Farewell...for now

I had intended to get a 'Farewell Picture' before we drove out of town but that never happened.  Packing up and cleaning the house was an enormous job not to mention; stressful, emotional and downright stomachache inducing.  The moving truck came last Sunday and I watched as they loaded the contents of our house up and took it away.  It's amazing to think that your entire life fits into a 10X20 storage unit.  Monday, I cleaned like a crazy person and went on cleaning well into Tuesday.  About a hundred trips to the thrift store later and a hundred more to the dump and we were left with an empty house(and a bit of an empty heart.)  So it's Farewell for now but hopefully not forever.  We are on to the next chapter in our lives; the chapter that will more than likely be titled 'Adventures in China.'  Stay tuned, there will be a blog and I'm sure I will have many MANY things to blog about!  Think chicken feet, farmer's markets and a Starbucks on Jin Li Street! 

Farewell...for now!

Conversations with a 4 year old

On one of our many trips back from town today(this one was the trip back from picking up Dexter from the vet) I was telling the kids that we had to get up early on Sunday morning to go to Calgary to pick up Daddy.

F:  But what if we're still sleeping?
Me:  I will wake you up, don't worry.
S:  You won't have to wake me up because I sleep with my eyes open.

Funny guy.

Quote of the Day

I've been working my way through all these bathrooms.  I'm down to 11 days until the movers get here and I still have an unfinished bathroom.  This evening, after spending most of my day in town running around like a chicken with my head cut off, I finished getting all the cement board up in the shower so the tile can be done.  My hands are swollen from using the olfa knife and I think I have fiberglass splinters pretty much everywhere...

I emailed my husband K(who is in China at the moment) a picture of the finished board job in the shower and his comment is my quote of the day!

'You sure are good at renovations.  Are you sure you have had enough?  I am at Starbucks do you want anything?'

If one was to dig a hole for one's husband, how deep would you say it should be?  ;)

See ya Uncle!

I put the rest of my birds up on kijiji to try to sell them off and a nice guy from Edmonton called about my free roosters.  When he phoned he asked if he could bring me some 'Marble Slab Creamery' ice cream to repay the favor of me giving him all my roosters for free.  Who can say no to ice cream?  Certainly not me!  So I caught them and he tied their feet together and bundled them into his car.  I caught Uncle rooster last and the kids said good bye to their nemesis.  They no longer have to run for their lives when they see him coming.  I think it would be fair to assume that the kids won't miss him one little bit!

(This is an old picture, I didn't have a newer one but he was much more handsome than this.  Not that his good looks made him a nice rooster or anything!)

Animal Withdrawl

As my time is quickly winding down here, I have been slowly watching my animals leaving for new homes.  Most people wouldn't think that saying goodbye to a cow or a rooster would be hard but it really is.  It breaks my heart! 

Last weekend I said goodbye to Sir Loin. 

And Cornelius.  Of all my birds, this guy was my favorite.  He and most of his ladies went to a friend's farm along with my black Indian Runner ducks.

This weekend Sugar and Pepper will be making their way to a new farm near Wetaskiwin where their new people hope to turn Sugar into their milking cow.

Chocolate, Vanilla and their calves Smokie and Burger are staying here for the winter which I'm happy about.  I didn't really want to get rid of them anyway even if I'm not going to be here to enjoy them.  I have a few more chickens to re-home and a trio of ducks but that's it.  At least I'll have pictures to look back on and remember the days of Living the Country Life ;)

Plumber Bummer

Back in August I hired a local Plumber who was recommended to me by a couple of employees at Home Hardware.  I needed him to come in and install the valve and water lines for a new bath tub faucet.  Pretty simple stuff.  So he got it done, charged me an arm and a leg and told me to call him when everything was done so he could install the 'trim.'

Here we are a while later and I got everything installed and went to put the tap on.  Hmm, something not quite right here. 

This is how the handle should look.  Flush with the rest of it.

The Plumber who I paid nearly $200 to install the valve, installed it wrong and now that the wall is finished, the only way to fix it would be to rip the wall out!  How likely am I to want to do that?  Not very.

So, to the Plumber(whose name I won't mention) who preached to me about doing "everything by the book" and not ripping people off, thanks a lot a**hole for not only ripping me off, but also screwing up the simplest of jobs!  Would you like me to tell you where to stick your blow torch?

In over my head?

I decided since I seemed to be on a roll with the main bathroom that I would start the demolition on the ensuite bathroom.  My mom had made the good suggestion that I should start now just in case anything needed to dry out.  I started with the hard part- the shower.

Looks innocent enough, right?

 I'm pretty sure that no amount of 'drying out' is going to help this shower!

