Yard work 101

Well if you see me regularly,  you have probably heard me say, " I am loving the age of our kids.

Today was another good example of why.  If you live on a farm, or acreage or even just have a big yard you know the time that goes into it.  Many hands make light work as the saying goes. And today, I trained some new hands.  

Destiny always says she isn't a good driver, so I s

howed her how to run the lawn tractor, of course reiterating the safety features and the option of just standing up to shut it off. 

 This helped with her confidence once she new she could just stand up.

I set her loose in the front paddock and she did amazing.  Her smile proved that she had more confidence in her abilities.  That was great for her.

Now there are times in life where I truly believe that you have to be careful for what you wish for.  I think Hayze found that out today.  He really wanted to whipper snip today, so after some persuading and some safety gear....  off we went.  Hayze got on to it right away and did alot of whipping.  I was really proud of him for all the grass that he cut.  That job is really a ruthless, hand vibrating, body shaking job.  He did good and even by the end he was able to change the cutting string and pull start it.

I think he was happy to be done and be able to play with his sister.

When all the yard was looking better, we cleaned up and went to town for some ice cream and parts to fix up a couple leaks we have in our irrigation/sprinkler system.  Jim got them fixed up to problem and now we can start watering our brown grass.   Funny how fast that happened.  Feels like there was just snow on it last week.

Just 3 more sleeps until my trip to Phoenix.

***LUCKY***

Well I have not posted in a while because I have been lost in this world.

I picked up my new Mac last Friday,  and have now just figured it out enough to save my photos in files to upload to my blog.   I have spent a considerable amount of time on it.  Ended up phoning the "help" line this morning for a couple of things.   I am still not able to hook my Blackberry to sync.  grr......

We have had some outdoor time too... Not always the nicest weather but outside just the same.

Jim played with his heal o matic last night..

Hayze had ball on Wednesday

We picked up a new dog yesterday.  5 year old registered black lab.

He came with a name...  we don't like it.. and really he doesn't come to it anyway.

We have been call him lucky...  don't you think he is?  he is with us. HEHHE

He is a great dog, and spur and him are on the deck together,  she can't hate him that much.

Meleah Rain

 I was asked to take pictures of Erica's little girl.  She is such a Pumpkin..  look how cute she is.  The photos turned out good.  The kids came with me.  They had such a great time on Kalbhen's ranch..  I am sure they will be asking for a return visit soon.  

Last Monday was a holiday, and the kids went to their second High River little britches rodeo.  It rained all day and was very cold.  I think the kids had fun anyway.  They seem to be tougher than me in that regard.  I was froze to the bone.  Click here to see the full album of pictures.

I am going to continue on my goal of getting something done in my house..  I have step away from the computer now.

"step away, back away, don't look back,  I know I can do it"

Bored shepards

Fantastic Weekend

Well Mothers day weekend brought some long awaited warmer weather and our trees are now starting to bud. Our yard is so beautiful in full color in the spring.. I can't wait.Hayze, Destiny and I spent Sunday together, Saturday they spent with grandpa Jack while I celebrated my birthday with friends in the City. Jim was rodeoing in B.C.
( he is back there this weekend, If you could all say a little rodeo prayer for him that would be great)
The kids made me the best home made gifts, I always love those, and they are so proud of them. Destiny also used some of her money from Grandpa to buy me these. How generous of her.
The afternoon of mothers day we went to Mossleigh to Aspen Crossing such a cute little place to spend the afternoon. We had a really good buffet lunch on the patio. The kids were convinced that this is were we are coming for every mothers day.

After lunch we shopped in the green house and got our flowers for our pots outside.

Hayze did the more "manly" things.

Played in the fountains

Shopped for tools

checked out the "shocks"

Destiny is generally up for getting her picture taken (for awhile). So I took a few of the kids, they both clean up pretty good, so today I took my new lens with me to try it out.

Destiny's hair was so cute, everyone was stopping her and telling her how cute she was..

*she was polite and said thanks, thank goodness she didn't say "I know".. That's what she tells me.*

Hayze promised me some pictures so .. he they are. He looks pretty happy to be playing along.

our kids.. waiting for lunch, I snapped a few.. they would have liked to be eating.Destiny playing around in the gift shop while I was paying. Now when we got home, It was time to plant.. Destiny was a good motivator for that.

