Hidden Valley

What do you do on a mid February day when the sun is shining, wind is still and the temperatures plus 9?
Hit the slopes, and breath in the fresh air!
The kids were so terribly excited that I woke up at 5:30 am, February 18th to the lights on. I ran to see what was going on and found a very sleepy looking Seth pulling his jeans on! He was so excited to go he woke up on his own and was getting ready to go.
I must admit that by 6am, I was being a bit of a party pooper, I had three wide awake kids who were jumping on me ready to go, and a husband who thought it was super exiting to check out a new ski hill, and then... me.
I'll admit, I am a bit allergic to mornings, and then with all the organization of packing for an outdoor day trip and such excited kids (who I was sure were going crash and cry once they were actually there....) I was feeling a bit like putting the brakes on the whole ordeal.
But was I ever wrong, and super thankful that I was too:)
The kids were astonishing.  Really.  Can I say it again?  They kids had, as they say "THE BEST TIME EVER!  As did I!
Children under 5 get a free lift ticket at Hidden Valley in Elk Water, so we only had to rent the skiis and boots (we own the helmets). We also put them in a one hour class, just for fun, and maybe, a bit of class. Pardon the pun. 
Andy went skiing with them and a little on his own. I don't have skiis and didn't want to rent then seeing as I had Rowan and didn't know how much the other boys would need me. So I was the Cheering Mother standing on the sidelines pulling the sled with the toddler who wanted to be anywhere but on the sled. Of course:)
Seth and Tristan impressed us with their perseverance.  It was Oh-SO-Cute so watch! Seth's boot were too big at first so he was slipping around in the boot, but once we got that figured out he didn't want to stop for anything.  Up and down, up and down, between the flags and thru the poles.  He really got the "BIG S" way of coming down the hill.
Tristan had it figured out right away (Pizza to stop, French Fries to go) and away he went up and down by himself.  Tristan liked speed and thru caution to the wind, trying to jump over the little bumps.
Andy and I are thinking that having the kids grow up a little might be alot of fun:)

Waiting for ski school to start.

Rowan is always helpful:)

Getting taught how the binding works and how to put the boots in and out properly.

Magic Carpet!

We spent alot of time playing at the base.

Ready for some lunch and a break.

Seth loved weaving thru the hoops.

See the powder? He was getting some speed.

Andy took this one from the top. You can see the prairie in the distance. This was a really neat location, the Cypress Hills rising out of apparently nowhere. ...and suddenly there were trees!

Thrifting

I love a good find.
A really good deal.
It's enough to brighten a week, for me anyways:) 

Taber has a Buy and Sell online group as well as a MCC thrift store and I browse both on occasion, looking for things that would benefit our family. 
And this time, I got some goodies:)
Some got put to use immediately while some were packed away in my closet waiting for another time.  The boys are loving the game RISK.  I know they are a bit young for it, but they don't notice or care. They are too busy re-enacting scenes from the Bible about the Canaanites and Amalekites engaged in battle, or the Anciet Egyptians fighting with the Isrealites.  Not all of it is correct, but hey, that's what an imagination is for!

Post Script

The chicken catching went well!  It's such a good thing when it exceeds your expectations!
The weather was cold though, -28 on the thermostat, not sure if it was colder with the wind chill. Makes ones feel a bit sorry for the birds of feather.
And the coyotes who now have lost their nightly evening snack, but still roam looking for it.
The barns are empty and clean, waiting to be disinfected and then filled with shavings and warmed for the next flock.
What a relief and sense of accomplishment, that despite the hurdles, everything went well in the end!  Thanks be to God for his many blessings!

We filled eight B-trains. That's alot of meat!

You can tell how cold it was - the trucker has only his eyes showing.

Andy spotted this coyote looking for his snack during the middle of the day! A bit scary.

Clean barns. 

A bit about Andy

As I was rolling cinnamon buns in the kitchen earlier I was mentally going thru my to-do-list telling myself to remind Andy to snap some pictures tonight of the trucks carrying away the birds.
Yes it's that time again, the chickens are shipping, it's going to be a long night for my hard working husband.  So I made him and the catching crew some soft, warm, cinnamon buns.  Sometimes I wonder why I do all these make-work things...why not just go to Timmy's and purchase donuts, or Safeway and buy muffins?? Right? 
It's because I look at Andy and see how hard he works and how he gives it his all, and then I think, "He needs some cinnamon buns that were crafted with love!"  At least I love still love him.  ;)

One thought leads to the next and so while placing those gooey buns on the greased baking sheet I came to the conclusion that I should update the blog a bit on what Andy does around here. 
And it's alot.  Moving to a new farm is not for the faint of heart, but he's up for the challenge every day again at the crack of dawn.
It's not that we haven't had our share of trial yet, we have. So many things have gone wrong that it could be very discouraging - cold temps freezing water lines, feed lines busting and motors burning out...chicken catchers who don't do their job correctly, feed truck drivers who make work by pouring the feed beside the bin instead of inside the bin (!!) unexplained high mortalities due to who-knows-what...
People from "back home" have been questioning if maybe Andy's bored or not too busy with only chickens to look after, while others here who have seen the operation are surprised we have no employee.  
We are loving having Andy home with us, and this routine here has quickly become normal.  Not all days are packed from beginning to end though and Andy gets to enjoy some slower times to find enjoy old hobbies or develop new skills. 
Which brings us to skiing.  Yes, high on the hobby priority list around here, especially for my hubby:) He found some new friends and off they went to Fernie right on the B.C. border.  From what I heard it was an amazing day.  I'm so glad he could take the day off to enjoy himself that way! Those slopes have been on his radar since before we moved here.

