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 :)
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Thursday, September 20, 2007
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!
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!
Friday, September 14, 2007
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!!
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!
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!
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