Thankfully most of the studs appear to be sound but its shaping up to be a heck of a job...

I think there's a possibility that I'm in over my head with this one.                                                                      

Taking Matters into my Own Hands

I've been absent, yes I know.  A lot has been happening around here for the last couple of months.  Plenty of waiting and stress and renovating and wondering and more waiting.  What have I been waiting for you may wonder?  Well as you know my husband K works in China.  The company he works for has decided they need him in China full time so what does that mean to us?  It means we are moving to China!  We have known this for almost three months but the answer to "when are we moving to China?" has gone unanswered all this time.  First it was "before Christmas" and then it turned into "after Christmas."  So...I took matters into my own hands.  I put the house up for rent, I put the animals up for sale and I kicked my butt into high gear to get the renovations I have been struggling with for months, done!  The house is rented for December 1st so that gives me less than six weeks to finish everything and get us out of here.  Where are we going?  We are getting in the truck and driving out to BC to spend our first Christmas in five years with our families!  Merry Christmas to us! 

I 'heart' presents!

Way, way back while I was on Quadra Island for our visit this summer, my dear friend L gave me a belated birthday present while we were out for dinner.  She is super talented this friend L!  She made me an adorable pair of moccasins which I love love love!  Anyway she and another friend just opened up their own store on beautiful Quadra Island so after you drool over the pictures of my lovely moccasins, you can check them out at Polluted Pixie on Facebook!                       

 So go check them out here and see all the other great things their store has to offer!                                                                            

The downsize has begun...

This post is a little belated.  It probably should have come before my last post but oh well.  Life is chaotic right now, I'm lucky to get on here at all! 

After thinking long and hard, we have decided to sell off some of our cows.  So two weeks ago we spent a couple of hours loading two very unhappy mama cows and their calves plus Beauty into a trailer and said farewell to Cinnamon...                                                              

T-Bone

Licorice and Anise

And Beauty

They are off to another farm to hang out with a herd of Highland cattle. 

Sir Loin is up for sale as well and the people that bought these cows very nearly took him as well because he's so handsome.  As time wears on and those answers that we're waiting for(that I mentioned in my last post) get answered we might be saying good bye to the rest of the herd.  I'll keep you posted on that!

Waiting...

Big changes are in the works for our family over the next couple of months which we are all super excited yet apprehensive about but still waiting for final details.  Waiting...I don't like waiting.  I like knowing.  This is how I'm feeling right now...

"...You can get so confused
that you'll start into race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
                                                      The Waiting Place...
...for people just waiting
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting..."

Excerpt from Dr.Suess' "Oh, the Places You'll Go!"

A wander in the woods

We've been getting out for some lovely late afternoon walks in the trails down below our house.  The Fall colors are gorgeous!                                  

Squirrel Nutkin                      

Can you spot the Beaver?

Zama and Dexter

K and the kids

We collected a bag full of brightly colored leaves for a Fall project that I hope to blog about soon!                                                                           

Maples and Tire Swings

I 'heart' Maple Trees.  How very Canadian of me!  They don't grow much out here in Alberta but there are Maples a-plenty in BC.

These tire swings were hung when I was a kid in the Maple tree by my mom's house and my kids love being pushed on them when we go to visit Gramma and Grampa.  The kids begged everyone to give them a push.  This time it was uncle S. 

                                                                   

Driving Lessons

Gramma teaching F how to drive her lawn tractor.  Remind me not to let either of them drive my John Deere! Couple of crazies!!

                                                                                  

Sunset at the Spit

We just spent two weeks out on Quadra Island visiting family and friends.  It was a lovely trip albeit quick!  They always are!  What's the saying?  ""Time flies when you're having fun."  Yup, that pretty much sums it up!  The kids and I met up with my Friend K, her husband C and 'Baby' S for an hour at Rebecca Spit at sunset one evening.  It was gorgeous and the kids had a blast!

                                                                             
                                                                     

Homeschool Week 1

Today marks the last day of our first week of Homeschool.  We had a great first week.  F and I worked together on concepts before I set her loose with her books to work on her own.  She is a stellar reader and eats language arts for breakfast!  Math takes a little longer but practice practice practice and some games thrown in help her to understand.  S has been learning his letters and letter sounds with games from starfall and pbskids and with go fish flash cards. 

Yesterday we took a field trip to the Pembina Provincial Park to collect rocks for a project.  Typical, we forgot the rocks but had fun exploring, checking out animal trails, and looking for signs of Fall.

Standing on the last remaining remnants of the train bridge that crossed the Pembina River.  It was built in 1913 but the railway defaulted in 1917 and they dismantled the bridge.

A Wooly Bear.  A sure sign of Fall!

