Blub, blub

Dexter has embarked on swimming lessons. His genius parents puzzled over his flat-out refusal to enter the water one week and upon questioning the wayward preschooler, invested in Dexter-size goggles and now its All Swimming All the Time. Extra deep baths have been requested in-between swim lessons. Hero biscuits for Mom and Dad.

Note to Toronto parents: I registered Dexter THREE DAYS after registration opened. After a panicky realization, I frantically found the number, called with a frenzied edge in my voice. The nice calm lady asked what day, what time slot and told me to pick up my receipt when we came. VOILA! Take that Toronto Parks and Rec!

Summer in October

A late season hot spell (aka Summer 2010), has come and gone. This was marked by a resurgence of mosquitoes. Yes, really. They had to have the last say. We'll show them...c'mon Winter! (Oh no...did I just type that out loud?)

I dazzled even myself with a few early morning walks to enjoy the sunrise. I include a couple shots of the view and the beaver showing off one early morning.

(Sunrise walks sound impressive, don't they? Please do not focus to much on the fact that sunrise will shortly be occurring just before lunch. Thank you.)

Happier than pigs in mud

Wandered to the park in Yorkton. Turned our backs and by the time we looked back, the boys had found a mud puddle.

What the hell...off with their shirts and we plunked down to watch them have the BEST time for the next two hours.

Other families steered clear. Was it something we said?

Quote of the day... "That was the best day EVER!" Matthew Washington.

Relocation, relocation, relocation

Bythe dim light of a huge moon (GORGEOUS shot included), the intrepid troupe of me, Dad and Peter headed out to separate the chickens.

Yup, they're almost growed up now, time to expand the coop.

33 of the roughly 90 surviving flock were relocated to the new digs.

They're slow and stupid-er at this time of the evening. They've settled down and won't run away. Smarter chickens would be INSIDE, but not these ones.

So, it's just a matter of putting them in the crate, carting them to the other coop and disgorging.

Then they're all settled in for the night.

Cluck, cluck.

Didn't know she could move so fast!

Mom was heading out for her morning walk, fiddling with her walkman (yes, walkman). She looked up to see Sam the Dog running towards her. Being chased by a moose.

What to do!?!? Start running!

Chug, chug, chug...off she went. First glance back...still coming. Running....!

Second glance...moose veered off into the bush, Sam in hot pursuit.

Warmed up, she proceeded on with her walk.

Her comment..."They have LONG legs!"

That was interesting.

July 1 - Canada Day flash floods

Happy Belated Canada Day everyone! Clearly, I'm a very negligent blogger - a lot has been going on.

Our little family put headed out to the Western Development Museum in Yorkton for an afternoon of thrills and excitement with the cousins.

Thrills included being victimized by mosquitoes on the tractor/wagon ride through the trees (fun). Excitement was provided by Dexter ALMOST going in the bouncy castle with his older cousins (several times) and, more importantly, fudgecicles for everyone.

As the ice cream was being sucked back, the daily arrival of afternoon storm clouds was underway.

But, hang on....these looked pretty dramatic. That's it...party's over! Everyone packed up and headed out.

We had Dexter and the twins, Matthew and Nathan with us as we drove home to the farm. We could see the storm hit behind us and watched the light show in the rear view mirror...spectacular!

Brother-in-law Brent called to check in...said the roads were rivers in town. Between 4 to 6 inches of rain came down in less than an hour.

Somehow the farm seems to miss the major direct hits. We're always on the periphery.

An action-packed afternoon did end with a lovely rainbow...for us at least. :)

Bird nest...update

No update.  

Boot-sucking, quagmire mud conditions have rendered the rhubarb patch unreachable. 

The best we can report is that the birds still get pissed off when we get near and the last known location of the nest still appears to be above the waterline.

Chirp, chirp.

True Blood - Saskatchewan Style

The local population is facing a very real fear of exsanguination.

Merely stepping outside your house or car results in being blanketed in swarms of huge, thirsty mosquitoes.  Gross.

So, rather than enjoying the lovely (if somewhat soggy) summer weather, we are huddled indoors slapping at buzzing infiltrators.

It's that, or go outside and come back in feeling like an itchy raisin.

Decisions, decisions....

Eggs in the nest

Peter spotted a nest in the "old rhubarb" patch.  Alerted by a really pissed-off bird, he knew something was near by...and he was right!

When asked what kind of bird was nesting, Peter said it was a "shpock", which apparently is a Ukranian term for generic, little, black bird. Helpful.

Aunt Julia was called in for a consultation.  She will be researching it in her bird watching manual and will submit her findings when she gets around to it.

Photo is from a few days ago.  Egg count is up to five as of yesterday (excursion during Dexter's birthday festivities).  We'll keep you posted live occasionally from the nest.

Dexter will also be updating you on the state of the dandelion fluff, which is clearly more interesting anyway. 

Stay tuned!

