Canasta outbreak...everyone stay calm

What with the multitude of diversions available to us right now, 'tis the season for canasta (for those who are interested).

As soon as the dishes are cleared, the cards come out and the teams are chosen.

Chris and I tag-team to share Dexter duty, so we all get a chance to play and Dexter doesn't crawl onto the table.

With my yoga excursion tonight, Aunt Julia joined in Dexter's Puzzle Party...'helping' him to complete a record number of puzzles and keep him entertained.

The kid is a puzzle MANIAC!  Chris can be found darkening the aisles of the local shopping emporiums looking for challenging treats to come home.

Another rockin' night on the farm. :)

All is well

Just got back from my yoga class...all stretched out and mellow.  More successful than last week.

I made the commute into Canora and pulled up to an empty studio with a couple fellow yoga-ists standing in front.  Missing instructor.  Hmm...

Now in the old days, I would have taken this opportunity to head to the nearest coffee shop with a trashy magazine and hang out for a couple of hours.

In these new days, the only option for hanging out was at Wong's restaurant, home of battered diner seating and hideous fluorescent lights.  It's quite popular though...whether it's due to lack of options or wonderful cuisine, I don't know.

I drove home.  Back in time for the bedtime rodeo.

Solo chores today

Balmy -25 today.  Peter was off to a curling bonspiel in Norquay, Dad on the tractor dropping bales and Chris was on Dexter daycare commute.  I was called up for chore duty.  So as Chris and Dexter headed into town I trudged over to the snow mobile.  With a whiplash roar (it goes from 0 to 20km instantly), I was off.

First, pass by Sam's buffet by the turkey coop, then off through the bush to the hay yard and corrals.  Dismount, pick up the pail of grain to give to the red bull.   Open gate, trudge through snow and head to trough.  Expecting bull to be quite keen on the grain, I looked around to be prepared to for potential nudging out of the way.

Bull is waiting by other trough.  Oops, sorry Bull, my bad.  Head over to correct trough and deposit grain.  Bull waits politely as I exit pen.  Not sure why this guy get extra rations, will inquire.

Remount and lurch out of hay yard and off to two spindly trees on the way to the water troughs.  These are the markers as to where to drop mineral block which have a tendency to look like another pile of poo in a field full of them.  Need a marker to keep an eye on the block so as to know to replace it when needed.  It's essentially a mammoth, 20kg prenatal vitamin.  All the ladies will be birthing starting in the next month or so.

Heave vitamin on the ground, remove mitts and try to get plastic off.  No problem. Reach out to remove paper label.  Turns out it's a very tenacious sticker.  Who STICKS a massive label to a lump of food?  THEY do, clearly.  On my hands and knees picking at stupid shredded label for some time.   Lose interest. Some of the ladies will be getting some extra sticky fibre too.

Roar off to the two water troughs, dismount and for the next 1/2 hour try to get fires lit underneath to (obviously) melt water and ensure the herd staggers through another day.

Clearly, I am not yet skilled at this particular task as I run through a great deal of the diesel and an obscene amount of matches trying to get decent blazes going.   How hard should it be?  Probably not as hard as I'm making it..

Ready to head out when I realize I forgot to chop the ice.  Can't leave it all to my timid little flames.

Forget freaking workout boot camps!  Want a work out...go chop something.  My GAWD am I out of shape.  Just lifting the freaking ax and putting no effort on the descent was exhausting.  Chipping relentlessly away, I finally did it, flung the ax in a drift and headed home.

Back past Sam's buffet, park and dismount outside the shop and staggered inside.

Now here I sit, sporting the latest in towel turban fashions updating the blog.

Must get to work.

Happy day, everyone. :)

The old red cow, she ain't what she used to be

Another moment please for an elderly red cow, who yesterday lied down and passed on today.  She served us well, was bountiful, lead a relaxed, grass-fed life.

Sam-the-dog is again rejoicing.  The arthritic cow was nearly gone...

Olympic stupor sets in

It's very impressive that every four years, after 10 minutes of viewing whatever is being served up, I become an expert judge.

I can see the stability, or lack thereof, of a mogul skiers knees.  I can detect the over correction of a speeding luger and cringe at the landing of a snowboard cross 'rider' who landed a little too hard on her toes.

The 'Lympics are here, the 'Lympics are here!

Thank God for the shake up in evening programming.  Despite Mom's best efforts to find 27 hours a day of "Two and a Half Men" episodes, she too was coming up short on fresh evening diversions.

So bring it on!  Okay...maybe not too much curling (sorry Mom, Dad and Uncle Peter)...but bring it on!!!

I liked it...I really liked it...

I watched every minute of the Olympic opening ceremonies and for the most part, really enjoyed it.

Good:
- kd lang singing Hallelujah*
- Bryan Adams*
- the whales swimming across the stadium
- most of the fiddling
- Sarah McLaughlin
- slam poet
- slam poem
- treatment of Georgian's terrible death
- enjoying some Canadian shmaltz
- the array of cool Canadians brought out for the occasion

Bad:
- Nellly Furtado's dress
- some of the fiddling
- opera-lady's rendition of the Olympic song
- flying over the prairie for a little too long...
- Georgian's terrible death
- the non-event drive of Wayne Gretzky through the streets.  After all that, throw Wayne in a pick up to go the abandoned part of the waterfront...really?!?
-...and of course special mention to the Height of AWKWARD... the missing cauldron... Next time, have a Plan B

* Yes, I know it's not cool to like Bryan Adams...and where has kd been for 20 years, but I lived in the athletes village during the Calgary 88 games and both of them performed in the village.  I saw kd in her sawed off cowboy boots and I happened to be coming into the village through security right behind Bryan Adams, so I sidled closer and pretended to be part of the entourage.  Very cool for an excitable 20 year old.

Now I'm older and generally less excitable, so it's nice to indulge in a little giddiness.  :)

Go Canada!

Blisters in fine form

Still basking in the happy glow of a nice excursion.  Apart from the blisters...

Impressed even ourselves

My sister Lisa and I impressed ourselves today.   We skied just over 7 km!  There's a great little place nearby called Good Spirit Lake with a groovy network of trails....and we went from one end to the other.  It took us the whole freakin' afternoon, but we did it.

As we were trudging along, I was pondering what little critters were leaving all the marks on the path, when I looked up, and what did I see?  A moose.  I'm pretty sure a huge beasty on long spindly legs that can disappear behind a twig is a moose.  And just to be sure, it pranced by again. Finally...after hearing reports all the time, I see a moose.  Yay!

That, along with some birds, was the wildlife quota for the day.

And the husbands and kids flourished in our absence too.

Bring on the Olympics!

Fuelling the dog - cow down, cow down

Let us all take a moment to remember the unnamed, aged, very arthritic heifer who had a long, very fruitful life, bringing forth many lovely organic calves over many seasons.

She passed away peacefully earlier this week from 'lead poisoning' while enjoying her morning hay.

Sam the Dog is enjoying his newly found bounty.