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!!