A Birthday Adventure

'Fun' these days always seems to cost big bucks so when I suggested for my daughter's birthday yesterday that we finally go check out the Brazeau Dam, the kids were thrilled and so was I because its FREE!!

I was a little reluctant to go on another adventure after that crazy hill we did a couple weeks ago but the Brazeau Dam is only about 30 km from our house and I figured it wouldn't be that big of a waste if it sucked.

We were pleasantly surprised! It was beautiful! The kids were awestruck driving over the Dam itself seeing the Reservoir on the right and the spillway waaaaaaaay down the hill on the left.

The Brazeau Reservoir
The Spillway

These butterflies were every where and my daughter insisted on rescuing every single one she found in the water!

The waves created from a boat wake had them screaming in delight!

Climbing on the Dam... that lasted about five seconds before I yelled at them to get off! They were freaking me out!
After a refreshing swim, we went on a little hike and saw the spillway from a different view.

We feasted on wild raspberries and strawberries that were growing every where!

A few hours of fun in the sun and we were all tuckered out so we headed home where I put the finishing touches on the vanilla raspberry cake with chocolate icing that my daughter requested.

Had a couple friends over to eat cake and then called it a night!

It was a wonderful day so who says you have to spend lots of money to have fun? My daughter told me several times yesterday that it was the best birthday ever! So that's good enough for me!

Seven Years

Seven years ago today, on a very hot Quadra island day, my husband and I got married in my parents' front yard. It was a small event, our families making up most of the guest list, but our nearest and dearest friends joined us for the day as well. A potluck dinner followed the ceremony and then we partied until the wee hours of the morning... well we didn't but our families did! It was a wonderful day!

One year later, to the day, our daughter was born. I think she planned that. She still likes to be in the spot light as the centre of attention!

So much has happened in these seven years! Its amazing to think back to all the things we have done and how far we have come!

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful Husband! And a Very Happy Birthday to my sweet girl!

Whatever is in there... kill it!

There's this hill out back of our house with a hole in it that we figured something must have lived in at one time or another. The dogs, particularly Indi, spend a great deal of time sniffing around in there. Today there must have been fresh scent or something because both dogs have spent the better part of their afternoon excavating it.

The kids egging the dogs on...
"What is it Indi? Get it! Get it!"

Well whatever it is, I hope that them pissing it off doesn't mean a vet bill for me. I'm not particularly keen on pulling out porcupine quills or paying the vet to do it either!

Quote of the day

"Ow! The chicken bit my pee-pee"

'Nuff said!

Splish Splash I was taking a bath

I finally cleaned out my duck 'pond' yesterday. My shoulder has been buggered and I haven't been able to do much with it but yesterday things were starting to feel better so I decided the pond was a priority. When I first got my ducks, I dug the pond into their enclosure but now that they free range like the chickens it was beginning to be more of a chore to go into the enclosure to clean it out. So I emptied it and dragged it into the driveway and refilled it. They were reluctant to go in which is unusual because they love when I clean out their pond. Today I realized it was because they couldn't get in so I put a chunk of wood as a step and sure enough not long after I could hear the sounds of ducks bathing through my kitchen window.


He has such a satisfied look about him like he's thinking, "aaaaahhhh much better. Boy, I sure was filthy!"

Hope you have pleasant day!

HELLO! My name is Psycho

I have decided that this little chick's name is Psycho. Would you like to know why? Well because its PSYCHOTIC!

Perhaps it spent too long upside down in the egg and its brain got squished. Perhaps it has been picked on too much and is a victim of bullying(as you can see its missing a lot of feathers so yes, someone has picked on it.) Perhaps its just got a bad gene but for whatever reason, this chick is crazy!

When I feed these guys this particular chick likes to be a pinball. It bounces off walls, it throws itself into the air and it jumps all over the other chicks. It flies into my hands when I have the feed bucket and has even flown up into the feed bucket and started eating while I walked to the shed. Hmmm maybe it isn't psycho after all... maybe its just resourceful.

What the heck am I supposed to do with this?

