls through the winter! The fewer hay bales we have to buy the better! The horses and cattle(and us!) are enjoying the cooler weather and fewer flies - although it got up to 30C here today. The past two weeks have been cool and sometimes rainy - today was the first warm day but since the humidity has gone it didn't feel near as bad as July! After taking care of the cattle this afternoon, I made another batch of dill pickles. So my canning so far this year has consisted of:

13 jars of dill pickles

5 jars of dilled beans

5 jars of peach/apple pie filling

5 jars of lemon/zucchini butter

7 jars of apple butter

3 jars of zucchini pickles

and more to come!

Yesterday the horses were feeling pretty chipper, actually Guthrie even bucked a bit when Trevor was lunging him for me ( I was delayed in the kitchen!). Today the horses were lazy, at least until we started sorting cattle - when Guthrie, being his usual self, got somewhat riled up and decided to throw in a few bucks for good measure - at least I knew to expect it - that's what a night latch and a Cheyenne roll are for!! We had quite a time trying to restrain the largest bull, his neck was thicker then his head, so we couldn't keep him in the head gate, he's also the most ornery of the three bulls and likes to throw his head around, so reaching into the chute with him unrestrained was impossible. We eventually got him pinned between three fence posts in the chute and Trevor-the-brave got the tag in his ear. Sneef was a big help in persuading the bulls to move and keeping the cows moving as we trailed them to the barn yard - I am so happy to have a dog like her, even if she loves to be dirty better then anything else! She will go and jump in the dugout and then find the dustiest spot she can find or the freshest cow plop and roll like crazy! Its like battering chicken to fry! She ends up with a bunch of mud coated dreadlocks, which eventually become dust that she shakes off.

Another highlight from the last couple weeks was our clinic summer party. It was a fun time, we met at the local amusement park which has go carts, bumper boats, mini golf, human Foosball, beach volleyball and lawn bowling. We had a BBQ with all the fixings, some good visiting time and fun on the amusements! About a month ago another girl that lives out this direction started working at the clinic, so we've been car-pooling whenever it works out- especially on the days when Julie was staying in Morden. Jackie is very chatty, and it makes the trip go by very quickly when I have someone to talk to!

In other news, our move may be coming a little closer to reality. We still haven't had any bites on our house, but the house that the current tenants of our future house are moving into has finally arrived on its foundation, and they plan to move as soon as it is livable. Hopefully we can move into the farmhouse before the snow flies!! We're still praying to sell our house, since it would be hard financially to have to pay for rent on the new place and the mortgage here at the same time, yet we don't want to give up the opportunity to rent the house in the country. God has it all in His perfect plan, so I just have to wait and see what that plan is!

The next week is going to be busy, as Trevor and I plan to leave at 5pm on Friday night for Alberta and my dad's wedding celebration. We still have lots of zucchini, cucumbers and apples to preserve when we have time, I have quite a few projects started here and a few I'd like to finish before Jaime's baby comes...its going to be a busy week.

Trevor is hoping to get a wisdom tooth pulled tomorrow afternoon, as it is quite rotten - hopefully all goes well there. I have a couple of medical appointments this week too! Tomorrow evening I join 3 of my co-workers in Winnipeg for a continuing education evening...I guess I've got a lot to do in a couple of nights this week!

As some of you may have heard - My sister and brother-in-law, Jody and Nate have become parents for the next 9 months - click here for more info. Because of this development, they have decided they can't make the trip up to dad's wedding celebration. I am disappointed to not be able to see them, but I am not holding it against them at all - as their excuse is a very noble one!

Other then that, everything here is going well - we're all healthy, the cat is growing fast...

Here are some pictures of our cows and horses from this afternoon:

Me and Guthrie, ready to go cut out some bulls.

Guthrie and I - done cutting out bulls - feeling lazy.
Portrait of a great summer day
Trevor and Black Jack, cutting out "Piggy" the herd "mascot"
Trevor's portrait of a great summer day
Me cutting out "Steak" the next piece of freezer beef.

Guthrie and I cutting out one of our grass steers for a better look.
Headin' back to pasture

Introducing the newest member of the family

No - Don't worry, Jaime didn't deliver early - and this member of the family is not human.