I was going to leave them, she wanted to do them that evening so .. we did.. and I am glad it is done.

Watering the finished pot. She did this one all by herself. I hope it works out.

Mind you I have had to cover them for the last couple of nights because our weather is so crappy.

Destiny has a visitor while she was planting.

We spent the rest of the evening on the back lawn playing around..

What a great day. I loved my whole weekend, I got spoiled and spent some great quality time with my children.

Good Friend

Marlene flew in for my birthday, we had a fabulous time together. We shopped during the day and then met up with some more friends and went to the "roller Derby" That was a funny surprise. We ended the day with going for Japanese. It was a fabulous day. I have so much to post about, but tonight I will just share a few photos from the shoot with Marlene.

If you ever caught the Canadian show "wild roses" you may recognize the back ground in this photo. It was one of the pictures in the opening credits.

Learning Together

These pictures were taken last night at Lausens arena just a couple miles east of our home.
This was Hayze's first night team roping, and he did great. It happened by accident actually..
Hayze was wanting to go to the area and help the steer wrestlers and ropers.. He likes to load cattle and work the shoot. When I left the arena after dropping him off, he was doing a fine job, Lorne even put a bail there so he could reach everything and he has the routine down pat.
About a hour later I got a call from Chad saying bring your camera, Hayze is team roping. Yup.. with the big boys. So back over I go, camera in hand

And this is what I found...

My 10 year old team roping

On a green broke horse, that too, is just learning.

Hayze did really well, we are very proud of his confidence

And well, Patch did pretty good to.

A Challenge On the Horizon

Well, to follow up on the last post.. Tanya and I had a fabulous evening together visiting and eating the nice meat, cheese and cracker tray she put together... Wouldn't you know it, a neighbour rang the door bell and gave her a beautiful veggie tray from a function he was at. So needless to say we were well feed, had good company, watched a lot of you tube, laughed and cried.. And still, no Jane Austin. You know Tanya and I have been trying to do this since November. We even bought the book, Pride and Prejudice.. can't get through that either.

I did find this link to recap from another blog. Tanya, you might find that interesting.

As some of you may know, Tanya has been heading up a small investment group. Well she seems to be doing well at picking and choosing for the group and has made us a small amount of money ( or should I say fortune). I am sure she is going to post about it soon.. When she has her tips ready I will link to it.

The last thing Tanya and I have been working on is recycling material for house hold use.

Now this is not to say that we are going to fill our homes with junk but, make a few neat projects for our home and fix up somethings we already have.

this is an old chic incubator, I have had it for years.

I took the heating apparatus off and thought once it is refinished it would make a good island or table. We have decided to use it in our mud room as a counter.

this the beginning project

Jim Sanding it down, even the corner metal pieces are shining.
I will show you the finished product, once it is in place and the room is organized.

It looks amazing

This is the coffee table Jim made in College about 19 years ago. Jim had sanded it down in this picture and it is ready to be re stained and top coated.

even reused our sausage tray for the stain. we are doing good.

Now this is an old sign that Jim made for his family years ago too.

Again sanded it down, cleaned it off and blow the saw dust off.

Stained it, and gave it new life. Now this Stevens Family can use it.

the challenge on the horizon

this is the scrap metal pile at the recycling depot.

Now I am not going lye, I have been known to claw in it before and find some neat stuff.

Tanya has decorated some of her house with it and now we want to see projects with it.

I had bought a couple of gifts while in Honduras from this ladies company

recreated art and soul

Have a look at her creations and her bio. It is really amazing.

Now we are inspired to try our hand at it, and want you to too..

Please send pictures of anything you have refurbished, or design out or recycled product.

I will post them on the blog.

We will show our projects when they are completed..
the last project I was working on Sunday was fixing up our flower beds. The ground has become so hard over the winter that it turned out to be a big job.. I planted some bulbs. I hoping they will come up this year, and Jim put a bag of peat moss on for me. It looked really nice.

After this picture, it snowed.Have a great day.