 We knew the roof needed re shingling when we moved here so, along with Anno and his gang, that got done too.  Many hands make light work! All I had to do was provide the baking, coffee and lunch.   See the sparkling new shingles reflecting the sun?

When we were living in town Andy wasn't one who loved tools.  Now?  He likes tools.  I'm not quite sure what happened, but here he is, busy making a railing for the upstairs of the playhouse.  Those little boys of ours have to stay safe.  And they get a lesson during the process:)

 As you can see on the picture three above, there is a tree line here that is mostly dead.  We've been told we are crazy to cut down trees here since it will take years and years to grow back but seriously, who wants a dead tree line (sort of a make-work-project)?  So cutting we are, and the plan is to either have alot of campfires ourself...or sell it to others as campfire wood.  Either way, Andy bought himself a chain saw and has thoroughly impressed us in his tree cutting knowledge and skill.  The notch has to be at exactly the right spot, and the tree will land will fall down beautifully.  Chain saws can be persnickety tools, and with much patience and probably even more perseverance we have conquered pretty much everything that can go wrong on it;) including sharpening the chain. 

 And the newest tool in our ever growing collection is this Ax.  No, Seth is not allowed to use it, but just for this picture we let him hold it, hence the enormous grin:) 

So as you can see, there's lots to do here, and if not, something will happen, guaranteed, that will create work. 
Now off I go, to test one of those cinnamon buns.  Only a few more hours and the catching crew will be here.  We hope and pray for an uneventful night! 
Good night.

A good weekend in January

Last weekend we had the fun of Uncle Tim and his friend Mike coming over. 
And it was fun. Really. Truly.
Lots of laughter, craziness and enthusiasm from these guys.
Thanks Tim for also helping me get to the hospital with Rowan when his head kissed the stool, and to Mike for taking care of the other two so Andy could get the chores done.
And for playing Settlers with us.  It's pretty good for a 5 year old's ego when even he can beat you...
although we can just say you didn't try very hard;)
Thanks for fitting us into your ski trip!

Settlers of Catan match! 

Rowan proudly sporting his new look:)

Oma snuck some gifts in Uncle Tim's suitcase.  We doesn't love a new book? Thank-You!

Hobbies

Hello!!
It's January.
Which means (to me anyways,) it's that time of the year when there's not alot going on. It's the middle of winter so it's cold and the month is long (31 days).
So far we've been blessed in that no one has come down with a cold or the flu.  Except for me:) Go figure.  Three days of fever and I'm getting a little tired of it!  
So since I'm doing alot of dreaming and conspiring about what to tackle once I'm feeling up to it, I figure now is a good time to put together some of my "hobbies".
Here's what has been keeping me busy and inspired.

I fell in love with pillows of this sort online some time ago, and I found a yard of brown linen, which was perfect for me to make myself some pillows with coordinates from our hometowns.

Drapes for the livingroom.  Makes it feel just that much more like a home.

The bathroom that we got a new counter in finally got painted!  The instant feeling of relaxation from having my purple bathroom back might make you laugh, but to me, it was comfort:) 

And since there was leftover purple paint why not smear it over our bedroom right? 
Just the name of it is lovely... Purple Pashmina - by Beautitone.

(Bedroom before)

And while painting, why not use up the left over yellow from the living room in the other washroom?  To go with my horizontal stripes that I'm enjoying right now I thought an Anthropologie inspired shower curtain would something fun to sew up and make original. The light fixture was in need of some TLC too so thankfully the black spray paint had made the move with us and it was a quick fix.

 

 

 

French pleats

I found this soft Dr Seuss inspired {horizontal stripe} flannel online just in time for the boys to have new pajamas for 2014.

I love pouring over the Micheal Chang colour books for minutes hours at a time. You might be surprised I can even get anything done after all that time wasted dreaming colours. I love colour!

Ice

A bit of thawing...
A bit of freezing...
Some wind...
Bright sunshine...

Who knows what the weather is going to do here? It seems to be going up and down like a yo-yo.

It's interesting for us to watch.  One day it's so nice and balmy we are outside riding bikes, the next we are sitting by the big glass doors watching the rain/snow fly past the window horizontally.  (Did I mention the playhouse went flying by too?) 
I don't mind. We are all cozy at home, with no place we have to be.  

I've heard it said that it's boring to talk about the weather all the time. But I've also heard it said that we are blessed to live in a country where there is nothing worse going on then the weather! 
Interesting way to look at things.
What do you think?

With the thaw and freeze we got a bit of a puddle in the field. Yesterday it was perfect for skating on, and with aspiring skaters in the house, we packed up and headed out for some exersice.  It was so much fun for Andy and I to watch their eager faces totally give it their all.  I remember the good feeling of fresh air, ice and skating. 
Sweaty heads, sweaty hands, big appetites at lunch = healthy kids.
We are waiting for another freeze, maybe tomorrow.