Meet the one and only Cooter. One of the hazards of working at a vet clinic which also serves as the pound... I get to see these cute little dogs and cats who nobody loves anymore. Some...like Cooter, just need a home and they're much too cute to euthanize. So...somewhat to Trevor's chagrin, we're the new care takers of a 7-8 week old kitten. So far we think he's male...and I hope he stays that way, since Cooter would be a funny name for a girl. Its kind of hard to tell on a kitten, when you don't have another one to compare it to, which gender it really is...

Other then the kitty - the latest news is the return home from Regina Conference. It was a nice weekend, we stayed in dorms with Evan and Katie and Jakob, and Darren, Melinda, Carson and Connor. I enjoyed the meetings, although I had some trouble hearing during certain meetings - it makes me appreciate the effort that some make to be heard! I also can sympathize with the older brothers and sisters who strain to hear - hearing aids are great, but they don't always do the trick completely. We enjoyed several visits with different people that we don't see often, including my cousin Holly and her husband Josh and on Monday night I stayed with Harriet and Dave. It was nice to catch up with old friends! Staying out at the farm always has its exciting moments, like chasing cows, fixing fence, etc. When I was packing, something told me to take some farm clothes -- and I'm glad I did! Trevor, Alex and Julie came home on Monday afternoon, while I stayed an extra night (I had Tuesday off since I worked Saturday morning) and came home with Velma. I spent a few hours with my friend Lynnsey on Monday - it was a nice time of chatting and catching up and of hopefully mutual encouragement.

I think I am my own worst enemy sometimes - while I can't even seem to keep up with daily housework sometimes, I keep starting new projects. I picked up several different materials to make baby blankets with last weekend and also started on another infant sweater set. This time I have started a couple months ahead of when the baby will be born! I love working with my hands - crochet, sewing, scrap booking, etc. But I just don't have time anymore!!

Last night, Trevor and I went riding. I was kind of in a bad mood...my fellow females will understand... Anyways, my horse wouldn't come in to be caught, so I ended up riding Apache. He was Trevor's horse, but he sold him to his dad, he had only been ridden twice so far this year - once when he fell on Alex and once when Melinda came for a ride with us. I can't stand his ground manners - he completely lacks respect, and I'm not sure how to earn it from him! Once I'm riding him, he's OK, except he turns like a fully loaded super-B, and after riding Guthrie most of the time, who turns well and watches/cuts cattle pretty well, it was a frustrating ride. He likes to move though, and I didn't have to pedal to keep him moving at least!

We had the first fresh produce out of the garden last week, and I'm sure there's much more that needs attention right now, so hopefully tomorrow I can get on that. I guess its time for bed, Trevor said he was going to bed an hour ago - but instead he played his guitar and sang to keep me entertained while I wrote this. I'm going to post a few pictures of Carson and Connor from the weekend.

Summertime

Well, I guess its about time for another update. The days of summer seem to slip by without so much as a pause - and to think its the end of July already! The crops are ripening, and we saw several combines in the field on our Sunday evening drive home tonight! Sometimes it scares me to think that time is ticking by that fast - what have I done that has made it worth while? Every time I think that, it spurs me to make a better effort to spread the Love of my Saviour Jesus Christ with others - but unfortunately, due to lack of discipline, that "spur" never lasts until the next opportunity arises - usually this is somewhat of an evening event, and by morning, I've lost the zeal - why? To think that because of His great love for us (as rebellious children) He sent his ONLY Son to the evil earth - to be mistreated in every way known to man - without retaliation - and to die by one of the most agonizing means that was available at that time. For me - who can't even remember to tell someone about the great story. For me - who can't even get myself out of bed in the morning a few minutes early to read the love letter that He has written for me. I am humbled to think that I couldn't even walk home with a letter from Trevor in my pocket when we were dating - I'd pull it out and read as I walked back to my dorm - yet I have the love of God poured out to me in a book and I don't even bother to "fit it in" to my busy schedule. Now I pause to think - if I erase Him out of my day to day living (as it seems I have been doing) - what would it be like if He erased His presence from my day to day living? My life would be a mess. The tender mercies - which some would choose to refer to as fate - are never ending. From the family and friends that surround me, my health, my more then adequate possessions to the many times when a split second has saved me from great harm. Fate? No - I cannot call it that, His hand is present in every second in my life - so I must try to make His love evident to others in every second of my life.
So this is my desire - to be able to resist the distractions of this world and carve out a time to simply learn of Him - the author of my life. That would be a bare starting point compared to the devotion He deserves.
I've often thought of it this way: If a person jumped out and saved you from the path of an oncoming train (meaning certain death - although not to be thought equal to eternity in hell) and was killed in the process - would you not want to remember that person fondly every day of your life - knowing they were the reason you were alive? And if asked to do so, wouldn't you gladly put aside one day a week to commit to that person (ok - this is sounding slightly strange, but bear with me) - how come, if we could do that for another human who acted heroically, why can't we do it for our Creator and Perfecter, Jesus Christ? As far as He's concerned, He's done much more then we give Him credit for, right?