Never too cold for the first dip of the season

We are fortunate enough to live less than 5 minutes away from Good Spirit provincial park, so we loaded up the kids to go play in the playground and get the season's park pass - this being the iconic May Long Weekend.

It was a GHOST town.  No one taking money at the gate, empty parking lot, no one in the playground...it was that gross of a weekend - everyone had given up.  Poured on Saturday, huge winds on Sunday, overcast morning on Monday...but it cleared up a bit, so we went.

So, the boys were happy for a little while in the park, but inevitably, the beach beckoned.   So the adults huddled in  a sunbeam and the kids had a blast.

Finally pulled the plug when Nathan's lips were blue and Matthew ASKED to put his clothes on.

Remember being a kid and not caring about anything but playing??? 

Ya, so do I.... :)

Moose crap

...for those who were curious. 

You can thank me later.

Buffalos and Dinosaurs

"I want to see buffalos and dinosaurs", announces the backseat co-pilot.

Easy peasy...we go past our turn off for an extra 2 km down the highway and peruse the local bison farm. Way to go Super Mom. :) 

I told Chris the dinosaurs were his department.

Makes sense...

Driving into Yorkton today, I saw the flashing lights of the law had pulled over a big rig, just outside of town.

Interestingly, to me anyway, was that as I got closer, I saw that the lights were attached to a big white hemi of a pick up truck.  A ghost pickup.  I never thought of that.  I guess it makes sense...if you really want to blend in here, what else would you drive?

_____________________________

...and during the same action-packed voyage....I passed a neighbour riding his lawn tractor down the highway this morning (WTF?) and accompanying him was Lucky the dog, Sam the dog's brother.  Why would anyone encourage a dog to follow them on a highway?   Lucky chased us, got in front of the car, everything that will ensure that soon his name may not be enough to keep him safe... Bad dog!  Bad owner!

Consider yourself finger wagged.

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. :)

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!

The Blizzard of 2010

Woke up today to a quieter and darker than usual morning...the white stuff had been falling all night.  And it kept on going until supper time.  There seemed to be a slight respite in the evening, but with complete darkness outside now, it's hard to tell what's going on.

Until such time as it stops, it's agreed that the snowmobile is the primary mode of transportation.  Can't be bothered to snowplow the driveway until it stops and we don't need to go anywhere anyhow.

Although, I am considering the 4 or 5 km trek the 'corner store' (at a nearby resort/golf course community) for more red wine.  Making due with white...for now.  The snowmobile could make it.  Nothing like a lovely ride in the ditch to get the juices going.

We managed a trip out to water the cattle this morning, the three of us on the ski-doo.  Watching Dexter stagger through and fall in the snow, I realized why it seemed like there was so much snow when I was a kid.  Because there was!  Ankle deep on us is calf-deep for the kid and it's hard enough to stagger around in a snow suit in the best of conditions.  Tomorrow, he may just have to tunnel his way around. :)

Good day

I had one of those long, computer afternoons where my eyes began feeling like little radiating squares in my head.

Chris left to get Dexter and I went for a lovely ski.  Yes, I, Michele Wiwchar, instead of being able to head down the street to pick up a Tango Palace treat, actually strapped on the skis.

It was a glorious, mild day, and I am slowly getting better at dressing appropriately for any particular outing.  As a quick climb up the stairs will wind me, actually skiing could be potentially debilitating.

With Sam the dog trotting along behind/beside/around me, I made it almost to the corrals (yes, we have corrals) before turning back. 

Got back in, tidied up and dutifully reported to the garage door to herald the arrival of Dexter, right on time.

It was a good day. :)

Burning down the house

Shortly after our arrival, I did a post with random shots of the farm, cleverly entitled Farm Shots.  In that gripping pictoral essay, there was a picture of the "broken house" (really, really old shed) that Dexter loved to visit for a big outing across the road.

Over the holidays, the shed was deemed a hazard and it was declared time to get rid of it.  I suspect decrepitude had little to do with this decision and a lot with getting 16 family members the hell out of the house and air everyone out for an hour, but nonetheless, it was the big excursion to go across the road to witness the conflagration.

Armed with diesel, matches and sleds full of whiny kids, we managed to stagger over and line up for the big event.

We had heard for years about how the shed had been built by our forefathers with only wooden pegs - no nails at all.  Pretty darned impressive it had lasted 80 odd years.  Also, a bit of a disappointment that upon inspection, massive spike-like nails were discovered on the corners. We'll attribute those as a later addition as it was, after all, relocated during the years and of course would have to be buttressed for that.

All that to say...boy was that sucker sturdy!!  Never mind that gallons of diesel wouldn't ignite it...it seemed at one point all the adults were pushing on the thing trying to push it down and it wasn't budging.

After about half an hour and everyone's whining reaching a fevered pitch, we headed in, except a few diehards who persevered to see to the demolition.

It was only after warming up and hangin out in the kitchen that we noticed it was the three oh-my-god-we-married-into-the-family spouses who had not returned home, choosing instead to play with flammable fuel in -20 weather.  Coincidence...?