Apparently my chickens thought I was joking when I told them to get laying or the heads were going to fly. I think they have enlisted some pigeons to pick up the slack because I found this teeny tiny egg in the nesting box yesterday.

I don't think my egg customer would be terribly excited to find this teeny tiny egg so maybe I'll invite a family of mice over for fried egg sandwiches.

Daisy

Our cat Daisy passed away a couple days ago for reasons unknown. We found her in the field below our driveway. We buried her under a tree that the kids picked out. I'm just glad that her kittens are old enough that they can survive without her.


Daisy last winter- a very curious kitten she was!Daisy and Zama

Daisy and her babies.
Its always sad when you lose a pet and it seems like when you live in the country it happens more often than not. Either way they are always missed.

Go ahead, make yourselves comfortable!

Since the destruction of my chicken tractor last week to that horrid storm we had roll through, my chicks have taken up residence on my patio. This would be fine with me if they didn't POOP! There is a perfectly good shed with fresh wood shavings in it but do you think they will spend any time in it? NO! That would be asking far too much!

These are some brave(or dumb) chicks. Hanging out with a couple of dogs while they eat their dinner. I have even found a couple of chicks sleeping on the dogs' bed.

So is it the dog days of summer or the chick days of summer?

Oh and on another note: I think that squirrel's days are numbered. He has found himself in a tree that he can't jump from and the dogs are on him like stink on sh*t. They are still salivating!

The Mother of all summer storms

We were headed home last night from Edmonton and my husband happened to check the weather for home while I ran into the bank. He hands me his Blackberry and says 'do you know what that means?' There was a little swirling red thing indicating a 'Severe Thunderstorm Warning' for Drayton Valley. Crap!

We got home at 9:30 and the whole way home we could see a mass of black cloud moving in from the northwest. It finally hit around midnight. Zeus must have been pissed about something because I have never seen lightning like that before(I tried to get pictures but couldn't.) The lightning was flashing non stop and the thunder was a constant rumble as it covered the clear sky with massive clouds.

This looks like snow but its actually marble sized hail.
It shot from the sky destroying everything. Stripping leaves from trees, flowers from plants...

And my chicken tractor that I worked so hard on, collapsed under the weight of the hail(no casualties though *phew*)
My gardens reduced to leafless stocks of death
My beautiful Delphs shredded
My veggie garden demolished

My potatoes

The roof of our house this morning littered with leaves and hail.

My husband and I were outside until 3 am trying to get our gutters clear of leaves and hail. Our window wells flooded, there is water in my daughter's bedroom and in the play room. The air is thick with the smell of green and not in a good way. The storm continued on to town but again at 5 am this morning, I was woken up to the blinding flash of lightning and absolute deafening boom of thunder. I have never heard or felt thunder so loud before. It was rather scary. And if you can believe it, my kids slept through it all. I'm going to have a little cry now. :(

The Calgary Stampede Experience!

The kids and I headed down to Airdrie, AB on Wednesday. My husband was already down there so we wanted to take the opportunity(and the free hotel room) to go to the Calgary Stampede. We have never been before so I was pretty excited!

Here is our Calgary Stampede Experience in pictures!

On the Shuttle Bus to the city

Mule and wagon

Ride 'em cowgirl!
Lunch!
A one man band. He was playing Johnny Cash's 'Burning ring of fire'

Sorry Lissy, I didn't get any pictures of cowboys for you but I got some men in uniform!
I didn't look at the sign but I'm going to assume this is a Texas Longhorn. He looked tired from holding his head up.
Made me want to crawl in there and cuddle with them!

Horse cutting competition. The horses were amazing. The could stop and turn on a dime to follow the calf's every move.
Grandstand band

How cute is he?

The Superdogs show- thank goodness it was free because it was kind of disappointing!

We didn't see any of the rodeo events which I was a bit sad about but they were separate tickets and I knew the kids would be bored so we didn't want to buy tickets only to have to leave 15 minutes later! Maybe in a few years we'll go back and see everything else we wanted to see including the fireworks!