I guess that's just the reflection of my mind for now - I feel challenged to make MY Lord a bigger part of my life - since without Him - I would be nothing.

I came here with the intention of writing an update of the last couple weeks - but it hardly seems to fit - what was meant to be an introduction, led me to write much more - so the update will wait for another day :)

Summer Happenings

"God of wonders beyond our galaxy" I love that line (from the song "God of Wonders") Its just such a broad statement, but - its an appropriate reflection from my heart right now. Although I don't really know what's coming up in the future, I am at peace, knowing that He will take care of all. Sometimes I really get caught, not knowing when I need to make decisions and plan things and when I need to just let things work out :S I think we have a responsibility to be responsible, but not controlling...ok- so I am struggling with that, but I have just been thinking about all the wonderful things that He has brought into my life. -

- My wonderful husband who is not just my friend and intimate partner, but my helper in day to day things and even my teacher in some areas.

-The beauty of creation - my yard is so beautiful right now - and all because He created things of beauty - how can one look at the perfection of creation and not see His hand is in all things?!

-A family and friends to meet all my needs and more!

and the list could go on forever!

As far as an update - lots has happened that I haven't blogged about.

The week after our trip to NY was a bit of a weary one, but we made it through. One evening I helped Velma do some weeding in the garden. On Saturday, Trevor was working, and I had volunteered to help the Ag Society ladies in the food booth at the fair in Manitou. It was about 33C and very humid that day! I sat outside for a while and watched the horses, getting somewhat sunburned in the process! I also met a few people that I knew at the fair and had a nice conversation with the couple that I lived with two summers ago. Their daughter and two grand-daughters were there too, so I visited with them all a bit. It is nice to actually recognized people in the community a bit! I am starting to feel like less of a stranger now! Sunday was our anniversary, one whole year!! We had initially planned to grab a quick lunch, then go to the local mud bog (yes we're sorta redneckish) and then to Winkler for a nice dinner. After meeting, however, Alex and Velma said they wanted to take us out for lunch. Along with grandma and Julie, we all went down to the restaurant where we got married and had lunch. It may be the last meal for us there, since they are moving the building to the golf course in Morden. Its kind of sad that they couldn't leave it in the beautiful setting that it is currently in, but it is too far from anything to be a viable business! Pembina Crossing will be a thing of the past as of September 1st, so I guess the people who said we'd probably celebrate our 50th anniversary there are going to be out of luck!

After lunch we were too late for the mud bog, so we did a bit of a country drive, and then went to the Archibald Museum its located just a few miles from the Scharf home farm, and it had tons of artifacts from the area! Its unfortunate that more money can not be put into the preservation of our history in places like this one - which is so non-commercialized and real! We really enjoyed our tour through the many period furnished buildings!

In the past week, my raspberries have started to produce! Last week I picked the first couple of cups, on Sunday I picked 6 more cups, Monday Trevor picked 8 cups and tonight we picked another 8! There are many more to pick, but I'm tired and most of pans are full of raspberries in the freezer, so I'll wait until tomorrow night when I can bag some of the frozen ones and reuse the pans.