Picnic on the rocks.  Now if we had remembered to grab some of those rocks we would be making Pebble Pets today.  We'll have to go look in our own fields for some rocks!

                                                                          
Hope you all have a lovely Long Weekend!  

Just in case...

Just in case there was ever any doubt as to who the boss of our dogs is...

 

 Don't mess with the chihuhua!

                                                                          

Beans, beans the musical fruit...

I got a bumper crop of beans from my garden this summer(and by bumper crop I mean more than seven) which was surprising since we've had a terrible summer, weather wise.  It rained most of July and a good part of August.  Between the bloodsucking mosquitoes and the near constant rain I couldn't be bothered to do anything out there so the weeds took over.  Imagine my surprise when things actually grew!  This of course will all come crashing down around me tonight as the forecast is warning of frost.  Frost?  On August 31st!  It's so Alberta-like.  Anyway, the kids and I went out to the garden with our giant colander to collect what beans we could find.  The purple bush beans did the best so we got oodles of those.  So what does a person do with an abundance of purple beans?  Pickle them of course!

With dill heads from our garden

And what happens to purple beans when you cook them?  They turn green and to my surprise, they turn the brine pink!

And while we're on the topic of purple stuff...we have lots of purple carrots and we grew purple potatoes for the first time this year.  We had them with our dinner and they look like they came from Jupiter or something.  They are purple all the way through, the water you boil them in turns a green-blue color and this is what they look like in the end!

 Crazy!  Would make for an interesting potato salad I think!  Needless to say, my son wouldn't touch them with a 10 foot pole.                                                                               

Bacon and Potato Chowder

The kids and I went out to the garden the other day and gathered a bunch of potatoes, onions and beans for this recipe that my neighbor gave to me and I believe he originally got it from 'The Western Producer.'
It's so good and so easy to make! 

Fry six slices bacon.  Crumble and set aside.
Saute in two TBSP bacon fat(I said it was good, not healthy! Ha Ha!) 1 cup chopped onions

In a soup pot place:
3 cups diced potatoes
3 cups water
3 chicken bouillion (I substituted 3 cups organic chicken broth for the water and bouillion)
Cook until potatoes are tender.

In a small bowl stir
3 TBSP flour
1 can evaporated milk(or 1 1/2 cups 2%.  I used skim and it turned out great)

Add flour mixture to soup stirring constantly until it comes to a boil.  Reduce heat, stirring until thickened.  Add bacon and onion (and beans if you like) and heat through.  Serve with a piece of fresh bread and a sprinkle of cheese. YUM!!

Mr. Spangles and his three lovely ladies

When I first saw a picture of a Silver Spangled Hamburg hen I knew I had to find some and add them to my growing flock of chickens.  So I looked them up on Kijiji and discovered someone up in Sherwood Park, AB that breeds them.  I bought six initially but circumstances mostly out of my control left me with one rooster and three lovely little hens.

Who couldn't love a face like that?  Isn't he adorable?  And his crow is the cutest thing you ever heard!

Just call me the chicken lady.  Go ahead.  Do it.

A long overdue chick post

As you may recall, I got myself a Hovabator Egg Incubator back in June.  I collected what I hoped would be fertilized eggs from the girls who were locked up with Uncle the Rooster and after I had 36 eggs, I stuck them in there and hoped for the best!

Not only was July 27th my and my husband's 8th anniversary and our daughter's 7th birthday, it was also chick day!

 28 of the 36 eggs hatched.  One died leaving us with 25 yellow and 2 black.

 And here we are just over three weeks later and they are all growing and thriving with the exception of two that have a curled toe deformity.  They too are growing but are a little behind the others.

So I guess we've seen it all now- the birth of kittens, puppies, calves and chicks!  Just another day on the farm!

Back Bathroom Before and After

It isn't officially finished; there are still the little touches to be done like trim, towel rack, and new faucets in the shower but I just couldn't help blogging about my back bathroom renovation! 

This is what the bathroom has looked like for about the last two years or so.  The green on the wall is glue from the hideous melamine back splash that I ripped off long ago.  The shower is behind the door and has a surround of dark very 80's cedar.

 I painted the walls 'toasted wheat' and white washed the cedar shower surround.

Then I put the new vinyl tile down before installing this lovely low flow toilet.  The toilet turned out to be the biggest challenge due to the fact that whoever installed the flange on the floor did it slightly crooked which in turn made installing the new toilet a huge pain.  I went through two wax seals before discovering the problem which was easily fixed by screwing the new bolts directly into the floor.

New vanity, tile and medicine cabinet. 

I am so happy with the end result!  I am also so glad that it's done!   One down, two more to go!