A summer of water fun

With the constant heat this summer it proved to be a few months that had a lot of water involved! Here are a few of the activities that we enjoyed either by ourselves or with friends. These next pictures are taken at Rolling Hills reservoir where we spent a day with other families from church.    

Having a backyard pool leaves me always humming and hawing with whether its actually worth the work and cost of keeping it nice (we fill it with pond water so it is can be hard to keep the phosphate count down) and also the worry of having a pool with a two year old.  This year it did provide again hours of fun for us and friends who came to enjoy it with us, even though it is quite small.  Those days when it was 37 degrees outside even I (I would go a whole year summer without once wanting to go in if it was just me) jumped in along  side the boys and we cooled off and felt refreshed.  Sometimes at the end of the day Andy would join us which of course created more fun than anything else.  Funny how dads have that effect.
It was remarkable how brown all of us got from being out there and when I would go to town I was often stopped by people wanting to look at "such a tanned baby!" .  I wasn't sure if this was a compliment or not. ;)

Seth, Tristan and Rowan have a little hobby which is fishing.  They aren't very good at it (or maybe we pick the wrong spots to stand??) but sure have a ton of fun keeping the rods in good shape and also collecting new tackle whenever a few spending dollars land their way.  Often Andy took them to the pivot pump site while he was working by it and the boys would don their life jackets and fish by the canal.  What a good life these boys have!

We have friends with a boat and every summer they ask us to come along for some time together at Sherburne Lake. This year we got all three boys on the water skis.  The three pictures below feature Rowan.  We were all surprised by how well he did, being the youngest, and it was very much fun to watch him ski.  So much intensity and determination. It was a fun opportunity for them all.

Andrea and Andy helping him off the shore.

Andrea helping Rowan come back to shore. (He refused to fall)

One proud little man.

On labour day we spent the afternoon at the same above mentioned beach, this time we could do some wind surfing, and more sand digging. It never seems to get old. Always treasure hunting and shell finding.

...and that's Tristan!  There is hope for Andy to have a surfing buddy in the not too distant future! 

Farming the fields

It's been a cold week here going into Thanksgiving, so looking at these pictures is reminding us of the gorgeous summer we had.  Summer 2017 really was a beautiful time.  No major calamities for this family and day after day of sun and warmth. Week after week of getting up and not even thinking about the weather.  This also was one of the driest years on record with this area receiving 12 mm of rain since June.  The pivot in the potato fields ran for six weeks straight.  What a glorious summer. It's quite a concept to be able to have that much dry weather and still see the bounty come off the land at harvest time.  All thru irrigation. Which Andy loves so much, as the gravel yard on the farm can stay firm and rut free, weeds slow down in growth and yet the lawn remains emerald green due to lawn sprinklers.  I'm pretty sure our kids think this is all normal. Which it is not. :)

Lawn irrigation - a regular sight around here. Fun for the kids to play in!

The side yard.

Andy spent hours taking care of the pivots this summer. 

He had some pretty faithful helpers - one of the many reasons we love farming!

The beautiful field of corduroy. Aka potatoes.

At the end of harvest they brought me some. Notice the heart Seth and Tristan found for me 💓

Our forecast, over and over again. 

The "other" field was a mixture of peas and triticale - sold to the neighbor for forage.

 A friend let us borrow his baler to make some small bales off the dry corner piece to feed to our sheep. 
It was a fun experience and Tristan was in his element. (above)


 Every 8 weeks a new shipment of chicks arrives as well.  After shipping and cleaning, getting ready for the new babies is always a lot of work and once the chicks are safely in the barn and drinking and eating, we feel like we can relax and life can resume.   😄  (below)

There are 86,000 chicks in that truck!

The boys love helping during this time!

 Occasionally we hold back a few chickens that are ready to ship so we can butcher them our self. They become pets for the boys and grow to be enormous.  Seriously, that is a lot of meat.  This particular rooster was lovingly named "Fatso" and happened to collapse and die before we had a chance to butcher him.  It was a sad day.  