On Friday night we rode to move the cattle from the valley out to the far east pasture. It was a nice night, except for the fog of mosquitos that covered us and our horses. The ride was fairly uneventful. We first had to ride to Mary's (the name for the far east pasture) and bring back the 5 cows, 3 calves and 1 bull that were out there. There is a creek with a series of beaver dams along it that runs right down the middle of the pasture, so it was a bit of a toss up as to which side the cattle would be on. We chose to ride down the far side first. About 2/3 of the way down the pasture, we spotted the cattle on the other side of the creek - except for one cow on our side - we wondered if she had just found a way to cross the creek, since she was right across from her calf, so we put some pressure on her and after a bit of hesitation, she just jumped right into the pond (created by a beaver dam) and swam across to the other side! It was quite funny to watch! We trotted back down to the end of the pasture so we could cross the creek ( we weren't about to get wet!) and rounded up the small herd - we had no trouble pushing them through the bush with the two horses and my dog - they pretty much went without much help all the way back to the barnyard. We then went down to get the main herd of cows and calves to put out into Mary's. Three calves had stayed down in the pasture when Alex had closed the gate on the cows when they came up for water earlier in the day, so we had tried to get them through the gate to their mothers, but one ran back into the forest. I had seen its ear tag, so I knew which cow it belonged to. Since we didn't know if he had slipped under the fence and in with the cows while we were moving the little herd, we sorted his mother out of the big herd and put her back into the pasture the cows had come from so that her calf wouldn't be alone for the night, then we sent the rest of the cows out to Mary's. By this time it was dark, so we called it a night.

I worked on Saturday morning - a very slow day! I was happy when noon came around so I could go home and out to the farm with Trevor! We spent the afternoon working on Pinkie and then had supper with Alex and Velma. We took the long way around to get home - touring some of the local area to see crops and find the building site of the people who currently live in the house we plan to move into. We wanted to see how far along they were so we could estimate when we might get to move! So far there's just a basement, and it didn't look ready for them to move the house onto just yet, so we've got some time to wait I guess!

After meeting on Sunday, Trevor and I enjoyed dinner at Siggi's, our favorite restaurant and then went home for the afternoon. It was a cool and rainy day, and though we had wanted to go riding, our plans were changed! I invited the whole family over for supper and set out to make some soup for supper. I threw some soup bones and round steak in a pot when I got home and let them boil with some onion, celery and garlic while I cleaned up the house. Having company gives me a good incentive to clean the house!! We hadn't had company since we moved back here in April, so I really enjoyed being able to do some entertaining! I decided that it was a good chance to use the table cloth and napkins I had gotten as a wedding present - they match our main dishes wonderfully. So with that thought in mind, I decided to set the table rather nicely - but I was lacking one thing - a centre piece. My yard is beautiful and full of flowers these days, so I dug out my umbrella and a pair of scissors and set out on a bouquet making mission! I found some white and yellow lilies as well as a few red flowers (not sure what they are) and some white flowers that look like giant baby's breath. I only have one vase and its quite small, so I didn't pick too many flowers, but the results were perfect for my not too big table! I put together a salad and was flipping through my cook book looking for inspiration for a desert to use up some raspberries when Trevor saw custard and said - "Hey, I haven't had that for a long time!" So - I decided to make custard for desert. After I finished cleaning the house I finished making the soup. I strained the broth from the solids, removed the bones, cut up the meat and returned it to the broth, then I added some zucchini, carrots and a few more spices. I had cooked a combination of rice, wheat, barley, split peas and canned tomatoes earlier in the week as a side dish, and I always cook extra, so I used that in the soup as well. While the soup simmered, I mixed up biscuit dough and cooked two batches of biscuits. I then mixed up the custard (my first time ever making it!) and put it in the oven while we ate. It was a great time of visiting and enjoying fellowship with Alex and Velma, Andrew, Jaime and Julie. After dessert we all sat around and sang for a bit, and then visited until our company went home.

Julie, Jaime, Katie and I had made plans for a girls day on Monday, so by 1pm on Monday we were all at Katie's house and ready to head to Winnipeg for a few hours. We did a bit of shopping - enjoyed a latte at second cup (with a liberal dose of visiting included all along the way of course!) and then headed back to Morden. Julie was house sitting and the owners of the house had said she could have friends over if she wanted, so we took them up on the offer and enjoyed their spacious living room for a bit of a movie night. We also invited Dyane and we watched "Music and Lyrics" I have somewhat mixed feeling about this movie - it was good, but some parts were wrong and some parts were juts plain weird...oh well - I guess maybe next time we could pick some more wholesome entertainment. We also enjoyed Boston Pizza and spinach salad while we watched the movie! I didn't end up getting home until midnight, but I was very glad to have the time of visiting with other girls my age! We all need the support of our peers and the opportunity to share with our "girlfriends" so I think it was a very worthwhile day!

Tonight after work, I came home and helped Trevor pick raspberries, we had leftovers for supper and then went for a bike ride. We also discussed a couple of possible upcoming trips - but we haven't made any decisions yet. We're trying to decide whether to go to Regina conference and iron out details about a trip to Alberta in September. Time will tell...

This is my latest crocheting effort - I just have to finish the second bootie and make the bonnet to go with it. I'm making it for a friend's baby - who is already 4 months old!!

Long overdue

Ok, I'm finally going to post the long overdue blog about our New York trip.

Ah, and what a trip it was - and for those of you planning a 25+ hour trip with 4 adults, I don't recommend taking a Jetta, even if they are great on fuel, your joints, etc may never forgive you!!

So we started off bright and early on Thursday morning around 7:30, None of us had had breakfast so we grabbed Mc'D's breaky in Morden and headed to the border - Emerson. No troubles getting across and we were soon zooming down the interstate at 75 miles an hour. By 2:00 or so we had reached St. Cloud, MN and stopped at one of Trevor's favorite places, Taco Time, for lunch (ok, nobody start adding the calories we consumed this day, PLEASE!). Somewhere along the way (I forget where...it was all starting to blend together by this point!!) we stopped for Wendy's supper - it was a late supper since we'd be driving through the night. Andrew and Trevor traded off for the first part of the drive down, then after we got through Chicago, Julie drove for a bit. I didn't end up driving on the way down, but entertained myself by crocheting ( I finished the baby sweater I've been working on for a few months!!), reading (Shadow of the Almighty, by Elizabeth Elliot - very good book), doing crossword puzzles and sleeping. Andrew had brought his laptop along, so we took turns watching movies in the backseat. First Andrew and Julie watched Apollo 13, we had the audio running through the fm transmitter, so the car felt like a movie theatre, and trevor and I felt like we were blind people in the audience, but it was good entertainment. Later in the night, Trevor and I watched Extreme Measures. I am so thankful for the invention of closed captioning - I have never enjoyed movies nearly as much as I do since I discovered this! With my hearing disability, listening to conversation or a story is work, and I often loose interest in movies because I miss too much of the dialogue by either not paying close enough attention or not being able to hear. Now, no matter what the situation, background noise or not, I can watch a movie and enjoy it!

We stopped for another McDonalds breakfast around 6am somewhere east of cleveland. The end was in sight now, but I don't think our bodies believed us. The leg room was somewhat cramped, and so much so that the person in the passenger's seat couldn't even recline their seat to a comfortable position, so none of us slept very well. I think we all averaged around 4-5 hours of sleep on the way down and about the same on the way back.

We arrived in Lockport, NY around 10am and were thankfully able to check in early to our hotel room. We each took a turn in the shower and then crashed for a couple hours of sleep. In the afternoon we went out the the Fulwell's and enjoyed a time of visiting and then went to the site of the wedding and worked on the finishing side of the set up, as well as discussing plans and schedule for the next day. We attended the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner in the barn where the wedding was to be held. Andrew was a groomsman, and since Tim wasn't there for the rehearsal, Trevor was the stand-in best man. We then went back to the Fulwell's to consult with Ben and Susan of the final plans for the following day.

I went with Janie and Mr. Fulwell to the neighbour's where they were taking care of some horses while the neighbour's were away. I love upstate new york, it is beautiful - so green and many quaint little yards and towns!

We all crashed hard into bed that night, and morning came much too early! Julie and I shared a room with Grandma Brown and Trevor and Andrew had a seperate hotel room, so we all met for breakfast in the lobby and then headed out to the wedding site. Andrew had to be there for pictures, Trevor was the direct the traffic to the proper parking spots, and Julie and I were to help with the final set up and ensure things were in order for the day. The weather was beautiful, not too warm, but sunny and dry.

The ceremony was beautiful and concise, just like those who were involved. Mr. Hyland married the couple, and did a beautiful job of the message. The wedding was held in an 80 year old barn on Susan's grandparents farm. It was a beautiful setting, with hay bales and burlap curtains for the backdrop, tables set with red and white checkered table clothes, mason jars full of daisies, and small jars of strawberry jam for each person to take home (made by susan and her family, and topped with a piece of cute red/white gingham cloth, tied on with raffia. There were hanging baskets of white flowers on the pillars of the barn to brighten it up as well.