 We have a friendly neighbor who has befriended our children.  He takes care of the grazing land next door to our place. The University of Lethbridge uses that land as a place to research native bugs and beetles. This fall the man has picked up the boys on Thursday mornings and eagerly takes them to the fields where they get to learn how and what the university students are doing.  The students are thrilled that the boys are homeschooled and they have been bringing along extra things to show them.  Life experience = the best experience.

Waterton Lineham Falls

Waterton is on my mind after the horrible forest fires there two weeks ago.  We managed to go once this year in early July and we hiked the Lineham Falls trail.  It turned out to be a bit traumatic especially for this mama as we had a bear encounter and so it killed any desire to go back this summer, and now the devastating fires.  This trail we went on and the greenery around it is all gone, so I'm now thankful we could do this yet!  Who knows how many years it will be before that park is back to its former glory.

Something interesting we learned after we were home and looking at the pictures is that these beautiful and large white plume grasses are called Beargrass Blooms.  They are from a plant that is tied to the lily family and are found in subalpine and coastal meadows. Supposedly they only bloom one every 5 to 10 years and the conditions must be ideal.  They grow up to 5 feet in height.  The conditions must have been great this year as I've never seen anything like it.  We walked thru meadow after meadow filled with these gorgeous plumes.  There you go, your education for the day:)

All in all we had a fun little hike with the kids, I had Marla on my back and Andy had Abby. It was steep uphill on the way there so obviously downhill on the way back. We ran out of water and filled our bottles from the clear streams. Rowans shoes were too small but he loves the shoes so much he bravely hobbled around like a little old cowboy. :)  We were tired by the end and only had about 500 metres left when Tristan and Rowan (who were merrily tramping on a bit a head of us) stopped and turned and loudly whispered "BEAR!"  And there on the path in front of them about 15 feet away was a huge bear (after much discussion and analyzing we are sure it was a grizzly) making his way up the path. We turned and booked it back up the path, all seven of us. I know now you should not run from bears but we were fear struck.  We booked it at far as our strength would allow and turned back to look and, yes there was the bear, still coming up the path. Everytime we turned a corner to catch a breath we looked behind and sure enough, he was still coming. Not aggressively or anything, he just had a place to go and he wanted to use the narrow hiking path to get there so we had to get out of the way as he wasn't planning on it.  It was honestly so frightful, the kids were champs - quiet and calm although I know a few of them thought it was the end of our lives.  Even Abby had been whining about a buckle on her carrier that was annoying her and she was as quiet as a mouse thru out the ordeal. We ran up about 500 metres. At the end Andy had to pull me as I was done. 😟Totally done - no more energy at all.  We finally climbed about 50 feet up the side of the mountain to get off the path and we hid behind a boulder and prayed and waited for others to come down the path. After approx. 20 minutes another couple came, Andy flagged them down and  they were willing to walk back with us as the man had bear spray and a knife in his belt.  They were also christians and had earlier heard the boys singing "Jesus loves me" while hiking so we all were convinced of the providence of God.  The lady even carried Marla on her back for me as I had no energy to do that.  Mama bear can only handle so much when the littles are in danger ;)
We made it to the van safely with no other signs of wildlife and celebrated by having icecream in town. After filing the reports we heard that Lineham Falls trail was going to be closed to the public due to more bear sightings.  I'm glad I heard that afterwards.  In the meantime we have purchased bear spray and have done alot of reading up about black bears, grizzly bears, their behavior and self defense.
Even Abby says things about it frequently as it was close up enough to get a good look. The other day she was walking along in our driveway and said, "Mom, I have bare feet!"  I said "yes, yes you do", as there were no shoes present.  She laughed and said "No I don't! Bears have claws! I saw them!". 
It was a cute play on words.  

Sunday best

Have you ever had those kinds of Sundays that all the world seems bright and blue?
No cloud in the whole wide sky and no tear to dampen the eye?
When the lawn is mowed and tidy, the flowers grow and the sun falls brightly?

Occasionally they happen here. It's calm and peaceful, we've had beautiful sermons and we are rejoicing in the life God has given.
Living in the moment.
Savoring health and contentment and not taking it for granted.

It is well with my soul.