The meal was wonderful, with salad, veggies, scalloped potatoes, ham and turkey with all the fixings! Instead of a wedding cake, Ben and Susan served up home made peace and apple pies - yes they actually served each and every person! After a short program, people started to disperse, with many staying around to visit and help clean up. It was a delightful day! Since it was a morning wedding, there was lots of time afterwards to see some sights, so Andrew, Trevor, Julie and I hooked up with Hans, Barry, Heidi, Tim and Dan and headed for the Niagra falls. We bought tickets for the Maid of the Mist and enjoyed the ride into the mist of the falls for an up close look! It was beautiful! The power that that water has, just makes me think of how much more power our heavenly Father has, since just one river in His creation is that mighty and beautiful!

On Sunday, meeting was held in the same place as the wedding had been, it was a beautiful gathering of believers from across the country and I really enjoyed breaking bread in such a humble place as a barn - thinking of our Lord's birth - in the humility of a stable, all the way to His precious death and glorious ressurection! Once again the weather was beautiful! Even cooler then saturday had been, and with a bit more breeze. After a nice buffet lunch, we hit the road for our 26 hour drive back.

The drive home was mainly uneventful, I drove for a spell of 5 or 6 hours, including the city of Chicago - which was slightly nerve wracking, as Andrew's GPS battery died just before we reached the city limits and I had to keep my eyes open to make sure I stayed on the write track! It was 11pm and there was still much stop and go traffic, as there were some areas of construction, which restricted the flow of cars. I would hate to be there during rush hour!!!

We stopped a few more times on the way home as we had more time to spare. This included a stop at the mall in Fargo, a cracker barrel store along the way, and the mall in Grand Forks. I managed to find some deals on bath and body works soaps and a couple of western shirts in fargo - but managed to keep my spending to about $60! When we arrived at Emerson, the line to cross the border was over an hour long, so we detoured around to the little port of Snowflake, just south of La Riviere and had no wait at all to get across! It was a good trip, although we were all tired for the whole week I think! I'll post a few pictures, but I'll leave the rest of the catching up for another blog, as I need to get some sleep!! Julie has more and better pictures, which I may steal and post in the future - stay tuned!!

Stormy Weather

Over the last week, much time has been spent at the Scharf family farm. On Monday night after work, I met Trevor at the farm and we worked on "Pinky" (the distractor) until 10 or so before coming home to bed.

Yes, I can be a grease monkey too!

Tuesday was meeting night, so again we got home late and went straight to bed. On Wednesday, we again worked on the tractor until fairly late. Thursday night we went to the farm and moved the cows. The pasture that we were moving the cows from is fairly solid bush, so we had planned ahead and trapped the cows at the water hole when they came up, to try and prevent missing some in the bush. We still seemed to be missing some, so Trevor and I rode the length of the pasture, but saw no calves. With Sneef's help, we moved the cows into the barn yard and sorted a few off - one heifer to be bred to a different bull, and a couple of cow/calf pairs so we could tag the late born calves. The barn yard was slick from the many inches of recent rain, and with some trees and manure piles around, it made for a somewhat dangerous place to try to sort cows on horseback. We got the job done, but some cows seemed to be missing their calves, so we let them out back toward the area they had come from and closed the rest of the cows into a small holding pasture for the night. By morning, the cows had found 7 stray calves and brought them to the gate where Alex let them in with the rest of the cows and turned them out to pasture.
On Friday night, we stayed home and cleaned up our weeks worth of dishes among other things, just a lazy night "in". For most of the last week we've had a thunderstorm each night - with daytime highs between 85 and 100F and humidity of 70-99% it has been a crazy week! The first BAD thunderstorm was Friday night with an F-4 (on a scale of 1-5) tornado riping through the town of Elie, a little more then an hour's drive north east of here and several smaller tornadoes in the same area. It took out 4 houses and the town's flour mill - but all lives were spared.

I worked on Saturday morning, it was a very quiet morning and a very hot day! When I got home at noon (I only work half days on Saturday) I decided it was too warm to work outside (over 90 degrees and HUMID) so I stayed in the house and worked on some continuing education - I'm taking an online course in canine and feline nutrition as part of my annual mandatory 10 hours of CE. I finished the first module by 2:30 and it seemed to have cooled off some, so I went out and attacked my front flower beds - in an hour and a half I was pretty tired from the heat and had cleaned out everything that is visible from the street - I called it enough, since I still had to make supper and get cleaned up for Dyane's wedding in the evening. Trevor came home from the farm and suggested we go out for supper, so we cleaned up and went to the local restaurant for a quick bite, then home again to get changed into wedding clothes. It was a nice wedding, but the evening got somewhat nasty. By 10 when we went to leave, it was raining steadily and thunder and lightening were fairly frequent. Just when we got to our car, the sky let loose with sheets of rain and as we headed towards home, the lightning became more intense, so that it was almost a constant flashing and a constant rumble! The wind and rain and lightning combined to make it nearly impossible to see the highway, so we took refuge at my in-laws for an hour or so until the worst had passed. Then we continued on to home. As we approached our town, we noticed that we couldn't see anything....the power was out... We had also forgotten to tie up my dog before we left, and she, being petrified of storms, had taken refuge in the neighbour's garage, where they comforted her and allowed her to stay until I came home - thank goodness for good neighbours! During another storm she tried to get into their house even! We were spared any serious damage, although there are branches and leaves down all over town, but there were several tornadoes all across southern Manitoba that night, two different ones at separate lakes - one damaged over 1000 cabins! Another serious one touched down in one farm yard, destroying most of the yard, including the house - but once again, there were no serious injuries!
Sunday after meeting we went to the farm for lunch with the whole family - we had taco salad, enchiladas and chili with cornbread - talk about a feast!! In the afternoon, Trevor and I sorted off a few more cows to put with a different bull for Alex - it was a sloggy mess, with all the additional rain from the thunderstorms! I then caught Riata and took her out to work with her. She is coming along nicely, with fairly good manners and responding to me well. When I purchased her, we had trouble loading her on the trailer, so I decided to practice yesterday just for fun. I opened up the trailer and she walked right in with me - no questions asked! I was very happy. I then tried to back her out - as that is sometimes necessary, but she was quite scared to back up off of the edge of the trailer and she resisted. So I let her turn around and walk off and then walked her on a few more times, the last time, I managed to get her to back off, and I ended with that, as she had done well! If I can keep her comfortable, I can get her to do almost anything, so anytime she gets somewhat uptight, I just stop, rub her neck a bit, talk to her and let her relax, then ask her again - it seems to be working well. I have been using information from Curt Pate and Pat Parelli, and blending their two styles seems to be working well for me! Riata had no hesitation following me down a 2.5' wide dark alley in the barn to get through from one side to another - I had expected that to be scary to her, but she did well! I'm looking forward to the new experiences with her as she grows and I'm excited for the day when I'll get to ride her!
The other major event of the last week is that we got confirmation that we can rent this farm yard that we've been looking at outside of town. Though we don't have a set move-in date, it won't be until the fall sometime, as the current tenants won't be out anytime before then. We decided to list our house, as the housing market is strong right now (which rarely happens in this town!) and if we end up having to be out of here before we can get into there.....well, I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it! In anticipation of the bigger house, we've decided to keep our eye out for some used furniture. Upon perusing the classifieds on a local community website, I came across a beautiful dining suite, and since it was the exact type we wanted, and ours consists of a couple broken down chairs that came with the house, and an old plastic topped table that we found in my dad's barn, we decided to invest, so here is our second real piece (or pieces) of furniture (the first real piece was my piano!) The set is about 8-10 years old, but hasn't been heavily used, there are a few wear patches on the table top finish, but no serious nicks or gouges. The set only cost me $325, and an almost identical set in the sears catalogue right now is $800, so I'm happy.

I was off work today, since I worked Saturday, and I went to Morden and picked up the suite, as well as running some errands, picking up salt and mineral for the cattle, renewing my license, getting my passport picture taken and picking up the essential things the household needed to keep running. We met with the real estate agent tonight and signed the listing, so we'll see what happens from here.

My next blog will likely be next week sometime, as we will be away from Thursday-Monday. Trevor, Andrew, Julie and I are travelling to New York for a wedding, it will be a whirlwind trip, driving straight through both ways, but it should be a blast!